Ornament Notes Mixed Up on a Staff

This worksheet is like the one I posted yesterday except the notes are not in order, making it more difficult. When I was young, I used to love pretty colors like this. Maybe I would have learned my notes sooner! Make it fun by letting the student choose which colors to identify.

You can discover a lot about a student by asking questions (assuming you’re using age and music level appropriate material.)  When I show this to a student I’m going to ask if which color ornament they like best. If they won’t make eye contact, mumble something like “none” or “I don’t Know”, you know the student is not enthusiastic about piano lessons. Have you ever had a student say “whatever”?

Then there are those who seem to agonize over which one they like. As you sit waiting and waiting, you want to shout that it’s not a hard question. This could  be a super sensitive or self critical student who is very hard on herself. She is so afraid of the wrong answer that she can’t make a choice. This kind of student can turn a 3 minute worksheet into a 30 minute lesson, so set a time limit. If she can only do 3 notes, that’s fine.

The opposite student may quickly pick out one and start to write the notes before you even give directions.  This student may play with a lot of enthusiasm, but sometimes the details aren’t there. The Mom of this student will tell you that he can do all his practicing in 5 minutes and can you give him some more music to practice.  Trying to keep that enthusiasm going as we make corrections is the hard part of teaching, IMO. 

From the emails I received with so many creative ideas from all of you, I am awed at all the wonderful teachers out there who know how to instill the joy of music. I think the sharing of ideas has really benefited today’s piano student.

Christmas Worksheet

Well, I guess I can put my turkey pictures away and start polishing up my Santas. I already have some Christmas themed material ready to be posted, so watch for it in the next week or so.

 I would like to encourage teachers who use my  worksheets to sit with the younger students and do it with them. From all the worksheets I publish on this blog, you might think that my students are doing written work and games all the time. That is far from reality, but I do have to adjust my teaching from kindergarten to twelfth grader in a short time span.  Most of the time I work at the piano doing my best to teach musicality.  I’ve noticed that if I don’t use too much written work and if I do it with the students, they enjoy it more. It is also true if you teach very little ones, you need to break up the time. Sitting one-on-one with a worksheet such as the one I’m posting today can be useful for this. Plus, if you are doing it with the student, you can sing as you write. As Georg Telemann said in the 17th century, “Singing is the foundation of music in all things.”

My grandson and I worked this Christmas Worksheet together. He is very young and doesn’t take piano yet. But he loves music, the piano, and can write the alphabet. So together we learned that the music alphabet only has 7 letters and he was delighted to write the letters inside the notes with my help. By the time we got to the treble clef he knew that A comes after G.  We sang as we wrote. He also loved to be able to point to middle C. He proudly showed it to his mother when she came to pick him up. We want our time with our little ones to be joyful and fun.

For those of you who want a “mixed up” version of this worksheet for a student a little further along, I already have made it.  I have one little student that I’m going to sit with as we do it together. I’ll post it soon or send it to you are a PDF if you’ll email me. Also, I have a cute blank staff with peppermint clefs that you can use can use at a group lesson with peppermints as the “notes” that I’ll post in a few days.

Ornament Notes

Today’s post is a Christmas worksheet called Ornament Notes that you can use in December or maybe for a group lesson. It’s in black and white for those of you without color printers. They can color it while they wait for other students to show up. I have a lot of Christmas worksheets and I’ll try to clean them up and post them as soon as possible so you can do some lesson planning for your group lessons.

Thanks again to all of you who have written to tell me how you use some of the things I have posted. It is so gratifying to know that my efforts extend beyond my studio. I love knowing where you are from, so if you print something out, send me a little note. I’m keeping everything.  I have lived and visited a lot of regions and each one is special to me. One of these days, when I retire, I hope to visit all the states.

Today we got the results back from a classical music festival some of my students played in and there were some very nice comments from the judges and some very good scores. I can’t take credit, because I have some of the most dedicated students that I’ve had in a long time.   We worked very hard on musicality and the results were worth it. In particular, a high school student did some difficult quarter pedaling on a piece, and the judge said it was beautiful. The last time we tried quarter pedaling it seemed to confuse the judge, so I marked it this time. I’ve learned to mark things that are a little different. The reason I mention the festival is because if there are any festivals in your area and you do not participate, consider doing so. Nothing will help your studio more. And if there aren’t any, consider getting together with other teachers and having one.

It is so hard being a piano teacher and having so many things to teach in a once a week lesson. There are so many things we need to teach, yet we want them to love and enjoy music. We have to give credit to the students, because without them where would we be?

If any teacher would like some Hanukkah or other December seasonal material, send me an email. I can do that if there is a need.

We Three Kings

We Three Kings was always one of my favorite Christmas carols when I was young, but when I first heard it, I didn’t like the chorus because to my little ears, it didn’t go with the verse. I loved the minor sounds in the verse and I wanted to hear that kind of sound through out the entire piece. The verse was too short, IMO. Of course I was about 5 years old, and at the time I didn’t know there were so many verses.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

I have decided in the next few day to go ahead and post the rest of the music I put in a Christmas book I made several years ago for some young students. Of course I can’t post songs and music that is under copyright, so some of the pre reading and easy versions of familiar songs children love will not be here. However, if the student owns the copy, it is my understanding you may simplify it for your student. We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Giant Staff

 

I have all sizes of staves in my files. This is a large staff with thick lines that you can use to make and play games. 

 Be sure to print this is landscape view. staff-paper-landscape700

Staff Paper for children

I was asked if I have any staff paper in my files, and I do have several sizes that I used when I taught elementary music.  First I am going to post the general size paper I use for children and later I’ll post a giant size for younger children.

Silent Night

Silent Night is one of the harder carols because of the shift in position and the dotted rhythms. But a motivated student can get it.

 After the younger student has learned it and If the student has an older sibling waiting, I’ll  show the older student the chords and try a duet.  By the end of Level 2 of most method books student can play the I IV V chords in F.

I  wasted a lot of time trying to write a pre-reading version of Silent Night. Since this carol changes positions and has dotted rhythms, I couldn’t come up with anything that seemed useful for my pre-reading students. If anyone has a suggestion about how to do it, email me  your idea and I’ll write it for you. You will have to tell me in detail what key it should  be in, what hand positions, how to handle the shift in the last section to let the student know how to move, etc.  And rhythm…  How do you write pre-reading dotted quarters?  I was writing it in 6/4.  Looking at my poll, this doesn’t seem too popular with teachers. If you have a great idea, write it out, take a picture of it, and email it to me.

Meanwhile, I gave this version of Silent Night  to a very cute little guy who is a primer student, but knows all his notes. His eyes got real big when he told me he couldn’t play it because the notes had those “weird little things on it” and he maintained this was way too hard for him. Do you remember when music looked way to hard for you?

A bright spot in my lessons this week was another student who wrote a song, complete with words, at his lesson. It was short so I was able to let him watch while I took his notes and put them in Finale.  We put his copyright on it and he thought that was cool. He told me he had rhymes and poems going on in his head all the time. I said I am the same way with melodies and I have bits of paper all over the house with sketches of music and songs.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas Pre-reading version

 

There is a reason We Wish You A Merry Christmas is not found in pre-reading Christmas books very often. First, there is a pick up note, but most students ignore that. A bigger problem is the 8th notes. I could have written this in 6/4 time, and I have done that before for my students. So I am going to insert a poll. If you use pre-reading music with your students, do you think I should revise this and change all the quarters to half notes and all the eighth notes to quarters? In the meantime, I’m not going to count this, or explain the value of 8th notes. I’m not going to get out my hearts and teach two sounds on the beat at this point in their lessons. I’m just going to teach the 8ths by rote.  Since my students learn eights as “ti-ti” in school, I’ll start there, then tap the words in rhythm on the fall board, play in the air, jump up and down (I need the exercise) and finally play on the keys. That should do it! Take a minute to take the poll so I can see how you feel about this.

Thankgiving Worksheet – Mrs. Turkey’s Eggs

 

Poor Mr. Turkey was all alone so I created Mrs. Turkey. Then I had to give her something to do, so I made a worksheet I call Mrs. Turkey’s Eggs. Actually, it’s just like the Halloween worksheet, but I needed to update it since Halloween was last month.

I had a lot of fun drawing Mrs. Turkey, but I had to shrink her down so much you can’t see her very well. Next year I’ll have to come up with another way to show her off.

Cecilly’s Fishing Game

Cecilly is a very experienced piano teacher who has posted many games for piano students in different message boards over the years. She has graciously consented to allow me to collect her games and post them here under the category “Cecilly’s Games”.  I thought it would be helpful for other teachers to see the creative ways piano can be made fun. In addition, if you have lessons that are over 30 minutes long as I do and you teach young children, you need to move around a little bit.

The first game of hers that I plan to post is a Fishing Game. While I have been busy drawing flash card fish, because I love the draw, the game can be successfully played with any kind of flash card. I played it last week with an older student learning the very high and low ledger line notes. It can be played with intervals, symbols, or any kind of flash card. And you can make up all kinds of variations.

After I have finished all my Christmas material, I’ll post the fish flash cards. I think it will be a fun activity to do when students come back from the holidays. In the meantime, try playing it now when your students get the holiday fidgets!

The following is what Cecilly posted:

Fishing for ?

Place a paper clip on whatever cards you want to use and scatter randomly on the floor or table top. Make a fishing pole (I use a mini blind rod – the thing you twist to open the blinds-and run a string through the end hole and then tie a magnet to the other end. You could also use a dangling cat toy and replace the feather with a magnet).

Place a basket to the side of the cards. Allow 60 sec. for fishing. When a card is “caught” it is quickly placed into the basket. After time is up, take all the “fish” and have the student ID each card (play the note, ID the interval, clap the rhythm, etc. depending on the card).

Jingle Bells

I went to my web site to print Jingle Bells for a student and  discovered I have never posted the on-the-staff version. so here it is. When I was writing this is Finale, I went back and forth on the words “in a”, and “in a one horse open sleigh”. Should I use 8th notes, should I leave out the word “in” like I do in the pre-reading version, I just couldn’t decide. Maybe that’s why I avoided posting it. You can see here that I finally decided to leave off the 8th notes, but you can write them in in you want to.

Also, I’m going to re-do the pre-reading version of Jingle Bells and put it in G like this one. It will give the students more of a workout in the left hand. I don’t really like the key of G because neither I or my students can sing that low, but I do think it’s better for the piano. Check back later if you want the new pre-reading version. I might have it posted by tomorrow.

Funny Thanksgiving Food

Funny Thanksgiving Food

If you have a few students who are still learning the names of the keys, this might be a good worksheet to either send home, do as a group, or while the student is waiting. I’ve made several attempts at this worksheet and I keep changing it as I have students try it.

I always get asked, so for those interested, I made this in Photoshop. I drew the pilgrim myself and he was lots of fun to draw. Some of the food was made using the shape tool that comes with the program and I added eyes.  My favorite is the eggplant. The little keyboards I drew years ago in Word. I keep using them over and over again!

Next I’m going to take the little keyboards and add them to some fish I’ve been drawing to play a game a fellow poster, Cecilly, has thought up.  She has so many helpful games that she calls “off the bench” activities and she is allowing me to start a special category just for her games. I hope to get started on that tomorrow.

Bless Us O Lord-Secondo

I have been testing out (with my students) the secondo to my setting of the traditional blessing, Bless Us O Lord-prereading. I wanted it to be easy enough that a student could play it with a sibling for Thanksgiving without a whole lot of effort. Because of that, I went back and liberally added finger numbers. Those of you who have finger number phobia,  get out the *White Out*! Obviously an older student won’t need all of these finger numbers.  

So if you have 2 young students, one who is still in pre-reading notation, try out this duet if they are familiar with this blessing. Also, a parent who can play a little piano should be able to play the secondo. All my Catholic students have responded very well to this.

Here is the primo version on the staff.  I also have guitar chords in lead sheet format. If anyone is interested, email me.

Jolly Old St. Nicholas Pre-Reading

In this pre-reading version of Jolly Old St. Nicholas I made the the left and right hands notes different colors.  I have a few children who still get their left and right hand mixed up so I hope this helps. The first time I heard Pachelbel’s Canon I noticed it was the same chord progression as Jolly Old St. Nicholas. I love to point that out to my older students. Sometimes I  get them to improvise on that same chord progression. It’s lots of fun if you would like to try it.

Deck the Hall Pre-reading

Deck the Hall, a simple version with just the first part of the song,  is one of the carols I put in the Christmas book I made for a student a few years ago. I went back and forth about the rest of the carol. Several factors caused me to leave it off. First, it has an F# which is problematic in a pre-reading manuscript. Second, it would give the student 2 pages which is hard for a 5 year old to keep with, and third, my little ones can only do one page at a time at this point. I hope that if they can play the first part of the song they will be happy.

I am planning on posting the entire first verse in 5 finger position this week.  This version will also have the easy rhythm without dotted quarters and eighth notes. It will be in Middle C position, but it will keep the *interesting* division of the melody between the hands. I did this for a student who is struggling with note reading.

In case you’re wondering, I don’t copy these arrangements from another book. I come up with all these crazy ideas myself at the piano, and I write them on the computer with words I learned as a child.

Color Mr. Turkey

I promised a black and white version of my turkey, and here it is. It’s not exactly the same. I added a bass and treble clef and a quarter note for the students to color. I had a student color this who hasn’t learned all his notes. I gave him flash cards with the notes on the worksheet and he was able to do some matching. 

Every time I post something I see things I would like to re-do. If they’re real bad, like leaving some of the finger numbers off Jingle Bells, I do them over. Small mistakes I’m leaving for another time.  Fortunately every teacher who has contacted me has been so encouraging.  That’s just the nature of teachers!

I’m working on some Christmas worksheets now to use with beginning students. I’d like to make some Christmas games, but I’m fresh out of ideas, so if you can think of any, pass them on.

Color the Feathers

Color the Feathers is another worksheet I made for students who are waiting for their lesson or waiting on a parent.  You might notice it is the same turkey I drew before, but this time I added color. I am planning on posting a black and white version tomorrow, and then the student can color the entire page. 

You might wonder why I make so many worksheet. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but the Texas State Theory Test requires that all grades, including 6 year olds in 1st grade, know all the notes on the grand staff. When I first started giving the test, this really challenged me because I was used to only teaching a few notes at a time, and never the entire staff to beginners. Getting something changed in a state as big as Texas is like moving Stonehenge. In my opinion, the test should phase in notes until all are introduced in the third grade. When I say grades, I literally mean the student’s grade in school. The students can’t get a medal or award unless they take it on the level of their actual school *grade*. Older beginners may take it at a lower grade, but there is no medal so  almost always my students want to take it at their grade level.  I am curious how other states run their tests. The up side is that my students really know theory well and it pays off in their musicality.

However, these kinds of tests are run by hardworking volunteers who do their best to appease the views of thousands of teachers. Every teacher approaches theory differently, and think their way is best. Texas is a big state and I am thankful for the teachers who work so hard to make the test possible.

Jingle Bells Pre-Reading

I have a few students who need some pre-reading Christmas music, so here is Jingle Bells. I want to  put each pre-reading sheet in a binder for my students to keep them all together as I pass them out each week. One year I made a student an early level Christmas book with her name on the cover. I had it made into spiral book just for her, but that can get expensive if you have it made at an office supply store. I found that Staples has the best prices for that.

I drew the bells myself, so it’s not clip art. You will see mistakes if you look at it too closely, but I notice that art looks a lot better when you shrink it down.

Depending on their age, your student might try to put 8th notes in measure 6 and 14. I suggest you Just go ahead and let them do it.  I have some very young beginners so I notated this  in quarter notes because they are comfortable with them. And I think 8th notes look odd in pre-reading.  Also, I really debated if I should put this in middle C position, and I finally did. I think more teachers prefer it that way.

Tomorrow I hope to post another Turkey worksheet, this one in color.

Ideas from Other Teachers

I would like to thank Joanne and Jessica for graciously allowing me to post their ideas.

From Joanne Tadych comes a great song to teach the music alphabet backwards that she offered to share.    If you use her song, to the tune of , “Row, Row, Row, Your Boat”, they can easily remember it. 

“ G G G F E, D D C B A
That’s the music alphabet
backwards everyday”

One of these days, Joanne, I will try to remember to notate this for you.

Jessica posted a  very easy and fast game on the Piano Adventures message board, complete with a picture of her game pieces. I love it when I can see a picture of these type of games. She can explain it better than me, so here is her post.

 ”I am going to play the *racing game* I’ve seen described here at some point at my group class tomorrow. I have students who read on the staff and those who don’t yet. So I am tweaking it by having 2 teams, the staff team and the ABC team. The ABC team members will take turns picking up jewels with alphabet letters on them and going to the piano and placing the jewel on the correct key. I will time them until they have placed all 26 jewels.
The staff team will have staff cards and will come to the keyboard with their card and point to the correct note. I plan to put a plus or minus on the back of the card so there is no embarrassment over answering incorrectly. I will simply tally the pluses and minuses at the end. And factor in the time each team took.”

The day she posted the game i wanted to try it out, so I took  the big, colored chips that i use in my Cover the Keys game and labeled them with the music alphabet. I had an almost beginning student coming that day who is just learning CDE, so we only used those keys. In his case, I had him sit across the room and then we timed how long it would take him to run to the piano and put the chips down on the keys. Not only did it break up the lesson and use some of his boyish energy, but he had fun trying to do it faster and faster. When I have a chance I am going to get some of the pretty stones Jessica used.

 This morning I decided to take a picture of my game pieces and when I went into my piano studio (fancy way of saying living room) to take the picture, I saw that one of my students had put them on a paper staff that was sitting on  my coffee table. I have no idea which student did it yesterday, and the chips are too big for the staff, but I thought it was so cute my student did it without me knowing, I would share with all of you. My coffee table has a bottom shelf and students are always pulling out games and worksheets and using them. After seeing this, I am more determined to go get something that will fit inside this staff!

 

Tomorrow I hope to post a pre-reading Jingle Bells.