Add some fun to your lessons

 

What can we do this year to help our students become better musicians and renew our enthusiasm for teaching? Maybe you’re getting the winter blues and are wondering what you can do to perk up lessons in January. My next several posts will discuss some New Year’s Resolutions  to add some dash to lessons after the holidays.

Resolution Number One: Get off the bench

My studio was  quite intense this past semester and I didn’t get around to a short game with my younger students as often as I wanted. The first resolution I’m going to make this year is to play a game or get off the bench for a few minutes with every student except my older ones.

The reason I want to do this is because most students understand theory better when they have a “manipulative” to help learn a difficult concept. Maria Montessori demonstrated years ago that children learn with hands on activities so that learning is more like play.

What are the benefits?

• Games add a fun quality to piano lessons and an element of surprise.
• They help you to get to know the student and create a good relationship between you and the student.
• Students will enjoy piano lessons more.
• Laying things out, putting things in order, and giving a student a visual picture of difficult concepts, all go a long way in teaching music theory.
• Games can teach valuable musical skills as well as being fun.
• A short game can rescue a lesson that is starting to be stressful.

The difference between an activity and a game

A game is an activity done for amusement. Most of the time we think of a game as a competitive activity such as chess or football. Some games, such as singing and clapping games, do not have a winner but are done by children for entertainment.

My students are well aware that not all activities are games and become cynical when I call an activity a “game” so my advice is not to call every activity a game if it really isn’t. I will never forget the student who suspiciously said, “You’re not one of those teachers who call something a game when it is really work and not fun, are you?”

If I ask a student to take some cards and put them in order, that is not a game to me, it is an activity. If I tell him we’re going to play Six Skipping Snowflakes and I’m going to time how long it takes him to put them in skipping order, then I will call that a game. We can keep a record and watch as he improves each week.  Not all games are off the bench and not all off the bench activities are games;  there is a place for both in piano lessons. Every thing you do does not have to be a game or fun, because sometimes it takes serious study to learn a concept.

The qualities of activities in a piano lesson

1. Games and off the bench activities in piano lessons cannot take up too much lesson time.
2. The materials have to be affordable or teacher-made so they suit the  students’ needs, easy to assemble, easy to store, and easy to set up.
3. The best activities are the ones you make up yourself or elaborate from ideas you get from other teachers. We should use activities that fit our teaching style and we need to be comfortable with them. Don’t worry if an activity another teacher loves does not work for you. Change it around to suit yourself or come up with something else that uses the same concept.
4. Games in private lessons have to be either for the student only or with the student and teacher. Many group games and activities can be adjusted for play in private lessons. 
5. If  it is a game, the student should succeed enough so they will want to play. If the game is too hard, it has to be modified for the ability of the student. A five year old will not play the same game as an 11 year old.
6. My students love to beat me in games!
7. Some students are not competitive with other students, but still may like to compete with himself to improve his score. Also, keeping a record will often help the student see that he is making progress.
8. If you travel to the student’s home, think of easily transportable activities. One creative teacher in our association said he uses chalk on the student’s sidewalk to play games.
9. Stop playing while the student is still interested so that he will look forward to playing it again.

If your are looking for ideas of games and activities, check out my links on the right, look at some of the great games from music publishers, or scroll through my web site.

Faber Teaching Adventures Club

As I posted recently,  Nancy and Randall Faber  purchased the rights to all their music from FJH Music Company.   Maybe some teachers do not realize that when you are published by a music publishing company such as FJH, Hal Leonard, Fischer Price, Alfred, Kjos, Willis,  etc, they own the copyright to your work.  Copyrights can be bought and sold. Now  the Fabers will be able to make changes and publish what they wish,  if  it is financially reasonable.

This has to be an exciting time for them and I know it is for us as teachers.  They are extremely creative as musicians and pedagogues, so I look forward to their next developments.  One thing I would like to see is more exciting, motivational music by Nancy Faber at the elementary to early intermediate level. I hope that she has a few more ideas left that she can share with us! Is it just me, or does her music bring out the inner child in other teachers? Her music about dragons, horses, kings and queens, pirates, daydreams, all of that, reaches somewhere inside to fleeting memories, almost forgotten,  of the joys of my childhood. My students like it, too, so I don’t think today’s children are that much different than I was.  

Randall Faber recently had an announcement for their new release program.  I signed up and received a very nice email  that gave me permission to post the announcement here. If you are interested but are not sure what the cost will be, I suggest you call them up and ask the details.  Usually in new release programs teachers get a discount.  Here is the announcement:

Hello Teachers,

Thanks for your interest and excitement in Faber New Releases.

Our new release program is called the “Faber Teaching Adventures Club.”
This will be a Faber-only new release program. (This is NOT the Hal Leonard new release program).

Please call the Piano Adventures Hotline (toll-free) at
877-FABER-411
or email faber@pianoadventures.com.

Our upcoming releases will include updates in PreTime to BigTime, a sampling of the newly released Developing Artist Piano Literature Books with CDs, and new pedagogical materials in 2010!

We look forward to continuing the “teaching adventure” with you.

Happy Holidays!
Randy and Nancy

 

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers for my painful back problem. Finally it is getting better and I can sit for brief periods of time to type. But I still am not able to sit for hours and and draw graphics,  which I just love to do.  After hearing from some others about their health problems, I realize I should be thankful for the health I have! 

Updated cards for Musical Christmas Lights

Cards for Musical Christmas Lights

When I first made Musical Christmas Lights,  it was for beginners and there was only one card with easy music symbols. When I expanded the cards with more symbols so I could play it with older students, I never updated the little cards pictured above to go with them. So for all of you who have been puzzled about it, here are the updated cards. Now you know why this game seemed a little incomplete. Thanks to all of you who brought it to my attention. Without you being my editor, who knows how many mistakes I would have on my website?

Every time I play this game, I make up new rules. Sometimes my students think of better ways to play than I do! I try to make all my games flexible so that I can use them with different age groups, at private lessons, and in group lessons.

I’ve been wondering if I could make a different graphic for  this game so that it could be played year round. Instead of a Christmas tree, I could draw something different.  Any suggestions? Email me with your ideas, and if one strikes my fancy and seems like something I could draw, I’ll make it in the future.

I made a New Year’s game last year that is similiar to this game, except it is  for beginners.  If you need something for January or for a joyful celebration such as Carnival or Fasching,  check it out.

In the meantime, I am suffering from a very painful back problem and sitting at the computer for more than a few minutes is impossible. I have not been able to make anything new for several weeks now. I’ve always been an active person and I am pretty miserable, not being able to do anything without a lot of pain. I’ve been to the doctor and it is supposed to be getting better, but so far it hasn’t. Please keep me in your prayers that I will be out of pain and able to enjoy the holidays! Thanks!

Snowflake Keyboard Note Race

Snowflake Keyboard Note Race

It is the last lesson before  the holidays and you want to do something different. This is a fun game that is the same game as the  Shamrock Keyboard Race  game I posted last year except it has  a snowflake graphic. Maybe you never got around to playing it last year, so now you can play it before  the holidays and even into the winter months.

Print 2 pages of the cards and cut them out.  Give one set to the student and the other set to the teacher. Both players sit on the piano bench with their own set of cards, which have been shuffled.  Each player has a set of cards on his side of the piano.  Players take turns  drawing a card and moving a pawn to the key they draw.  The player on the right side always moves to the left and the player on the left side always moves to the right , with both players moving toward the middle.  The first player to pass the middle (either middle C or middle E; you can decide) is the winner.

You may run out of cards before you get to the middle, so you can turn the cards over and start again, or you can print out more cards and play past middle C and down to the other end of the keyboard.

I added an F# and Bb card to the deck, but I will not use it with beginning students. I included it just in case you play this with a student who is starting to learn sharps and flats.

If you have ever discovered that your student doesn’t know the names of the piano keys, this game will really teach it to him quickly!

We Three Kings in a pre-reading version

We Three Kings

This is a pre-reading version of We Three Kings. I am using it with a student who doesn’t have the attention span to do two pages, so I only wrote the first verse and left off the chorus. Maybe you have a student like mine and can use this with her. To help with tracking I made blocks of color like I did with some of the other pre-reading music I posted this year.

News for Piano Adventures Fans

If you use Piano Adventures by Nancy and Randal Faber, there are some big changes in the publishing and distribution of their material. This is the message from their website.

We are pleased to announce the partnership of Faber Piano Adventures® and Hal Leonard Corporation. All publications by Nancy & Randall Faber are now distributed by Hal Leonard.

Look for updates of your favorite PreTime® to BigTime® books. We are hard at work selecting just the right pieces for you and your students. Stay tuned for these and other exciting releases!

Faber Piano Adventures Teacher Support Line
1-877-FABER-411

They have also updated their website with a more colorful presence that I think fits better with their upbeat music.

I love all the material written by the Fabers. They make a great team, so I look forward to anything new that they plan to publish!  

Color the Chanukah Gift

Color the Chanukah Gift

What was the hardest part for the non-Jewish person in making a Chanukah worksheet? Was it drawing a dreidel? Was it writing in Hebrew on the dreidel? Was it trying to draw a box in perspective? The answer is no to all of that. The hardest thing is trying to figure out what is the best way to spell Chanukah!

However you spell it, this is a worksheet for all the Jewish children who get tired of coloring Christmas trees. I hope there are some out there who can use it.

Last year I posted a composing activity for Chanukah. Check it out if you have some students who might be interested.

Silly Sentences

Silly Sentences Vocabulary Cards

Silly Sentences

My students said this was their favorite game at our recent group lesson. It is very simple. Print and cut out all the cards. Put the vocabulary/musical expression cards in one bowl and the silly sentences in another bowl. Choose your sentences to go with your age groups. The first few sentences are good for younger children but  I didn’t use those with my older students.  You don’t have to use all the cards when you play  because you don’t want the game to be too long.

Here are the directions. Cut out the cards and put the sentences in one bowl and the music vocabulary cards in another. Make a list of the vocabulary words that you will be using for the group and post it so all the students can see it.  This is optional for high school groups.

The first student will draw a sentence card and a vocabulary card. Without telling the group the vocabulary word, he has to read the sentence using that musical expression.  Then students have to guess what expression is being used. Then you chose another person to be the reader. In some of the groups, the student who drew did not know the what the word meant. So I took him to a private place and told him the definition. That is fine with me, because a lot of students knew more vocabulary when they left than when we started!

After Christmas I am going to post the same cards without the Christmas decorations so you can use it for other group lessons during the year. Please remind me if I forget.

Have fun!

Christmas Tree Music Vocabulary

Christmas Tree Music Vocabulary

The popular NoteBoys are back with a Christmas worksheet to review musical terms. I wanted to get it posted in time for holiday group lessons.

I used a fairly basic music vocabulary and  Christmas words from around the world to make this worksheet.

My middle school students have been asking for more NoteBoy things, so I added them to this worksheet. If you’ve never used any of my NoteBoy posters and worksheets, you might not understand that the green boy is always worried and the red boy  is the smart one in the group.

After I finally finished and made the PDF image, I left out Feliz Navidad. If I do this over, I’ll find a way to put it in as well as some words from Asia.   I have “manger” listed in at least 3 languages. I tried to use some words from  the countries that have a lot of readers of this blog. If I left off your favorites, let me know.

If Christmas words inside a tree looks familiar to you, I got the idea from a Land’s End catalog.  But I thought of the music worksheet and all the words myself. Photoshop helped me draw the rest.

Christmas Rhythm/Tune Challenge

Christmas Tune Challenge

A few years ago I made up some cards to cut up and use to play Name That Tune or Mystery Rhythms with Christmas songs. I took a poll of the songs most students knew and used those songs.

After reading  Natalie’s Music Matters and Wendy’s Compose Create, I decided it was time to play one of the games again at my  group lesson.  I remember from past experience how much fun they can be,  but also how challenging. Since I had already made the little cards of  Christmas songs, all I did this year was add a color border and a  stocking I previously drew so the game would have a more festive look. I am always going back and changing things.

I decided to do Mystery Rhythms this year and use the same cards  next year for Name That Tune. After printing,  I cut up the cards on the dotted line and chose the ones to use for each group.  To keep my group lessons moving along, I play short games,  so I didn’t use all the cards. Besides, you need to keep the list short for the young ones and use the simple songs.  I turned the cards upside down  in a small bowl for students to pick from.

I played the game differently for each age group. The youngest group called out answers and the one who guessed first was the next to draw a card. Older students had a partner and would tap the rhythm with a mallet. Sometimes younger students will do better if they clap, rather than use a mallet.  I used the less known carols for the high school students.

Since this game is so much harder than it seems,  I made a list of the carols that I planned to use with each group and put it in front of the students.  Below is the page I used to write the songs for my list. While that may seem to make the game too easy, it didn’t for my students.  Students are usually surprised  how difficult it is to identity a song just by the rhythm.

List of Tunes

After the game, we discussed this.  One student said that you have a certain tune in your head, and no matter what the person taps, you think you have the right one. We discussed how students also do that also when they take rhythmic dictation. Often students are so sure they have written the correct note values that they cannot hear what is actually being played.  I think this Christmas Tune Challenge will help with listening skills. Plus, it is fun!

If you like this kind of rhythm challenge, check out  “tappers and listeners“  from Natalie’s Music Matter’s blog and watch  the videos of her students. Watching her videos will really help you if you haven’t tried this at a group lesson before.

If you want to print out some  very nice flash cards with Christmas tunes to use for mystery tune games, check out Wendy’s site at Compose/Create.

D’net also has very good group lesson ideas. I really believe that when we read what other teachers do, it gets our creative juices going and we can modify things for our own students.