Whole Step Half Step Game

 

Whole Step Half Step Game

This is the time of year when students learn about whole and half steps so they can construct scales, which is a requirement for many theory tests.

If you have ever used little tokens or figures on the keyboard to construct scales and noticed it was confusing to some students, I think you will find placing the W’s and H’s behind the keys is a big help.

This has turned out to be a great success for my “hands on” learners, as well as students who have trouble understanding the entire concept of scales. Students who were very frustrated with  theory worksheets quickly caught on using manipulatives and these cards I designed to be placed behind the keys.

I made many sizes and styles of cards before I settled on this design. I wanted the cards to be big enough for children to handle, but small enough to see the W and H when placed behind the piano keys.

I am so happy to report how much it has helped my students who were confused. My philosophy is that if they don’t understand what you are teaching, change the way you teach. The student is not going to change!

You can use these cards in a game or simply as a way to visually show scale patterns. Be sure to use sturdy card stock and laminate the cards so they will stand up behind the keys. For major scales, consider using the sentence “We Were Happy When We Were Home.” I’ve noticed my students and I say this continually as we play. All the W’s and H’s are hard to remember, especially for some students.

The inexpensive, colorful pencil erasers in the photo above can be bought in bulk this time of year. Go look now while all the school supply material is on sale.  I bought a large pack years ago and  I use them all the time, especially with an older child who who might be insulted with all the cute toys I have collected. They are also good for the easily distracted child, or the child who takes 5 minutes to decide if they want a kitty or a puppy.

I am posting some of the ways I use these cards, but I would like to emphasize that after you have tried them, adapt the activities to fit your needs. If you have a better idea, please leave a comment. My students have really enjoyed learning scales this way, and I hope yours do too!

Material

• Whole Step Half Step free printable from my website, cut into individual cards
• Pencil erasers to use as game tokens
• Piano keyboard
• Optional: W W H W W W H written on a chart for student reference

Directions for playing as a game with two players

• There are two color backgrounds, making it easy to separate the cards for two players. Each player receives 8 cards of one color. However, when I play against a student, I often do not give myself a “wild card” because students really enjoy winning and love to beat me.
• Place the cards on the piano book stand, with the blank side up.
• Decide which scale you are going to construct. C major is  good because the half steps are so easy to see.
• Both players put an eraser (or token) on the first note of the scale.
• Player one draws a card. If it is a “W”, place it behind the D on the piano keyboard, because that is the first whole step. The student also places a token on the D key. The first whole step has been completed.
• If the player draws an “H”, the player discards the card by putting it in the back of his stack on the piano stand. No token is placed on the piano.
• If a “Wildcard” is drawn, the student can place it aside to use later and draw again, or he can use the wild card immediately. The wild card can be turned upside down to be either a “half” or “whole” step.
• The second player then draws and plays in the same manner as above.
• Play continues between the players. The game is over when one player completes a major scale.
• An alternate version for younger students is to let the student (but not the teacher) draw again if they draw the wrong card. Obviously the objective is to learn how to construct the scale, not for the teacher to win.

Directions for other ways to use the cards

• With one player, the student draws all the cards, continuing until a scale is completed. This is a good way to explain how to construct scales to beginners.
• The cards can also be used to simply explain whole and half steps, placing the cards and erasers randomly on the piano keyboard and not constructing a scale.
• In a group lesson, 3 or more players can play. You will need to print out more cards.
• Younger children love to use my collectible erasers of cute animals instead of the erasers in the picture above.

Objectives

• To learn how to construct major or natural minor scales.
• To learn half and whole steps on the piano keyboard.

Ages

• Elementary to middle school, depending on the scale and the student’s abilities.

Why I like this activity

• There is only one page to cut out!
• It is colorful and students like color.
• Students like the games and activities we use with these cards.
• Students tell me the WWHWWWH cards really help to understand how to write scales.
• When we get to natural minor scales, a light bulb comes on as they change the order of whole and half steps.
• It really works.

I wish

• I wish I had room on the printable to add a  “step+half step” card to construct harmonic minor scales.
• I wish I had made a matching WWHWWWH chart.
• I wish I could remember the sentence for the natural minor scale pattern! Can anyone help me?

Jewel Notes

Jewel Notes

 I like to use a variety of seasonal grand staves in private and group lessons for dictation,  learning note names, steps and skips, etc.

Recently my husband presented me with these stones he found. My husband is not a musician, but he loves all my games and is always trying to help me think of new ones.  I was so excited to get these stones because I love the color and they feel so good in the hand. I promptly made this staff and called it Jewel Notes. The stones are flat on the bottom and sit very nicely on the paper.

I used it in various ways with my group lessons. With one group I played a short group of notes that were stepping,  skipping, and repeating and the students took dictation using the stones. For older groups I made the dictation more difficult.  With another group I had students come and play a short pattern and the students wrote it with their stones. My students shared my enthusiasm for the stones!

There are hundreds of ways to use a grand staff, because, after all, if you don’t understand the staff, you can’t read music. You can use this to find landmark notes, learn the name of notes,  take music dictation, and even just to learn lines and spaces. It can be used with beginners to high school students. This is a great way to review for the ear-training portion of the Texas State Theory Test.

If you want to use this, print it in landscape and laminate it. If you don’t have any little glass stones, make some with construction paper or find something creative. I think it would be fun to have different colors of “jewels” and let the students choose.

On my website I have grand staves for various holidays as well as a plain black one. The idea is you can use seasonal items, such as candy, for your notes. This one doesn’t look much like October, but there is one on my website that is orange and you can use Candy Corn as the notes.

Table Top Keyboard

Table Top Keyboard

I have some large colored bingo chips that I bought at Staples in the teacher supply section. This paper keyboard is large enough for those chips. Print it out in landscape on card stock, cut it out, laminate it, and tape it together. Then you can spend some off-bench time with your student learning the names of keys, steps and skips, and intervals. Children need to get away from the piano some, especially children with different learning styles. Children who learn kinetically do a lot better if they can place a manipulative on a keyboard and move it around.

If you don’t have any bingo chips, cut out some colored paper into circles that will fit this keyboard.

This graphic can also be used by young children to write the names of the keys. If you do this, you can print it with  economy mode  of your printer on inexpensive paper or even the back of paper you’re discarding. I never throw away a piece of paper if I’ve only used one side!

Floor Keyboard

Today I am posting a large two-octave Floor Keyboard that you can print, cut out, tape together, and use on the floor for games. If you tape it together with a good strapping tape, you should be able to fold it for easy storage. There are 5 PDF pages, and be sure to set your printer to landscape. Use card stock for the best results. The white keys are about 3 inches wide, to give you an idea of the size. In case you are wondering, I made the black keys gray because I am trying to save some printer ink. If that bothers you, get a marker and make them black. I haven’t found it a problem with students.

Tomorrow I am going to post alphabet cards to go with this keyboard if you want to play a Game By Cecilly™ for beginning students to toss a bean bag to identify keys on the keyboard. Check back tomorrow for the cards and the rules to Cecilly’s game. However, I’m sure many of you will think of clever ways to use this floor keyboard!

Bass Clef Step and Skip Cards

Here are the Bass Clef Step and Skip Cards that I have been working on.

When I made the original cards to go with the Step Skipping Game, I only made cards for the treble staff. I have been meaning to add some bass clef cards with seconds and thirds and today I finally managed to finish them.   For good measure, I threw in a few cards that repeat.

There are five pages of flash cards in this set. Be sure to set your printer to landscape view. Use card stock for durability and laminate if you use an ink jet printer so your students won’t smear the ink.

I always have a few students who have trouble quickly identifying steps and skips, so I’m going to use these as flash cards and use  some of the flash card games I’ve posted. I hope these will prove to be helpful for you.

If you want more step and skip help, I have also posted 5 note pre-reading step and skip cards here and 3 note cards here.  They are valuable for students how have having reading problems even past the pre-reading stage.

Slap Game from Cecilly

You’re sitting at the piano bench with a student saying “up a second, down a second”, on and on and it’s getting kind of tedious. So just get off the bench and go over and play the Slap game for a few minutes,  just enough to add some vitality to the lesson.

This is another game from Cecilly. It is a game for students who can’t seem to “get” intervals. I think it can also be successfully used for students who are just learning intervals in their primer level book.  If you use my alphabet cards,  you will have to print out more than one page unless you want to stay within an octave.  (Look for the July 27, 2008 posting to see my original posting on the alphabet cards.) I went ahead and laminated mine with clear book covers, so they are going to be slippery. It was suggested by other teacher to used removable putty on the back to help them stay in place. It was also suggested to use a flyswatter and swat the interval rather than slap.  Like all of Cecilly’s games, you can modify it to work for you. If you play it, let us know how it worked out!

Interval path “Slap” Game:

Either on a table or on the floor, lay out 2 sets of ABC cards in a
straight line,  row, or slightly curved (like a rainbow). Have the
student stand or sit facing the cards.

Much of this activity is “silent”. The teacher calls out “Starting
note” followed by a letter (ie “Starting note: C”). The student
places his pointer finger just below one of the C’s. Then the
teacher dictates a simple 5 or so note interval path saying the
direction and interval (ie up a 2nd, up a 2nd, up a 2nd, down a 2nd,
etc.). The student may follow the path with his finger after each
interval. Then the teacher, when the path is completed, calls
out “Slap!” The student then slaps the final note as fast as he can
(ie “Starting note:C, up a 2nd, up a 2nd, up a 2nd, down a 2nd,
SLAP!”) AT THE SAME TIME, you, the teacher, also go to slap the
correct letter card. Whoever slaps first earns a point.

You can make the path as complicated as you wish depending upon the
student’s level. Also, you can play it as a SECRET Interval Path
game where the student CANNOT use his fingers to mark the path as you
dictate but must follow the path with his eyes only in silence. When
you call “SLAP!” you both go for the letter.

You could also require that the final letter name be called out along
with the slap. If the student fails to call the letter, even if he
slaps first, no point is awarded.

5 Line Pre-reading Cards

These cards are in different positions so students can learn to read steps and skips starting on any notes. I have found that when some students try to read by steps and skips, the stems often confuse them. Here they can just concentrate on the note heads. I plan to use these cards with students just learning to read by telling them which hand to use and which finger to start with. The idea is to make it as easy as possible so they will not develop a fear of sight reading. Clever teachers will probably come up with a lot of ideas and games to use with these cards. Please feel free to share your ideas with others.

In order to not have too large a file, these cards have only steps and skips.  I will be posting some different cards in the near future with  a combination of steps and skips.

Pre-reading Step and Skip Cards

I have found that if a student gets a good grasp of steps and skips without trying to read note names, future reading problems are minimized. The problem is that some students, especially very young ones and students with various learning problems need more help than is often found in their lesson book. Several teachers asked me to make cards similar to these and I hope this will help. I’m not sure if it is exactly what they had in mind! I do plan to make some more cards, so check back later if these are not helpful. Be sure and print these out in landscape. There are 5 pages in this set, some with 3 notes and some with 4. You can print them on card stock and cut into 4 cards per page. Pre-reading Step and Skip Cards

The Music Alphabet

I made this work sheet so students can arrange the music alphabet starting at any note, going forwards and backwards. Younger students, especially, have trouble going backwards, and yet it is important that they know what is a step below a given note. There are many ways to use these cards, so be creative and let me know your ideas! Music Alphabet

Step Skipping Game

I posted a new game on my web site today. It’s called the Step Skipping Game and the objective is for students to quickly learn to identify steps and skips on the staff. The cards that go along with the game can also be used as step, skip, and repeat flash cards.

I had fun making this game. I only used 2 colors, blue and green, but I think the students will like it. I have blue and green markers for the students to circle steps and skips in their music.

I found some blue and green iridescent stones to use as game pieces and I’m going to put some glitter on the game board with my glitter pens.

There are other ways to play this game. One way is to use musical alphabet cards, am I have posted several of those on my website. You can also use it for ear training and play steps and skips.