October Creepy Piano Fun!

Tommy played the “Pumpkin Patch” game- he placed the pumpkins on the music staff (i.e. the pumpkin patch) by their name and then ‘picked’ them by placing them on the keyboard by flashcard.

Josie played the “Skull Master”Game by placing the skulls on the keyboard by name and then putting them back by by flashcard…..BUT, in order to be a “Skull Master” she had to name each note before putting it back — by its enharmonic name!

Noah played the “Candy Corn” game by matching the letter to its place on the staff and then to the piano key.

Great job Noah! You got them ALL right!

Andrew and I played a game of “Stepping Up and Down” on the piano.

Can you believe it? We tied!!

Emily played the “Circle of Spooks” game. I drew a letter and she had to remove the pumpkin or Owl from its location on her Creepy Circle of Fifths.

Aaron is a new “Skull Master”! He learned a lot about double sharps and flats!

Tommy and I played a “Musical Spelling Game” by spelling each word in ascending order on the staff using Halloween characters!

Josie picked all the pumpkins from the pumpkin patch and correctly placed them on the piano keys! Nice job, Josie!

Noah composed his own song about Halloween. He even sang it for me! It was the BEST SONG EVER!

Game Week! Last Day

Leave your books at home…It’s GAME WEEK!

Cole and I played the Pumpkin Patch Game.

Abby was very glad to be winning the Cat & Mouse Game

Emily and I played the Fly Swatter game.

Annaliese and I played Crazy Keys- she won!

Juliette and I played the Ice Cream Cone Game.

 

Game Week! Day Four

Leave your books at home…It’s GAME WEEK!

 

Claire and I played “Something’s Missing”

Molly and I played “Paddle Scales” – she won!

Aaron and I played “Piano Steps & Skips”. He beat me TWICE!!

 

Game Week! Day Three

Leave your books at home….it’s GAME WEEK!

April and I played Leaping Ladybugs. She beat me by a longshot!

Olivia and I played Whole Step/Half Step Sprint.

Delaney and I played the Scale Shaker Game. (Juggling 3 scales at once isn’t so easy!)

Unbelievable…..Joseph and I played Crazy Keys and we TIED!! That NEVER happens!!

Game Week! Day Two

Leave your books at home….it’s GAME WEEK!

 

Sarah and I played a Key Signature and Scale Degree game.

Caroline and I played Rhythm Pizza

Annabelle and I played the Scale Shaker Game. (She beat me!)

 

Game Week! Day One

Leave your books at home….it GAME WEEK 2015!

 

Isabelle and I played a game with skipping and stepping snowmen!

Quintin and I played an ear training game to see if he can distinguish major from minor using just his ears. He did a great job!

Josie and I played some fun games on the iPad.

Addison and I played a game to see who could complete the Circle of Fifths first. I won by one key!

Addison and I also played everyone’s FAVORITE game, the Cat and Mouse game. But we played using snowmen and candy canes….I think Jasmine wanted us to use the cat and mouse instead!! Addison beat me by a LONG SHOT!!

 

September Apple Picking

Emily and I had fun playing this game.

Emily picked an apple from the bag, then placed the apple on the corresponding letter on the keyboard. Then she chose an accidental card to move the apple to a sharp, flat, or leave it natural!

Circle of 5ths Game

In my Circle of 5ths game, the players roll the die to see what key they get to place on the circle. Play begins by rolling the die to determine the interval above C for the first key. Subsequent rolls determine the key based on the interval from the previous key. For example: if the player’s last key was E, and they roll a 3, their next key is a G; a third up from G. The player can choose if the letter has more than one key (G or G-flat) But once the player has all the keys of that letter, they forfeit their turn if they roll into that letter again. The first player to complete the Circle of 5ths wins!

Grace won by a landslide! I still needed the keys of A-flat, C-flat, A, and C#

What do you think? Pepperoni pizza or chocolate chip cookie?

Finger Twister

Josie and I played Finger Twister today!

We had a great time getting all twisted up.

Great Job, Josie!!

You can download this game from Joy at Color in My Piano Blog:

Just Added: Piano Finger Twister game

5-finger scale Game

Here’s how you play: Each player rolls the die to determine the scale they have to create. If both players roll the same number, the 2nd player must create either the flat or sharp of that scale. When play begins each player rolls the die. Numbers between 1-5 represent the interval above the tonic of your scale. For example: if the player rolls an initial 6, they must create the A major scale. On each subsequent roll, numbers between 1 and 5 represent the interval above the tonic of their scale. (Sixes don’t count in a 5-finger scale, so the player rolls again.) If the player rolls an interval they already have, they forfeit their turn. The first player to complete their scale wins.

Who will be the first to complete their 5-finger scale??

While Molly is still recovering, we played our scale game. She got lucky with C major. Not me…I got stuck with C# major!

Let’s Make A Deal, Joseph!

Ha! Guess what Joseph’s challenge was? ….needless to say, he rocked it!

Who said summer lessons weren’t fun??

Studio Summer Game

One of these clothespins contains the grand prize of a week of NO HOMEWORK!!

Annaliese’s Challenge!

Annaliese plays her challenge

One Minute Club

Congratulations, Grace!

Grace is my very first member of the 2014 One Minute Club! She’s been working really hard at playing all 36 flashcards when given in random order in under 60 seconds three times consecutively– and she did it! Grace was admitted to the club with scores of 57, 54, and 53 seconds.

One Minute Club members will enter into their own contest to see who can get the lowest score- the winner will receive their very own Bonus Game Day and another very special prize.

Grace will receive her One Minute Club Membership Card (cards courtesy of Susan Paradis)

She will also receive a $3 Menchies gift card!

 

Game Week- Last Day

On Friday April and I played some fun games- including the Spelling Bee. I spelled a word using letters and April spelled it with notes!

The Fly Swatter game is a blast- April’s job was to kill all those pesky music note flies in the studio as I called out a letter name. She did a great job!

Game Week- Day 4

Molly and I played Interval Garden. Each player rolls the die to move around the piano-keyboard and players who land on a black key get to complete an Interval Garden game card. Players who correctly answer the questions on their card about intervals takes a flower. The game ends when we run out of cards. The player with the most flowers wins..

Grace and I played the “Intervals under the Stars” game where the player identifies an interval in notation by quickly assessing the size and then places the card in its appropriate size area under the star. She was a champ by the end of this game!

Delaney and I played an easy game of Major/Minor. In this game the player has to quickly identify the triads and/or 5-finger scales as being major or minor by sight only. That means Delaney had to use her knowledge of major key signatures to determine if the notes followed the major key (being major), or not (then it was minor). She got them ALL correct in no time!

Game Week- Day 3

Caroline and I played a really fun MUSIC BINGO game, using 3 BINGO cards each. In this game, there are a large variety of signs and symbols used in piano that the players identify. The first person to get a regular BINGO on all 3 cards wins.

Annabelle and I re-created the entire Circle of Fifths (all majors, minor and key signatures) using my recycled water bottle caps. She did a great job doing the ENTIRE circle herself!

Here is what Annabelle’s circle looked like when she was finished!

Game Week- Day 2

Claire and I played the Key Game. She chooses a key out of the bag (each key has a Major or Minor “key” written on it). Then she uses the eraser characters to spell the scale on the roll-up keyboard. Before she chooses a new key, she has to tell me the Tonic, Dominant and Leading Tone.

Olivia and I played Leaping Ladybugs. In this game, the players roll the die. The player who lands on a ladybug gets to pick a card. The card instructs the player to move the red stone on the piano keys up or down by half or whole steps. If the players identify the correct ending pitch, they earn a flower. The game ends when we run out of Ladybug Cards. The player with the most flowers wins. (Olivia had an entire garden, while I had only 3 flowers!)

Joseph played FlashCard Derby on the iPad today in his lesson. In this game, the player must identify the letter names of the notes as jockeys ride by on their race horses. Joseph earned a perfect score!

Colleen and I played my Scale Shaker Game. This game works like Yahtzee in that the players shake the music note dice to spell scales, triads and intervals. Each player begins by choosing 3 cards to determine their keys. The player who completes their Scale Chart first wins.

Game Week- Day 1

Quintin and I played lots of games at his lesson. Here we are playing Funny Farm. In this game each player picks a farm animal and has to correctly answer music review questions about notation, symbols, interval, etc. correctly in order to advance to the finish.

Addison and I had fun paling a variety of games at his lesson. Here we are playing Crazy Enharmonic Bingo.

In Crazy Enharmonic Bingo, players complete a cover-all. Addison and I played 2 cards each. As the players take turns picking a note card from the pile, they cover that piano key on their cards. Did I mention that ALL the letters on the cards are only shown in an enharmonic?? FUN!

Sarah is so much fun to play games with! Its always a challenge trying to beat her. In our game of Crazy Keys, each player begins on Middle C, then picks a card that directs them to move up or down the keyboard in intervals, on accidentals, or in whole/half steps. Some cards are wild, make a player loose a turn or my favorite…”switch places with another player”! Fortunately for me, at the very last second, I won this game.

After Gracie did her Level 6 One Minute Club cards in just 57 seconds, we played her all-time favorite; The Cat and Mouse game. In this game each player has to steal their opponents snacks by picking a card and seeing what snacks are on that piano key. (Cards include sharps, flats, double sharps, double flats and naturals). I got creamed in this game! I stole 4 of her pieces of cheese, but she got 7 of my fishes!

 

It’s Game Week!

All year long my students look forward to “Game Week”. This has become an enormously popular event in my studio and one that never ceases to deliver and its finally here!

It’s game week (Feb 17-21) and that means this is the week my student’s leave their books and music at home and come to lessons ready to play some really fun games! This week my students will play games during their entire lesson. For each student, I identify core concepts that the student may need help with or some fun hands-on practice and play a game to reinforce the concepts and often clear up simple confusions that can hinder progress like counting dotted eight notes or memorizing key signatures. Games range from simply identifying the letters of the music alphabet on the piano keys to racing to see who can gather more accidentals from all the major and minor key signatures.

What’s in my cupboard? A WHOLE LOTTA GAMES! But these aren’t the only games we’ll play- my students will also play piano keyboard games and of course ipad games! Ok, guys, get ready for a really fun week of piano lessons!

Flashcard Bowling

Here’s how you play:

—Deal 10 cards off of a flashcard deck.

—Place them in the shape of bowling pins.

—Set the metronome to 40, 50, or 60 (or higher!). As the metronome clicks, touch or point to each card and have the student name one card per beat.

—If they get them all without missing a beat, its a STRIKE!

—If they miss some, leave them on the table (but clear away the others) so the student can try again for a SPARE.
—Then clear away all the cards and set up for the next “frame”.

—Repeat this for 10 frames.

 

Grace, who always has great ideas, helped me with Flashcard Bowling!