“Learning should always be fun. They should be having a ball. It’s amazing how much they remember when it is fun”
Dan Grable
Where I live it’s almost the end of the long summer holidays and students are about to head back to school. So it’s that time of year when I open up the music room and do some much needed cleaning and tidying up!
There are books, games, dice, stickers, and leaderboards to organise ready for when my first piano student comes through the door. I can’t wait to get started on some serious learning and show them some of the new games we are going to play this term.
As I was pinning up a new leaderboard on the studio wall, it got me thinking how much lessons have changed over the years. When I started learning as a five year old (too many years ago!) lessons were so much different to how they are now.
There were no games for instance. The closest we got were music puzzle worksheets like naming the notes to make words. Oh how I loved those!
Fast forward to today and the music lesson landscape has changed considerably. The choice of teaching materials is now huge. There were probably only a few piano method books to pick from when I was learning but now there’s a much wider selection. Similarly the amount of fun resources to aid and enhance learning has been gradually increasing.
Compared to back when I was five, the content of what is taught is the same but perhaps the way the teacher imparts that information may be different. My piano teacher is sadly no longer with us, but I wonder what she would think of teaching today.
Where she once may have given me a formal style textbook to practice music theory, I now have the option to give my student a fun worksheet or online game. These activities are fantastic for motivation levels and help students to really engage with what they are learning.
So how do you make lessons fun for your own students? I would love to hear your ideas. In my studio, I have several resources lined up for this term and here’s a quick round up of some of them:
1. Music theory mystery: I have a few students at grade one level, and where we might once have worked through a theory book together, I’m now using ‘The Mystery of the Blue Raven’. Students have to crack the case using the online interactive game (in seven chapters) and written worksheets. It covers topics like time signatures, tonic triads, simple numbered intervals, key signatures (C, G, F and D major), time values and more. At least three students are on the final chapter and have been waiting patiently over the summer to solve the mystery in September!
2. Improve note reading: I have a couple of recent transfer students who are stuck in the comfort zone of middle C five finger position. So to help them move into new positions I plan to use games like ‘Treasure in the Desert’ or ‘Don’t Wake Lenny’. The notes in these reading based games are customisable and I can drag them anywhere up or down the stave – we can practice reading notes with thumb on G, for example, or third finger on F.
3. New piano beginners: It’s always great to meet new students and I have some younger ones starting this term. I plan to play games like ‘Aliens Love Pizza’ and ‘Sleeping Dragons’ to reinforce the things we are learning in the method book, including finger numbers and note values.
4. Find out ‘Who Ate My Cake’?!: one of my piano students started this last term so we will solve it together in September. It’s a mystery adventure with six original piano pieces to learn and an online interactive game in three chapters. She only has a few suspects left and has guessed who she thinks the cake thief is. I’m looking forward to seeing her reaction when we reveal the culprit!
