Last week Annie came bounding into her lesson, excitedly plonked her music book on the piano and ran straight to my hall of fame. “Oh yes”, she exclaimed, “I’m still at the top of the leaderboard in ‘Don’t Wake Lenny’! Can we play it again today because I don’t want Jack to beat my score?”.
Annie has been having trouble with identifying notes on the stave and the leaderboards are my secret weapon to help her improve. They are not only highly motivating but they also create a real sense of community in my studio. Students feel part of something and less isolated while they learn.
The game Annie is so keen to play is part of a collection of online games called ‘Beginner Reader’ which are flexible and customisable. There are multiple ways teachers can set questions – the only limit is your imagination! The notes can be dragged on the stave into any position and include both treble and bass clefs.
- Name the notes
- Play them on their instrument
- Practice steps or skips
- Work on interval reading
- Create musical words for students to spell e.g. ACE or BEAD
- Focus on notes in the lines or spaces of the stave
- Play ‘do they match’ e.g. notes an octave apart
- Pick out a note of your choice from a line of notes
- Or anything else you can think of!
The pack includes a download of colourful leaderboards to print. I have these brightening up my studio wall and they add a real sense of fun to lessons (as demonstrated by Annie’s reaction!). This is how I use them:
- Write the name/score of each student on a little post-it note (if you don’t have post-its use slips of paper/bluetack instead)
- Add to the leaderboard
- Move up and down each time they play and the score changes
- In my studio we play for the honour of winning but you could come up with a reward for the winner at the end of term
I had mine printed onto card and by using the post-it notes they should last for some time (you could even laminate it for further durability). Let me know if you use leaderboards in your music lessons and if you have any questions.
