When I first started teaching I had a student called Daniel. If I’m honest he wasn’t particularly passionate about piano and was only really doing it because his parents wanted him to. We got on well and always had a good lesson but I knew he would much rather have been playing football.
In those days there was no such thing as tablets and smartphones so all the amazing tech and resources you see today were non existent. Dan needed to work on rhythm so we would open up a book of exercises or get out my homemade rhythm cards and work our way through them. As you can imagine, he didn’t find this very motivating!
Fast forward to today and things have greatly changed. Now I can prop my tablet or computer up on the piano and load a game like Ninja Nigel. Dragging rhythms on to the question card, students play them on their instrument and I give them a score. Then they get to send Nigel on his journey to collect treasure (as long as they don’t encounter any bees!). Daniel would have loved it!
Students are determined to get the rhythm correct because the score goes towards their overall total. At the end of the game I pin up their name and score on my studio leaderboard using mini sticky notes. They are all keen to reach first place and move their name up the board, so I often hear “can we play that again?”! Enthusiasm, engagement and motivation to win are huge.
The game is completely customisable, and as well as draggable rhythms, the teacher can open a stave with draggable notes. This is perfect for testing note names or interval reading.
Ninja Nigel is part of a collection of six online customisable games including “Veggie Wars” which pits student against teacher as well as “Penny Penguin”, “Crazy Crocs”, “Airplane” and “Dragon, Wizard, Knight”. Note values include 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2, 3 and 4 beats, plus dotted notes and also rest values. Ideal for beginners as well as those who have been learning a while.
Find out more about how to access this rhythm based pack of games here and let me know if you have any questions.
