Monthly Piano Challenges

Select a monthly challenge below to access the online games and activities that accompany each topic. 

Monthly Piano Challenges

September: Note Naming Challenge

Keyboard Skills Challenge

This month at piano, the focus is on mastering keyboard skills, and there are TEN options for students to choose from to complete the keyboard skills challenge. Be sure to choose one that is challenging for you!

Keyboard skills, including learning to play scales, arpeggios, and chord progressions with speed and accuracy, are much like the "warm-ups" that athletes use in practice to prepare for a big game. 

Elementary Piano Festival Music Playlists

 

ELEMENTARY LEVEL 1 & 2 PIANO PIECES

Similar in Level to Piano Adventures  Primer/1 or Piano Pronto Prelude/1 or Hal Leonard 1 & 2

Click the image to view the Elem 1 &2  piece choices/booklist  that includes links to the books containing each piece.

Music Terms Rap and Games

This month our piano studio focus is theory, terms and signs. I love finding fun ways to teach music terms to piano students!

I have used many engaging activities like Quizlet matching games, music theory art, Musical Headbandz and Split Second, and Piano Cranium. 

Music Dictionary Rap

But this month I'm starting out one of my group lessons  with this Music Dictionary Rap from Piano Adventures Gold Star.

Music Flashcard Game Variation

Typically my students start out lessons with a quick game like music term memory match. Instead of playing this typical memory style with cards face down, to introduce relatively new terms and signs I first play a face up version. I like how this variation combines both skill and an element of chance so that any player can win. If the teacher is playing with the student, I even the playing field a bit by saying the teacher doesn't get to "steal on sixes" because they have an unfair advantage of already knowing all the answers. 

Divide the cards into 2 piles, one pile for the term or symbol and one pile for the matching answer.

Shuffle the cards and place them face up. 

Students then roll a die to determine how many cards they get to collect by guessing the sets of cards that are a match. 

If they roll an odd number (1,3, or 5) they guess just one match. 

If they roll an even number (2 or 4) they guess two matches. 

If they roll a 6 they get to steal a match from the opponent of their choice. 

The winner is the player with the most card matches at the end.

Related Posts

Split Second Music Theory Game

Musical Cranium

Wunderkeys Streetlamp Solos Christmas for Intermediate Piano

Most people are familiar with Dicken's A Christmas Carol. I love this new book from Teach Piano Today that provides a musical backdrop to the story. I decided to treat myself to an early Christmas present and have been thoroughly enjoying the pieces the past few weeks.

Click the Image to Buy The Streetlamp Solos on Amazon 

Andrea Dow's new Christmas book Streetlamp Solos provides a musical backdrop for the beloved story of  "A Christmas Carol". It blends the familiar Christmas melodies together with some pop-infused chords and diversions from the regular tunes. The pieces are easily accessible for early intermediate pianists with many broken chord patterns in the left. The simplicity of playing in the keys of C Major and A minor allows students to peruse through a lot of music during the short Christmas season.

Advanced Arpeggio Playing Tips

 December is the month for the arpeggio challenge in my piano studio. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so canva comes in handy to compensate for my lack of artistic skills!

 I love to create visuals to post on my bulleting board to make the learning more memorable and pique the interest of students as they come each week.

Simply Sacred Christmas by Marshall McDonald

A few years ago, I discovered  Marshall McDonald's Simply Sacred Arrangements of hymns from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which you can hear samples of in my previous post.

Thanksgiving is not here yet, but I've already pulled out his Simply Sacred Christmas book this season. It has some of my favorite arrangements that calm my soul and a few that energize me, too. 

(click the image to purchase on Amazon)