Spicing Up Piano Lessons

I recently shared some of my favorite creative teaching tools and ideas at a class I taught at my local music store. I compiled the following list of links to fun ideas and resources from this blog and other talented bloggers that I have especially enjoyed using with my students.  You can also access the link to this post at the top of my page for easy reference.
 Fun Lesson Starters

• Knock-Knock Rhythms(Tape a rhythm card to the door for them to knock to enter lessons)
• Trick or Treat (Layton Music)
• Magnet Melody Dictation (Music Matters)
• Don't Eat "Pete" (Piano Keys, Note Names, Theory Terms or Listening Bingo:Opposites )
• Piano Safari Rote Memory Technique "Challenges"
• Musical Minute to Win It Challenges (Sharp Stacking, Stepping up the Scale, etc.)

Teaching Theory Through Games

• Toss a Note
• Snackmats and Dice
• Whole/Half Step Scale Patterns 

• Major: We Were Happy When We Were Home
• Natural minor: When Harry Went West He Wore White
• Harmonic minor: We Have Watermelon With Harry WhenHe's Home)

• Bang!
• Many More....  Game Resource List Page (Organized by Concept and Level)

Technique and Rhythm the Fun Way

• Rhythm Cups (ComposeCreate)
•  Use rhythm cups to aid students in tricky passages in their music:  feeling rhythm in alternating hands (Snappin' Harriet), varying arm weights (forte left, piano right), etc.
• Silly Putty Beat Boards (Pianimation)
• Rhythm Bug/Candy Bar Circle Game
• Rhythm Aerobics (Sway, tap, stomp, rub... to the rhythms in your piece)
• Lego Rhythms (Pianimation)
• Tonic, Subdominant  to Dominant - "What Makes You Beautiful" Duet Improv

Practice Incentives/Group Piano Parties

• Piano Olympics
• Piano Point Challenge
• Pianimation Mission Music
• Pianimation This is Your Brain on Music
• Pianimation Musikopoly
• Monster Candy Guessing Jar
• Piano Ice Cream/Pancake Party
• Mining for Goals
• Practice Tune-up Skills
• Mountains to Climb
• All Star Scales (Students move around the bases as they pass off Scale)
• Piano Quest for Virtues

Stretching Your Teaching Tools

•  Chord Progressions with Familiar Folk Songs or Pre-Time Fun Favorites 
• Use Teacher Duets with 2 siblings/students at different levels
• Adapt Game Rules for Multiple Purposes.   For example 1 deck of Interval Cards could be used for Don't Eat "Pete", Interval Towers, Over the Edge, War (Slow Paced Naming Intervals), Slapjack, Speed Sorting (Fast Paced Interval Matching), Interval Bingo (Slow Paced Interval Ear Training), Swat the Interval (Fast Paced Ear Training) BANG!, or Minute to Win it Sightreading Challenge (Notereading and Intervals)

Supplementary Book Recommendations:

Pattern Play by Akiko and Forrest Kinney (Link to Free Sampler online) (Listening Room)
Discover Blues Improvisation by Faber/Edwin McLean 

Alfred's Famous & Fun Series (Classic Themes, Familiar, Pop, Fun Favorites) by Carol Matz
Faber Gold Star Performance Books with CDs
Faber Pre-Time to Big-Time (Children's Songs, Favorites, Classics, Popular, Ragtime and Marches)

In Recital with Jazz Rags & Blues or Classical Themes by Helen Marlais
Piano Safari Technical Exercises and Rote Pieces by Katherine Fisher and Julie Knerr

Other Popular Posts
Piano Teaching Binders -(Notes in the Fast Lane, Sightreading Challenge Sets, Rhythm Drills, Picture Scales etc.)
Piano Online Lab
Piano Teaching 101