Teaching Note Reading Games and Free Posters

 Sometimes cleaning out my piano files pays off! 

This week I browsed through old files and found some treasure ideas that will be great for our September group lesson focused on note reading. 

There are many approaches to teaching note-naming to music students.  I've found that although the "Every Good Boy Does Fine" approach worked for me, it is not ideal for a lot of transfer students who come to piano lessons with confusion about which sentence goes with treble or bass.

These fun posters and activities can help clear up that confusion!

I prefer to focus on landmark notes, musical chants, intervals and games to really help piano students to have strong note recognition skills.

BASS Lines Music and Movement Game

I'm eager to try this mashup of Bingo, Simon Says and Head Shoulders Knees and Toes at group lessons next week. Start by singing the lyrics below to the tune of Bingo while you and your students chant the bass lines and touch their body "head shoulders knees and toes" style, but backwards.  

Then turn it into a movement activity where the teacher calls out a bass line note or notes and students race to touch the corresponding places on themselves that match the 5 lines of the music staff. 

Confusion with D's and B's

While almost every student quickly remembers where Middle C is, some get perplexed about the neighbor notes D and B. I created this poster after hearing a tip from Steven Thomas at our local music club meeting. When introducing these notes he has the student roll a blue ball across a flat surface, then points out the blue ball can't roll across the "ceiling" very well. The image of the dangling dog is usually enough for them to remember the D dangles down under the treble staff.

Treble FACE vs Bass FACE

While cleaning out my piano files this week I found a note I had probably written at a music conference years ago that inspired this poster.

I use this catchy FACE video from Plank Road to introduce the treble space notes. Then I add an extra verse and sing "F-A-C-E face, there's another face under the bass." This strategy paired with the focus of the skipping alphabet GBD (Jibbidy)-FACE is usually faster than students having to remember the sentence, word and staff from old school mnemonics.