Edible Pianos

Another favorite activity at our summer music camp was creating edible pianos. This is an especially memorable activity for kinesthetic learners.
1. The music alphabet has 7 Letters - Choose 7 white cookie wafers and draw the first 7 letter of the alphabet on wafers with frosting bags. Sing the Music Alphabet (a minor scale) while pointing to the keys.  Then sing it backwards.

2. The keyboard is arranged in groups of 2 and 3 black key "houses" that can help you learn the white keys.  The "Doghouse" has a smaller "roof" with D in the middle. The GArage is obviously bigger because it takes more space to house 2 cars (G&A) then to house a dog :)

While my daughter helped students finish assembling their pianos, students took turns at the piano finding the D's (Hey Diddle Diddle the D's in the Middle) and playing the "Alphabet Boogie" duet on the piano with me.

Mason Jar Melodies

 One of the biggest hits at our piano camp was the Mason Jar Melodies, a fun idea I found on pinterest.  Before camp I "tuned" the jars to match the pitches of the first six notes of a major scale by adding the perfect amount of water.

1.  Discovering Pitch - I set the jars randomly on the counter, removed the lids and had students "test" two jars  with a plastic spoon to determine which was higher or lower.  They gradually sorted all of the jars until they formed a pentascale +1.  The girls thought it was neat that I had colored them in rainbow order.

2.  Next we played a game of Name that Tune" as students took turns playing the beginning measures of familiar pieces I had written using color coded notes.  Since my campers had varying levels of experience, it was nice that even beginners had the chance to make music and apply their understanding of rhythm values we had reviewed earlier.

For some odd reason, one of the jars was dysfunctional on the day of camp, but it worked fine the day before and the day after???  But, things still worked out as some of the more experienced students just sang the tone of the "bad jar" so they could still decipher the melodies.

DIY Piano Pencil Bag Tutorial

My daughter and I are prepping for Music Camp next week.  She helped me make these easy pouches for our campers to store their take home games and activities.

 I love how simple and inexpensive this was to make. It could also be a great addition to students piano binders where they can store flashcards, take home games, or maybe even serve as an erasable white board.
What you need:
Zippered Pencil Pouch
Electrical Tape
Sharpie
Scissors
Ruler
3x5 card
Because the actual size of the window of my pouch was about the size of an octave on my piano, I just used the cardboard insert to "make a pattern" for my keys, instead of actually measuring.  I placed the cardstock over my piano keys and made small snips with scissors in between each key. Then I centered the "pattern" in the pouch and lined up the 3x5 card along the "snips" to draw straight lines across the window.   I love how forgiving the electrical tape is, but I thought some of the fun colors and patterns of duct tape could also make a fun variation for the piano keys.

Part 6: Teaching Rhythm Through Song

4 Creative Ways to Improve Rhythm Through Song

1.  Add lyrics to sing to wordless songs or tricky rhythm passages

Caterpillars and Spiders= Rhythmic Success!

Recently my son was learning struggling to accurately play the eighth note rhythms in "Theme and Variation" (Piano Adventures Performance Book 2A).  I sung some impromptu lyrics to help fix the problem.
In contrast to the steady quarter note theme ("A spi-der bit my nose----- off")
the variation changes to eighth notes ("A cat-er-pill-ar bit my nose----- off")
Singing lyrics that matched the rhythm fixed the problem immediately and the quirky lyrics made the rhythm unforgettable. "A caterpillar bit my nose off, than a caterpillar bit my toe.  I think I want to make some caterpillar stew.  Would you like some stew too?"
Although I also teach numeric counting as well (4, 1+,2+,3 4, 1-2), for many students adding lyrics to match the rhythms is much more effective.   Suzuki style "Pepperoni Pizza" scales, Piano Safari "Zechariah Zebra" Technique Songs and the Piano Adventures 2A "Famous People" piece that pair rhythm with familiar words are powerful tools to aid in rhythm development.


2.  Encourage rhythm compositions introducing the sounds of rhythms before they encounter them in their music.
Layton Music Candy Bar Rhythms - Challenge students to compose a Candy Bar Melody using all of the candy bar rhythm cards.  The lyrics for me would be something like this "My favorite candy is not Butterfinger, Nestle Crunch or Reeses Peanut Butter.  Twix and Milky Way both taste great, but I like Snickers best!" I'll have to admit that my less creative compositional mind keeps on reverting to the tune of the "Old Gray Mare."

Or you could try a variation to match the interests of your students
Animals: Bear(quarter), Lion (2 eighths), Alligator (4 sixteenths)
Bugs: Bug(quarter), Bee-tle (2 eighths), Cat-er-pill-ar (4 sixteenths) (Let's Play Music)
Pies: Mince (quarter), Ap-ple (2 eighths), Hu-ckle-ber-ry (4 sixteenths), Rasp-ber-ry
Candy Bars: Twix(quarter), Snick-ers (2 eighths), Butter-finger (4 sixteenths) Layton Candy Bar Rhythm Cards
Another great resource is the Teach Piano Today "Trash to Treasure" Composition activity.

3.  Teach Rhythm Names through song.
Songs can also serve as a mnemonic device to help students remember the names of notes and rests.
Note Names - Piano Adventures Primer "Quarter Note"  It's got a head and a stem and its all colored in.
Rests - Music k8.com Give it a Rest  

4. Spice up (Boring) Scales by Singing and Playing Rhythm Variations
Instead of playing a 1 8va ascending scale with quarter notes, challenge students to play a "Twix, Snickers, Butterfinger, Twix"  or "Caterpillar, Bug, Beetle, Bug"variation.  The possibilities are endless with a little imagination.

Related Posts:
Post 1: Teaching Basic Keyboard Concepts Through Song
Post 2: Teaching Technique Through Song
Post 3: Chord Progressions and Transposition
Post 4:  Ear Training Through Song
Post 5: Theory and Tempo

Piano Lab Online Activities Level 6 (Gold) Draft

Choose from the activities below for online flipped learning intermediate-level music resources.

Piano Adventures 4 Playlist
 

88 Piano Keys Get Inspired Episodes
Leger Line Notes Review

Part 5 Songs for Teaching Theory and Tempo - The Value of Singing at Piano Lessons

Teaching Theory and Tempo Through Song 

Singing is a fabulous mnemonic device.  I've made up songs to help my kids memorize scriptures,  multiplication tables, the scout law and spelling words.  And sometimes I even have to sing the joy school song I learned as a child to help them remember the family rules... "We never step on furniture (repeated), when we're in the Neal House.  This is a rule in the Neal House (repeated), that helps us all to be happy."  So when my students were forgetting the meaning of the time signature or tempo terms, I created some lyrics to help.

 Theory
Time Signature: Time Signature Song Lyrics
Tonic/Dominant: FaberTonic up to dominant and leading tone to C
Decrescendo/Crescendo  Music K-8.com 
Chord Inversions: Let's Play Music Orange Roots Demo Video Tempo
Adagio/Allegro:"Adagio Play Slow" Song  or "A leg grows Quick!  Allegro's Quick! (Sung to 3 Blind Mice
Presto/Largo: Music K-8.com

What songs have you used to teach theory?

Related Posts:
Post 1: Teaching Basic Keyboard Concepts Through Song
Post 2: Teaching Technique Through Song
Post 3: Chord Progressions and Transposition
Post 4: Ear Training Through Song
Post 5: Teaching Tempo and Theory through Song
Post 6: Teaching Rhythm through Song
Post 7: Teaching Music History through Song

Part 4 Ear Training: The Value of Singing at Piano Lessons

Ear Training
 Unfortunately, ear training is one aspect of music lessons that is often neglected.  Since I started using Music Progressions as the framework for my curriculum, I've introduced ear training concepts much early then I was taught them.  Following are a few ideas of how to use singing to solidify early ear training concepts.