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It's "Medley Magic" Monday! If you are looking for interesting Christmas arrangements for your students--or fun options for your own holiday gigs--check out my two "Medley Magic" books! On sale today only for $7! Click on the covers below to see and hear samples of every piece in these books:
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 When working with beginning students, I have three initial technical goals:
These goals can be challenging for small hands and fingers! However, I have found a great teaching tool that is working wonders with my students—the game “Last Mouse Lost.” I discovered this game at the recommendation of another teacher on Facebook last year, and I have been incorporating it into my lessons in different ways over the past year with great success. Although this game has official rules, I use it a bit differently--as a teaching tool for helping students to see and hear that they are landing on the correct part of their finger and to practice dropping onto each key with a bit of arm weight and a flexible wrist. It is also a great way to review finger numbers with young students. Here is what I do:
After we play this game, I open the piano and have my students repeat the movement on the piano keys. They should be able to hear the difference this makes in the sound—they will get a nice, fat tone because they are playing each key using their arm weight and the correct part of their fingertip. We do this game at the start of the lesson to get students thinking about how their arms, hands, and fingers should feel as they play. You can also pull the game out and do a quick refresher if you see bad habits creeping in as students are playing their pieces. I think the best thing about this game is that it turns a rather difficult technique that can be the cause of much frustration for young students into something fun. I have even used this game as a “gentle reminder” with a few of my older students—especially those that have chronically flat fingers. I purchased “Last Mouse Lost” on Amazon HERE, but you should also be able to find it at your local toy store or in the toy section of your local big box store. What do you think? Any favorite teaching tools you like to use to work on technique with your students? I’d love to hear your suggestions for making technique practice fun!  As I mentioned before HERE, I keep a "musicianship binder" with extra worksheets containing ear training, theory, transposing, and composition activities for my students. This way, I can rotate through these activities and make sure we are always working on a different musicianship skill in our lessons, in addition to our repertoire and scales.
With the holidays approaching, I am stocking my binder with a some fun, holiday and winter-themed activities that I know my students will enjoy! Here is what I will be using in November and December: Ear training: Sight-reading:
Transposing: Improv and Composing: Theory and Review Worksheets
What are your favorite holiday and winter-themed activities for your students? I'd love to hear your ideas! |
AuthorChrissy Ricker is a pianist, teacher, and composer from North Carolina. These are her thoughts on teaching, composing, and all things music. Looking for teaching ideas related to a specific topic? Use the "search" feature or scroll down to see blog posts organized by category!
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