I had the privilege of being a substitute organist for a local Episcopal Church a few weeks ago. I have had the opportunity to play organ in the past. I took organ lessons in college. I loved my organ teacher who was a very patient, kind, and loving person. She was very giving and created opportunities for me to practice my skills. I wish I had put a little more effort into it back then. I often have questions now that I didn’t think or take the time to ask about during those years. If you are a pianist who happens to have an organ just sitting around at your church or you in any way have the opportunity to take up playing the organ, I encourage you to give it a try. The technique of playing is different because you have to hold the keys down in order for the sound to continue. Then there is the added element of the pedalboard, which is the most difficult part for us pianists. However, the technique of pedaling is something that comes with practice, and can be added in gradually. Lately the questions I find myself wondering about the most are about the different stops, the couplings, and creating the overall best registrations for a specific piece or hymn. I started out playing on a tracker organ, and even played for a church in MA that had a full tracker organ in their sanctuary. A tracker organ is a pipe organ that is purely mechanical. Which means you have to pull all the stops yourself. There is no computer attached allowing you to preset stops. My organ teacher would say, “pull what sounds good!”, and that’s a rule I still go by! With pipe organs that allow you to have preset stops there are so many more options as to what sounds you can create during a piece. This is where I find myself wanting to learn more about selecting and combining of stops, and the technique of changing presets in a piece.

The American Guild of Organists has a wonderful site with many helpful webinars, and they set the standard for all things organ related. They have a Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/GuildofOrganists that has great videos titled “Lessons for the New Organist”. I highly recommend going through and watching these. I still go back and reference them every once in a while!

The pictures above are of the organ in the Episcopal church I played at. It is a beautiful instrument with pipes in the front and back of the sanctuary. Any time I have the opportunity to play I learn more. I always feel like, “Wow! There is so much more I could be better at, and wish I knew”. I still feel like that about piano too most days, which is why I love music! The Episcopal service has a LOT of music built into it’s liturgy, aside from the typical three hymns, communion music, and prelude and postlude. I spent quite a bit of time working on the technique of playing and the choosing of stops for each piece. It made me appreciate what the full time organist does every week! Subbing does come with it’s own challenges; the familiarity of the flow of service being the biggest.

I worry that the organ is an under used and under appreciated instrument. I know they are like dinosaurs roaming the earth, but they are worthy of preservation. I have been following the famous organist Anna Lapwood on Facebook, and I have hope that there is a new appreciation for the instrument out there.

I created a fall theme game board that can be used for piano key identification or note identification. You will need game pegs, and flashcards. Whoever reaches the end of the board first is the winner! Students often beat me, which is fun for them. With beginning students I usually help them if they are having trouble with identifying a key or note, but if you wanted to make it more challenging you could say the rules are that if you miss a key or note the student has to go back a three spaces (or start over if you are playing with older students).

I also created a beginner rhythm skill builder. Students should be able to complete the incomplete measures, and then verbally clap and count each line. Notice the last line of each page is blank, so the student can make up their own rhythm pattern.

Since I shared some of my favorite apps for students, I thought I would share some websites that I like as well. I usually send links to my students saying, “Hey, check out this website! It talks about the composer we were discussing in your lesson today.”, or “Click on this link to assess more music theory activities”. My point is, I use these websites as supplements to whatever the student is doing or needing more help with.

My very favorite for introducing my students to classical music and composers is Classics for Kids! This is a fabulous site! They have a podcast featuring a composer of the week. There is an alphabetical index of composers, and students can listen to the different “shows” about the composer and then take a quiz! They can then share their quiz results if they wish. I love this website as a tool for teaching students about all the different composers and genres of music! The website also contains a kids page where students can play games about note identification, rhythm, other instruments, musical terms, etc. The site also includes many fabulous teacher resources!

Music Theory.net is another great website. Musictheory.net contains many lesson plans, exercises and tools for students. They also have an app, but I have not used it. I probably should try it though! I feel the formant is geared for teens or adults, but with adult supervision some of the exercises could be used by younger students as well. The exercises make great practice for students wanting to learn their notes, scales, key signatures, intervals, chords, etc! I often recommend the exercises from this site.

For accessing music online I like to use IMSLP! The website contains the largest library of free public domain sheet music. Many have visible downloads and you can choose from different publishers and editions. I also use sheetmusicplus.com and sometimes musicnotes.com, but these are retailers (I’m not getting any commissions).

The Music Teachers National Association has also compiled a list of websites for kids. https://www.mtna.org/Websites_for_Kids.html There are several great websites from different symphonies, Carnegie Hall, and various piano education experts, etc. I recommend browsing through some of these excellent resources!

I admit that I do not frequently use technology in my private teaching. There are only so many minutes in a lesson, and most of the time is spent on learning how to practice new repertoire, technique, or playing more hands on games for theory. However, every once in a while I pull out my phone or tablet and use it to help further a students skills in note reading, rhythm, history or basic theory. Most students enjoy playing the games, and they can be a good motivator. I want to share some of the apps I have come across over the years. I even recommend having students use some of these apps at home, that way it’s not eating into the lesson time, plus they are reinforcing their skills during the week. (Please Note that I have an android phone and Microsoft computer, and so I am only privy to what’s available for Android. )

Flashnote Derby is the app I have used the longest. It is a horse race, and you win by identifying the notes correctly and within the allotted time. You can personally select which notes you want the student to practice. How many notes and how long they have to identify them. Some students don’t like the feeling of having to do it within a certain time. In that case I practice with them before introducing them to the game.

BeesKeys is an app I recently came across. It is super cute and fun for your preschool or beginner student. This app has you find the groups of black keys, and then the white keys. I like that it does CDE, FGAB, and then mixes them up. There is a pro version of this app as well for more personalized settings.

Note Rush is another note identification app. This app costs a little more than what you might feel comfortable asking your students to pay, but it’s worth it for use in studio. It’s has a lot of fun features. Student’s can choose their background/note preference. Teachers can select which clefs or both clefs and what level. Students can practice just the “guide notes” first, and then move on to all the notes within the guide notes. Also, this app has a microphone feature which allows you to play the game using your own piano or keyboard. It works pretty well, but you do have to be careful about speaking while the game is being played. Sometimes it detects your voice as a certain pitch!

Rhythm Cats is a fun progressive rhythm game. I don’t use it too often because it doesn’t calibrate to my phone very well, and it will show that you played a rhythm incorrectly when you didn’t. But if it worked better on my device I would love it. The concept is great. It may work better for others, so I still recommend giving it a try!

Every student needs a metronome! I usually introduce my students to one somewhere around level 2-3, depending on the student. When a student is starting out I prefer for them to have a battery operated, turn dial metronome. It’s physical, they can put their hands on it and adjust the tempo, and they don’t have to worry about having access to a phone or tablet. However, I find a lot of my older students and adults that carry around phones prefer the app. I have used a couple different apps in the past, but I recently started using Tack. I like it because I don’t have to close out an ad to get directly to the metronome. It has a an easy to use, clean interface, and while it does have the more advanced rhythm components, those are accessed via the settings button and not on the main screen, which I appreciate.

Maestro is a music composition app. I haven’t used it much, but it is fun to mess around with. That’s basically what you have to do to learn how to use it. It can be fun for students who are interested in composing their own songs or short compositions.

I just returned from one of my favorite places, the beach. I love visiting the beach in the fall. The weather is slightly cooler, but the water temperature is still warm and good for swimming. One of my favorite things to do is to walk along the beach searching for sea shells. You never know what you will come across on a beach walk! This skill builder is an ode to my fall beach trip! I have several students who are in that beginning phase of music reading, and I like to give them extra skill builders to help them with their note identification.

I like to use lots of games and activities to help make learning the notes fun and hopefully easier for my students. In my bag of tricks I not only use different skill building sheets, but also flash cards, board games, and apps. Today I will tell you about my flashcards preferences. I have used a few different sets, the Piano Adventures and the Alfred are my two favorite. They are both color coded and have answers on the back. I use them in different ways.

* I time students to see how many they can identify in a set amount of time. Some students thrive with playing the time game, and others stress over it.

*When students identify a note I have them find it on the piano.

* I have students write the note on the music staff white board after identifying. This helps see whether or not the student truly understands what line or space a note goes on.

I have my own set of self made flashcards with no answers on the back. I use these to play games with students. I have a self made music board with the letters of the alphabet going through a path from start to finish. The students have to identify notes to move their token up through the path to the correct letter name. Whoever reaches the finish line first wins. (Hint: if the students starts the game, they usually win. Which they love! (Maybe I should work on making the game a downloadable activity!)

PK

I have a few students who are beginning to learn pentascales. Teaching pentascales is a great way to incorporate both technique and theory into the lesson. Playing the five finger patterns can help strengthen students finger and hand muscles, and help them feel comfortable playing in all the different five finger positions. It’s a beginning to learning the different major keys, scales and chords without having to learn the fingerings and crossovers yet.

When I teach pentascales, I talk about whole steps and half steps with my students. By this time they have learned what a half step is through learning sharps and flats, but I always review everything. Students learn that the pattern for the first five notes of a major scale is Whole-Whole-Half-Whole. Visually it is easy to teach this using the C Major pentascale. Students can see that there is no black key between the notes E and F, making it a half step.

Pentascales help students hear and understand what a major scale and chord should sound like. When a student has mastered several of the major pentascales and has become comfortable with the sound, I then talk about the minor pentascales. Students easily grasp the concept of lowering the third note a half step to get that “sad” or “spooky” sound.

I have students practice the pentascales using different patterns. For students using the Faber method, The Piano Adventures Technique Book Level 2A, on the first couple of pages there are different five finger patterns written in the key of C, but can be played using the other pentascales too. It’s a great way to get them playing the scales hands together, with chords and broken chord patterns. I sometimes pull this book for students who are using other methods just because I like for students to have something they can use to play the different pentascale patterns from. Another resource that I like to use, especially with my adult students, is the Pentascale Pro books by Melody Bober, Gayle Kowalchyk and E.L. Lancaster. It has all the five finger scale and chord patterns written out for students. Each pentascale also has a duet piece for the student to learn. This book is a great teaching tool! It not only teaches the pentascales, but helps students with playing hands together, learning rhythm, and playing in a duet situation.

I have put together a Pentascale skill builder for my students. They can practice writing the Major pentascales on the staff and marking the notes on the keyboard. They can then play them too!

One of the first things we teach our students is the topography of the keyboard. The layout of the piano is important for tactile and visual navigation of the keys. I teach my beginner students about the black keys first. I talk about how the black keys are raised slightly higher than the white keys, and that they are in groups of twos and threes. I have them identify the groups of two and three black keys. If a student is very young and not yet visually efficient at identifying patterns, they may need practice in identifying the groups of black keys. One of the activities I do with my students is I take index cards and use them to show the division of the piano keys into the groups of two and three black keys (It also shows the grouping of the white keys CDE, FGAB, which is useful later on when students are learning those keys.) The cards help the students see the different groups. I have the student play all the groups of two black keys and then all the groups of three black keys while the cards are in place. If the students seems comfortable with finding and playing the groups of 2s and 3s, we then play a little game. Students love games! I remove the cards, and I give them to the student and ask them if they can divide the keyboard up into the 2s and 3s. They should be able to do this easily, and I find that the students like doing it.

I have also created a Black Key Search and Find Skill Builder activity sheet! Students can either do the activity with you in their lesson or take home for more practice!

It is good for beginner students to start out playing songs on the black keys. this aids in the process of building finger/hand muscles and the curved finger/hand position us piano teachers strive to teach our students. Some students may need more time and practice in this area of development. I am finding that a lot of younger students do not have the fine motor skills you would expect. I am spending more time trying to help students strengthen the Intrinsic Muscles in the Hand so they can play the keys. I talk to parents about the importance of playing with Legos, Squeezing Play-Doh, using single hole punchers on paper, anything that will help in building fine motor muscles. This is why playing the songs on the black keys is so important. Students are required to hold their hand up over the white keys in order to play the black key groups. Sometimes students will still revert to playing with a flat hand, but I keep correcting and explaining to them that playing with curved fingers will help them play the notes more accurately.

I don’t know if any teacher has the magic wand so to speak for helping their students immediately play with perfect hand position. It is a process and something that takes time. Some students do it more naturally than others too. If you are a piano teacher, I would love to know what tips and tricks you use to help your students!

PK

I am excited about my Skill Builders page to my website! I have added worksheets and activities to help students with basic music skills. These skills vary from keyboard identification, rhythm, music symbols, note-reading, to chord and scale building. I will be adding new content as I go (my goal is weekly), so keep checking back regularly to see what’s new!

I have a lot of students who are in the beginning stages of learning to read music. I am finding that even though I point out the lines and spaces to them during the introduction to the staff pages in their method book, they are either on another planet while I’m speaking or they are not comprehending what is being said including the visual aspect of it all. All the information could be overwhelming them too. As a teacher I try to remember what it was like to be on the student’s side of learning these new concepts. (Sometimes it’s hard to remember that far back!) I have been finding myself dissecting the elements of the Grand Staff with these students. My magnetic staff board that I talked about in my previous post has come in very useful with this. I have discovered that the concept of a step on the staff is not being understood by a lot of students. When I ask them to put a note on a line or space (after they have grasped what a line note and space note are), and then another note that is a step up (or down). I see them struggle with where to put it. In their mind they do not yet understand that a step is just the next line or space on the staff. They also have to make the connection that a step is just from one piano key to the next.

After students seem to understand the concept of the step on the staff, then I ask them about skips (3rds) on the staff. I first demonstrate on the keyboard what a skip is. Then I ask them to put a note on a line or space, and then to show me what a skip up (or down) would look like on the staff. Usually once the concept of the step is grasped, then the skip is then more easily understood.

I then explain to students that each line and space on the staff is a specific key on the piano, and that we learn what each of these lines and spaces are to know which piano keys to play. I then talk about how each hand has a staff. Treble Clef staff being for the RH, and Bass Cleff being for the LH with Middle C being the dividing note between the two staffs. I talk about how Middle C is the note that has a special line through it called a ledger line, and that Middle C is special because it can be written for either hand. (At this stage that is all I explain to the student. We talk about ledger lines used as extensions of the staff etc. later on.)

After the initial introduction to the staff it depends on what method you are using as to how and which notes you teach students first. I have used the guide notes system for a long time, and there is some usefulness to that in helping the students remember certain notes. Lately, I have been wanting students to understand the use of the staff as a whole. I tell them to think of the staff as their map to the piano keys. I hope that will open up their minds to the concept of reading music.

Music Class! by Priscilla Kjorlaug

I said all of that to help you understand my passion for teaching kids to read and understand music! Here is my most recent skill builder! (Click the link above!) It is for a student who already understands the concepts of the notes on the staff, and who needs practice remembering some of the easier notes in the treble/bass clefs. They can identify the notes and their place on the keyboard! I hope you can find these Skill Builders useful in your teaching or studies too!

PK

Back to school time is a lot like new years. It represents a fresh start, new beginnings and excitement for learning new things! Like many teachers, I have been lesson planning and putting together new games and activities for my students this fall. I have a lot of beginner level students, and I have been planning activities to reinforce rhythm and note reading.

I printed out some new rhythm patters and glued them to cardstock. I then cut them out. My plan is to have students build their own rhythm pattern, and then practice it. I have a fun tambourine drum that students like to drum out their rhythms on. But students could clap, or even play them using a key on the piano. You can find these rhythm flashcard free printables at https://laytonmusic.wordpress.com/2007/12/19/rhythm-flashcards/ There are different levels of flashcards too! This site has other great resources too! I’m excited to try out the music Candyland game!

I also created a magnetic music staff using a white board. I used painters tape for the staff lines, and I cut out the treble and bass clefs from card stock and put magnets on the backs. I purchased little round magnets to use as the notes. This board has been great so far to help students understand lines, spaces, steps, skips, and note names!