Shamrock Interval Builder Cards

We still have 1 week left to our February Valentine Note Challenge, but I'm already planning ahead for the month of March when we'll be working on emphasizing intervals.

I've got several ideas for some fun activities to help my students become better interval readers, and here's a look at the first one. I designed some basic interval drill cards that we'll be playing with over the next few weeks. The cards drill basic intervals of steps and skips, then 2nds all the way up to 7ths.

I'll be printing these out and building intervals with my student using my note gemstones. Here's how I plan to use the cards:

Step 1: Decide which intervals to drill depending on the students' level and/or intervals that might need a little extra work(beginners might just use the step and skip cards).

Step 2: Start by having the student pick a stone and place it on the left leaf.

Step 3: Have the student quickly 'complete' the clover by choosing the correct gemstone for the interval specified

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The cards are available on my Printables page under "Flashcards". Any other ideas on how these cards could be used? What fun St. Patrick's Day activities are you planning in your studio?

Great Resources to Help Students Meet Their Goals

I'm having so much fun working to help each of my students meet their fall goals. If you're like me, you love a good list of free resources, so I thought I'd share some of the tools I've been using these past few weeks.

For students who noted that they wanted to improve their note reading skills, I've been using Susan Paradis' Notes in the Fast Lane. My students absolutely LOVE these worksheets, and can't wait for the time each week at their lesson when we pull these out. I laminated the sheets to save on paper, and I time my students for 90 seconds. Their goal is to complete the sheet and get at least a 22/24 to 'pass' their current level.

For students who told me they wanted to work on reading intervals, I printed and laminated Wendy Chan's Interval Snap Game. This was a HUGE hit with my students last week (thanks Wendy :) ), and a great fun off-bench activity that helped review basic intervals. We used the cards to play Go-Fish.

Several of my students noted that they wanted to get better at keeping a steady beat, so in addition to a LOT more metronome practice, I printed out Wendy Stevens' Rhythm Worksheets and made packets for my students. Each student is responsible for writing in the counts and clapping and counting OUT LOUD with the metronome.

These are just a few of the resources I've been making use of in recent weeks. Do you have any resources that have become staples in your studio? Or any resources you've been using on a regular basis this fall? I'd love to hear about those!

Finally Completed! My Musical Alpha Gems

I bought my gemstones at least a month ago, planning to make my own sets of alpha-gems (inspired by this post from Joy over at Color in My Piano) within the week. Somehow, that never happened! So on my term break week I was determined to get these completed and ready for use over the summer!

It took quite a bit more time than I'd anticipated, but I finally got them completed this afternoon. I took Joy's idea and ran with it- creating a few more sets then just the original alphabet letters.

I grouped my alphagems and have them stored in some cute, colorful plastic containers so I can easily pull out the set that I need. And now a bit more detail about what's inside each container (descriptions follow each picture)...

This set is simply the alphabet letters. I'm going to use these for my beginner students to help them identify notes on the keyboard, and also to drill notes on the staff with some of my elementary students.

This set turned out to be the smallest, and is made up of what I call 'Landmark Notes' (some people like to call them 'Guide Notes'), the first notes new students learn and ones that help orient them on the staff as they continue to learn more notes.

Another set makes use of intervallic relationships. Within this container are gems noting half and whole steps, steps and skips, and intervals from the 2nds to octaves. Beginner students will use the step-skip gems, while more advanced students will drill intervals. These can be used along with the basic alphabet keys- draw a letter and an interval and place both gems on the correct keys or line/space on the staff.

The final group is basic alphabet keys with added sharps and flats. I plan to use these with students as we learn pentascales.

So there's my project for the week! What do you think? Any suggestions on additional ways I could use these in my studio? I'd love to hear other ideas!

Lily Pad Interval Game

Interval recognition is key to good sightreading skills, and with that in mind I've designed this simple game for my students. You can use it with individual students, or in a group lesson setting as a game for teams.

Print the lily pads using card stock. Place the lily pads on the floor or table top. (You can pick and choose which lily pads to use depending on the students skill level or if there are specific intervals that need work). Then give each student or team a stuffed frog. Hold up an interval card (Jennifer Fink has some great 'interval tower' flashcards available at her website here) and see how fast the student or team can identify the interval and make their frog leap to the correct lily pad!

I'm looking forward to trying this game out in upcoming group lessons, but please give me any feedback you may have from using the game and if you have any suggestions. I wasn't too pleased with the image quality on the lily pads. You can find the game on my printables page.

Additional Studio Foci for the Spring

Yesterday I shared about my spring practice incentive. That's an activity that's always fun to plan, and even more enjoyable as I see my students get caught up in the spirit of the competition.

In addition to the spring practice incentive, however, I have a few other drills I'm incorporating into weekly lessons.

1) To help my students develop a better sense of familiarity with the keyboard and basic intervallic recognition, I'm using the Across the C's sightreading sheets from Natalie Wickham's Music Matters Blog. I love how these worksheets drill spatial and intervalic concepts. The series is also great for drilling additional concepts like: looking for repeated patterns, reading ahead and preparing the next hand position, and maintaining a steady pulse. These sheets are easily accessible, which allows the student to feel a sense of accomplishment.

2) For students who need a bit more work on note recognition, I'm assigning Notes in the Fast Lane sheets from Susan Paradis' website. I've been amazed at how much my students (especially the guys!) love this activity.

3) Another concept I'm really emphasizing for my intermediate students this spring is pulse. This means (oh no!) metronome work. I'm not one to assign a huge amount of metronome practice for my students, but for those who seem to struggle with feeling and maintaining pulse, I've made a resolution with myself that I will start incorporating more metronome work into their weekly assignments.

I'm sure that as the weeks progress I'll start pulling out additional drills to address new issues that crop up, but these were ideas I decided to incorporate right from the start, and I'm hoping to be able to give a positive report in the weeks to come on the success of each drill!