Teacher Blogs

As stated in my original biweekly plan, I use the Staff Slates and Grand Staff Cards together.  However, I use them at almost every single lesson in the beginning, so we make progress quickly.  After a month, even the youngest children can usually remember where the C's and clefs are located on the staff.

The next step is to connect the pretty, colored, movable magic notes with the more ordinary, black, static notes found on printed music.  To do this, I have the student play a quick game of Fine, and while the pieces are still in place, I take out the deck of Grand Staff Cards and place one next to the Staff Slate. 

"Anything look familiar on this card?"  The student is always eager to tell me all he knows about the staff: the clefs, the brace, the lines and spaces.  He can also usually point out the note, which is probably not one of the Five C's.

"Is this a C?" I ask.  There might be some hesitancy, so I encourage him to just try his best.  If he says yes, it's a C, I put it in a pile.  If he says no, it's not, I put it in another pile.  We go through the entire deck in this way.  I never tell him whether he's getting them right or wrong; he's never done this before, so it's a new experience anyway. 

When we finish, there's lots of "C's", but lots of non-C's too.  (Some students think anything with a ledger line is a C; some think everything on the bass staff is a C.  It varies greatly from person to person.)  I congratulate him on doing such good work.  "Let's go through this C pile again, and you explain to me why you picked each one."

(I don't mean to sound didactic here.  Word choice is SO important to a child, who feels vulnerable and fears failure no matter how well he may hide it.  It's so important that we help him to learn without making him feel foolish for simply not knowing something we happen to know already.)

The cool thing is that during this process, the student is able to see why all the other notes aren't C's.  I ask questions, like "Which C is this?" and "How many ledger lines does that C have?" and "What part of the bass clef is next to that C?"  As they look for the answers, they discover on their own that many of the "C's" are actually not C's, and they feel proud of themselves for having eliminated another choice on their own.

Once we have the six C cards separated, we play Fine, putting them in order (as on a keyboard, left being the lowest) and transferring them to the piano (they stand up perfectly just behind the keys!)  Once they are familiar with the C cards, we play Slap the C's, a wonderful game invented by some students in Amy Fowers' studio in Salt Lake City.  Basically, the teacher (or parent or other student) lays down the cards one at a time, forming a pile.  When a student sees a C, she slaps the floor ("Not the cards, please," I say; "They're not invincible!") and takes the C.  It's fast-paced and teaches instant recognition, which is invaluable later and much better than trying to remember a jingle or acrostic.  A fun variation for more advanced students is to penalize them if they slap on a card that's not a C; I take one of their C's and put it back in the pile.  Then they have to watch even more closely to get it back.

The C's are the foundation for everything else we'll do, so I spend a lot of time ensuring the students know them backwards and forwards.  Once they're very comfortable with them, I'll move on to D's, laying out the six C's and going through the deck to find notes that are one step above C.  We play Slap the D's to learn them well and then move on to Suspense and Five Hiding, where I make D's more valuable than C's.

Next we learn B's in the same way.  And after that . . . well, you might not believe me, but after that, they basically know the notes.  All of them.  It's really that easy when they're having fun, getting constant reinforcement and learning instant visual recognition.  Yesterday I told one of my students, "You're a much better reader than I was at your age."  It was the understatement of the year: at his age, I was hiding my books and wailing about how much I hated reading music.  He'd just played a round of Slap the C's, D's and B's (yes, simultaneously!) and gotten 17 out of 18 right, all the while cracking jokes and carrying on a conversation with his father.

Every teacher should have the gift of a student who reaches higher than she ever could.  It gives you the feeling that somehow, the world really is getting to be a better place.

What's the goal of learning an instrument?  Enjoyment and enrichment, yes; proficiency and technique on the instrument, of course.  But beyond that, most musicians want to acquire technical skills that will help them if they ever decide to sing in a choir, learn another instrument, or (best of all) teach someone else.

Hence, sight reading.

When I was a student, I hated sight reading.  Mostly, probably, because I had been playing pieces (via the Suzuki Method) for long enough that I knew I had a great ability to listen and imitate.  Why did I need to learn the notes?  Who cared about them?  I dug in my heels, screamed and cried, hid and ripped up my theory books, and generally made life miserable for my mother, my teacher and myself.  Eventually, grudgingly, I realized what a useful skill it was, and I am now very grateful for the ability to read and sing music I've never heard before.

For this reason, I am especially sensitive to students who resist reading.  In fact, I don't even use the word reading.  We start with a picture and a song.

The picture is the Staff Slate, and the song is one included in the accompanying materials and written by Lidia Usami, a teacher from New Jersey.  As you sing up the scale, you point to and trace symbols on the staff: treble clef, lines, bass staff, brace.  Then you sing back down, more quickly.  The students hang on every word, and they love doing this.

Once they're familiar with the symbols, I play These Five C's, which can be found in the book in a slightly different form.  (The main difference is that I'm playing with one student on a smaller board with Magic Notes.)  I show them Ledger Lines and place the five C's on the staff, one or two at a time, emphasizing the symmetry of their locations.  They copy me.  We play Fine over and over to ensure the student knows where all five C's are located.  Throughout the process, I use the terms continuously: "That's right.  Treble C goes near the treble clef.  Yes, Low C has two ledger lines and goes all the way at the bottom of the bass staff."  This is better than testing them, because they feel less pressure, but they are just as likely to remember the word.

At the same time, I'm teaching the five C's at the piano.  We place the same magic notes on the keyboard, also emphasizing the symmetry.  I have some Magic Notes onto which I've glued Kid Counters (bottom center of the photo) which fit perfectly.  I will be forever grateful to Sharon Su for giving me that idea; they fit perfectly, and the kids love them so much that one year I gave them all their own set of Five C's for Christmas!

From here, it's a natural transition to Tap Tap, Plunk Plunk.  Originally a game for the violin, played with the open strings, it works well on the piano too.  We place the Staff Slate on the piano bench and bend down to touch Middle C.  "Tap Tap."  We tap the magic note.  We move the magic note to Middle C on the piano and play it twice.  "Plunk Plunk."  We repeat that with all five C's.  This step in the process is vital, because I've found that many intermediate and even advanced students have trouble with the correllation between keyboard and staff.

Once the students really know their five C's on the Staff Slate, we're ready to move on to studying the Grand Staff Cards!

Teaching is hard work, but every once in awhile, you get the rare gift of a material so well-designed, it teaches itself.  This is why I love the Blue Jello cards.

It's important to know them yourself first, so that you can be confident and have fun while teaching them to your students.  This and other videos can help, or you can use the keys included in the packet (one with photos of hand signs, the other with the symbols found on the cards.)  You should be able to sign and speak at the same time, following a steady beat.  And, like many games, it's good to know how to play upside down, so your students can see right-side up.

The fun part comes when you introduce these cards to your students.  The less said, the better: just explain that you're going to play a rhythm game, and they can join in whenever they're ready.  They will be eager to follow along almost immediately.  I have seen the most wiggly boys (and girls) get calm and focused almost immediately when Blue Jello is in front of them, and the more experienced students are just as interested in going over them yet again.

Go as far as time allows you -- ideally, all the way through the stack.  Even if they drop out and just watch you, as long as they're interested, keep going.  Often they need to watch several times before their fine motor control catches up with their brains.

That's it, really!  Just signing and saying the words is a game in itself.  But here are a few options to liven things up, once you're a blue jello aficianado:

• Make a snake with the cards, using as many as you want.
• Clap or tap the rhythm instead of signing.  Use your hands or a rhythm instrument.
• Go more slowly for very young students, pausing first to examine the card ("Oh, my!  How many jellos are on this card?" or "What's this new symbol?  Can you help me find it in the key?")  Be sure not to overload them; stop while they are still begging for more.
• Take turns.  "You do all the jellos and I'll do the blues."  For more advanced students, switch off with every beat, so they have to pay close and constant attention.
• Have a student play a blue jello card on her instrument, choosing notes as she goes.  This is a great introduction to composition.  She can start using just one note and branch out as she feels comfortable.
• Play bingo: lay the cards out in a grid and clap or sign one pattern.  The student claps or signs back to you, then looks for the pattern on the cards.  He places a magic note on the card to mark it, then claps or signs one pattern to you.  You play together, not against one another, and you're both happy to get bingo.
• Apply it: count Blue Jello rhythms as a preview for their next sight-reading piece.  You will find it a thousand times easier -- for example, "one-ee-and-a, two-ee-and, three-and four" versus "huckleberryberrygoose jello blue" -- as well as lots more fun!

Next week I'll talk about the Grand Staff cards and Staff Slates.  This is a great way to introduce note reading.  Stay tuned!

As much as I appreciate the careful and beautiful design of the more complex Music Mind Games materials, the simplest ones may just be my favorite.  That would be the Alphabet Cards.

Well, to be honest, I don't have a favorite; I love all the materials for different reasons.  But these cards are my favorite place to start for any student.  They're so wonderfully simple!  All you need to know are the first seven letters of the alphabet.

I use most of the games from Music Mind Games to begin, especially for my youngest students (2-4.)  Chapter 1 has a wonderful progression that takes the child from identification ("What Letter is This?" and "Learning Letters") to ordering and categorization ("FAT SNAKE," "Fix the Order".)  All of the games are designed to teach and test simultaneously, enabling the teacher to assess progress instantly.  They're also very simple and intuitive; if someone tossed you a set of Alphabet Cards and said, "here, teach the class these," you'd probably start out with something very similar.

Chapter 2 reinforces the concept of the "circular" keyboard, which can be tricky for young minds.  It starts with SNAKE, a simple chain of letters that repeats over and over.  Students love to make snakes in all forms; it's one of the Classic Games, a concept that's applicable to many MMG materials.  FINE, another Classic Game, is also a great choice if time is limited; the object is simply to put your cards in order and call "Fine!" when finished.  You can build backwards or forwards, vertically or horizontally, and starting with any of the letters, for an almost limitless number of variations.  The chapter concludes with Alphabet Scrabble, which is always fun to teach (silently, of course, as in this video.)

After that (or right away, if the student is more advanced) we move to Chapter 8.  We repeat all of these games with thirds instead of seconds, and games like Solitaire and Speed, which are not too challenging with seconds, become a lot trickier and more fun.  Even games like Before and After give students pause when they're learning thirds.  You can really sense the effects of all the repetition sinking in here, and they're thrilled when they finally make a breakthrough and begin to think of the musical alphabet as a fluid progression.

Those should be enough for at least a month's worth of games, but I'll check back in next week with some ideas for the Blue Jello Cards!

The first time I saw Music Mind Games being taught was in one of Michiko's group classes.  I marveled at the way the children interacted with each other, sharing materials, teaching each other and generally having a great time playing together. 

For many reasons, however, such a scenario is not possible for all of us.  I teach out of my living room, where the rug seats only 3 or 4 people.  My students come from all different directions and distances, and most have so many other commitments that I've never been able to successfully "sell" the group lesson concept. 

So, how do I use Music Mind Games?  As part of my private lessons.  At the end of each 30- or 45-minute lesson, I take a few minutes to play a game with my students.  If they've brought friends or siblings, they're invited to play too (I've gotten lots of new students this way!)  The focus, of course, is on the student, making sure he gets a good balance of review, new material and plain old fun. 

For years, I simply grabbed something from my stack and went to town, not worrying about how long it had been since my students had seen it.  This is a great way to start, but over time I found there were certain things I gravitated toward, resulting in an unbalanced repertoire of games and a learning plateau for my brightest students. 

Several years ago, I hit on the idea of focusing on one set of materials per month.  This corresponds roughly to the Puppy Packet of materials, though there are a couple of sets from previous incarnations of Music Mind Games.  There are nine months in the school year (my lessons are more relaxed during the summer,) so here's how I divided them: 

1. Alphabet Cards
2. Blue Jello Cards
3. Staff Slates & Grand Staff Cards
4. Tempo Cards
5. Music Symbol Cards
6. Notes & Rests Cards
7. Rhythm Playing Cards
8. Staff Slates & Do-Re-Mi Cards
9. Real Rhythm Cards

 The order isn't necessarily important, though I do feel pretty strongly about the first three -- they're very accessible for new students and loads of fun to review. 

Last spring, Michiko was asking me about how I used her materials in my studio.  When I explained, she suggested spending two weeks on each set rather than one month.  This would ensure that each student saw each set of materials several times over the course of a year.  I've tried that this year, and it's worked even better! 

In the next few posts, I'll write about what I do with each set of materials.  One more very important thing first, though: I strongly recommend each student have his or her own Puppy Packet.  Here's why: 

• People value something more highly if it belongs to them.  For a student, that means "it's mine!"  For a parent, it means, "I paid for it!" This accomplishes both; the student will enjoy showing it off, while the parent will want to see it used often.
• There is an incredible sense of wonder and excitement that's created when someone opens a package for the first time.  They want to take their time unwrapping it and examine every little piece.  The Puppy Packet is wonderfully designed for maximum enjoyment in that respect -- colorful Magic Notes, Plastic bands, cards and a see-through box are enticing and mesmerizing to children.  And, in my experience, to teenagers and adults too!
• As a teacher, you'll get more bang for your buck: by assigning "homework" (which should really be renamed "homefun" in this case) you can ensure the students are getting more exposure and practice than the few minutes you're spending with them each week.  Think of your lesson as the teaser trailer for the feature film -- the fun they'll have exploring the games at home. 

How you do it is up to you: you can include the cost in the tuition of lessons or ask parents to purchase on their own.  Just be sure each student can claim ownership of her own little box of magic.  You will be so glad you did!