WHO SAID THAT LEARNING READING CAN’T BE FUN?
How to make note reading an enjoyable and exciting activity at the studio

When I was an inexperienced teacher, I used to underestimate how often students needed to review basic rhythms and note reading. I thought that I could introduce a new note, drill it a few times in different lessons, and quickly move towards the next new concept. After being unpleasantly surprised at many failed informal assessments, it became apparent that I was taking for granted how much consistent preparation and reinforcement was truly needed for these new notes or patterns to become part of a child’s intrinsic musical language. 

Determined to make my afternoon time with students as engaging and inspiring as possible, I have worked over the years to build an arsenal of captivating review activities. I believe this “toolbox” of games and drills can provide a welcome break from the lesson routine, give kids a rest from sitting at the piano, and help add variety to the lesson plan.

Students are eager participants when technology is incorporated into lessons, and they generally love activities with colors and drums. But, as most teachers already know, “variety” and “fun” are the key words. One must not become complacent, relying on the same tools day after day. Rather, one must keep looking, trying new games, and exploring available resources. Music conventions provide a fantastic opportunity to peruse through some of the great inventions, software, and products that companies, big and small, have made available for us. (A piece of advice: Always take advantage of the opportunity to walk through the publisher hall of an MTNA convention, if one is scheduled in a town near you. You will learn more about resources and available materials for teaching than from a lifetime of googling!).

Despite our toolbox being well equipped with resources, busy afternoons of teaching one lesson after another can sometimes make it tempting to keep pulling out the same flashcards and staff paper. Together, let’s build a comprehensive list of fun activities to freshen and inspire our busiest days! Below are some of my favorite resources.

Note Reading Practice & Review

• Giraffe Music App by Joseph McEvilly
  (This App, as well as all the other apps mentioned in this article, are compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.)

  This free app is beautiful in its simplicity. It generates random notes, scales, and basic rhythms, while also including a playback function and a built-in metronome.
  The app functions like a modern flashcard for notes and rhythms. Students can tap, clap, or play different notes using the patterns. They can hear the patterns played back in different time signatures. It is fun, yet extremely easy to use, making it an excellent resource for spontaneous breaks and drills during the lesson.
  My only complaint is that the rhythm feature only covers up to eighth-note rhythms, which is perfect for a student around level 2. However, the scale generator requires concepts covered in the early intermediate levels. Overall, I tend to use the rhythm and notes generator with success for my young and beginning students.

• Music Tutor (Sight Reading) App by JSplash Apps

  Also free, this app is an extraordinary resource for drilling note recognition and improving sight reading. Students can practice identifying notes in timed sessions. My favorite feature is the options menu, which allows the teacher to specify the exact clef or keyboard range to be used for practice, as well as the use (or not) of accidentals. Students can tap the note name in the buttons or find the notes on a keyboard pad.
  The best attribute of this app is its age neutrality. Though it can be helpful for elementary students, I have used it quite successfully with university students and adults. Older students love to be able to work on their reading while doing other activities or being at work, and apps like this are a welcome resource for them.
  One drawback of this app is that the keyboard pad is very small. I wish students could identify middle C and the exact position of other notes in relation to the keyboard. The accuracy rating is helpful for assessing future improvement and creating little note-reading competitions and games within the studio.

• NotateMe App – Fun with an Apple Pencil!
  (iPad Pro and Apple Pencil recommended)

  Sometimes it helps to think outside the box. This app was designed for music notation, much like the Flat App we will discuss below. Both my husband and I tried it for this purpose and found it to have too many inaccuracies. In fact, I can understand the low rating it receives in Apple’s App Store. However, having it on my iPad and being bored with staff paper review games, one day I thought, why not use it for note reading games with the kids?
  One of the fantastic things about this app is that you can increase the size of the staff, allowing for ample space for younger students to write the notes and count the lines and spaces. More advanced students can use the extra space to spell chords, write the corresponding inversions, and even work on chord progressions. Moreover, students can hear the pitch of the notes they are writing, and I have noticed that they love seeing if the software interprets their writing correctly.
  I can’t overstate how fun it is to do note-reading games with an Apple Pencil! First of all, it turns me into the coolest teacher in town. Trust me, it does not go unnoticed by the students. Even the teenagers find it a hip addition to their lesson. Second, it is smooth, responsive, and perfect for writing anything in the app. I often end up doing scoring games or just drawing happy faces and bunny rabbits right there next to their notes, just because I can!

• Magnetic Boards – Big and Small!
  

  Over the years, I have tried all sorts of blackboards and magnetic boards for my lessons. At a certain point, I bought a blackboard that was big enough to cover a whole wall in my studio. I was so excited about all the creative possibilities! In reality, though, it never made it to my wall. It still sits sadly in my attic. It took too much of the little wall space that I have in my studio — precious space for other teaching tools, student photos, and other important decorations. Ward and I even went to the extreme of using cover stock paper to try to create our own small magnetic boards. This was also a fun idea, although not particularly practical. Again and again, I ended up resorting to the two small- or medium-sized boards you see in the graphic. 

  The Wipe-Off magnetic board by Bastien is inexpensive and so easy to use! The colors erase well, and it includes a combination of empty staff paper and keyboard diagrams, perfect for the introduction of the staff with a young Primer student. The board is also ideal to use for keyboard orientation games with beginning students, such as finding 2 and 3 black-key note groups or key names. It is true that it comes with a basic marker, but purchasing a set of good dry erase markers is more than worth it. I always get the packs with multiple colors and thin points.
  
  The other keyboard/staff board is easy to hold in your hand and to place on the keyboard stand. There are many different varieties, some of which include the grand staff. Whichever one you choose, what makes this type of tool a success for me — besides the size and sturdy, durable build — is the keyboard pad. This pad allows students to connect the staff note with its proper placement on the keyboard. Parents have often seen me play reading games on these boards with the kids and asked where they can purchase them to continue to practice reading at home.

• Flat Software
  Believe it or not, this software was recommended to me by one of my dear students, Greyson. He had been using it at school in his band class and loved it. Greyson and I had been working together on the Music by Me Series by Kevin Olson and Wynn-Anne Rossi. (By the way, I strongly recommend this as one of the most approachable ways to teach beginning composition.) The books integrate well with the traditional piano lesson curriculum and are perfect for those students who have a strong interest in going beyond the routine improvisation exercises. I don’t know of many other publications that are successful for this purpose.
  Greyson loved the software, and he even stole some lesson time to open his school Chromebook to show me some of the pieces he had written! I had no idea that he was able to do something like this on his own. It was such a discovery! I played with the Flat platform for two days afterwards, amazed by how easy it is to enter simple notation. Though I still use Finale for my serious projects, I think Flat is an excellent platform for young students and beginning adults to experiment with writing their own songs and working in notation software. It is very intuitive and easy to use, and it works extremely well both on my Mac and on the iPad.
  I want to share below the letter and composition that another student sent me after I showed him how to use the App during a lesson. No further words needed! How empowering for students to see their ideas come into fruition in this way.
  
  As teachers, we often work on reading but forget that writing music is an equal part of that equation. In fact, when students try to write their ideas, it often leads to opportunities to discuss issues that would have gone unnoticed, such as proper stem direction, improving counting of beats per measure, working with different time and key signatures, rhythmic groupings, etc. This app is not something you can readily use in the lesson, but it is an excellent way to supplement your lesson with fun homework projects and composition exercises.

A NOTE REGARDING TECHNOLOGY

I know that the iPad and Apple Pencil can feel like luxury items in the piano studio, but if it is something you have been considering, I think it is a worthwhile investment in your business. Not only can you have all of these apps and so much more right at the piano, ready to use at a moment’s notice, but the ForScore App can turn your iPad into a walking music library. Being able to quickly find a book to accompany a student, reference a pedagogy textbook, edit a score on the spot, turn pages with a foot pedal, or bring my books with me to a gig or college office has made me feel that my iPad is a work resource I can no longer do without. I even performed a Piazzolla two-piano duet with it on stage for the first time this year, without the need for a page turner! However, I do have to admit that I was so nervous about using my PageFlip Firefly Pedal on stage that I forgot to feel nervous about my actual performance! (That is a story for a whole other blog on performance anxiety!) The performance did go well. It does, however, take a few weeks of practice to become comfortable with it. You do not want to flip to the next page because you are playing an exciting passage or accidentally go forward three pages with a foot tap in the hardest section of your tango! Yes, that happened! Fortunately, I tend to over prepare. (This may need to be part of that same blog on anxiety!) I had the piece halfway memorized and could “smoothly” turn back to the proper page in front of what looked like 500 people! Moral of the story: even turning pages takes practice!

LET’S CREATE A COMMUNITY!

Do you have any other favorite games, apps, or activities that you can recommend for note reading or other drills at the studio? Send me an email with your review and I can include it in this blog anonymously or with a reference to you or your studio. Let’s work together to create an extensive resource list that we can all use to enrich our teaching community!