Winter Piano Olympics 2010

This years Piano Olympic games are more exciting than ever.   This year there is a ski lodge, ski lift, snowy mountain and a curling ice rink, too. (You might have to be Canadian to know what that is!)

Here is a newsletter I created to send to parents to share why I do what I do.  I also include helpful ideas to make practicing more attractive to young students.  View PDF here.

I selected some of the cutest pictures of winter olympic sports clipart the students can use as avatars as they move along the game board.  The fun part is that the avatars are only known by me …..so that students who don’t like competing won’t feel pressure and those who love competing will still be able to see if someone is ahead of them or not.  This way everyone can participate in their own way…and still have fun.

The best part is the ski lift!  Students have to complete three tasks (Rhythm cards are great for this) before they can move up the ski slope.  It takes three stars each to move higher up the mountain.  I use 3×5 cards as the ski lift ticket and star stickers to show their success.  I use a hole punch to indicate when they have used their lift ticket.  The students love it so much they beg for more challenges!  NOTE:  I make them take the ski lift ticket home.  They must return with it or they can’t play.  A fun way to teach responsibility!

Winter Piano Olympics 2010: Badges

And to make it just a little official, I created Olympic Badges that the students could color their name on and decorate as they see fit.

I have a large collection of small prizes and a certificate to give each student as they complete the games.

In 2010 I will be teaching my students about simple rhythmic and melodic motifs and how repetition and variation create interest. Of course, I won’t be using these words to describe it or they’ll be asleep faster than I can say “Da Capo Al fine”.

I’ll use Beethoven’s 5th symphony as a starter with rhythmic motif and repetition.
I’ll play games in the studio with 3-5 note rhythms, have the student repeat me and then we’ll play around with the order of our rhythms to create variation. I’ll show them how to notate it and then have them spend a week making up their own rhythms and writing them in their staff booklets (based on our template).

I’ll do the same with melodic motifs. I’ll use Mary Had Little Lamb to show them how to take the same notes and rearrange them. Then we’ll take 3-5 notes and rearrange them to our hearts content. I’ll show them how to notate it and then give them a week to create their own music.

This is a fun activity sure to inspire any student. And they’ll never know they’re being taught theory, notation and composition all at the same time. They’ll just be having fun!

This winter I will create a winter mountain that rises and drops steeply. Then I’ll set colored flag markers for each of the major and minor scales (probably grouped by fingering similarity). To make the game fun, I’ll make a template for both girl and boy…with skis that the students can take home and color to match their personality. Then as they progress up and down the slippery mountain of scales, I’ll fix their paper with pushpin on the mountain.

NOTE: I have noticed in my experience that some students do not like competition. I will not create it as a race, but rather a fun journey. I’ll have prizes at the end, of course

Summer Olympics in the Piano Studio

The young students who were all in the same primer book had the task of playing each of their songs correctly (counting, notes, dynamics, etc) and there were 48 songs in the book. If a student had already finished 1/2 of the book, I simply used the 6th color to fill in the grid….unless, of course, when the student preferred to play them all again just to get the gold sticker! That was a pleasant surprise.

Older students had a choice to play 48 increasingly difficult rhythm cards or all of the major and minor scales in each hand. Both options had 48 total tasks.

Prizes were given upon completion and pictures next to the poster were taken. Not everyone finished, but fun was had by all.