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Spot It!
Here is a new game, Spot It! to help students with terms. My students have struggled recently with knowing what the symbol is actually called. They know what does but the actual term often eludes them. So here’s a game to help them brush up on those terms. Based on the game in the U.S.A. known as Spot It, but in other countries as Dobble. Students have to find the symbol on their card that matches the card in the middle and say the name of the symbol. This version uses basic symbols for all music reading. So this version of Spot It is not string player specific. Download Spot…
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Chips & Salsa Time Signature Game
I love chips and salsa! So, combining one of my favorite foods with some music theory out comes, Chips and Salsa Time Signature Game! You can adapt this time signature game to use it with one student in a lesson or with multiple students in a group lesson. The overall point of this time signature game is to match the tortilla chip rhythm cards with the correct bowl of salsa. What you need to know to play Chips and Salsa Time Signature Game: 1. The student should understand that “A four on the bottom of means a quarter note gets one beat!” All of the time signature salsa bowls have…
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Learn Intervals on the Fingerboard
Introduce students to intervals on the fingerboard. This worksheet and activity helps students identify steps up and down in the music alphabet. And then transfer that knowledge to the fingerboard.
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Be A Composer Worksheet
Give your beginning students a chance to be a composer with this worksheet! To strengthen reading notes for the kinesthetic learner without the instrument we can have them write. Even if it’s not the student’s primary learning style, I have found that having them write music solidifies their understanding of what is on the page. We all have a learning style, whether it is visual, kinesthetic or aural. One of these ways that we absorb information more quickly than other methods. When teaching note reading, we rely heavily on the visual aspect. And rightly so, we are learning to read notes. The other learning styles are present especially as we play (kinesthetic, aural)…
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How To Draw a Treble Clef
Drawing a treble clef can be a little bit daunting for young students. It looks like likes of swirls and squiggles. I’ve had more than one student give a horrified look when I ask them to draw a treble clef. If you break it down into smaller steps, it’s not overwhelming. Giving reference points to which staff lines gives guidance as to size and shape. So download the worksheet on how to draw a treble clef below. Before the advent of computers and even music typewriters (Yes! that really is a thing) music was hand written using a wide-nib quill. This caused notes and notation to look like it was…
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Learning the Staff
Through the years, I’ve sort of pieced together worksheets or drawing worksheets on blank staff paper for little violin students learning the staff. I’ve found some worksheets online that aren’t keyboard specific and used those. Since moving, I’ve had some extra time the past few months and I’ve just started a beginning student. The perfect circumstances to create some worksheets staff worksheets for violin students who aren’t reading yet. I’ve made the mistake of starting to teach note reading from the note reading book and I find myself explaining in one lesson, staff, line-notes, space-notes, treble clef, quarter-notes, measures… What was I thinking!!!! No awards for that lesson. It makes me…
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Teaching Skips
Steps and skips! Sometimes a visual aide helps students understand skipping and stepping with string crossings. I’ve been drawing this diagram over and over for a couple months now and thought I would create a worksheet. Some exercises in skipping up and down through the scale helps students understand how to skip across strings. Skipping from D to F# can be confusing or hard to grasp when we are skipping from 3rd finger to 1st finger, or skipping from C# to E. Skipping down can even be more confusing. So after students feel comfortable with the A scale and saying the letters up and down the scale, we play a…
