Tuesday, March 19, 2019 by Lisa Barwell | Games

Fun for St. Patrick's Day!

March 2019

I love using themed games to make review time more fun! Celebrating St. Patrick's Day was a great excuse to pull out several games to help us practice music concepts.

These students are reviewing note reading, music symbol recognition, keyboard geography, and writing notes on the staff.

It's so exciting for me to see my students grow to their full potential while having fun!

Saturday, March 11, 2017 by Lisa Barwell | Games

Weeks Twenty-Five and Twenty-Six
 

These past two weeks have been somewhat quiet here in the studio; we’re getting back into the routine after Festival. Festival participants read their rating sheets from the judges and others are preparing for their spring recital.
 
To have a little fun and review theory at the same time, we brought out some old and new games. Students had a blast playing “My Fly Pie,” “Frosting Frenzy,” “Sugar High,” and “Hydrant Hullabaloo!”

 
What a fun way to review things like “intervals,” “stem direction rules,” “directional reading,” and “sharps and flats!” Theory doesn’t have to be boring!

Saturday, February 4, 2017 by Lisa Barwell | Games

Weeks Twenty & Twenty-One
                               

Things are busy, busy, busy here in the studio. Federation students are working hard to polish their solos and duets for Festival coming up on February 24 and 25. Preparation has also begun for the March recital. Recital pieces were chosen by the participants and it’s looking like it will be a fun recital, full of interesting pieces!
In between all the serious work, we managed to squeeze in a few games, of course! After all, life can’t be all work and no play, right?
 
“Puddle Jumper” (reviewing note values) and “Root Canal” (practice with quickly creating root, 1 ^st inversion, and 2 ^nd inversion chords on the piano) made appearances again this week. These games are turning out to be studio favorites!

 
A new activity for the week was “Football Flashcards.” These flashcards really make the learning full-circle because students can fit the card into the piano key to show where it is played, instead of just naming it. Awesome! This led to some students having “breakthrough moments” in their understanding of the keyboard layout.

 
I love seeing my students enjoying themselves and making music!