music reading skills

[bonjing]

what are some strategies for developing music reading skills in average age beginners?

[hyrst]

What is an average age for a beginner?

[bonjing]

7-10

[hyrst]

Use lots of games - timed activities can be fun.  E.g. See how many flash card notes they can identify and then beat their best score.

Do lots of sequential and structured sight reading, especially of familiar or well liked pieces.

Find common patterns, chords, sequences, the basics of intervals, etc.

Use lots of colour/visual learning approaches and physical/movement exercises.  E.g. I use a set of lines drawn large size on the floor that they can place letters in, note cut-outs or even their own feet to locate and name notes and intervals.

Colour coding is a major approach for me.  I think it is important to learn pattern recognition and I use colour to highlight common patterns.  I think patterns are more useful than individual notes for fluent reading.

Look for each student's strengths and provide sequencing and support for that particular strength.  I structure my teaching on Gardner's Multiple Intelligences.

Is this the sort of thing you were looking for?

[ilovemusik]

yes thanks for those tips HYRST..

[nyonyo]

Make them memorize the location of each note, for example E is on the first line etc.
From my experience, I did not find any of my students have ever had difficulties in remembering the position of each notes. By the way, I had had easily 200 students. I used to teach group lesson. Teaching group lesson needs special skill....