Alternatives to Flash Cards?

[cadenza0123]

Hi folks!  I'm brand-new to the forum and am in a bit of a quandary. First, a bit of background:

I have a BM in Vocal Performance and a BM in K-12 Music Education, teach part-time private piano and voice lessons, and work full time at a music notation software company.  I usually have between 5-8 students any given semester, and teach through a music school based out of a church that offers studio space and organizes all my students' schedules and payment in exchange for a 25% cut of my lesson rate. Since I don't have a performance degree in piano (just 14 years of lessons growing up), my current students range from beginners to intermediate, and age 6-11.

Now the issue:

I have two students in particular who have been taking from me for a little while (one just over two years, one for nearly a year) who have FABULOUS ears... as many of you have experienced, this can be a good and a bad thing! I'm quickly learning that if I demonstrate anything for them, they will just copy the sounds and will hardly look at the notes on the page.  Thus, their note-reading skills are somewhat deficient when compared to where they are in their lesson books.

I've been attempting to correct this deficiency in the past few months by means of using flashcards, which I used growing up, and the usual mnemonic devices for the lines/spaces on the staff (All Cows Eat Grass, Every Good Boy Does Fine, etc), but I've been looking for ways to spice this up, as it is a bit, well, boring... and for one of my students (who has Asperger's) it doesn't hold his attention for long. Does anyone have any suggestions for creative and more active note learning?  I've thought of using Boomwhackers with the flashcards, but my ideas stopped there! 

[sucom]

Hi

Getting young children to recognise notes can be a tad frustrating!  I have found that if I use the regular sentences for learning the notes, children not only ‘don’t’ learn them, but even if they do learn them, tend to mix them up between the treble and bass clefs (and even between the lines and spaces!)   And then there’s the problem of them actually finding them on the keyboard.  No easy task!  I’ve also found that it’s not a good idea to demonstrate on the keyboard too much because, as you have found, they will copy anything they can if it means not having to learn how to read the notes on the staff.

So more recently, I’ve tried another method which actually seems to be working quite well and this has become an integral part of each lesson. Instead of trying to name notes on flash cards or learn phrases, I use a small manuscript whiteboard and, first using the treble clef, label the lines on the staff 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.   Then I ask the student to find middle C and then jump up thirds on the keyboard while saying, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.  After this, I draw a note on one of the lines and ask them to tell me which line the note is on.  Once we have established this, the student goes back to the keyboard and, starting on Middle C, jumps up through thirds on the keyboard while saying the line numbers out loud, stopping at the line on which the note is found. This causes them to find a note accurately every single time.  I then open their tutor book on a page much further on, find a note on a line and ask them to play it.  It’s wonderful to see the smile on a student’s face when they play the note correctly every time.

For the lines in the bass clef, we count ‘down’ the lines backwards, moving down the lines 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.  Then, starting on Middle C, the student jumps in thirds down the keyboard while saying these numbers out loud.

The spaces in the bass clef are a little trickier, so I now use the phrase ‘Big Green Elephants Can Always Fly’.  We start on middle C, step down to the first space and then continue jumping down in thirds while saying the sentence.
 
So far, it’s working well and all my students are becoming very skilful at note reading.

[quantum]

Hi and welcome to Pianostreet,

For your students with good ears, I would suggest you encourage them to further develop their hearing skills.  In higher music education, often the reverse becomes true: students are really good with their eyes, but lack detailed listening skills.  

You could use their listening to help develop better reading skills.  Play a note, then have them write it down on the staff.  Doing so makes a conceptual connection between reading and music making.  For some students who find reading difficult: they may associate it as an activity counter productive to making music.  Learning to write down notes they can hear and play will allow your students to notate their compositions and share them with others.  

From single notes you can move to short phrases, then onto passages using simple harmonic progressions.  If your students pick this up quickly, you may wish to introduce them to written piano transcriptions and what can be done with this skill.  


Do a search on Pianostreet for what Bernhard has written about reading.