I always enjoy conducting “master classes” with my piano students. They are an absolute riot! Kids just seem to really come out of their shell when surrounded with other kids. I always find that habitually shy students have fantastically goofy sides when surrounded by friends in a group setting like a master class. So… today’s piano teaching game is all about getting goofy with piano master classes.
Master Class Musical Chairs Learning Objective
Master Class Music Chairs is designed to get students learning how to critique the performances of other students… in a good way. During Master Class Musical Chairs the students get to offer each other complimentary “stars” on their piano playing, while the teacher provides further constructive feedback (one “star” and then one “wish”).
Game Materials
In the weeks preceding Master Class Musical Chairs it is important that each student attending the group lesson, is preparing a piece to performance standards. Each student will need to bring their piano piece to the master class. Beyond this, a chair for each student is all that is needed.
Playing Master Class Musical Chairs
1. To begin Master Class Music Chairs, select one student to perform her polished piano piece.
2. All other students are sitting on chairs, arranged in two rows, back to back.
3. Remove the chair of one student, who then must stand up.
4. The performer then begins playing her piano piece, knowing that she is allowed to stop playing at any time.
5. The rest of the piano students begin circling the chairs. When the music stops, they must race to get a chair.
6. The student without a chair, must say one thing they liked about the way the performer played her piano piece.
7. The game then begins again.
Tips:
1. Unlike normal Music Chairs, you only remove one chair at the beginning. After each round, the number of chairs remains constant.
2. If a student has a short piano piece she may repeat it as many times as necessary to make the game work.
Hope you have a great time playing Master Class Music Chairs! Let me know what you think.
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Interesting! Sounds like a fun idea–also seems like it would take some of the “performance pressure” off of the performer and make it more fun all around. I could imagine that certain kids might have an easier time “really” performing the next time they have a masterclass with the same kids because of this activity.
Plus, of course, having students complimenting others and thinking of specific things that they like about a performance is a great thing and stretches their thinking and observation skills.