What do you do when you’re desperately trying to find a fun way to teach interval recognition and you just happen to have devoured a 12 egg omelette? If you’re me… you use that now empty egg carton for a piano teaching game of course!
Okay (truth be told) I didn’t actually just polish off a 12 egg omelette, but I did come up with a fun way to teach interval recognition and I DO still need that egg carton. So, if you enjoy the following piano teaching game, and you also happen to have a great recipe that requires 12 eggs, send it my way!
Egg-actly How To Play
If simplicity is cool, then this game is the coolest. Check out how easy it is to set up and play:
Take an empty egg carton and write the letters A through G in any order on the bottom of each egg cup (repeat letters when necessary). Next, have your student place two game markers or candies inside the egg carton, close the lid and shake well.
When your student opens the lid, the game markers will have landed in two egg cups (let’s say they landed on G and E). She must name the two intervals that can be created by these notes (a Major 6th and a Minor 3rd in this example) and then play the intervals on the piano.
Get Egg-cited about Intervals
Take this game one step further and have your student draw out the intervals on a blank piece of staff paper (here ya go!). See… we told you it was easy…now get cracking’!
Wow there were a lot of egg puns in that post. But all yoking… I mean joking… aside, learning is much more fun when it is play-based. Which is why we made learning theory a whole lot more fun with our book “Pssst…Your Piano Teacher Thinks This is Theory” , and Technical Egg-cercises (sorry, one last pun!) a whole lot more exciting with TEDDtales. Include play-based learning in your lessons, and not only will your students leave their lesson smiling… they’ll learn faster too!
Eva says
Very nice! I have been doing a variation of this using an actual Mancala set and stones. When you pick up a group of stones you sing each step as you drop the stones. If you can name, sing and play the interval from the spot where you picked up the stones to where the last stone landed you get to pick what comes next.
Robbin says
As soon as that egg carton gets emptied, I’ll be playing this!
Caroline Quinn says
Love it.
Barbara says
Simple. Fun. Using it today because I happen to have an empty egg carton!! Thanks again.
Andrea says
The stars aligned Barbara… an empty egg carton only comes around so often! 🙂 Have fun!
Loni says
Seriously egg-cited to try this one!
Vivian says
If the egg carton is plastic, it could be washed thoroughly to remove any possible egg contamination. Terrific idea for a game! Love it!
Marilyn Brennan says
Yes, this is SIMPLY the coolest way to teach/reinforce intervals! Doing it today! Awesome…..
Andrea says
Awesome! Hope your kiddos have fun 🙂
Leigh says
I will be SCRAMBLING to get this great idea going in my studio! You always have such great ideas and make it so fun!
Leigh says
You could also use a magnetic staff to make the part of them showing you the interval on the staff a quicker step in the private lesson.
judy says
I’m on it for today! Clever! However, on my printer, the staff paper printed out very strangely! Noting I can’t fix, but just wondering if I’m the only one……Thanks again, Andrea, for the perk to the day!
Jeanne Kent says
Great idea. Intervals can be kind of dull. This makes it so much more fun. Egg carton awaits for some letters to make it a game.
Dorothy Smith says
I just now put my eggs in a bowl.
Andrea says
Wonderful! Have fun Dorothy! 🙂
Tina says
I love this idea! I just happen to have emptied my egg carton last night! This is an awesome game.
Amy Boze says
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-strata-and-variations/
the recipe I always use for Christmas morning casserole. It uses a dozen eggs. 😉
Joan Blench says
The twelve cups lend themselves perfectly to the 12 chromatic tones in the scale. I’m going to make a second carton with enharmonic equivalents A#/Bb in order to demonstrate that two intervals may look and sound the same on the piano, but be named differently depending on how you identify the particular notes.
Andrea says
Great extension idea Joan! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Melinda says
Just successfully used this as a keyboard note identification game with my nearly 5 year old! Did the same thing, only instead of identifying the interval, she had to find the two notes anywhere on the keyboard. I cut an 18 count egg carton in half crosswise, so there were 9 cups, two of them are Wilds (because kids love wilds) and she had to pay and name any key she wanted. I’m sure the possibilities are nearly endless!