Try this Piano Teaching Game to Add Some Excitement to Piano Scales

Today we’re introducing a new feature around here… Piano Teaching Game Day! Once a week, we will be posting some fantastically creative and fun piano teaching games you can use to liven up your piano lessons.

Today’s Piano Teaching Game… Stampin’ up the Scale

Learning Objective

Stampin’ up the Scale will improve your piano students’ abilities to visualize a one octave scale in any given key.

Game Materials

To teach Stampin’ up the Scale to your piano students, you will need to print a two-octave piano key diagram. I would suggest blowing up (8 ½ x 17) one of the two printables found on this page.

You will also need a bingo dabber or stamp.

Playing Stampin’ up the Scale

1. Piano teacher names a scale… major, natural minor, harmonic, melodic… your choice.
2. At “Get set, go!” your Piano student uses the “dabber” to leave a colored mark on the correct ascending pattern of white and black keys to complete one octave of the named piano scale.
3. At the same time, the piano teacher attempts to play the named piano scale three times (or more… or less) before the piano student completes the “dabbing” (this is the “timer” for the game as they try to beat you, but also gives the students the chance to process the scale aurally. Set your “timer”/number of times you play the scale based on your students’ abilities.

And Don’t Forget…

As mentioned, piano games will be coming fast and furious each week. Make sure you don’t miss a game by subscribing to TeachPianoToday.com (click here). Subscribers get 7 FREE chapters from our Piano Teachers Guide as well… so that’s cool too 🙂