Teaching beginning piano students to read music using steps and skips leads to more fluent playing and better sight-readers. Just as they need to be able to recognize steps and skips on their music, they also need to apply this to the keyboard and be able to easily play a step or a skip from any given note.
This concept is not exactly the most thrilling thing we can teach, but with this piano teaching game you’ll be sure to step and skip your way to some smiles!
A Real Simple Set-up For Teaching Steps and Skips
The beauty of this game is its simplicity… you certainly don’t need much. Grab two game pieces (candy works great!) a single die, and The Say it and Play it printable board game found here. I recommend laminating this for long-term use to keep it looking spiffy.
How To Play:
Begin with both game pieces at the start. Youngest player rolls first.
Move forward the number shown on the die. If you land on a square with letters, say whether they are representing a step or a skip on the keyboard and then play it.
If correct, move forward one space. If incorrect, move backward one space.
Game play continues until one player reaches the end marked with a star.
There are 4 “special squares”. Two of the squares (‘forward 2 spaces’ and ‘backward 2 spaces’) are self-explanatory. The square marked “Join Up” means that you must move your game piece to share a square with your opponent. The square marked “Switch” means you switch your game piece with your opponent.
The arrows on the board game are short-cuts. If you land on the square with the beginning of the arrow, slide down to the square it points to.
It’s an easy-to-play game that will have your beginning piano students recognizing and playing steps and skips on the piano in no time!
If you want to check out more Piano Teaching Games, click here!
Christine says
This is great! Thanks. I have a student coming today who will love this!
Donna Lee Wright says
New Step and Skip game is just what I need. Thank You!
Barbara says
What fun! It will be in my bag of tricks next week. An idea: if you’re going to use candy as the game piece make it a mint (starlights are great since they are pre-wrapped individually) and when the game’s over the student gets the piece of candy with a reminder of their musical achieve-“mint”:)
Beth says
Thanks, I used it tonight when a 1st year student showed up for his final lesson before the recital and final lesson of the season without any books! We played it a few times & he said it was the best game ever. We used little mini-erasers and changed them up each time through the game.
kathjane says
This is a great idea! It would also be helpful to have a “next level up” version with steps and skips on a stave, I find some students really struggle with the line-line/line-space thing, so this would be a good way to drill that. Thanks for your helpful resources!