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Why, For More Than A Decade, I’ve Been Using Piano Stickers All Wrong

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Hands up if you had a sticker book as a child – did you trade, sort, scratch and sniff…?

Stickers are one of the few things in this world that have kept their appeal for kids of all ages; my teens still snoop in my sticker basket searching for cool additions to their water bottles and iPad cases, and my adult students will giggle… but still choose one on occasion.

It occurred to me while teaching last week that I wasn’t using these little pieces of sticky addictiveness to their full potential. Surely there must be some other way to capitalize on their appeal instead of simply placing one at the top of a completed piece or collecting them on piano binders.

And it was a 7 year old student (taking an eyebrow-raising amount of time to be sure her newest flamingo sticker coordinated with her other animal stickers… and also had some “greenery to make him happy”) who inspired me to delve further into Alternative Sticker Use… hereby known as ASU 😉

Using Stickers As A Piano Teaching Aid

During the week I experimented with using stickers, not as a reward or as a fun little extra, but as a true teaching aid.  Here are the 4 ways that had the most impact (and were the most fun).

1. Stickers as “your voice” for home practice: There are so many times when I wish I could clone myself to be by my piano students’ side for those first few practice sessions… just to be there in those little teensy spots where they need that same old reminder in that same old place.  But who knew that “my voice” could easily be replicated by a speech bubble coming from the lips of a purple rhino… or a monkey… or a peace sign?

You can clone yourself too! If your student has one of “those places” where she needs a reminder to change fingers, or watch for the accidental, or lift the pedal, select a sticker with personality and place it next to the measure on her music.  Draw a speech bubble and insert your small bit of wisdom. It’s particularly funny if your wisdom takes on the persona of the sticker (… from the monkey “This fingering drives me bananas!”… from the peace sign “Hey dude… chill out and hold this for 2 beats.” etc.)

example of sticker use

2.  Stickers as “expression assistants”.  We all want our students to play with expression. It can be very effective to create stories that go along with the music to highlight why certain musical ideas are happening. But these suggestions for expression can be easily forgotten in the rush of home practice life.

Using stickers, you can create the story directly on your students’ music. Do the dynamics suggest a cat sneaking up on a mouse? Why is that particular articulation marking on the page? Could it be a disgruntled porcupine? Is the “forte” sign there because a race car is revving its engine? Use your imagination and bring the story behind the music to life with visual characters.

Teaching kids to play with expression is so much easier within the context of a story. This is why we developed a story-based technical exercise book that will have your students not only playing with musicality… but BEGGING to play their warm-ups!

3.  Stickers as practice aids.  For those piano students who need some assistance in knowing how to effectively practice, stickers can greatly assist.  Placing stickers at varying places on the music to indicate “practice starting points” (other than the beginning), placing stickers where you’d like your student to spend the most time practicing, placing stickers where you’d like your student to stop playing… these are all easy visual aids that will be noticed more than any lesson notes you may write.

4.  Stickers as note-reading assistance. One of my beginning piano students was having difficulty noticing a switch between treble and bass clef… until the “interrupting Gerbara Daisy” showed up.  A small daisy sticker in the first few measures of her piece was all it took to remind her that the G in the bass clef “interrupted” the right hand melody repeatedly . A small sticker reminder creates a strong visual image – she’s never forgotten “Gerbara Daisy G” in her future pieces either.

Adopt A.S.U. in Your Studio and Have Some Fun!

Changing up even small parts of your teaching can be as effective for you as it is your students. We can all fall into the trap of “same old, same old” day in and day out. But trying something new (and simple!) can really energize your teaching. Sometimes it’s the smallest changes we make that have the biggest impact. And when it comes to alternative sticker use… you can’t get much smaller than stickers!

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39 Responses to Why, For More Than A Decade, I’ve Been Using Piano Stickers All Wrong

  1. I mark practice sections, but it will be so much easier to do with stickers!! They would also be a great way to point out repeating sections or mark the form of a piece. Thanks for the great ideas.

    Reply

  2. Wonderfully creative use of stickers! Using story, illustration, and fun characters to make teaching points has endless possibilities.

    I have a couple of questions with which you or members could possibly help:

    1) Stickers tend to be expensive for piano teachers as many of us use quite a lot. Does anyone know of relatively cheap sources?

    2) What types of stickers might you recommend for teenagers?

    Thanks so much!

    Reply

    • I found a bunch of sticker books at Michael’s for $1 each! They were not in the sticker section of the store. They were over by the arts & crafts (foam, feathers, etc). Each book has a different theme. I ended up getting 10-15 different sticker books–I’m all set for a few months!

      Reply

    • I use The Dollar Tree. I know they are all over the USA. I’m not sure where you are. I can get a book of 2000 stickers for $1. I literally have about 50 books and will probably not use them all before the stickers lose their stickiness.

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    • Hi, you could ask students parent who traveling to China to buy stickers for you. I have them a lot for free as a present as in China they are extremely cheap 🙂

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  3. One of my adult students brings me stickers she finds at consignment shops and Goodwill so you might try there. For Hallmark stickers I always look for the 4 or 8 pack ones which are less. We have a party rental store that sometimes carries less expensive stickers.

    One of my high school students only wants goth type stickers! So I keep some Halloween ones at the ready.

    Another source is Staples. If you know any teachers they might give you more ideas for sources.

    Thank you for ideas shared.

    Reply

  4. Catherine, I buy a lot of stickers from currentcatalog.com especially when they have BOGO sales. I find many scented stickers from cbd.com. For using stickers to notate parts of a song needing attention, I think I will stock up on “reward chart” stickers from dollar stores or teacher supply stores because they are smaller.

    Thanks so much for the helpful tips, Andrea! I was considering stepping down from teaching but perhaps these helpful pieces of advice will energize my studio again.

    Reply

  5. I get all of my stickers from Amazon and Target. I’ve never paid more than $1 for a sheet. And if you have Amazon Prime…Free Shipping in 2 days!!

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  6. I just order stickers from Oriental Trading and some were as cheap as 2.5 cents each. They usually come on rolls of 100 and have a good variety.

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  7. It would be wonderful if someone would develop these stickers and make them reasonable. I would love to find small mnemonics stickers to be able to add to the side of lesson pieces. I am constantly drawing them by hand.

    Also with your wonderful ideas, if specific stickers were designed for specific dynamics etc. and small enough to put on music, that would be amazing!

    For someone that’s already in this business this could be a big moneymaker, I think.

    Reply

    • Shhh… Don’t tell them it will be a big money-maker. Then they’ll know how desperately we want them, so they’ll price them higher!

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  8. i have used coloured dot stickers as candy dots this year for practising. i will mark one piece in the lesson as the “candy dot” piece. i write little notes beside five stickers on your piece that remind the student of what they need to do to clean up that section. at the following lesson the student earns one candy per “dot” for a correctly played section. i also remind them that the teacher doesn’t review what the “dots” are about at the following lesson — it’s up to the student to play those sections with the musical details WITHOUT my reminders or coaching. they have loved it!

    Reply

    • I love your idea with the ‘candy’ dot! My students are trying to earn points for ‘shopping,’ so maybe I’ll use them as ‘points’ dots. So many of my students have allergies that it’s just about impossible to get a candy, or anything edible, that they can all have. Great idea! ! Thanks for sharing it.

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  9. If you have a Dollar Store nearby, they sell packs of stickers for $1. My students love the rainbow hearts and the mini rainbow stickers. The Walgreen stores also sell seasonal sticker pads at 2 for $1.00. Staples has a pack of 1800 mini stickers for $4.99. I also find them at the ARC stores.

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  13. Great incentives. Thank you. I will be using my stickers in a more creative way from today. I give stickers to me adult students too.:it’s a bit of fun too, as they take their books home to show their children who are always very impressed. I also have an Excellent Music container. It’s a sound induced cookie jar that plays a tune when you take the lid off. I have placed small party gifts in there and they get to choose from there if they’ve done something particularly creative (composed or played) or excellent. I try to make sure each student has a least one or two dips in the Excellent Music jar a term.

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  14. I just started this..one of my students had a some with recurring 8va and Loco sections. I just happened to have some “thumbs up” small stickers along with my others. I asked him to choose what stickers or marks he would put in his music to help him notice the marks he continually overlooked. He chose the thumb stickers, because they can point up or down. Duh, why didn’t I see that! Of course it worked, because he had to put them on himself and he remembered why they were there! I think offering the student some involvement in the process makes it memorable! Loved all the ideas, everyone!!! Thanks!

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  15. I love this idea – will most definitely start implementing it starting tomorrow!

    Thank you!! 🙂

    Reply

  17. Read this in the morning, and used it in the afternoon for a reluctant practiser – fish for ‘play smoothly’ (with a reminder in a very bubbly, speech bubble), grasshopper for ‘jump finger here’ and a dragonfly arrow for ‘start practising here’ (pleeeeease – not at the beginning, which you can already play!). Thank you!

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  18. I’ve been using stickers for a long time now. My students get so excited. I live on a small island and have exhausted the sticker resources for new and fun stickers. Do you know of any online resources that are reasonable? Fun?

    Reply

    • Have you tried orientaltrading.com Rochelle? They have stickers you can buy in bulk quantities for not too much money. Another option would be to create your own on something like vistaprint or zazzle (they’d likely ship to you). Perhaps piano teachers should start a “sticker trade” mail group 🙂

      Reply

  21. Thank you,Andrea for fresh idea! I am buying stickers in Dolorama. They have a Teacher”s book of stickers. Very helpful for teacher and very fun for kids! For little students who can not remember where the right and left hands I just put a sticker on right. Fun!

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  22. Actually, I find extra stuff of any kind on a score is too much info for me. I, and I think my students with ADHD (for whom ALL information comes in marked “urgent”), need music fairly clear and uncluttered. So, I use stickies, not stickers. They are removable and I find this helpful.

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  23. I too buy stickers at Dollar tree. I use a lot because I give them a sticker for taking off their shoes on the porch, washing their hands before starting, & since I teach piano, voice, & theory, i give stickers for playing song, singing it, playing duet, playing rhythm instruments to the song, accompanying themselves, playing on xylophone. I give them the ultimate sticker at the end, without it, no prize. When they earn 10, they get a Dollar Tree prize from my box. This has revolutionized the learning in my studio! (I spend more but we’ll worth the reward.)

    Reply

  25. I’ve had my youngest student use stickers to remind her of tricky places in her music and it seems to work well. Has anyone on here ever used stickers that way with teens? I’ve always thought teens would think using stickers for reminders and passing off music to be too “little kiddish.”

    Reply

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