I am a book-lover… to put it lightly. In fact, in my Grade 12 year, when a hypnotist was hired to entertain the grads (and I of course was chosen to act foolish on stage) one of his questions to (apparently a regressed 6-year-old me) was “What is your favorite toy, Andrea?” I replied “Books” without hesitation.
My book obsession inspired me to include books in my piano lessons for the month of March. I emerged last weekend from our favorite old book store with five books and five piano lesson activities that I’m really excited to blog about. We’ll be sharing one book and one paired piano lesson activity in a series of posts in the coming weeks. We hope that you find some inspiration and creativity from an unexpected place too!
Why Books?
The right kind of books are deliciously inspiring with beautiful language, gorgeous pictures and all kinds of engaging and creative themes. If you want to grab the attention of your piano students and elicit a certain mood, response or idea… books are your go-to resource.
But how can you possibly use books in a piano lesson? This isn’t “story hour” at the local library! Well, let us show you…
Important – We have included two printables with today’s post (you can find them below). The first is specifically for the story below and the second is a blank template so that you can do this same activity with any story you have kicking around!
So here’s the first book and activity that we’re sharing in this five-part blogging series. Keep in mind that these activities aren’t meant to be a huge part of your piano lesson... simply a quick little activity to get the creative juices flowing and neural connections firing.
Learning About Character Themes With The Gruffalo – by Julia Donaldson
This book is uber-popular and super cute… but it also provides a great starting point for some sound exploration for your young piano students.
You’ll need to print this worksheet for the activity that follows.
You’ll need to print this blank worksheet to use this activity with ANY story.
1. In the story, the mouse meets 4 animals; the fox, the owl, the snake, and the gruffalo. Take a look at each of the characters together in the pages of the book.
2. Discuss with your piano students how each character looks, how they move, what their personality is like etc. For example: The fox: he is sly, he runs fast, he lives in a burrow. Then, discuss how each of these traits could be represented using sounds on the piano. For example: staccato (running), quiet sounds (sly), a fermata (being timid), slow at first and then quick (creeping and running) etc. Write down your favorite ideas in the left hand column on your worksheet under each character’s name.
3. Next, have your piano students come up with a “theme” for each character (meaning a measure of melody or some sounds that your student associates with the character). Encourage variety in articulation, dynamics, octaves, tempo etc. Write these character themes on the worksheet in the right hand column.
4. Now, as you read the book together, pause each time the character’s name is mentioned (where it feels appropriate… it does’t have to be every time) and have your student play the corresponding character theme on the piano.
Voila! You have an interactive story-telling experience that has opened the door to creativity for you piano student and is a great pre-cursor to composition and improv! Stay tuned for other great ideas for using children’s books as creative piano teaching tools.
Read Also:
You Simply Must Read this Picture Book on the First Day of Piano Lessons
Jeannie says
March 4, 2015 at 6:43 amThis idea is one that my students will love!
Naomi says
March 4, 2015 at 7:18 amLove this idea! Thanks so much for sharing it. I’m a music teacher and am going to print this off to use today! I also shared it on pinterest. Which brings me to my question. I have a several blogs and am looking for a share this pop up menu. I love yours as it makes sharing things very convenient for the user. If you don’t mind me asking what plugin did you use? Thanks so much.
Naomi
Andrea says
March 5, 2015 at 11:32 amHi Naomi – email me so I remember to ask tech-guru Trevor 😉
anna says
March 4, 2015 at 8:08 amReading about this lesson, then opening the links and staring at the worksheets made me go, “ooooooo……aaaaahhhhh.” Thanks for the inspiration and tools to get started! First, I want to do this myself for the fun of it for a while. Oooo, then we can also try having them write little theme songs for people. For example, if they write one for their baby brother, they can run to the piano at home and play it every time he crawls across the room or something. Haha! Totally fun!
Andrea says
March 5, 2015 at 11:33 amSounds like really fun extensions of this activity Anna! 🙂 Love it!
lynn kiesewetter says
March 4, 2015 at 9:49 amthanx for this post.
this reminds me of Orff activities i’ve done to act out stories. each character has a 2 bar pattern/ostinato. each ostinato is played on a different instrument by a different player. then as you tell the story, the characters’ patterns get played . sometimes there’s only one at a time, like when they have a conversation. sometimes the patterns get layered, when they do things together.
i never thought of doing this in a piano setting, but i think this will be a good small group activity, too. i have a couple of keyboards and xylophone to add to the piano. should be fun!
Andrea says
March 5, 2015 at 11:34 amSounds like fun Lynn! I was just talking with Jeffrey Agrell last week (author of “Creative Pedagogy for Piano Teachers”) and he was talking about a very similar improv activity. Great way to get kids exploring sound. Thanks for sharing!
Evelyn says
March 4, 2015 at 1:44 pmHi Andrea…I seem to be having a problem getting the story book part of this post. When I click on it, just the picture of the cover opens…no story? The work sheets links work fine.
Andrea says
March 4, 2015 at 2:20 pmHi Evelyn – you would need to purchase the book “The Gruffalo” or else borrow it from your library. We’d love to have had the rights to share the book on our site LOL… but not even close to reality of being able to happen! 😉 We included the blank worksheet if you’d like to use a different book you already own and love.
Susan says
March 5, 2015 at 6:03 pmThis is a great idea! I do things like this a lot in my elementary music classroom but never even thought about doing at the piano! I have several students who are finding their “voice” by improvising and this gives them a safe predictable way to “break the mold” so to speak. They need some parameters to feel safe in being creative and this is perfect for that. Thanks for sharing!