If you’re teaching through the summer months, your students are likely ready for a change in routines. I know you are too! The summer months bring a relaxed pace at home, the removal of school-based routines and a universal desire to be refreshed.
However, this doesn’t mean that summer lessons are a time to take it easy and ignore goal-setting and progress. A great deal of learning can be accomplished when regular time constraints from extra curricular activities and homework are removed.
Putting The “Summer” Into Summer Piano Lessons
So… how can you stop the heat-induced stupor and keep your summer piano lessons engaging and fun? Read below to learn how to put the “summer” into summer piano lessons.
We’d love to hear from you too – what are YOU doing to change up your lessons this summer season? Share in the comments below.
1. Road Trip! Summertime often means… road trips – if not epically long ones, even just family trips to the beach. Who knew road trips could also be a great time to practice note reading! Send your students home with this printable so they can put a spin on the good ol’ “Licence Plate Game”.
While riding in the car your students can scan the road for license plates. Each time they find one of the letters on a license plate that matches one of the missing notes on their page, they draw that note onto the staff. Post completed printables in your studio under a big “Road Trip!” sign, or offer a reward for the most road trip challenges completed.
2. Sight Reading Sunglasses – Summer means it’s time to pop on the shades. Your local Dollar Tree can provide some great props for this activity. Grab four different pairs of sunglasses (go for the funny ones) and then fold a sticky label over the side of one of the ear pieces. Write out labels like “Sharp Shooter” or “Ledger Line Ace” or “Chord Champion”. Then, while wearing these glasses your students will have eagle eyes for the theory concept being highlighted.
3. Ghost Stories – What’s a campout without a good ghost story told around the fire? We don’t recommend the bonfire part, but we do love the idea of incorporating this summer standard into your piano lessons. This activity is the perfect way to introduce minor chords, diminished 7th chords, chromatic scales and whole tone scales… all those “creepy sounds”.
Choose a ghost story (don’t go too spooky!) and read it to your piano student (who should be sitting at the piano). Pause at regular intervals, allowing time for your piano student to produce creepy sounds using a minor chord, a diminished 7th chord, a chromatic scale or a whole tone scale.. Can anyone say “sneaky way to practice technical work?!”
4. S’more Chords– Pair your campfire stories with s’mores and you’ve got yourself a real summer theme going now! To enjoy this fun ear training activity you’ll need some marshmallows, graham wafer crackers and squares of chocolate (and this can turn into a special take-home treat too if you grab some zip-loc bags).
Begin by playing a major or minor chord on the piano while your student closes his eyes. If he hears a major chord he creates a cookie, marshmallow, cookie stack. If he hears a minor chord, he adds the piece of chocolate to the middle indicating the change he heard to the 3rd of the chord.
5. Trip to the Museum – What’s a summer holiday without a little culture? For all those kids who don’t have the chance to be dragged through a museum, you can bring the museum to their lessons! Music and art went hand-in-hand way back when. So as your more advanced students learn to play Baroque music, Romantic Music, Impressionistic Music… pair their pieces with examples of the art that was being created at the time.
Show them examples from the National Art Gallery website (if you need a great resource). Discover the similarities in style and theme between art and music. Discuss what influences artists and composers had on each other and from their outside surroundings. You’ll find that your students’ understanding of, and connection to, their music will really blossom.
6. Popsicle Stick Practice – This was a super popular practice idea we shared on our blog and it fits perfectly with a summer theme… if you haven’t tried it yet, this is the perfect season to do so! Grab some popsicle sticks (or full-out popsicles!) and watch your students’ practice efficiency soar!
Summer = Happy Piano Students
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If I have a pair of friends or siblings for a lesson on a sunny day I will go out and cover my concrete yard in theory symbols/notes using chalk. I will then shout out things like “stand on the symbol that means play loudly” or “stand on a treble clef D” and the quickest to find the correct symbol and stand on it gets a point! They love it and it gives me a chance to get out in the sun! (and drill in some theory and sight reading)
This is a very fun idea! I will definitely use it in the next few weeks!
Thanks
Summer lessons?? I would have no students if I made them come in the summer! My studio is generally closed from mid June until the end of August. I will teach summer lessons in special circumstances — but this is rare. Winters are long on the prairies and temperatures often linger at -30 to -45. These kids need their summer sunshine. Most of them spend their summers at camp or at the family cottage.
I used to think like you, but if kids ask you if they can come during the summer, I don’t say no to them, I look for a more fun way of teaching so they can have fun while learning, and it’s extra money for me! 😉 So I really think this ideas are great to achieve this! 🙂
As an unmarried teaching professional with no second source of income, I depend on summer lessons to pay my studio rent, web hosting fees, and cell phone bills, not to mention groceries. It would be nice for me to take the entire summer off, but not practical. I appreciate any fun activities that will keep my students happy through the summer and wanting to come back in the fall.
Though sporadic, I teach summer lessons because I don’t want to have to spend an entire month reteaching all that leaked out of heir brain! I move all my lessons to the morning so that those pool days and water parties don’t have to be interrupted. We live in the desert so that also helps them be fresh and clean. 🙂 I try to play more games (gameclub is great for that!). I also supplement with JoyTunes Piano Maestro. For students that have ipads, that is a great road trip resource. I send worksheets,flashcards and finger drums for students to work on while they are traveling. Its a long ways to anywhere from here.
Students at my studio have the option of participating in a summer program…a small packet I design with 6-8 themed activities. At the end of summer we celebrate our success with a piano party: piano games, a mini recital (no parents allowed!), food, and goodie bags! The kids ask every school year what the summer theme will be. We have “visited” National Parks, “toured” the Magic Kingdom, and “walked” through a State Fair. This year I developed Prestissimo the Private Eye and the Mystery of Music History. We are traveling back in time to visit different musical time periods. When students complete an activity, they receive a clue to help solve a mystery! : )
That music history mystery idea sounds amazing. Would you be willing to share?
As always, love these ideas!
Sounds like something you could put on teeacherspayteachers.com! I would totally purchase it! Let me know if you’re interested in selling!
This is a fabulous way to keep students involved! Love it! Could you share some of the ideas how you incorporate the theme with piano? Do you do theory? Playing? Thank you so much.
Linda
Sharyn, do you sell your ideas?
I’m with everyone else. Would you be interested in selling your summer piano ideas, Sharyn?
I love this idea. I teach sporadically because of vacations, etc and I think this would be a great way to work around this. Will you send me more details on how you have put this together?
I love the road trip game! Genius! I have a ton of students signing up for summer lessons gearing up for a new year of learning. These are just the ideas I was looking for to bring some summer fun into our lessons. Thank you for the great ideas!
Andrea, I think the Road Trip game is a terrific idea. Kids spend a lot of time in the car which is always one of the no practice excuses. I would love to have a version of this game for beginners who are learning key names on the piano.
I agree!
Last summer I erected the large screen tent on the lawn. We sat around the campfire, (the fireplace ap on my I pad) and roasted marshmallows, (mini marshmallows on pretzels sticks, previously used in musical staff ActivitY) and sang campfire songs.
We do a young composers program that allows students to compose a piece of their own throughout the summer, then in July we have a recording session, and at the fall recital, each student gets a book of everyone’s compositions and a CD.
I offer special emphases in summer to keep students (my income needs the summer infusion of cash), and offer special enrollment “packages”. They can sign up for “Summer 6pack” , “Flexible Five”, or “Vacation Special” (4 lessons).
I schedule flexibly in summer (teaching 7 weeks and cutting back one day a week). This year we’re using material from Piano Book Club–evaluating patterns in pieces we’re using, and composing/improvising our own pieces using similar patterns. For the intermediate students, we’re using “Guardians of Arranmore” and the most recent “Silver Screen Playbook”, haven’t figured out what to use for elementary yet. Most summers one option I offer is focus on composing, which is a real draw if I’ve had students play compositions at recitals during the year. Parents are impressed, and want their child to have the same experience.