In a post last week we discussed the benefits of a hosting piano studio holiday party. Today we wanted to share three simple and fun, multi-age piano games that will make wonderful additions to your party. The first two games are from previous Teach Piano Today posts and the third is a game being shared for the first time.
Depending on your studio, a multi-age piano party is most likely a necessity… and therefore multi-age piano games are a necessity as well. Multi-age parties can be beneficial AND a blast! Younger piano students benefit by learning from older students and more advanced students enjoy the opportunity to mentor little ones.
But of course, the problem teachers face is how to make the activities work for all ages and all levels of piano students.
Previously we’ve shared Keyboard Krazies and Keyzie Relay and now you can add Rhythm Telephone to your group piano party repertoire.
How To Play Rhythm Telephone
When it comes to set-up, this game is about as easy as it gets (did you just sigh with relief?!). All you need is a group of willing students, a whiteboard or piece of poster paper, and a marker.
Set Up:
Instruct your piano students to sit in a row, one behind the other, with their eyes closed. The oldest student should be at the back of the line. Your row can have as few as 5 students or as many as 20!
How To Play:
- To begin, show a two-measure rhythm to the oldest piano student (who is allowed to open her eyes) at the back of the line. (For example “quarter, quarter, half, half, quarter, quarter”).
- Next, instruct the oldest student who was shown the rhythm to tap this rhythm onto the back of the student sitting in front of her. This student then taps the rhythm onto the back of the next student.
- The chain of tapping continues until it reaches the final student, who then leaps up and writes the rhythm on a white board or poster paper.
- Next, reveal to your students the original rhythm. Did they pass it along correctly or did the rhythm get morphed somewhere down the line?
- Each time the group is correct, score one point for the kids. Each time the group is wrong, score one point for yourself (the teacher).
- Continue the activity with increasingly difficult rhythms.
Don’t Forget To Add These To Your Party…
When you’ve completed the group game portion of your piano party, consider adding a piano board game portion where your students split into smaller groups. If you’re already a member of PianoGameClub, simply set up several games at several tables and let your students rotate through the different stations. If you’re not a member of PianoGameClub, learn more here about how you can receive four incredible piano games each and every month.
Benita says
Once again you guys are great! I was faced with this problem of a multi age group of students. That is why I decided to split up my students by age and level for our Christmas group lessons. For my Spring group lessons though I will be doing a mega group lesson— printing this out right now and saving it for then! Thanks 🙂
Andrea says
Hi Benita – it can be hard can’t it! Most teachers don’t have huge groupings of same-age children – so we though this was a good solution! 🙂 Have fun at your Christmas group lessons!
Barbara says
Thanks so much. The multi-age party is a problem but these ideas make it much, much easier!
Andrea says
You’re welcome Barbara! Hope you have lots of fun with it!
Carmen says
Thank you, Andrea and Trevor! Great ideas and perfect timing, as always :-).
Andrea says
Glad to hear it Carmen! Hope it’s helpful 🙂
Danielle says
I tried this yesterday in my primarily-group studio and they loved it.
The game also made me realize that I’m teaching rhythm inconsistently to my younger-than-7 students, and as a result they are confused.
There are so many different methods out there for counting – Ta and ti-ti; counting the single value of each note; and counting whole measures – I’m all over the place.
I had a mentor who insisted on clapping the names of each note so that students learn the terminology. I actually think that might work– We will have a clarifying lesson about it in my younger classes this week, and try it with the game.
Any suggestions?
Krista says
I just played this game with a family of 4 kids and their mom (all at different musical levels) They loved the game especially when we finally had a longer rhythm not make it correctly to the end.