You’ve likely noticed that Trevor and I are on a two-person mission to rid boredom from every single part of a piano lesson; technical exercises, sight reading, theory, repertoire… everything is fair game in our mission to infuse fun.
As Mary Poppins says: “In every job that must be done there is an element of fun. You find the fun and – SNAP- the job’s a game!” …
She’d make a great piano teacher, yes?! So, today we’re reaching into our magic carpet bag, “a la” Mary Poppins, to pull out a fun way of memorizing pentascales.
Fun With Pentascales: “Feed The Penta-pillar!”
Today’s super-cute printable (download it here) can be used to help your young piano students learn to memorize their pentascales. We’ve included a playing card for every “white key” pentascale… allowing you to pick and choose which ones to use with each of your young students. Use just a few, or use them all… it’s up to you! All cards can be used as major or minor (you can specify) and there are even blank cards in case you need more!
Here’s how to use the Penta-Pillar Playing Cards:
- To get started, you will need some clothes pegs and a dry erase marker.
- Next, download, cut out and laminate the Penta-pillar Playing Cards.
- Choose the playing card with the pentascale you would like your student to learn/play/review.
- Discuss which notes are affected by accidentals in the selected pentascale.
- Have your piano student “feed the Penta-pillar” by “nibbling” (clipping a clothes peg onto) each of the leaves that contain the name of a note affected by accidentals within the particular scale.
- Using a dry-erase pen, ask your student to draw the correct accidental(s) on the staff.
- Finally, play the pentascale!
Four More Fun Ways To Use Penta-pillar Cards
The sky’s the limit in terms of how you can use these cards… but here are four more fun ways to use these cards… all of which have worked wonderfully with my own students.
- Peta-Pillar Practice Aids: Once you’ve completed the activity described above during a lesson, send these cards home as an attractive practice aid for pentascale practice.
- Peta-Pillar Collector Cards – Use the cards as rewards for students who have correctly played or memorized specific pentacles. Can your students collect all 14? If your students are already collecting our Composer Cards, the Penta-Pillar cards can be placed in the same kind of trading card protectors. You can read about our Composer Cards here.
- The Penta-Pillar Switch: Kids love any opportunity to become the “teacher”. So, instead of having the kids clip clothes pegs to the cards… try it for yourself… but do it incorrectly. Can your students spot and fix your mistakes?
- Penta-Pillars in the Waiting Room: Leave the Penta-pillar Playing Cards and a ziploc baggie of clothes pegs in your waiting area. Can your students complete the full set before their lesson begins?
We love getting creative with piano teaching resources. And no where is this more evident than in the 4 incredible games we send to our PianoGameClub members each and every month. If you want to deliver awesome piano lessons but don’t know where to start, PianoGameClub will do the heavy lifting for you 🙂
Elaine says
March 2, 2016 at 12:29 amFabulous, thank you – and for the arrival of the latest pianogameclub goodies yesterday. Feels like Christmas or a birthday round here!
Andrea says
March 2, 2016 at 8:59 amHi Elaine – you’re welcome! And happy to make the start of your month feel like a celebration with the arrival of a new set of games! This month’s games have already been a huge hit with my kiddos – hope you have fun with them!
Jennifer Groover says
March 2, 2016 at 5:35 amThis is great – as always, thank you for your wonderful ideas and materials!
Andrea says
March 2, 2016 at 9:00 amYou’re welcome Jennifer! So glad you can use them 🙂
Liz says
March 2, 2016 at 8:53 amThanks for sharing all your wonderful resource materials for children! I was wondering if you have any ideas for tweeking your resources to make them age appropriate and fun for beginning adults. Or, do you have any current age appropriate “fun” resources for adults?
Andrea says
March 2, 2016 at 9:03 amHi Liz! Just simply because of time constraints on our end we have to choose “either or” for target age. The majority of our readers teach children as the bulk of their studio which is why our focus is on children’s resources. You can certainly take our ideas and make your own versions of the printables with adult-appropriate graphics. Through PianoBookClub.com we do release music that adults have also been enjoying in studios around the world (this month’s book is a good example of that) and many teachers are using the more advanced PianoGameClub games with adults (they like to play too!) One day when I have the time I’d love to do a “version 2.0” of our most popular printables from the blog and make them adult-friendly 🙂
Mary Anne says
March 2, 2016 at 4:11 pmSomehow you two have managed to do it again! I literally had a lesson on this today (unplanned, it was in a song picked for today though) I didn’t even have to go search! Wasn’t able to check my email before the lesson. THANK YOU SO MUCH!! You are a wonderful resource. Can’t wait to use it
Andrea says
March 2, 2016 at 4:20 pmHi Mary Anne! Serendipity! Love it 🙂
Diane Mackay says
March 3, 2016 at 6:10 amHi Andrea- These are great. I wish the instructions were included with each game. I currently download a game and save it to my computer. Then I go back to cut and paste the instructions from from the blog post onto a Word doc. And then save it in the same folder for reference. Why not include the instructions and game in the same doc? Thanks for all you do to improve music learning and teaching.
Kyle McKenna says
March 3, 2016 at 1:47 pmI love your point on number 3, the Penta-Pillar Switch: “Kids love any opportunity to become the ‘teacher.'”
This is so true! I try to do this often. Not only is it more engaging for the student, but important for developing their discernment skills.
Thank you!
Laurie Williams says
March 7, 2016 at 6:57 amThank you so much for sharing your incredible talents! This will be fun-love how lesson plans just “appear” in my inbox.
My students are waiting for the next composer cards!
lynn kiesewetter says
April 19, 2017 at 12:05 amThis is great! Many thanks! I think I will print up extra so we can do the other 5 pentascales, too.
also- wondering if you have ever made a set like this but for tetrachords?? I like to teach them before learning major scales. It would be fun to do it with cards. Right now we play them , using the entire length of the piano to go thru the circle of 5ths. And sometimes I have them draw the notes, but we rarely ever get through writing all of them.