Once a month, Andrea and I take a quick break from our regular blog posts to share the latest games from our monthly resource PianoGameClub. If you’ve been thinking about jazzing up your studio with game-based learning check out the previews at the end of the post.
The piano games we send out are proving to be a smash hit with kids in studios all over the world. But what we’re quickly discovering is that, while they work wonders with kids and pre-teens, teachers are also having a ton of success using them with teens and adults too!
Teens and adults tend to be a little less carefree than kids, and they can bring a certain level of seriousness to lessons that can make learning piano stressful. So, perhaps getting them off the bench and lightening the mood a little with piano games is the reason teachers are having a blast playing games with students of ALL ages.
In fact, just recently a teacher wrote us to say:
“I have this teenage student… she was going to quit piano lessons, but after I started, first, playing all these activities, and then I joined PianoGameClub.com and started playing the games with her, she became so happy about piano lessons that her father asked me to book a place for her this term. She is now considering having piano lessons twice a week and she told a friend about the lessons, and her friend is starting piano lessons in April! 🙂 I have no words to thank you enough!” ~ Maria
So, while our games this month do an incredible job of teaching kids about whole steps and half steps, tonic and dominant, melodic intervals (and more!) … you may have surprising results by pulling them out when your (early elementary through late elementary level) adults and teens walk through your studio doors too!
Check out the previews below by clicking the image and if you think getting games every month like Vine Climb, Treasure Carts, Clip Clap Trap, and Polly Popper will kick your teaching up a notch then check out Teach Piano Today’s PianoGameClub here.
These games give our kids lots of great learning fun! Sometimes we adapt them to suit the resources we have available and sometimes they just inspire us to make our own games. Thanks so much!
Hi Tracy – wonderful to hear! Thanks for commenting 🙂
I have an awful time trying to fit the game into a 30 minute lesson. I really like the games and the kids do to. Do I need to go to a 45 minute lesson. How do I change the fee? Parents will freak won’t they?
Caren, I’m switching all of my students over to 40-minute lessons starting in September, for a number of reasons. How to do it without making parents freak? Start talking about it now, gently. You can even make little comments about how you’re running out of time, in lessons, and talk about how much it will benefit them to increase the lesson time. Often parents won’t increase the time if you ask them to, but they’re not about to quit if you make it part of your policy.
To keep my students motivated, I am having a practice challenge. The students earn a piece of their paper ice cream cone for each day they practice. You could also do it for each week they practice. The week after the recital, I am holding an ice cream party for all the students that complete the practice challenge.
I am feeling very frustrated and somewhat depressed. I have been teaching piano for at least 30 years. I have never had a year where the student seem to care less than they do this year. Granted I live in Houston and we have had a bad year with the storm Harvey and then the school’s piling on homework to make up for time lost resulting in less practice time. I have tried treats for good practicing, I have made charts for them to fill in the number of minutes they practice everyday, the first thing on their list each week is a positive comment on what they’ve done, I’ve tried encouraging them to write their own songs, I’ve told them to set alarms on their phones so they set the same time for each day for however number of minutes they can do and at that point their friends won’t interfere with them or family members… And I am having no luck. They feel in the timesheet saying they practice whatever number of minutes but it’s totally clear they haven’t practiced but maybe one day not even that during the week. Our Christmas recital is coming up and I’m afraid their performances are not going to be very good. I also feel that the parents will look at me as the reason the children are not doing well and I don’t know how to avoid that. I teach everyone the same with the same enthusiasm I let them choose their own music we do have a book we work in but they also have songs that they would choose to play from a movie or Broadway show or something like that. As all of you know the key to the whole thing is practice I keep trying to explain to them that’s the key they have to absolutely practice. And then I know I sound like a broken record period after trying all these things I just feel like the parents are going to be unhappy with performance and I probably will lose some students. I’ve asked the parents to please be involved in there practicing to praise them and encourage them. One little girl told me her mother said she doesn’t have time she’s too busy to help her with practice so just wait until the teacher gets there. I see them for 30 minutes once a week and that’s not going to create much progress unless they practice. As I said I’ve tried so many of the things that are listed here are any of you having the same problem this year or any other year and do you have any suggestions of what I might do. I love teaching piano I have played piano myself for 40-plus years and I’m really beginning to feel very depressed about the whole thing but I don’t want to quit I want to find a way to continue and to motivate my students. If anyone has suggestions please feel free to leave them and criticize me for whatever you think I might be doing wrong. Thank you so much for your help I love all your suggestions thank you