With piano students I introduce intervallic note reading early and often. Being able to recognize steps and skips on the staff and on the keyboard is a skill that helps develop fluent and effective piano players. Naming notes is obviously an important skill when reading music… but it’s not the only skill.
So, if your young piano students are great at note crunching but not so great at intervallic reading then the inchworm activity we’re sharing today will help them reinforce this essential skill.
Recognizing Steps and Skips With Intervallic Inchworms
I’m going to be honest… while I want my students to be self-starters, I’m not above using candy and sticker incentives to inspire a bit of learning 😉 And if a candy incentive (say… a gummy worm) can be incorporated into an activity, as we’ve done today… better yet!
The set-up for today’s activity is pretty simple: you will need a gummy worm, the printable found here (preferably laminated) and a dry erase pen.
Before the game begins, you will have to draw one interval (a step or a skip) in each of the four boxes at the top of today’s printable. You’ll notice that each of the four boxes has three lines. These lines do not represent a real staff and note heads drawn on the lines or the spaces will not represent actual notes. By using only three lines, as a modified staff, your students will be able to focus on looking for steps and skips using the “line to a line, space to a space” for skips vs. “line to a space, space to a line” for steps instead of naming specific notes.
Once the intervals are drawn on the printable, give your student the gummy worm and, beginning at the lowest key of the keyboard image, have your student ‘inch’ the worm up the keyboard according to the steps and skips in the four boxes at the top of the printable.
To see the activity in action, watch the video below:
Looking For More Off-The-Bench Fun?
Taking short breaks away from the piano bench increases a student’s effectiveness when on the bench. But time away from the bench does not have to be wasted time. With games from Teach Piano Today’s PianoGameClub, you’ll find that off-the-bench fun might just be the most valuable learning experience in an entire lesson.
Elaine says
Brilliant – thank you so much! X
Andrea says
You’re welcome! Hope you can use it 🙂
Anonymous says
I also use intervallic reading instead of memorizing names of lines and spaces, but use fingers from the get go – pairs (13,24,35) for skips or 3rd, and neighbors (12,23,34,45) for steps or 2nds. Seems to work well so not sure I would introduce this activity first as cute as it is!
Andrea says
I haven’t heard of this before! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Linda Hyland says
Cute idea! Thanks! I wonder how many inchworms are consumed per lesson? ;).
Andrea says
LOL – I would only put out one 😉
Mary McG says
Very clever! I’ll try to fashion an inchworm out of non edible materials for my dietary restricted kids (and those days when I don’t haven’t gummy worm) A great tactile, and visual activity. Thanks for sharing your creativity!
Andrea says
Play dough would work! 🙂
Roni says
Or maybe Blue-tack (that’s what we call it in the UK)
I think I might try this with tiny erasers I’ve bought, so then the pupil also has visual evidence of each stage, in case one of them is wrong.
Thanks for this cute laminate.
Beverly Holt Guth says
I think there are sugar-free gummies! You could certainly also make them out of lengths of pipe cleaners, too.
Susan says
Thank you! What a wonderful, creative activity!
Andrea says
Have fun Susan! Thanks for commenting 🙂
Benita says
So neat! How do you come up with all these clever and FUN teaching ideas! Thank you for sharing with all us teachers. Warming up the printer now to print off. Have a handful of students that this would work great with 🙂
Andrea says
Hi Benita! Our minds are always set on “teaching idea” mode 😉 Glad you can use it right away!
cheryl says
I have 3 new beginners this semester…this will be great for them and the 2nd semester kiddos can learn about larger intervals. This will be great for a spring activity ! Thank you Andrea !
BTW… are you going to have the next set of scale packs ready anytime soon? I have an ADHD student who loves to play scales and he has devoured the first two sets.
Andrea says
Hi Cheryl – yes! You can also use it to reinforce understanding of whole step/half steps too 🙂 Yes, we will have more scale packs coming out for sure. I’ll make sure they’re in our blogging schedule soon!
Estelle says
Can’t wait to use it! Many thanks.
Andrea says
Hi Estelle! Thanks for commenting! Glad you’ll use it 🙂
Carmen says
Cute idea, Andrea! My young beginners will enjoy this activity. And thank you for the video demo.
I also like the idea of using it to introduce half and whole steps.
Andrea says
Yes! Just write W or H in the boxes at the top and it’s instantly modified! 😉
Amy says
Great fun! I think I might have to head to bulk barn today! I love the idea of half and whole steps too- for more advanced students chromatic or diatonic half steps could work too!
Andrea says
Hi Amy! Yes, lots of different variations you can use it for! Older students could even do broken chord inversions. Everyone loves gummy worms, right?! 😉
Laura says
I was just trying to think of another creative way to teach steps and skips to my beginner students this month, when I saw your email with this link. I think this one will really resonate with them! I also love how you just made it one simple sheet that you can use again and again. Thanks for making life as a piano teacher easy and even more enjoyable!
P.s. email lists really are the best!
Andrea says
Hi Laura – so glad this post came at a good time for you! Hope this hands-on way is effective for your beginners 🙂
Rita says
Wow! I love it!!! You make teaching piano FUN and stress-free. My kids sooooo look forward to the games and activities……they don’t realize they’re actually learning….lol…. we’ll keep that under our hats….
Andrea says
Hi Rita – thrilled that our website is making your job easier and more enjoyable 🙂