Generally, when teachers engage piano students with off-the-bench activities, the purpose is to let them learn a musical concept in different and novel ways. Not all kids learn by listening to instructions, so getting them off the bench allows teachers to appeal to visual and kinesthetic learners.
But off-the-bench activities don’t just have to be about teaching… they can be about assessing too. Students can develop coping strategies that can be tricky to discover at the piano, so assessing knowledge away from the piano can give teachers an added insight into a student’s struggles.
If you’re looking to both reinforce and assess your piano student’s note-reading abilities, then today’s DIY Note-Reading Necklaces may be just what you need. And, if you’re following along with our St. Patrick’s Day-themed activities… it ties in perfectly with the “rainbow theme”… can you say. “teaching hero”?
How To Make Note-Reading Necklaces
If you follow our blog, then you’ll know that we love easy-to-make, definitely-don’t-have-to-be-crafty, DIY piano teaching ideas. For today’s activity all you’ll need is a bag of rainbow-colored beads from your local dollar store and some string.
Here’s how it works:
- To begin, you’ll need a necklace-sized piece of string, an assortment of colored beads and your student’s current piano piece.
- Tie a knot on one end of the string so the beads will not fall off as they are placed on the necklace.
- Create a “Color Legend” for your beads. Assign a different colored bead for each note in your student’s piece. For example; A = red, B = green, C = blue, D = yellow etc.
- In your student’s piano piece choose either the treble staff or the bass staff as your focus (it works best if you choose the one that contains the most notes).
- Have your student name the first note in the piece and then place the corresponding bead color on her necklace. For example, if the first note is C she places a blue bead on her necklace (according to the legend above).
- Repeat Step 5 until your student has reached the end of her piano piece. Tie the necklace ends together and send your student home with her bead necklace as a visual representation of her piece!
Pssst.. don’t forget to take a picture to show off your innovative teaching techniques (but post only with parental permission). Tag us @teachpianotoday so we can see too!
Genius! I’m going to do this next week!
Hi Ashley! Can’t wait to hear how your students enjoy it 🙂
I love this! Thanks for the great idea! Off to the dollar store I go! (Well, in my case, Michael’s or Lakeshore Learning!)
Ooh… enjoy. Love me some Michael’s 😉
The Dollar store and Michael’s…my candy stores. Thanks again for the idea, Andrea. You’re a sweet genius :-D.
I’m going to use this in a small group lesson! What fun.
Yes! Perfect as a small group lesson activity 🙂 Have fun!
I love this! Thanks for ONCE AGAIN sharing amazing and engaging ideas to help my students grow!!
Hi Dana – you’re so welcome! Thanks for reading our blog and for your comment 🙂
I LOVE this idea!! Thank you.
Hi Sharon – You’re welcome! We hope your students have fun with it 🙂
Can’t say how many times I’ve figured out a student doesn’t REALLY know something by doing an off-bench activity!
The necklace is also a great way for them to see the pattern of the music (in living color!) Maybe they can even use colored pencils to color the notes in their book to match with their necklace as a second layer of learning. I’m planning a “note-learning intensive” for summer, and this idea is going in the lesson plan:) As always thanks for another great idea!
Hi Barbara – great extension idea to have them then use the necklace to color code their piece – love it! And yes, it’s very telling once you get off the bench to see what they truly do and do not understand. Hope you have fun with this activity! 🙂
Another great idea. Thanks! I agree with Barbara that doing a different activity off the bench really shows when a student does or doesn’t know something. I wish I had more beginners that I could use this with. However, I wonder what beautiful necklace could result if I had a student bead a section of their Chopin piece…lol! Or maybe just a cadenza! 😉 Thanks again!
Hi Linda – Yes, you can absolutely use it with older students and, like you say, just choose a small section that is causing troubles 😉 It’s a good way to memorize something too – have the student try to create the necklace by memory! Then you can really see if it’s just muscle memory or if it’s truly internalized 😉 Enjoy!
Ooo, love this fun idea, and especially love having students place beads by memory. I think I’ll use my LEGO table as another way to do this another day! Thanks for sharing your creativity!
Lego is a great idea too, Mary! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Great idea!! I will definitely use this soon — it’s not only a great way to reinforce a concept and assess a student’s understanding, but also it’s FUN, and creative, and the student comes away with something tangible. It’s so important to relate enjoyable activities with learning.
Hi Maureen – it’s all so true! Plus, this activity works on fine motor skills too for your very little ones 🙂 Enjoy!
How very cool! Can’t wait to do this. Ordering the beads now. Great new activity to reinforce note reading!
Enjoy Linda! Hope it provides a little note-reading motivation in your studio 🙂
I love this idea. Definitely using it tomorrow with my reluctant note readers. 🙂
Can’t wait to hear how they enjoy it, Michelle 🙂
Do the boys respond well to this? (Thinking maybe they could make the necklace for their mother? Or little sister?)
Just call it a “note-reading chain” and they’ll be all over it 🙂 I find that if you treat everyone the same and assume they’ll all be into every activity that gender stereotypes disappear. It’s really just all in the approach. At my daughter’s Grade 5 school sleepover every Grade 5 boy had a manicure because no one ever suggested they may not want to do it – they all LOVED their painted nails and were pleased as punch 😉
Thanks, Andrea. 🙂
Thank you. I look forward to using this idea with my young pupils.
You’re welcome, Ann! Thanks for reading our blog 🙂
We are working on recital music now and this would be a way to learn notes plus have a special necklace to remember their recital piece; especially if my girls want to wear their necklace for recital. If it works out, I’ll send a picture of our group. Thanks for a great hands-on learning tool.
Lovely idea, Cheryl! I’d love to see the picture 🙂
I tried this this week with a 7 year old girl who came to her lesson wanting to learn Do You Want to Build a Snowman.
Her dad had printed out the first page and it was actually in G and at her level so we strung the first line.
She went home knowing how to both read and play it in both colors and notation. I’ll bet she comes with the entire song next week. ; )
Fabulous, Audrey! Glad it was a helpful teaching tool for you 🙂
Love the idea! I’m also thinking of using one bead per beat so that the beading would be the actual song. For example, if the note is a half note then use 2 beads, whole note use 4 beads, etc.
So excited to use this idea with my students!
It’s really fun! Enjoy 🙂