A Ledger Line Board Game For Your Piano Students

Kids’ feelings about ledger lines are like my feelings towards raisins in cookies: they just don’t belong!

There is, however, one key difference: I can convince a child that ledger lines are cool, but nobody will ever convince me that raisins in a cookie are a good idea.

Because, the truth is, ledger lines are actually really cool. The most dramatic elements of a piano piece often occur with ledger line notes.

They are where the magic happens.

In today’s post, we’re sharing a piano board game to help ledger lines appear a little more friendly to your piano students.

We’re also going to dig a little deeper into some other strategies you can use to help students feel more comfortable playing music with ledger line notes.

Why Ledger Lines Are So Problematic For Piano Students

As stated in the introduction to this post, ledger lines are often a real problem for piano students. It is no coincidence that the arrival of ledger lines just happens to coincide with the time when a child is also likely to quit music.

Of course, there are always many reasons for a departure, but ledger lines certainly do not help.

There are three main reasons ledger lines are difficult to read:

1. Too Little Note Reading Practice

Most ledger lines are generally introduced toward the end of a level 2 method book or the beginning of a level 3 method book. And when they are introduced, they are used sparingly. When piano students reach these levels they have been taking piano lessons for several years and are often tweens or teens. During this time, many teachers spend the entire lesson on the piano bench working through repertoire. Long gone are the days when learning to read notes was experienced through playing games, using workbooks, and exploring with manipulatives. This means less time is spent on focused, intentional note reading and therefore, ledger lines are not fully committed to memory.

2. Where Did Guide Notes Go?

Guide notes are an important strategy for teaching early note reading. When students are comfortable with a few familiar notes, they can use their knowledge of these notes to help them read nearby notes that are just a step or skip away.

But when it comes to ledger line note reading, talk of guide notes is gone. That’s not to say that you can’t use guide notes for ledger line note reading (you should!), it just isn’t very commonplace. This means students often are guessing when it comes to ledger line note reading and errors happen more often.

3. Ledger Line Notes Look Confusingly Similar

There is just something about ledger line notes that make them look confusingly similar to other ledger lines notes, and, other notes in general. Consider ledger line A above the treble staff: that tricky little note makes every student immediately think, Middle C! And when a student has Middle C in her mind, she’ll likely just strike the first C she can find.

The same goes for ledger line B above the treble staff and ledger line D below the bass staff. In my experience, those two “twins” send students into fits as well.

So, What Is A Teacher To Do About Ledger Lines?

Now that we’ve outlined the problems with ledger lines, let’s take a look at some solutions that will make these challenging notes more palpable.

1. Introduce Ledger Lines Early (And Often!)

For many years, piano students are led to believe that the grand staff is a tidy little box that contains all of the notes they need; a world of notes above or below just doesn’t exist in their minds.

Method books reinforce this belief.

It is common for various methods to leave most major ledger lines out of the equation until level 3. That’s a long time for students to explore the piano without learning about a whole new world of music notes.

In the WunderKeys Method Books, ledger lines are a common occurrence in our level 2 books. We don’t shy away from notes that help students make beautiful music. Instead, we introduce them in a logically sequenced, pedagogically appropriate way, that takes the pain out of ledger line note reading.

You can learn more about WunderKeys Elementary Piano Level 2A here. And don’t forget, WunderKeys Elementary Piano Level 2B is coming out on September 8th!

2. Look For Ledger Line Guide Notes

If you don’t teach ledger line note reading with guide notes, you are likely to run into problems. Kids need landmarks for effective note reading.

There is nothing tricky about teaching guide notes. In fact, guide notes can be whatever you want them to be. Sure, there are some notes that work well as landmarks, but ultimately, the most effective guide notes are the ones that are best remembered by your piano students, whichever ones those may be.

With that said, two ledger line guide notes that have always worked well for my students are ledger line C above the treble staff and ledger line C below the bass staff; they both look the same!

3. Repetition, Repetition, Repetition!

Lastly, if you want to solve your piano students’ ledger line problems, they simply need practice. Regardless of their ages, get them off the bench and playing games. Whether they are teens or even adults, nobody is ever too old for a piano game. And nobody is ever too old for note reading practice.

When it comes to reading ledger line notes, structure your piano lessons like you are teaching brand new students. I promise, your teens and adults will love it!

And, if you are looking for a great activity to get you started, download the board game we are sharing below.