Favorite Teaching Tools

Meaningful-Movement

The Music Training I Wish I Had When I Was a Child Part 3

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“Pure Joy” is what I experience in Dalcroze Eurhythmics lesson.

I feel like a kid again when I am in the Eurhythmics classroom.  Many students dread learning advanced music concepts such as mixed meter, syncopation, polyrhythms.  In Eurhythmics, learning complicated music concepts is no longer intimidating but fun!  Eurhythmics invite students to learn in a creative and joyous environment.

I had my first Dalcroze lesson in college.  After only one-hour session, I couldn’t help but asking myself: “Why didn’t I know about this earlier?  I wish I learned music this way when I was a child!”  The class, taught by Eurhythmics Master Teacher Dr. Frego, was MAGICAL.  Abstract music concepts became EASY and I can SEE the beat through the body movement.

I wish that every child could learn music this way.  I am so excited to share a series of videos by Dr. Marla Butke and Dr. David Frego.  Watch this video to see Dr. Frego’s class in action.

 

Video 3 Shifting Accents with Racquet Balls

Concepts: anacrusis, crusis, and metacrusis; time, space and energy, meters

This activity is great for

  • both group and private lesson settings
  • children and adults

Sample Lesson Plan:

We are very lucky to be granted access to 3 videos.  These videos get us a sneak peek into the exclusive video contents that accompanies Dr. Marla and Dr. Frego’s book Meaningful Movement.

Missed Video 1 and Video 2?

No problem. Simply Click the links below!

You’ll find all the Lesson plans in the book Meaningful Movement – the ultimate guidebook to Dalcroze Eurhtymics.

Your Ultimate Guidebook to Dalcroze Eurhythmics

What’s in Meaningful Movement?

  • 206 lessons from beginners to advanced
  • 31 videos of live sessions
  • 79 pieces of music literature categorized by genre
  • Complete lesson plans with easy to read bullet points
  • Outcome assessment plan
  • Tailored to both Young students and Adults
  • Great for both large classroom and individual lesson

Insider’s View – Dr. Frego talks about the book

  • Focus Activities
  • Purposeful Movement
  • Rhythmic Solfège
  • Improvisation

Where to find the book?

Learn More about Dalcroze Eurhythmics!

Many thanks to Dr. Marla Butke and Dr. David Frego for sharing the videos and lesson plans with You LOVE Piano readers!
Meaningful-Movement

The Music Training I Wish I Had When I Was a Child Part 2

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I have a dream – a dream to bring Dalcroze Eurhythmics to every student’s piano lesson!   In previous blog, I shared the story of how I was hooked the first time I experienced Dalcroze Eurhythmics and how I wished that every child could learn music this way.

Dalcroze Eurhythmics is the Music Training I wish I had when I was a child.

I am so excited to show a series of videos by Dr. Marla Butke and Dr. David Frego.

Video 2 Canon Overlapping and Continuous (Lesson plan #16, 25, 61, 94)

Instead of having a passive listening experience, the students build deeper listening skills by actively expressing the music in their movement.

This activity is great for
*  group and private lesson settings
* children and adults of all ages

If you would like to see the lesson plan and detailed instruction, make sure to check out Dr. Marla and Dr. Frego’s book Meaningful Movement.

Listed below is a sample lesson plan

There are 3 more lesson plans for “Canon” that goes from beginner to advanced level. (Lesson plan #16,25,61, and 94)

You’ll find all the Lesson plans in the book Meaningful Movement.

Meaningful Movement –  Your Ultimate Guidebook to Dalcroze Eurhythmics

What’s in Meaningful Movement?

  • 206 lessons from beginners to advanced
  • 31 videos of live sessions
  • 79 pieces of music literature categorized by genre
  • Complete lesson plans with easy to read bullet points
  • Outcome assessment plan
  • Tailored to both Young students and Adults
  • Great for both large classroom and individual lesson

Insider’s View – Dr. Frego talks about the book

  • Focus activities
  • Purposeful Movement
  • Rhythmic Solfège
  • Improvisation

We are very lucky to be granted access to 3 videos. These videos get us a sneak peek into the exclusive video contents that accompanies Dr. Marla and Dr. Frego’s book Meaningful Movement.

Where to get the book

Learn More about Dalcroze Eurhythmics!

 

Stay tuned for video #3

Video 3 will open next Monday (May 28)!
We are very lucky to be granted access to 3 videos.  These videos give us a sneak peek into the exclusive video contents that accompanies Dr. Marla and Dr. Frego’s book Meaningful Movement.  Many thanks to Dr. Marla Butke and Dr. David Frego for sharing the videos and lesson plans with You LOVE Piano readers!

While you wait for video 3, come check out how I apply Dalcroze Eurhythmics in the private lesson!

My students LOVE the Focus activities!  They are short, fun and spontaneous. Click to see my TOP Teaching Tools.

Meaningful-Movement

The Music Training I Wish I Had When I was a Child

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I was hooked the first time I experienced Dalcroze Eurhythmics.

My very first Dalcroze class was in college.  At that time, I had no idea what Dalcroze Eurhythmics was.  I entered the classroom not knowing what to expect. However, after the one-hour session, I was hooked.

I couldn’t help but asking myself: “Why didn’t I know this earlier?  I wish I learned music this way when I was a child!” 

The class, taught by Eurhythmics Master Teacher Dr. Frego, was MAGICAL.   I remember the smiles on everyone’s faces.  Abstract music concepts became EASY as we stepped and moved to the music.  What amazes me is that I can not only feel the beat, but SEE the beat through the body movement.

I wish that every child could learn music this way.  It is just that good. 

If you are wondering what Dalcroze Eurhythmics is,  what better way to experience it than watching the master teachers in action?

I am so excited to share a series of videos by Dr. Marla Butke and Dr. David Frego.

Video 1 “Walking Bass/Clapping Treble”

Concepts: Steady beat, pitch range recognition, durations, quick reactions

Instead of filling out boring music theory worksheets, the kids internalize these music concepts in a musical and engaging way.

This activity is great for
*both group and private lesson settings
*children and adults

If you would like to see the lesson plan and detailed instruction, make sure to check out Dr. Marla and Dr. Frego’s book Meaningful Movement.

Here is a sample lesson plan

There are 3 more lesson plans for “Walking Bass/Clapping Treble” that goes from beginner to advanced level.  ( lesson plan #38, #42, 68, and #99 )

You’ll find all the Lesson plans in the book Meaningful Movement.

Your Ultimate Guidebook to Dalcroze Eurhythmics

What’s in Meaningful Movement?

  • 206 lessons from beginners to advanced
  • 31 videos of live sessions
  • 79 pieces of music literature categorized by genre
  • Complete lesson plans with easy to read bullet points
  • Outcome assessment plan
  • Tailored to both Young students and Adults
  • Great for both large classroom and individual lesson

Insider’s View – Dr. Frego talks about the book

  • Focus Activities
  • Purposeful Movement
  • Rhythmic Solfège
  • Improvisation

Where to find the book?

Learn More about Dalcroze Eurhythmics!

Stay tuned for video #2

Video 2 will open next Monday (May 21)!
We are very lucky to be granted access to 3 videos.  These videos give us a sneak peek into the exclusive video contents that accompanies Dr. Marla and Dr. Frego’s book Meaningful Movement.  Many thanks to Dr. Marla Butke and Dr. David Frego for sharing the videos and lesson plans with You LOVE Piano readers!

While you wait for video 2, come check out how I apply Dalcroze Eurhythmics in the private lesson!

My students LOVE the Focus activities!  They are short, fun and spontaneous. Click to see my TOP Teaching Tools.

 

EZ notes board

How I Number Music Staff and Why

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Every month, I share one of my favorite teaching tools and books.    This month we will focus on landmark notes and E-Z Notes Magnetic Music Staff.

In this 3-minute video, you’ll see how I use the Music Staff to explain the landmark notes and how I number the staff.

Are you interested in learning more about my favorite teaching tools?  Don’t forget to check out Paul Sheftel’s Modules and my Visual Rhythm Pocket Chart.

Make sure to leave a comment. I’d love to hear how you plan to use it at home or in your studio.

Visual Music Score Mary Had a Little Lamb Title

Visual Rhythm Pocket Chart for Mary Had a Little Lamb

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Every month, I share one of my favorite teaching tools and books. In January, it was Paul Sheftel’s Modules – an award-winning book with clever and fun pieces that bring music theory to life.

This month, I combined 3 of my favorites into 1 package for you. My students have so much fun learning rhythm visually and kinesthetically AND they love the opportunity to be a conductor. Are you ready for my 3-in-1?

  1. Visual Rhythm Pocket Chart
  2. Conductor Baton
  3. Air-tapping Rhythm


Click and watch this 1-minute video. In only 1-minute, you will see how I use these tools for students to learn the song “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” It’s perfect for group, too. Some students can play the song on piano, some singing, some chanting while some do air-tapping.

Here are the Rhythm Chart Visual Scores.
Mary Had a Little Lamb Visual Music Score Title
Mary Had a Little Lamb Visual Music Score Short and Long
Mary Had a Little Lamb Visual Music Score with Short, Long, Super Long
Mary Had a Little Lamb Visual Music Score with Lyrics
Mary Had a Little Lamb Visual Music Score with Lyrics
Mary Had a Little Lamb Visual Music Score
Mary Had a Little Lamb Visual Music Score
Mary Had a Little Lamb Visual Music Score with Note Values
Mary Had a Little Lamb Visual Music Score with Note Values
Make sure to leave a comment. I'd love to hear how you plan to use it at home or in your studio.
Modules by Paul Sheftel

Explore Modules – Creative and Musical Ways to learn music theory

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Does your student love learning music theory? So many students think of learning music theory as completing worksheets, memorizing facts, or playing scales, arpeggios… it’s just too dry and boring!

Far from being dry and boring though, music theory has always been fascinating to me. For me, it unlocked the key to truly understanding how music works. I remember vividly that as a child, I wanted so badly to know why certain notes or chords sounded good together and why the composers chose the combination of notes to create the different mood in the music. I wasn’t satisfied with just playing the notes on the page. I wanted to know why music was put together a certain way.

Because of my passion for music theory, I was always looking for ways to help other students learn music theory in more creative and musical ways. After a lot of searching, I finally found a book I would like to share that brings music theory to life.

And the book is…

Modules by Paul Sheftel

 

Modules features 36 compositions that aim to teach students scales, intervals and triads in a musical and logical way. Paul’s compositions in Modules were recognized nationwide and had won the Frances Clark Keyboard Pedagogy Award in 2017.

One of my favorite pieces in the book is “TANGO.” The whole piece is constructed from only two chords, Bb Major and B Major. It amazes and inspires me that Paul is able to achieve the feel of the lively dance by using just two chords in root-position! It’s easily accessible for beginner students who are learning 5-fnger patterns, and is also great for teachers to drill the chord by turning the piece into a duet – students play the left hand part and the teacher plays the right hand melody.

Another piece called “OLE” is the companion for “TANGO.” OLE was also written with two chords only, Bb and B Major. Unlike TANGO though, OLE features the chords in 1st inversion. Because the piece is highly patterned, it’s fun and easy for the students to learn. One of my students said: “When I first glanced at the music, I thought that the piece would be VERY HARD, but it was actually quite EASY to learn, sounded amazing and learning the beautiful piece gave me lots of confidence. I feel so proud!”

Other than chords, Paul introduced intervals in a fun and musical way. Consider this question before you read further:

“If your students were asked to identify and play ALL major 6th intervals on the piano, can they do it with ease?”

Well…after playing Paul Sheftel’s piece “The Sixth Sheik’s Sixth Sheep’s Sick,” it will be a piece of cake to find ALL major 6th interval.

In fact, after learning most pieces in Modules, the students will be able to

  • Find and play ALL major, minor and perfect intervals
  • Play and find ALL major triads in root, 1st and 2nd inversion
  • See and play ALL major scales in a new light

As you can see, Paul has an amazing ability to relate keyboard patterns to theory. He cleverly weaves those black and white key patterns into charming pieces of music.

The musical and logical ways Paul presented the scales, chords and intervals help students connect the EYES with the HANDS and the MIND. It’s very important to develop this EYE-HAND-MIND connection. Imagine that after playing “The Sixth Sheik’s Sixth Sheep’s Sick,” your student will be able to understand interval patterns in their mind (the black-white key configurations), feel the interval kinesthetically in their HANDs, and see the shape of the interval both on the score and on the keys with their EYES.

What to hear what these pieces sound like? Make sure you watch this 2-minute video. I recorded the video to show you my favorite pieces from Modules.

As I mentioned in the video, SuperScore is a great app that features music by lots of famous composers.  You can view, manage, and interact with library of musical scores. SuperScore provides virtually unlimited notation sizes with Liquid Music Display™ technology. You can explore Paul’s music and many other classics by various composers all inside this app.

Here is what the SuperScore looks like:

 

 

Discover more:

SuperScore  have a winter sale going on now until Jan 15, 2018.  It’s a great time to stock up on your favorite music!

Go check out this award-winning book.  Paul was recognized by MTNA for his significant contribution to the pedagogy world because of this book.  MTNA awarded only one person in the entire nation annually.  Clearly it shows how important and wonderful this book is!

**This is the first blog that features my favorite books or teaching tools.  I only write and share what I love using in my studio with my students and I am not getting paid for writing the post.

Piano Puzzle Card

Piano Puzzle Card & Pocket Chart for Preschoolers

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Ever wonder how to keep child engaged for the entire lesson?

How to give choices and ownership?

Piano Puzzle Card can do all that and more.

Last blog, I explored how to use Piano puzzle as a visual lesson plan tool.  It is great for older students who understand the concept of completing a task and earning the matching puzzle.  As for young students, because they lack the concept of time and tend to just want to finish the puzzle “right now” and make the piano looks pretty.  Asking preschoolers to wait until completing seven or more tasks before they can finally see the finished puzzle can be really challenging.  So….the solution is …… Piano Puzzle Card.

Piano Puzzle Card

Piano Puzzle Card is a friendly version of the piano puzzle for preschoolers.  Each card corresponds to the lesson activities in the puzzle.

What lesson activity does the puzzle card represent?

  1. ABC: Music Theory

  2. 5-line Staff: Sightreading or Tonal pattern

  3. Finger: Technique

  4. Heart: Favorite piece(s) or Improvisation

  5. Star: New piece(s)

  6. Rhythm cards:  Rhythm pattern

  7. ?: Surprise (My students’ favorites!)

  8. MM: Music Making (Making your own music, Improvisation, Composition)

How I Use it:

Show all the Piano Cards on Pocket Chart. I got mine from Lakeshore Learning.  Since it is nearly impossible to cover all the cards in one lesson, I place the extra cards at the bottom of the chart for future lessons.

piano puzzle card on chart

Student completes the task and earns Stars, Apples, or Music Notes to place on the card. My students love to count how many apples they get at the end of the lesson.

Piano Puzzle Card with apple

Piano Puzzle Card helps with Home Practice. I like to use the card image in student’s Home Assignment Sheet.

homesheet single

Get your FREE piano puzzle card

Simultaneous learning theory &  Piano Puzzle Cards

Can students earn multiple cards simultaneously?  Absolutely.   When introducing a new song, we may also chant the rhythm, work on technique, sing solfege or sightread patterns.  In the process of learning the new song, students earn multiple cards (the new song card, the sightreading card, the rhythm card, the technique card).

homesheet multiple

For intermediate to advanced students, the puzzle can be used as a visual tool to show Paul Harris’s famous simultaneous learning theory.

Remember to Get your FREE piano puzzle card and subscribe to the blog

Piano Puzzle Pieces

Piano Puzzle Lesson Plan

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It’s a piano puzzle.

It’s a lesson plan tool for teacher.

It’s a lesson road map for student.

It’s a visual aid for student to make choices of lesson activities.

It can also be transformed into a homework assignment sheet.

Piano Puzzle Pieces

Children are endless wonder to me – the amazing amount of information they are able to absorb and process (when they choose to focus), their need of wanting to be in control,  their short attention span and their little sense of time.  How do I take advantage of these traits as a teacher to optimize lesson time and help my students learn the best?

Children needs visual clues, structures, choices and something tangible to touch.   The Piano Puzzle Visual Lesson Plan gives them just that.  The lessons are presented in a fun and engaging way with the Piano Puzzle.   The puzzle works great for 7 year old students and up.   For beginner students, each puzzle piece represents a lesson activity.

What lesson activity does the puzzle piece represent?

  1. ABC: Music Theory

  2. 5-line Staff: Sightreading or Tonal pattern

  3. Finger: Technique

  4. Heart: Favorite piece(s) or Improvisation

  5. Star: New piece(s)

  6. Rhythm cards:  Rhythm pattern

  7. ?: Surprise (My students’ favorites!)

How it Works

The student starts the lesson with a complete puzzle like this.

Piano Puzzle Complete

Student takes the puzzle pieces and places them on the side while naming each activities. Remind student that our goal is to make the grand piano look great by participating in each activity. Give student choices to decide which activity to start.   After completing each activity, student gets to put the corresponding puzzle piece in .

Who is Piano Puzzle for?

It works great for older beginner students.  Younger students just want to put all the puzzle pieces in at once.   Young children do not have the sense of time and future yet and all they want to do is to complete the puzzle right now.

I have designed another visual lesson plan for the younger students.  Stay tuned and it will be covered in the next post.

I will also discuss how you can use the puzzle for intermediate to advanced students and how to adapt it to the simultaneous learning theory by Paul Harris in a later post.

How I made the Puzzle

  • Color the grand piano picture

  • laminate the picture

  • cut out the puzzle pieces

  • put magnetic strip on the back of each puzzle pieces

  • place the puzzle and pieces on the magnetic board

I found the grand piano coloring page on pinterest.

These are just some of the basic activities and the symbols on the puzzle pieces can be easily modified to suit your needs.  Look forward to hearing how you implement this with your students.

Focus Activities

(Part 5) The #1 Teaching Tool I Cannot Live Without

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Grand Finale Focus Activity

Focus Activities

Today’s Grand Finale Focus Activity is a special post that concludes my blog series “The Number One Teaching Tool I Cannot Live Without.”   I have prepared for you not just 1 but 2 videos!

I’m super excited to feature a video by my fellow Texas colleague and a dear friend, Dorothy Yan.  In this video, Dorothy shares one of the “Brain Warm-up” activities that she presented in her session “Engage the Brain: Cognitive Warm-Up for Effective Music Lesson” at MTNA National conference a few years ago.

In fact, her session had such long lasting impacts that one of the teacher who went to Dorothy’s session a few years ago asked me about Dorothy’s works in last month’s MTNA conference.   The teacher still vividly remember Dorothy’s presentation and commented on how much she enjoyed these activities and how she has been applying them in her own studio.

In “Engage the Brain: Cognitive Warm-Up for Effective Music Lesson”, Dorothy compares the mental game of sports to the mental game of the music and highlights the importance and benefits of the Dalcroze eurhythmics “Brain Warm-up” activities.

Dorothy’s Thumb Tappers

How it Works:

  • Subtract each number by 1 (excluding number 2).  After the mental subtraction,  3 2 4 3 5 3 becomes 2 2 3 2 4 2
  • Variation:  Add each number by 1 (excluding number 5). After the mental addition, 3 2 4 3 5 3 becomes 4 3 5 4 5 4

Catch the Ball, Catch the Rhythm

– Rhythm is caught, not taught

Have you ever struggled to get the rhythm just right when you tried to play a tricky passage on the piano? Instead of drilling and practicing repetitively, why not stepping away from the piano and trying to “Catch the Ball, Catch the Rhythm?”

Watch this 2nd video that features this smile-guaranteed focus activity “Catch the Ball, Catch the Rhythm. Are you ready to feel the rhythm with your whole body, catching the ball and singing along to the music?

The music in this video is Monkey Blues from Piano Safari.  The rhythm is tricky because there is a rest on beat 1.   With some help from the bouncy ball, the student will surely say proudly: “I’ve got rhythm.”

One tip for younger students: try rolling the ball on the floor instead.  Sit across from the student and roll the ball back and forth on the beat(s) of your choice.

More Focus Activities for You to Enjoy

Why is “focus activities” my TOP teaching tool? The answer is simple. When a student is focused and engaged, the lesson is much more productive. Without student’s attention, even with the best lesson plan, very little can be achieved.

If you miss the previous posts, click here to see more

Please make sure to leave me a comment or feedback if you would like to see more activities.  I have also prepared my Top Five Focus Activities for download, remember to subscribe to my blog and get the file instantly through your email.

Get My Top Five Focus Activities Instant Download NOW

I have prepared my Top Five Focus Activities for download, simply Click below and Get it Now.

The activities are Dalcroze based and always require creative, quick and spontaneous reaction from the student. If you would like to learn more about Dalcroze Eurhythmics, please visit American Eurhythmics Society website.  I regularly attend their workshop and always have an amazing experience each time.

read ahead (1)

Better Read Ahead before the notes go away – Sightreading with Read Ahead

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Read Ahead App for Sightreading

I have had Read Ahead app on my iPad for a while, however, I didn’t get a chance to explore how amazing it is until seeing it in action in MTNA conference a week ago.  My student tried the app this week and after completing the first day sightreading project, she was so eager to try her hands on day 2 and kept asking for more.

What I like best about Read Ahead app

  • It’s so well-sequenced and pedagogically sound.

  • The music will disappear right in front of your eyes to help you “Read Ahead.”

Yes, you read it right.  The music literally disappear right in front of your eyes.  Students get a sense of excitement knowing that the music and notes will vanish out of thin air.   I find it to be a surreal experience when I first tried it and it’s so addicting.  What a brilliant idea –  you’d better “read ahead” before the notes go away.

See the app in action  ​

Visit Read Ahead website and watch the 2 videos and experience the disappearing beats. Other than disappearing notes, Read-Ahead has warm up and fixed scores that help student succeed in sightreading. This app is developed by Peabody Institute music theory professors Travis Hardaway and Ken Johansen and this is the story of how they started the read-ahead project

“The ability to play an unfamiliar piece of music from start to finish without stopping is an important skill for any pianist. Yet many piano students find it a difficult skill to master – even students at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, one of the world’s preeminent music schools. Recognizing this need, Peabody Institute music theory professors Travis Hardaway and Ken Johansen developed an app to help students learn to sight read.”

The entire curriculum is based on extensive research in the cognition of reading music and years of experience teaching sight-reading classes at the Johns Hopkins University Peabody Conservatory.

Read more on the pedagogical ideas of Read Ahead

Ken Johansen wrote a series of articles on sightreading.  Visit Read Ahead blog to learn more.  My personal favorite is On Developing a Seeing Hand.

Hope you will enjoy this sightreading app.  If you want to learn more about other treasures I found in MTNA Baltimore conference this year, check out my post on Piano Safari Animal Adventures.  Like a kid in a candy store, I am in awe of the arrays of innovative teaching series and technologies!  I’m also so grateful for all the efforts these teachers have put in to develop such wonderful resources for music community.

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