Glissando Note-Reading Game

This is a simple, fast game to reinforce note reading.  The game is based on Parcheesi, with a few twists.

Game setup:  Place the flash cards on one of the blue rectangles.  Each player places four markers on their glissando rectangle.

Game Play:  White goes first, draws a card and places one of their markers on the note that corresponds with the card.  For example, if the note was an "F", they would move forward to the orange "F" note.  Pieces move counter-clockwise around the board.  Place the card on the opposite blue rectangle as a discard pile. Black's turn.  On White's next turn, they have the choice of moving the same piece as before, or moving the next piece out.  If the note is above what the keyboard has available, they do a "glissando" and slide to the other side of the board.  That piece would continue play by moving on the second keyboard.  When a piece returns to the "glissando" that it started on, it moves to the home square.  The first player to move all four pieces to the Home square wins.

Blocking:  When two pieces are on the same note, that note is blocked and no piece from either team may pass it.  In this manner, one player may be able to make the other player loose a turn.  If you can move, you have to move.  The exception for blocking is the glissando places, which have no limit.

Jumping:  If a player lands on a piece that is a third (musical interval, two notes before) another piece, they may "jump" that piece and make a triad, landing a third above the piece.  If the piece that they jumped is their own, the piece remains on the board.  If the piece they jumped belongs to the other player, it has to go back to its original glissando space.  This may land the moving piece on the glissando square and that is okay.  If any of the notes are blocked, pieces may not jump.

This game is great for piano teachers and students to play.  Having the piano teacher name the note for the card that they drew reinforces those notes for the student and takes some of the pressure off of the student.  Parents can play this game with their children to help them practice their note-reading.  Students can play with other students during master classes.  Maybe if you're lucky, siblings will pull it out and play with each other in their spare time.  I hope that you have as much fun playing the game as I did creating it.

Available as a pdf file for $1.00.

Piano Chord Wheel

This is a tool that I created for my piano students to help them to learn their primary chords.  Here is the printable:

piano-chord-wheel.pdf

Directions:Print on card-stock, cut out the circles, and then optionally laminate.  Poke holes in the center with a needle, then poke a paper brad through the smaller circle then the larger.  Fold back the edges of the brad and give it a few twists and you're done!

Here is a video to demonstrate it's use:

deltafour1212 commented that a blank wheel for the middle would be helpful in letting students make their own chord progressions.  Here it is!  Note that the dividing line is not perfectly equal- one is slightly bigger to make room for the V7 chord.  Taking the division line out of my original file would have been tricky.  I hope this helps!

blanksmallwheel.pdf

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The Pentatonic Scale

When I first learned about the pentatonic scale, I was taught to associate it with the Asian culture. I have since learned that the pentatonic scale is universal to all nations, and most countries have folk music written using this scale. Old Dan Tucker is one of my favorite American examples. The easiest way to play a pentatonic scale on the piano is to play all of the black keys, beginning with F#. The solfege for the scale is Do, Re, Mi, Sol, La, Do.Using the pentatonic scale for children's voices is a powerful technique because the scale is instinctive to them by nature. A child singing "na-na-na-na-na-na, you ca-n't catch me!" is using the scale. Ring-a-round-the-Rosies, Mary had a little lamb, and Rain, Rain, Go Away also use it. The Kodaly and Orff methods for teaching music to children exclusively use it for their beginning students.
My challenge? Find a way to incorporate the scale into your teaching, especially parents teaching music appreciation to your children through singing. Children who have a hard time singing in tune can especially benefit with a steady diet of pentatonic music because the hardest intervals to hear (the minor 2nd, augmented 4th, and major 7th) are completely eliminated.
Here is an interesting video that shows the intuitiveness of the scale in action:

Solfege

Q. I've heard a lot of people talk about 'Solfege' and am thinking about teaching it to my children. How does it work?

A. Solfege is a technique music teachers use for teaching sight singing. Each musical note is assigned a syllable. The seven syllables commonly used are do, re, mi, fa, sol (or so), la, and ti (or si).How does it work? There are two ways to use solfege. One is movable do, and the other is fixed do.
Movable do In movable do, the tonic note (or key note) is always do. If a musical piece is in F major, then F is do. If the piece is in C major, then C is do, D is re, E is mi, and so forth. The advantage to this system is that the student learns the relationship between the different notes in the scale and can readily transpose a number. This is the method that will be taught on this website.
Fixed do With fixed do, C is always do, D is always re, and so forth. This includes all sharps and flats, so F# would be fa. The advantage to this system is that it teaches the student perfect pitch, and the solfege can be used instead of letter note names. For example, in some countries they would say a piece is in "fa major" instead of "F major."
Both systems have merit, and both are used in the United States. Solfege is a fantastic way to teach your children to sing, and I wish you luck in your endeavors.