Wow. We did it! Big shout out to Cristi and Auburn for taking a chance on me. This was my first attempt at putting on a Piano Camp. I have always had an aversion to hosting birthday parties for our own kids and this week was a treat for me to think “party style” again. Every day we played different games to teach and reinforce their knowledge of musical terms–ask them about Screamin’ Match,– note reading, notation and rhythm. I learned that I can never have enough tricks in my bag because these kids are fast and hungry to learn more. It always intrigues me how quickly kids learn in a group setting with their peers through games. We got a good start on a very cool song they are all learning a part of. I need to round up several keyboards to show them off by September.
Probably the biggest deterrent to piano lessons is getting into the habit of practicing and bigger than that, knowing what to do when you get there. Today we made a practice abacus. This is a great little tool I have found that will take the guess work out of “Mom, can I be done now?” Here are a few pictures and a video clip from our week. We will definitely do this again!
Meet Peter, Jack, Ben and Canon…This was Day One of Piano Camp–
They are using play doh to show rhythm dictation. Balls are quarter notes, little snakes are half notes and little little balls for 8th notes. After I taught them what a beam was and how it holds four 8th notes together they got clever and “beamed” four little balls with one of their snakes. Translating this to paper was the easy part.
On the last day we started with a musical version of the game Headbands. It is surprising how often they see something in their music and know what it does, but don’t always know what its name is. Frankly, they are just too smart for their own good. We had to play outside because there were too many mirrors in the front room. =D
Popsicles. The wonder snack to slow these boys down for two minutes. They each made a PRACTICE ABACUS. I’m expecting big things out of you gentlemen, come this Fall!
