Fun iPad Note Naming Game

Here is a fun iPad app to help students practice notes on the staff.  It is only available for the iPad right now.  Students will have a lot of fun playing this game, they won't even realize they are "practicing flashcards". 

Noteworks – Cost: $4.99. (For iPad only.) Click here to view in iTunes.




A piano teacher blogger reviewed this app and had this to say:

"This app allows for various students to login under their name, so that the game can track their progress. There are various modes for play, including a “Practice” mode (which helps the student learn the notes) and a “Challenge” mode (which tests their abilities). In all modes/levels, notes appear on the staff. Depending on the setting, students can identify the note by its alphabet name, corresponding piano key, or its solfege name. Levels 1-5 are for students who are just learning how to read. Levels 6 and above are for advanced students. As the levels get more difficult, the range of notes tested increases, and then accidentals are added, and finally, the student must identify the notes within a key signature (a great feature!). The game can be set to quiz notes of the treble, bass, alto, or tenor clefs, as well as the whole grand staff at once. Play mode for any level can be set to slow, medium, or fast.  When the student identifies a note incorrectly, it goes to the left and gets put on fire (see photo above). The notes stay there until the end of the round, when the game gives the student another try at identifying those notes."

Here is a video on YouTube introducing the game and character Munchy:

Kids Classical Music Channel

Classical New England has launched a 24-hour Kids Classical Channel with classical music programs specially designed for kids. Please check it out!

Kids Classical Channel

Learning Notes on the Music Staff

Summer is a great time to have fun and spend time with your family and friends.  We have had a great summer and can't believe there's only three weeks left of summer to enjoy before the kids head back to school!  But sometimes with the fun and traveling piano gets put on the back burner, and even though we have more "free" time than we did during the school year, students tend to practice less in the summer.  Every year when school starts again and students are back in full swing with lessons, we usually go through the same speed bumps of having to learn the notes on the musical staff all over again.  I came across some great review songs on youtube that I think will really help your children memorize the notes.  They are geared for the younger learner, but I think any age would greatly benefit from listening to these over and over.  Please check them out!


1) Farmer Fred and the Bass Clef

2) Gina and the Treble Clef

 

3) The Barnyard Friends and the Grand Staff

4) Every Good Boy Does Fine



Internet Resources

Summer is almost here!  I'm excited for more time at home with my kids, a more relaxed schedule, and hopefully some fun in the sun!  I thought I would make a list of some great music web sites where kids can play games, practice note naming (in a way other than using flashcards), and learn about all the interesting lives of the different composers in history.  And now that your children will be home more for summer, it might be a good goal to have them spend 15 minutes or so each day on these sites.

The first one is:
Classic for Kids  Once you get to this web site click on games or composers.

The next web site is:
DSO Kids  This one is similar with a choice of games and learning about composers.  You can also click on a composer and listen to pieces written by them.  They also have ideas on how to make your own musical instruments at home.

This one is great too:
New York Philharmonic Kidzone The main page is a concert hall and when you scroll over different people or things on the page words pop up like "game room", "composers gallery", etc. You then click on one of those links and can explore all the fun things they have to offer.

Another one is:
Making Music Fun  The games are in the top section under, "Oliver the Octopus Arcade".

I hope you take advantage of the great learning tools these sites have to offer!  It makes learning music a lot more enjoyable, and half the time they don't realize they are learning because it is so fun!

Have a great summer with your families! :)

Welcome to Tami Niven Studios

Welcome to Tami Niven Studios.  I am an independent piano teacher to 24 students in Utah Valley.  I wanted to start a blog as a way to communicate with students and their parents, and share ideas and tips as they work hard to learn and master the piano.  My hope is that this will help them learn to love not just the piano, but music history, including the study of composers, the different musical periods, and --yes-- even theory!

To start off my blog I thought it would be helpful for my students to see and hear me play the piano, since I am the one usually listening to them.  I am going to post four clips of me playing in my college recital.  I was required to play a piece from each musical period.  It is a little embarrassing showing these videos that are now 13 years old, but nonetheless I will suffer a little humiliation for my students.  :)

Hope you enjoy!

This first song I played is from the Baroque period:  Chromatic Fantasie in d minor, by J. S. Bach.

The second song is from the Classical period:  Appassionata Sonata (Op. 57 Mvmt. 1), by Ludwig van Beethoven.

The third song was from the Romantic period:  Un Sospiro, (Etude in D-flat Major), by Franz Liszt.

The fourth and final song I played was from the New Age or 20th Century period:  All of Me, by Jon Schmidt.

By this point I think my hands and nerves were done, and I kind of butchered the song and didn't play it to my best ability, so excuse the fumbling.  I recorded all of these songs of me playing for keep sake, at a practice run before the recital, which I give out to family and friends instead of the recording from this recital because I was pretty nervous.