My Very Best Music Game
Today, I am thrilled to introduce you to my “Music Maze” game. I created this game to help kids learn their music notes as I taught piano. The kids love it, and I really feel like it’s been very profitable. It takes a few minutes to get the pieces made in the first place, but after the original creation, it’s easy to set up.
First you need to create your board. I used two pieces of thin cardboard, and traced around a square keychain to make a series of squares in a curving path.
The cardboard is great because it’s sturdy, but you could do the same thing with paper . In each square write the letters A through G, and repeat until you run out of squares.
Next, you need to make or buy flashcards. I make mine on 3×5 cards, with one note per card. I’ll have pictures of them below. (the cards have been well used, so they aren’t pure, crisp white anymore.)
Finally, you need a place marker for each player I just raid my Monopoly game and use that.
The basic game is simple. Start at the beginning, flip a flashcard, identify the name of the note, and move to the square that has the corresponding letter. The first person to get all the way to the end wins.
As my students learned their notes, I changed the rules to challenge them a little more. Initially, they could move their piece as long as the eventually said the right note, even if it took 12 tries:) However, soon I move to letting them only have 2 guesses and then one. If they can’t get it, they have to stay put until the next round. Here are some other variations.
- Race – Flip a flashcard, and your players have to be the first person to say the name correctly.
- Miss- If a player gets a note wrong they get to go backwards to that note
- Catch- If a player catches you or another player identifying a note incorrectly, they move forward to the correct note space, while the incorrect person remains on the same spot.
Finally, one of the beauties of this game is that your kids don’t have to be learning ALL the notes at the same time. You can start them off with B, C and D, and they can play as successfully as they can if they know ALL of the notes.
I’m afraid I did not do much to “beautify” this game, but it’s function has been phenomenal. Do you have a favorite music game? What variations to this game have you found? I love feedback always, but I would especially like it on this game.:)
6 Comments to “My Very Best Music Game”
These little rhymes made learning notes easy peasy. Also, the variations keep the student’s interested in the game. I have three children (9-12) that are learning piano.
Lesa Armstrong recently posted..Many Cures
There is a great benefit to my students anytime that I can incorporate a game in my school music classes! This week for back to school we’ve been playing Music Football ( http://carrie-persichini.blogspot.com/2011/08/kick-new-school-year-off-rightwith.html ), and my game is looking as worn out as yours…that just means they are well-used and enjoyed over and over!
I like with your game how it can grow with the student as they learn more. Also, the variations keep the student’s interested in the game.
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No more “Every good boy does fine” and “FACE” backwards? These little rhymes made learning notes easy peasy.
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This sounds like a great game to help learn and recognize the notes. I have three children (9-12) that are learning piano. They struggle with reading the notes (quickly) sometimes. I am filing it away in my memory in hopes of finding the time to make it someday. It would most likely help all of them.
I think the most time consuming part of that game is making the flashcards. If you can buy some, the actual game only takes about 10-15 minutes to make.:)