Games can be an important tool when teaching kids to play the piano. Learning is always easier when it’s fun. There is an extremely wide range of books, videos, and teaching materials available featuring fun piano games for both groups and individuals. With the internet as an additional resource, there are more games than ever literally at your fingertips.
Play-Script-And-Song.com offers some wonderful examples of group activities suitable for students of all ages. “Major/Minor Freeze Dance” is a fun exercise that helps students learn the difference between how major and minor scales sound. Students dance when the instructor plays a short selection in a major key and “freeze” when the music changes to a minor key. Another fun group activity suggested by Play-Script-And-Song.com is “People Piano.” A few of the students “become” the piano by playing or singing an assigned note when another student touches them on the shoulder. The note played or sung must match the intensity and length of the touch.
A selection of fun piano games for individual students is offered by Dr. Anthony at PianoIsFun.com. “Secret Message” makes note reading fun by replacing the letters A through G with their musical notations within a short message. The student must “decode” the message by reading the notes. Younger children enjoy “Frog in a Pond,” in which sections of the piece of music they are studying must be played without error in order to “rescue” a chocolate frog. The frog progresses on a paper game board from a lily pad in the centre to a lily pad on the bank. The lily pads represent each section of music. A missed note sends the frog back to the centre, while a correctly played piece earns the student the right to rescue and eat the frog.
In addition to activities done during lesson time, there is an extremely wide variety of online games that can be played without the piano. These computer games are mainly focused on training the ear and note recognition. Sites such as The Piano Teacher Resources offer printable worksheets and a range of activities including an online synthesizer. FlashMusicGames.com offers memory games as well as music composition software and activities.
No matter what style of piano games your child plays, be it online or in class, in a group or solo, these fun activities will enhance your child’s enjoyment of the piano and make learning easy and fun.