Tonya's Incentive Ideas

Now that the dust is settling from my first year of Keyboard Gymnastics participation, I thought I would post a few of the incentives I used, and hopefully other teachers will too, I would love to hear them!

TREASURE MAP: KEYBOARD GYMNASTICS PROGRESS

My sister drew this map for me, it is poster-sized. I had it laminated. I had each student design their own "flag" (little squares of white paper), and then laminated those. I made a key to the map, and explained to each of them that it would track their progress through the year.
The spaces worked out perfectly so that if they did all 7 areas, they would make it to "X Marks the Spot." So after they would take their technic, theory, or any other test, we would have the excitement of them moving along further on the map. Obviously younger student were way more into this, but it helped to have a visual for the older kids too. Once they got to the end (which was just this week since we just had solos), they got a "bag of treasure" which is a brown paper bag all wrinkled and tied with twine, it has gold coins and york mints in it ("silver and gold!").





SKITTLES JAR: PRACTICING!

(This idea adapted from David French)

This jar has been sitting on my piano for the past 3 weeks, and next week the skittles in it will all go home with one student. Here is how it works: Each week I check the students' practicing record to see if they reached their weekly practicing goal, and marked it in their record. If they did both those things, they get to fill out a ticket (little carnival tickets I have, they are like $3 for a roll of tons of them at Zurcher's or the dollar store) with their name and a guess for how many skittles are in the jar. Next week I will count up the skittles (or approximate by looking at the serving size on the bags!) and sort through the tickets to find out who guessed the closest, and they will get all the skittles! I have done this many times, sometimes with if they did their theory, if they memorized something, etc. It works somewhat well but is really a motivator for kids who have won the candy already, the others forget about it because they never saw what happened to the candy if they didn't win. It's fun to see their guesses though, I have had everything from 100 to 10,000.

SOLO QUIZ: MEMORIZING SOLOS

I have used this for many years, in preparing for festival, certificate of merit, sonatina festival, or any time students have spent a long time with one or two pieces. I just whip it out at a lesson without giving them any advance notice. It is interesting to see what they know off the top of their head. Usually they get the title, first note, and last note for sure. Sometimes key, time signature, and tempo... and they hardly ever know the composer. Thus the reason for the quiz! I think that if they spend so much time with these pieces, they should know this basic information! The first note/last note thing helps with their memorizing as well. SO, once they have completed the quiz, we go through their pieces and I have them write in the correct answers for the ones they missed. Then I tell them that the next week I will ask them one or two things from the quiz, and if they get it right they get a treat. Most of them come back knowing every little detail about their pieces!




STOP LIGHT: SOLO PREPARATION

I used to use this for festival, and I ended up just pulling it out again this year. (That is why it has "scales" at the bottom, I would have them learn the scales in the key signatures of their pieces for festival) I explain that they get a sticker on each light once they have a piece memorized. There is extra room at the bottom of the paper, and I make a list with the student's help of what a piece needs to have to be "correctly memorized." (i.e., notes, rhythm, dynamics, pedal...) Then once they get all 3 stickers they have the GREEN LIGHT to perform awesomely! And they got a theater-sized candy. This year for the "Scales" thing, I just made the stipulation for the green light that they had to have their technic test done.







PIZZA CHART: SIGHT READING

We have done this before, but since the kids were doing a sight-reading test this year, I thought it would be great timing. We did this chart from February thru April.

First, at our group lessons in January, I had each group vote on 2 or 3 Fruit Pizza toppings they would like to have for Fruit Pizza. Then we added them all to the poster. Each student's name is down the side, and the pizza toppings are across the top. Each week at the beginning of their lesson, I would have them pick a sight-reading example out of an envelope appropriate to their level (I used the K.G. examples for all but the really little kids), they would have one minute to look it over, then they would sightread it for me. If they did 95% correctly and DIDN'T stop while playing through it, they got to put a sticker on whatever they wanted for their pizza. I should note that the first week we started sightreading for this, I had them go through the "sightreading list" I have next to the piano--1. find hand position, 2. Look at rhythm, 3. Look at dynamics..... etc. So each week they practiced properly looking at the piece before playing it.

The pizza chart is all done and the kids have put stickers on all the toppings they want (no make-up stickers are offered for kids who miss lessons, that's why some don't have as many as others), and next week at our group lessons I will have the toppings and the pizzas ready and they get to build theirs with the toppings they earned. They LOVED it last time and it is a fun little way to make sight-reading more interesting.

~Tonya

Creative Projects

The other day Amy was wondering about Creative Projects. I thought I'd post a link to my friend's website so we can see their Creative Projects. Heidi, maybe you could post any photos you took of our students' projects.

At any rate, here it is:

http://lizgowenspianostudio.com/Gallery_KG_of_Phoenix/

If you have students who are wondering about their projects, you could refer them to these photo galleries for ideas.

Keyboard Gymnastics 2010-2011

I'm so excited that there will be FIVE teachers participating in Keyboard Gymnastics this year! If all goes as planned, we'll have 85 students participating. It's going to take a little juggling to make it all work - I've never done it on quite this scale before. I'm so glad you are all on board!

Here are our preferred dates:

October 23 - Ensemble
February 12 - Creative Projects
April 30 - Solos
May 7 - Awards

Let's make a goal to secure the facilities for these events in the next two weeks, so we can advertise them to our students.

Teaching Chord Groups

I have been trying to figure out what to do for my group class tomorrow with my beginners. I'm going to work on teaching them the chord groups and 5-finger patterns: Snowman, Hamburger, Ice Cream Sandwiches, and Oddballs. So here are some of my ideas for reinforcing the concepts. Feel free to use them!

5-Finger Sidewalk Chalk: I'm going to draw 2 big keyboards (facing each other) out on my patio with sidewalk chalk. I'll have a stack of cards with the roots of the 12 5-finger patterns. I'll divide the kids into teams and have them "spell" the chords using their feet and/or hands on the keyboard. So if it's D major, someone will have their feet on D and E, someone else with their feet on F# and G, and someone standing on A (or person 2's hand on A). It'll be a race to see which team can get into position fastest, like Sesame Street's Alphabet Dancers. I considered making two big dice with the names of the keys on them (12 keys, 2 dice, 6 keys per die), but I don't have time this time.

Chord Group Pieces (This is a lame name; help me choose a new one!): I'm going to get a pad of colored construction paper. I'm going to build all the chords out of construction paper and laminate them. For example, for D Major (hamburger!), I would have 2 beige circles for the buns (you could do sesame seeds on the top one if you wanted), labeled D and A. Then I'll have a brown circle (slightly larger) for the hamburger in the middle labeled F#. Then I'll have parts for all the chords, white circles for the snowman parts, brown squares for the ice cream sandwich cookies, brown footballs/white volleyballs for the oddball groups, etc. I plan to make 2 sets this way. I think I will label the roots of each chord in bold, so they will at least get the roots right. Then I'll give each team the stack of chord parts all mixed up and have them race to put the pieces together. Hopefully, the previous activity will jog their memory about the WWHW 5-finger pattern, and they'll remember the chord groups from all the technic they've been doing.

THEN, after these two activities, we'll play the TCW Fantastic Fingers game. I was thinking we'd have ice cream sandwiches for a treat at the end. They make miniature ones now! Does anyone know where to get gummy hamburgers? I'll bet I could find baseball pencil topper erasers for a prize for one of the games. Doesn't Hostess make pink snowballs? You could have those for a treat, too, for the snowman chords. I'm only doing one group class this summer, so I want it to be super fun.

2009-1010 Dates Are Set!

Here are the dates for our Keyboard Gymnastics events for the 2009-2010 year. Tell your students now to put these dates on their calendars.

Ensemble and Creative Projects: Saturday, March 6 3:00-5:00 at ArtsWest School in Eagle. GREAT news: ArtsWest is becoming an all-Yamaha school, which means they're getting all new Yamaha pianos. It's a beautiful new facility, but will be even better with fabulous new instruments. ArtsWest's fee has gone up, but they are generously allowing us to maintain our $50 fee that we paid last year.

Solos and Awards: Saturday, May 8 5:30 at Dunkley Music. PLEASE thank the folks at Dunkley's for allowing us once again to use their facility FREE of charge.

For everything else (Technic, Theory, Ear Training, Sight Reading) you are on your own. Have your students work on these areas in their daily practice, and pass the areas off throughout the year.

Please note that while the theory tests may be shared among a Keyboard Gymnastics group, the Technic papers are copyrighted and must be purchased individually (only $ .75 each) for each student.

The minimum fee per student is $10. For 2-3 areas, the fee is $5 each. For 4 or more areas, the fee is $4 per area for all 7 areas ($28). Please ask for your fees with your fall registration, and collect your fees in September. It costs lots of money to run a program like this one, and I don't want to get to March (or heaven forbid, May), and be paid after the fact. Besides, if they pay their fees, they will be more committed to participate in all the areas. Shall we set a date for a late fee? Perhaps fees go up after October 1 to encourage them to get their fees paid? Most of my students have already paid.

Other upcoming events:
MTNA dues are now due (see mtna.org)
Robert Vandall is coming to Welch Music for a free workshop this summer.
Randall Faber is coming to Dunkley Music for a free workshop in August.

See you there!

Accelerando 1 for sale

Well, it seems that I inadvertently came home with 2 copies of the "Accelerando 1" Theory book instead of "Accelerando 2". DANG IT! Does anyone need an "Accelerando 1"? If you need one, please consider buying mine, rather than ordering it or buying it from Dunkley's. I'll even deliver it to your door. Accelerando 2 is like books C and D together in one book, and is designed for ages 12 and up. I can save it and use it eventually, but would just as soon get rid of it and have the cash and the shelf space.

Recital Recipes

Almond Punch

(I made a triple recipe of this and served it from my 2.5 gallon thermos. I used a 2 liter of 7-up for part of the water.)

6 oz. orange juice concentrate
6 oz. lemonade concentrate
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. almond extract
10 cups water

Coconut Lemon Bars
(I made a double recipe and had 6 bars left over for a crowd of about 40-50)

Crust:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
Mix and press in a 9X13 pan. Bake at 275 for 20 minutes till golden brown.

Filling:
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups coconut
1 cup nuts (I used pecans)
2 Tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Mix and spread over baked crust. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp. melted butter
juice of a lemon
Mix and drizzle over warm bars.