Roll 10 - A Quick Game with the Music Dice

I made up this game to add variety to another game that I made for my daughter (I'll post soon!)  This is a really quick game that involves any of the music dice and it takes about 2 minutes or less to play.  We played it with the 16th note rhythm dice, but you could use any of the music dice.

Roll 10

Put down 10 dominoes (you could use pennies, jewels, or any kind of item that you could lay out.)  Have your child roll the music die and tell you the name of the note.  If she successfully tells you the note, she gets a domino.  If she is incorrect or if you need to help her, you get the domino.  Whoever has the most dominoes at the end wins.

The thing I love about this game is that the more you play it the more successful your child will be at winning so that makes them want to play it more.  This was an excellent way for my 4-year-old to learn the different kinds of notes.  Once she gets this mastered I will move on to the number of beats of each note, then another kind of dice.  It takes hardly any time to play, it's a fun way to learn basic concepts because it's natural for the child to want to earn all of the dominoes.  Since it's only ten rolls it's not overwhelming or frustrating.  Hope this helps someone make practicing more fun.

You can find this and many more music dice at The Practice Shoppe.

Music Dice Game and a Fun Chart

This week I've been sick.  Moms aren't supposed to get sick.  It makes mom-hood really hard.  All was bearable until I had to teach lessons this week on top of everything else.  After smiling and acting happy through my morning lessons I threw in the towel and canceled all my afternoon lessons, took a hot bath, took a long nap, and then just sat at my computer and vegged until my husband got home and cooked me dinner.  With all of this spare time on my computer, I was able to tinker with some games I've had in the back of my mind for a while now.

I should come up with a good name for this game, but I don't have one.  Basically, I used 4 two-eighth-note dice and my daughter and I took turns rolling rhythms.  We'd count up the number of beats, clap and count, and then move our game piece that many counts.  She loved it!  It wasn't very hard for her, but it gave her good practice clapping and counting the various rhythms.

Roll the dice

Count the number of beats

Clap the rhythm

Move the game piece the number of squares as the number of beats in the rhythm rolled.

 I used the two-eighth-note dice because nothing is less than one beat so the rhythms don't get too complicated (and it's easier to move the game pieces.)  Sometimes if we had a nice round number like 8 or 9 or 12 beats, we'd break it up into measures so she could count 1-2-3-4 or 1-2-3.  Otherwise, it would just be the number of beats of the note (4 for whole, 3 for dotted half, etc.)  Since the game board was pretty long (192 squares is what my daughter counted - I haven't verified) the game took over 15 minutes.  So, I made two smaller boards for younger kids, or if you wanted a shorter game.

I love these game boards.  I definitely think I will laminate these ones to have on hand.  Not only are they good for this particular game, but I was thinking that I could use them to help guide the practice.  For instance, my daughter could roll a die (a 24 or 30-sided dice would be great for the long board) and whatever they land on is what they play.  We'd determine what the different symbols would mean before playing the game.  One idea would be the heart would be her choice, the star would be my choice, and the note would be note reading.  You could make up your own rules.  That's the great thing about this chart.  There are no set rules - just make them up to suit your individual needs.

By the way - the long chart has pretty small squares.  We were using my gorilla erasers for game pieces.  I was thinking a small die would also work.  It would be hard to use anything much bigger than a centimeter.  Keep that in mind when planning this game for your kids!

I'd love to hear if you have any other ideas for this game board!

A Little Game of War

At group lesson last week we played a fun game with my beginning to intermediate students with the musical notes dice with sixteenth notes on it.  This die has six different notes ranging from sixteenth note to whole note.  Each note has a different value.  I paired the kids up by ability level and they would each roll a dice.  We had colored chips in the middle (although pennies, jewels, rocks, beads would work.)  Whoever got the higher value of dice would get one of the chips.  If they got the same value then they would roll until someone won and that person would get however many chips it took to roll the winning dice.  They always had to say what kind of note and how many beats (ex: "quarter note, one beat." "sixteenth note, one-fourth beat."    What I really liked about this was that even the beginning 4 year old knew the note names values of the dice after only about 2 minutes.  This was a fun way to really drill this concept in a short amount of time.

You can buy these fun dice HERE at The Practice Shoppe!

Trick or Treat...or Share

Here's a fun October practice idea called "Trick or Treat...or Share."

I have 9 pieces of paper (about index card size) with pumpkins on them. Three of them say "Trick" on the front; three of them say "Treat," and three of them say "Share." Laminate them if you want. On the back of the cards, I put post-it's with what we would do during practicing. The child chooses a card, and we would follow the instructions on the back. You might incorporate these in your normal practice routine every once in a while--in between other things they are practicing. Here are a few examples of what you could put on the back of them.

The "Trick" Card

The "Trick" card has a trick that the children perform. Here are some examples:

1. Play this preview spot so many times, for a particular reason (i.e. getting the 3 in tune.) Wow! Tricky!
2. Name that tune, tell the composer, and play the song in the dark with good tone.
3. Do jumping jacks while telling your favorite joke. Note this doesn't have anything to do with practicing. It's just a good break to get them smiling.

The "Treat" Card

The "Treat" card has nothing to do with food, unless you want to add that. Instead, the children end up with a reward that has to do with music.

1. Mom/Dad plays something for you on your violin (or at least tries to play something)
2. Listen to a classical piece that is not a Suzuki piece.
3. Watch a video of someone playing the piece you are on (or another piece). This could be a famous virtuoso or someone else you just happened to find on youtube. Talk about what you liked and anything you didn't like.

The "Share" Card

The "Share" card has something that the child could share with you or someone else that happens to be around--even a few stuffed animals would work.

1. Share a hug.
2. Play your favorite song for someone else or an audience of stuffed animals. You could even make the stuffed animals say one thing they really liked about the performance.
3. Make up a song that sounds spooky.

Hope you have fun with this idea if you decide to try it!

-Tabitha