O’fish’ial Suzuki Book 1 Review

It's been a while (almost two years!) since I last posted.  Life gets busy and some things drop off.  However, this week our family got COVID and that means we get to stay home for at least 10 days.  We can't go anywhere, or do anything.  I've felt too sick to clean my house or do laundry, but not sick enough to stay in bed all day.  The result is a lot of new printables created.  Yay!  

Here is a great review game.  In my experience, just about all kids love a good fishing game.  I've been wanting to make a fishing review game for a while now.  I don't have any kids in Suzuki Violin Book 1 anymore, but I have students and I plan to lend this game out. I used brass brads for the eyes that connect perfectly to the magnet fishing pole.

While I had the fish graphics ready I also made an easy chart with all the Suzuki Book 1 pieces.  The idea is to mark off the piece when you play it.  You don't erase the chart until you've played every piece.

Lastly is a blank chart with 60 fish.  Color or cross out a fish for every review song you play.  Have a celebration when you complete the chart.

There you go, folks.  Three games in one printable.  I hope you enjoy it!

16 mm Music Dice

Comprehensive List

I've added more music dice to The Practice Shoppe and now I can see it can be overwhelming to know the differences between all the dice, so hopefully I can outline all my dice here in a blog or two as well as give you some ideas on how to use them during practicing and teaching.

First of all, there are two sizes, 16 mm - which is a standard size dice.  I also have 25 mm - which is larger and can fit more details but is also more expensive.

Here is a list of all the 16 mm. dice I have in stock today (I've colored all the rhythm dice to make them easily distinguishable) in a basic order of simple to more complex:

Light Green Rhythm Dice

Super basic, just beamed eighth notes, quarter notes and quarter rests. Get a bunch of these and have the little beginners start clapping and counting.

Brown Rhythm Dice

The basic rhythms above with added half note, dotted half note, and whole note.

This is a great die for playing games where the kids don't have to know fractions like "Roll 100" and "Rhythm Race"  I also play "Shut the Box" and "Rhythm Chemistry" with these dice.

Blue Rhythm Dice

These are the first rhythms I teach my beginners out of the book Rhythm Train.  They are also the rhythms learned with Let's Play Music.  Great for composing and counting.  

Orange Rhythm Dice

Start learning how to count the eighth note and eighth rest.  These dice are harder to use for composing with beginners because the eighth note and eighth rest add some half beats.  But a "Rhythm Race" game is perfect to start introducing the half beat.

Magenta Rhythm Dice

These dice have everything from the eighth note to the whole note, with the fractional notes (eighth note and dotted quarter note.)  This is a great die for identifying different types of notes playing the game "Roll 10."  It's also a great "Tic Tac Toe" and "Bingo" die.

Purple One Beat Rhythm Dice

I love using these dice for composing because the rhythms are variable, but each side is only one beat.  This way you can easily fill measures and learn the tricky dotted eighth-note rhythms.

Red Rhythm Dice

 

This is very similar to the magenta dice but it adds a sixteenth note (and eliminates the dotted quarter note.)  I love to use these dice to play the game "Musical War."  It's also a more complex "Rhythm Race" game dice, dividing the beat into 4ths with the sixteenth note.

Green Rest Dice

This dice mirrors the red rhythm dice but with rests.  This would make the game "Musical War" more complex.  One person plays with the red, one with the green.  You could also play "Musical War" with only the green dice.  This is a great die for identifying all the different kinds of rests.

 Blue Rest Dice

 Here is another super basic dice with only a quarter rest, half rest, and whole rest duplicated.  

 Light Green Rest Dice

This die is on clearance and won't be around much longer.  It is pretty much the same as the green rest die above, but it has a 32nd rest (and no dotted half rest.)

Lavender Dotted Quarter Rhythm Dice

These next few dice are great to use when learning and teaching about the time signatures 3/8, 6/8, 9/8, and 12/8.  

Light Pink Dotted Quarter Rhythm Dice

 Gray Dotted Quarter Rhythm Dice

 Roman Numeral Chord Dice 

 This has been one of my ideas for a long time and they are brand new so I haven't played with them much.  I hope to use these to initiate composing and a discussion on the basic chord progressions.

 Accidentals Dice

Pair these dice with the Lines and Spaces dice to learn the names and locations of all the notes on the staff.

CGDAE Dice

I initially got these dice to roll to determine which string to play a finger pattern on with my students.  But, I also realized after I've played with these that they are the first five keys on the circle of 5ths and also the notes in the C major pentatonic scale which is really fun to compose with.

 Dynamics Dice

Here is another dice to use with the game "Roll 10" to teach students how to identify the different dynamic symbols.  It's also fun to roll and play a passage with whatever dynamic that is rolled.

Clefs Dice

Test your knowledge of all these clefs when you pair these dice with the Lines and Spaces dice.  Can you roll and name the note?

 Intervals Dice

I originally made these dice to help teach intervals on the violin or piano.  It's also fun to play and practice whatever measure you roll (4th measure, 6th measure, etc.)

Practice Ideas

Sometimes you just need to add some spice to practicing.  Here is what some of my teacher friends did with their practicing this week:

Katie Mattox from Mattix Music Studio:Having trouble getting back into practice? Make work into a game! Here's our "train station game" from today with small tasks written on each station. Once you complete the practice goal or task, drive your train to the next station. We had to have a chocolate at the end, of course!


Asheley Watabe: It's a superhero matching game-- every time Jack does a task he gets to turn over one cup to see if he finds a match... There are 20 cups! It's awesome!


Kelly Stewart: A few years back Koen Rens gave a silent masterclass. I loved how he used his violin to speak to the kids and communicate what he wanted them to do. We tried it at home. Genius! Suddenly she couldn't sass, and more importantly, I couldn't YELL.



Stacy Smith: Today's practice game: Uno cards. Grab a bunch of uno cards. Get a bunch of different numbers, and limit the word cards. Line them up on the stand. The kid picks the card, and you pick what they do. For example 5. "Ok, now you're going to play 5 A major scales." 3: "3 review pieces with a perfect wrist." Big numbers are great for new exercises. Word cards are something you do- I usually demonstrated something but have awful posture. They always fix it! I forgot about this game until today, it worked wonders with my 5-year-old. We got 45 min in without complaint.


Do you have a fun and easy practice game you'd like to share?  Send a brief description and a quick photo to leslie@thepracticeshoppe.com.

Caroline's Crazy Game

Now that school has started it's nice to get into a good routine of practicing again.  My 5-year-old is in half-day Kindergarten which is perfect for a young Suzuki student because we have all morning free to get our practicing done.  It makes my heart smile when I hear my five-year-old going through all her pieces for fun, even if I haven't asked her to.  She loves to play the violin!  I believe this is why it's important to leave the violins out where they can pick them up and play them anytime.

I made this game months ago.  After several days of productive practice, we'll pull out this game as her "reward" for good practicing.  This has a lot of squares specific to what we are working on.  What she likes about it is all the pictures of the dice we use during practicing.  She LOVES to roll the dice!  We get some review done with the Book 1 review dice and Twinkle dice.  We play Roll-10 when she lands on the notes dice.  When she lands on the eighth note we do a little bit of note reading.  Her favorite is making a silly face whenever she passes the silly face halfway through the board.  It's just a silly little game, but it's a great reward practice session!

I have both Caroline's Crazy Game and a blank Crazy Practice Game available to download online.  I laminated my board so we can use and reuse it over and over again without it getting too trashed.  I love these games!

More Music Dice Games

I've been lucky enough to attend the Suzuki Association of the Americas Conference this week and had a lot of success at my booth!  It was fun to meet so many wonderful teachers from around the world.  I was particularly touched when people THANKED me for being there.  What an honor to share my ideas with these wonderful people.  The music dice were such a success and I had a handout with a bunch of games and ideas for the music dice.  I promised to post them online so here they are!  (I should mention that these are compiled with the help of Dana Rice www.thefameschoolblog.com)

Roll 10

*Choice of music dice depending on what needs to be worked on.
*2 players (student and parent/teacher)
*Private lesson or home practice - any instrument
Put 10 playing pieces between the two players (dominoes, skittles, pennies, etc.)  The student rolls the die and names it.  If she can name it correctly she gets one of the game pieces.  If the teacher/parent needs to help the parent/teacher gets the game piece.  Continue to do this until all the pieces are gone.  The person with the most game pieces at the end is the winner.  Continue to play this each day until the student can get all 10 game pieces easily.

Grab A Chord

* Lines and Spaces Dice
* Great to play in a group or private lesson - especially piano and guitar.
The teacher rolls the dice and students search for dice to build 3-note chords. Students get one point for each chord. Play several rounds.  The student with the most points at the end of the final round wins.!

Roll and Clap 

* 4 Rhythm Dice
* Great to play in a private lesson - any instrument.
The student rolls the dice and claps the resulting rhythm from left to right. If the student is correct, the teacher claps back. If the student is incorrect, the teacher says, “Didgeridoo?” (This is a play on the Australian musical instrument because it sounds like you could be saying “Did you redo?”)

Oops! 

* Accidental Die
* Another great game to play in a private lesson- any instrument.
The teacher chooses a musical note from a song the student is playing to be the Oops note. Student rolls the die and uses that accidental whenever the Oops note appears in the song. For example, if the Oops note is A and the student rolls a #, the student must play A# whenever an A appears in the song. This game will help students hear how accidentals change the sound within a song.

Silly Phrase / Funny Word

* Dynamics Dice
* Group class or private lesson.
At the start of the game, the teacher and/or students choose a funny word or silly phrase.
Examples: “Cantankerous” “Didgeridoo”. When the student rolls the die they will say the funny word or silly phrase using that dynamic. In a group setting, everyone can take turns saying the funny word or silly phrase using different expressions like a question, exclamation, happy, sad, etc.

24 Beats

* Notes Dice (16th), Notes Dice (2-8ths), or Notes and Rests Die.
* 2-4 Players
Players take turns rolling the die.  The time value of the note is your score - write it down.  The first player to get 24 beats is the winner.  This game can be made more difficult by requiring that each measure be completed before starting the next measure.

The Write Rhythm

* Time Signature Dice and choice of Notes Dice (16th, 2-8ths, Notes & Rests)
*2-4 Players
*Staff paper
Roll the Time Signature Dice to determine the time signature of the passage you will play with.  Space 8 bars on your sheet of staff paper.  Select which Notes Dice you will roll.  Use the note or rest you roll to fill all or part of a measure.  If you cannot use the note or rest which appears, you must wait for your next turn.  The winner is the first player to fill up eight measures of rhythm.

Little Composer

* Time Signature Die and choice of Pentatonic Dice, Rhythm Dice.
* Great for home practice.
Students will start the practice session by writing a clef on their staff paper (treble or bass - if you are using another clef you will want to use the Lines and Spaces dice instead of the Pentatonic Dice.)  After the initial warm-up, the student can roll the Time Signature die to determine the time signature of her piece.  Write it on the paper.  Between each piece or activity during practicing the student can roll the Pentatonic Die and a Rhythm die and fill in the staff paper with her piece.  When practicing is over she can play her piece or have mom or teacher play it.  See what great music can come after a great practice session!

Treble Cups (for piano)

* Treble Clef Die and Lines and Spaces Dice
* 5 Paper or Plastic Cups
* Paper Keyboard or Giant Keyboard Mat
* Small ball or crumpled paper, bucket
* Ages: 6 and up
* 5-10 minutes
The student chooses a cup and tries to match the dice to the correct key on the
keyboard. For each one the student gets correct, he/she gets a chance at tossing
a ball or beanbag into a bucket.
For Group Play - Split into teams. The team gets a point each time their player
correctly answers and the team with the most points wins.

100 Beats

* 2, 3, or 4 Notes Dice (2-8ths)
* Any chart with 100 (or more) squares or spaces.
Roll the dice and clap the rhythms.  Then count the number of beats and move a game piece that number of spaces on the board.  A student can play this on her own or with a parent or other student.

Musical War

* 2 Notes Dice (16th Notes)
* 2 Players
* 20-50 game pieces (gems, chips, pennies, etc.)
Both students roll their dice at the same time.  The note with the higher note value gets a game piece.  If the note values are the same WAR begins.  Double the number of pieces and roll again.  The winner gets the game pieces.  If it’s the same value again double the game pieces again.  When all the game pieces are gone the winner is the one with most game pieces.

Sharps & Flats

* Basic or Advance Key Signature Dice
* Ages: 8 and up
* 5-10 minutes
The student rolls the die and places a small object like an eraser on the corresponding keys on the piano. This game can be played with a timer by having the student play up to 6 rounds trying to get faster each time. Record the fastest time and try to beat the record in the next lesson.

Tic Tac Toe Rhythm Dice

* 2-3 rhythm dice
* Needed: 2-3 minutes
Student rolls 2-3 dice together and the teacher plays one of the rhythms. The student
must identify the die that was played. The game is over when the student has guessed
correctly 3 times in a row

Name That Symbol

* Notes Dice Variety
* 5-10 minutes
This can be played in a group with any instrument.
The teacher rolls 1 die at a time and the student(s) must shout out the name of the symbol. The student who gets it correct first keeps that die. Play continues
until all the dice are taken. The student with the most dice wins.

Twinkle Games

We did it!  My darling daughter finally received her Twinkle Trophy!!  She played variation A and Twinkle Theme at least 100 times and all the others in the middle just as many (but we didn't count.)  She can stand and play all six twinkles in a row with the piano.  She has graduated from TWINKLES!!  Yea!!!

This is such an accomplishment for me as well as her.   I feel so blessed that this lovely girl loves the violin and I think a lot of it is because practicing has been (for the most part) fun from the beginning.  She loves to get the violin down and play every single day.  It has become a part of her.  I've taught her the beginning phrase of French Folk Song and she plays it non-stop.  This girl was made to play the violin.

With that said - it still hasn't been all cake and cookies along the way.  Here are some "games" we have played to keep practicing interesting and fun.  We don't play games every day, but when times get hard it's always nice to have one of these games ready so practicing can still get done.  I will also use these games in the future because there will be lots of review of these twinkles!

Twinkle Memory

I like to use Twinkle Flashcards for twinkle memory.  I just make two sets of the cards, shuffle them around, and set them upside down and play memory.  Whenever she gets a match, we play that twinkle!

Meredith Strings Review Cards

I just love these cards to use with all my kids and students.  For the twinkles, I just take out the 6 cards for twinkle and put them on one side of me, and when she plays them I put them on the other side of me.  When they are gone - she's done!  Sometimes I turn them over, sometimes I don't so she can pick.  You can also do these with the flashcards above, but these cards are so cute with the pictures - and they are great quality!

Sticker Charts

My daughter is a sticker person and she loves putting stickers on a chart.  I have several different charts to download and use as you're playing your twinkles.  For us, we had to have a folder to keep them all straight, but it was worth it because each time she'd finish a chart I'd let her get a prize out of my prize box (a box full of dollar store items.)  This was a great motivator - especially when she'd near the end of a chart.  She'd end up playing some of the pieces more than ten times a day because she knew she was close to accomplishing her goal.

Caterpillar and Twinkle game

There are two versions of this game.  Basically, it's just the twinkles listed twice and sometimes we'd start from one end and go to the other.  Sometimes I'd just have her put a sticker on the chart and when it was full we were done.  I laminated these ones so we could use them over and over.

Rhythm Game

This was our favorite game.  There was so much chance in this game.  Sometimes it would go on forever and sometimes we were done in a snap.  What I love about this game is that my daughter really recognizes the different rhythms.  This was another game I laminated so we could use it over and over.  Sometimes I wouldn't even use the game board and she'd roll the rhythm die to see what twinkle to play.

Twinkle Game Board

This is a fun game board that uses all sorts of bright colors and has lots of activities.  This one is a favorite to use with a fun die (really big - or really small - or just really pretty.)  I noticed with a 3-year-old attention span it was a bit long, but it could be divided into a couple of days of practicing or would probably be great for a student who is 5 years or older.

There are also lots of blank game boards available to download for free online.  I'd love to hear some of your ideas for practicing the twinkles!