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.)

Anyone can compose music!

Composing Dice? How do I use these? Why are there notes missing?

These are the most common questions I get at conferences where I have my music dice for sale. I wish I could easily and quickly convey how cool these dice are and they are the very reason I started making music dice in the first place.

Composing Pentatonic Dice do not have every note in a scale because there are only SIX SIDES! I commonly get the question why I can’t have every note, but please remember, my friends, there are 7 notes in a scale – 8 if you put the tonic on both ends. The solution is to make it a pentatonic scale (pent=5, 5 notes, plus the tonic at the end.) The notes are these dice are scale degrees 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 1 (omitting scale degree 4 and 7). There are four different dice available.

1.  A Major in treble clef – perfect for violinists (A, B, C#, E, F#, A) 
2. C Major in treble clef – perfect for pianists and general music (C, D, E, G, A, B) 
3. C Major in bass clef – perfect for pianists and general music (C, D, E, G, A, B) 
4. G Major in bass clef – great for cellists (G, A, B, D, E, G) 
5. Here is a set of 1 of each dice.

Now, let me tell you why I decided to make pentatonic scale dice and why they are so great for composing. Often Jazz music, hymns, and folk tunes are composed using the major pentatonic scale. It is the best scale for improvising and composing simple tunes. The more I know about this amazing pentatonic scale the more songs I realize use this very scale and notes in their melody. Think of the following pieces:

My girl (opening introduction), 

Oh Suzanna, 

Amazing Grace 

The notes in a major pentatonic scale give a nursery rhyme-like quality and are easily remembered. It has a pleasant sound that works great with many chords. It’s easy to compose a pentatonic melody because you don’t have to worry about what to do with the leading tone or the tricky 4th note of a major scale.

Here is what I do with my students to help them start composing:

1. Start with four measures of music. Use staff paper or whiteboards, I personally like using a paper cut into 4ths and using each piece as a measure and then connecting them at the end. 
2. Add a clef (treble or bass, depending on which dice you are using) and a 4/4 time signature. You could use ¾ or 2/4 as well, but let’s just make it easy and use 4/4 this time. 
3. Before you start rolling let’s end the melody on the tonic, so write a half-note tonic note at the end of the piece – a C if you are using the C scale dice, and A if you are using the A scale dice, etc. 
4. Now, let’s add a dominant half-note at the end of the second measure. The dominant is the 5th note of the scale, so for the C scale it would be G, for the A scale it would be E. 
5. It’s time to start rolling and fill in the measures with quarter notes with the notes your roll on the dice. 

When your measures are filled up, voila! You have a simple melody. ANYONE can do this – your most beginner student, your smarty-pants high school student, ANYONE!

Take it to the next step:

1. Now, let’s add another 4 measures to your piece. In measures 5 and 6 copy what you wrote in measures 1 and 2. 
2. Add a tonic half note at the end of measure 8. 
3. Fill in measures 7 and 8 with quarter notes rolled with the dice. 

Voila! You have a phrase.

And now…

1. Here is where you can fancy things up a bit with passing tones and neighbor tones. 
2. Are any of the notes next to each other? Make the first one a barred 8th note with the note above it and create a neighbor tone. 
3. Are there any notes next to each other that skip a note? Make the first note a barred 8th note and pass the tone to the other note. 
4. There are lots of ways you can doctor your melody by adding rhythm, dynamics, articulations, etc. See what you can come up with. 

If you want to try something fun with your students – see if what happens when you compose a “duet” to a common melody. For example, Jingle Bells. Do the same steps as above, but make sure you are following the same rhythmic pattern as Jingle Bells. When you play Jingle Bells in the key you are composing you have just made a simple duet to your common piece.

Here are several downloads that you can use when composing your own melody or teaching your students how to compose:

Basic Composition 1 - 4 measures
A Major (treble)
C Major (treble)
C Major (bass)
G Major (bass)

Basic Composition 2 - 8 measures
C Major (treble)
A Major (treble)
C Major (bass)
G Major (bass)

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.

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.

Memorizing All Major Key Signatures

As the newsletter editor or the Suzuki Association of Utah newsletter, I get to read a lot of great articles about teaching.  I particularly liked this one from the SAU Flute VP about memorizing key signatures.  This is one of my goals for my Book 4+ students this year.  

I was also thrilled because I just received a new shipment of key signature dice.  I've had the dice with the basic key signatures (C, G, D, A, F, and B-flat), but I've had several requests for the more advanced key signatures, so here they are!

Memorizing All Major Key Signatures

By Katrina Young

Since the Utah Suzuki Flute players are learning their major scales for our SAU Sweet Scale competition on October 12^th, I thought I would include some tricks and incentives that have helped my studio in the past to learn and memorize their scales. 

For visual learners:  I adapted this idea from Cindy Henderson.  Cindy includes in her student flute journal the note names of the scales written out with the sharps and flats circled.  I realized that some of my students would respond better with color and being able to focus on only one scale at a time.  I made these major scale flip charts for my students.   If you would like to make a set for yourself, they can be downloaded here.          

 We discuss how each scale is like houses on a street.  For example, “E street” has two sets of sharp houses that live next door to each other.  The “F# street” has only one house that is not sharped on the entire street!  When we venture into the flats neighborhood, we discuss how flats also like to live next door to each other.  These cards help students see and recognize the patterns of major scales.  To make these cards, simply print onto white cardstock, cut on the black line, punch a hole in the corner, and place on a binder ring.  I arrange the scales on the ring based on the circle of 5ths for my students.

  

For Kinesthetic learners:  I give these students the following worksheets.  By writing down the letter names of the scales themselves, they understand how the scales are formed and why we have a circle of 5ths and 4ths. Using the sharp major scale worksheet, I walk students through how we move around the circle of 5ths.  We start with the C major scale.  Have students count up to the 5^th note of the C major scale (G) and this is how we find what the next scale will be around the circle of 5ths.  They fill in the next set of boxes starting with G.  To find what note will be sharped in this scale, the rule is to always add the sharp to the 7^th note or degree of the scale.  In the G major scale this is F#.  When the worksheet is finished, it leaves students with a handy chart to refer back to.  You can download these worksheets here.

Make up a sentence to help you remember the circle of 5ths and 4ths:  Cindy Henderson uses these sentence “gimmicks” in her studio.  For the sharp keys in order around the circle of 5ths she says: 

                                    #        #

God Destroyed All Earth By Fire of Course.

                    # of sharps in key: 1      2               3   4       5   6         7

For the Flat keys going around the circle of 4ths she says: 

                                                 b       b    b        b                b               b

Fat Boys Eat Apple Dumplings Greedily of Course.

            # of flats in the key:  1    2       3    4        5               6                7

My own eight-year-old daughter made up a sharp order sentence the other day.  It is silly, but it helped her memorize the order in one day:  Good Dogs Always Eat Breakfast Fastly and Cleanly!  Make up your own sentence!  It will stick in your head better.

Make an incentive to learn them:  Each student in my studio has a fishy scale card from susanparadis.com.  As they pass off one of their scales, I fill in a scale on their fish card.  Once they learn all of their scales for the sweet scale competition, they will get a box of Swedish fish!  Sometimes, incentives such as these really help when things seem hard to learn. 

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!