Cube Timer Wonder

I've been so delighted with these new Cube Timers that I found recently.  I have had several people request that I put these online and I love how this spices up our practice!

My daughter's teacher just concluded a contest that really helped reinforce smart practicing!  I often roll a die or spin a wheel or just tell my students or children to do an over-and-over spot _____ amount of times.  I often do 10 times per day because I use a bead counter a lot.  If it's a short over and over it may be 20 or 30 times a day.  This contest counted the TIME rather than the repetitions and the great thing about using time instead of the number of times is that the quality of overs and overs is better.

Each student has a cube timer and would practice hard spots in their piece over and over for that amount of time.  My younger daughter only has the attention span to do 1 minute at a time - so we flip the cube to the 1 and it would automatically start a 1-minute timer.  She'd practice her spot for 1 minute and when the timer would go off she'd finish her spot and be done.  (If she needed more time we'd do another minute.)  My older daughter would do her spots for longer - 3, 5, or 7 minutes.  For every minute they did an over-and-over spot they would color in that many numbers on this chart. (5 minutes of overs and overs would be 5 numbers.)  At the end of the summer, every student handed in their charts, and everyone got a prize, but the people with the most minutes got to choose first.

Since the contest finished we have still been practicing using the cube timer almost daily...it's become part of our routine.  My 4-year-old does at least one task for 1 minute using the cube timer each day (this week it's circle bows.)  My 7-year-old uses part of her practice just going over difficult spots in her pieces using the cube timer.  With her I sometimes roll a die to determine how many spots we need to do - and then we do that many spots with the timer.  The biggest success has been with my 11-year-old who practices on her own.  She's using the timer to practice all sorts of spots in her pieces.  Her practicing has gone from playing her pieces over and over to playing spots in her pieces over and over.

What I like most about these cube timers is that they are so easy to use.  I know most timers aren't very hard to use, but it requires pushing buttons and setting or resetting the timer.  With the cube timer, all you have to do is just flip the cube and the timer starts.  There is a digital timer on the bottom if you are curious about how far along you are on the timer.  There is light on the top so you know it's working.

We've been mainly using the 1, 3, 5, 7 timer, but I really like the longer timers as well because you can break a practice session into 15-minute sessions, or use the timer to time the practicing.  I'm also thinking I may use it to time computer time for my kids (30 minutes - no buttons, just turn the timer over.)

Composing Music with Music Dice

 This week we've been making practicing fun by using several different kinds of music dice.  My 6-year-old resists practicing more than my other girls so I'm trying to motivate her to enjoy music and that includes writing music.  She absolutely loved this activity which we spend a couple minutes between chunks of our practice time.

I have this great staff paper that is really big and long.  This is great for kids who like to write big.  I bought it at Music in Motion and I'd like to stock some in my store soon.  However, there are plenty of free sites where you can download staff paper with a variety of sizes like this one that has three different sizes.

The first step was teaching her how to make a treble clef.  It's so much fun to draw treble clefs, don't you think!  I love doodling treble clefs.   After she drew a treble clef she would roll a time signature die to determine the time signature of her composition. 

The next step was to use the musical notes die to determine which notes to draw.  Since she's a violinist she used the A Pententonic die.  There are other dice available such as the C Pentatonic die (great for pianists and general musicians) and the G Pentatonic die in the bass clef for cellists.  Basically, all of the pentatonic dice have the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 8th notes of a scale (A, B, C#, E, F#, and A for the A Pentantonic dice.)  These notes generally sound pretty good when arranged in any order.

I let her decide what kind of note (we were only doing quarter and half notes) and she figured out where to put the bar lines.  When her measures were finished she and I would play her composition.  I would play different versions of it as well (different rhythms, different pitches) so she could see that she could develop it into a song.  She got such a kick out of listening to me compose a little piece out of her melody.  I noticed her doing this later on her own.

Here is one such composition (notice the half note is backward.  :)  This has sparked an interest in practicing again...at least this week.

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!