I'm sure we've all had this conversation in our piano studios:
There's just something about bass clef note reading that some students hate!
I've even had students say things like,
"My eyes just don't see bass clef" "Bass clef notes don't exist on Tuesdays"
With these students, I give them a distraction.
I say, "Let's play a game!"
That's normally met with a "YAY!!!!"
They're so excited choosing their playing pieces and learning the rules of the game, that by the time I show them the first question card (a note in bass clef) they're just too happy they're playing a game to complain that it's bass clef.
As the game progresses I see how quickly they can identify bass clef notes when they're desperate to overtake me in the game, or make sure they don't fall down a sleeping dinosaur.
Then when they're back to their piece and claiming they don't know what the notes in bass clef are 'cause it's "tooooo harrrrrrrrrd" I remind them how quick they were at answering the questions in the game, and I'm met with a
"Oh, yeah. Erm, it's a C"
The more times we play bass clef note reading games, the quicker they get at note reading and their confidence builds and eventually the complaining about bass clef fades away!
My students favourite bass clef note reading games at the moment are:
These games follow the Snakes and Ladder style gameplay, which means it's quick and easy to explain the rules so we can get into bass clef note reading even quicker (yay!)
Have any of your students given you brilliant excuses as to why they can't read bass clef notes?
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