"It's too hot. My fingers are too sweaty. My brain is sweating. It's actually melted."
This is what one of my online piano students, Gracie, said at the beginning of her lesson on Monday.
She looked like she'd had enough, and after being at school all day in the heat, she probably had!
I had planned on carrying on with her piece, but I could tell it would be an effort.
So, instead, we did some "cool" activities that required little effort and movement.
I then continued these activities in other piano lessons because the general feeling this week was that it was TOO HOT.
TREASURE HUNT NOTE
We both had a copy of the same sheet music in front of us.
"I've chosen a treasure note.
You have 10 yes or no questions to ask me to see if you can work out which note I've chosen."
Gracie asked questions like, "Is it in treble clef?" "Is it worth 2 beats?" and eventually got the note after 7 questions.
She then decided the treasure she would like would be the biggest ice cream in the world (and she would lay on top of it!)
'Treasure Hunt Note' is one of the games in the pack, 'Online Games with Little (Or No) Resources.'
MUSIC MONSTERS
Gracie had an unused Music Monster sheet (which, funnily enough, was an ice cream!)
But the student after her, Kyle, didn't.
I asked Kyle to grab a piece of plain paper. On the paper, he drew a big, wobbly shape.
I then held up the first flashcard and asked him to tell me the note.
After he gave me the letter name, I held up the grid that told him what to draw on his monster.
I deliberately used only bass clef notes, because Kyle is a very vocal member of the popular "I hate bass clef" gang. But because he was too hot and tired to do anything else, he succumbed to reading bass clef notes so he could create his weird and wonderful music monster.
Ice Cream Rhythms
(Yes, there's an ice cream theme this week!)
With a beginner student who's just getting to grips with rhythms, we created some yummy ice cream-related rhythms:
I drew a rhythm on a whiteboard, and she clapped it and then added ice cream words to it.
We then started to play the rhythms on the piano, using notes C to G (which she told me was "Chocolate note to...Gocolate note..?")
PLAY BACK
One online student, Caitlyn, just wanted to close her eyes and imagine she was on the beach with a smoothie.
So I told her to put her right hand in C position and close her eyes.
I then played a little pattern of notes (C D E F) and asked her to repeat what she heard. She did, no problem.
I then made it slightly harder: C E F G. Would she be able to hear the jump from C to E?
She scrunched her face up. "Hmm."
She played some notes quietly until she was sure.
We did this for a little while, with me playing interesting rhythms, and adding in sharps and flats and Caitlyn listening intently.
TAKE ANY IDEAS YOU WANT
Hopefully, some of these activities have given you some ideas and inspiration for things you can do with your piano students when they're too hot to think or move!
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