Hi all,

I'm teaching a couple of students tomorrow for a makeup lesson, then again on Thursday for their regular lesson.

I figured I'd make the makeup lesson a special focus time instead of doing 2 regular lessons.

For the older kid - about 8 yrs, I was going to focus on sightreading and theory.

For the younger kid, about 6, a bit immature and just started lessons, I'm a bit at loss.

Any ideas for a fun yet educational 30 min makeup lesson for a very young beginner?

Thanks!

You could play duets with the six year old and work theory flashcards with him if you want something different than his sibling.

I like your ideas; I generally just review repertoire which we've not covered recently. Have fun.

I'm brainstorming here:

Try Canonie's RightLeg/LeftLeg rhythm exercises. I've used it with two different students now, and it's very effective for both reading rhythms and for separating right and left hand staffs. With your younger student you could page ahead in the book and sight read rhythms of pieces he isn't yet working on. He'll be ahead of the game when you get there.

Work on keyboard recognition -- find all the A's, etc.

Work on dynamics - let him choose animals or whatever that have high and low voices, and decide if they are loud or soft, and play how he thinks they sound. Can he think of an animal that has a low, quiet sound? High, loud sound? etc.

Practice making those sounds with good hand position!

Compose a piece of music with him. Let him make the treble and bass clefs (if he's reading on staff yet). He can pick out notes and rhythm, and help you decide if it needs a quarter note or half note or whatever.

Listen to a piece of music together and help him discuss what he thinks the music is about and why, why he likes or doesn't like it, what he likes about it, and so on.

Have fun!

Thank you so far! Some fun ideas. Lollipop I'm for sure going to use a couple of yours!

You can also do improvising. Do some on the piano, but also use some other instruments if you have any (percussion ones work great) or make some of your own. You can take a water bottle and fill it with rocks, popcorn kernals, rice, bells, whatever, and you've got yourself a homemade maraca! Or get a little easter egg and fill it with rice and you've got a good egg shaker! Be sure to put a little glue at the seam so it doens't accidentally come apart!

You can use these to play the beat along with songs on a CD, or for sight reading rhythms, or even for making up a song. With the little ones, you want to have a lot of different activities so that if you sense they are losing interest or focus, you can switch to another one. Usually 3-4 activities in a 30 minute lesson in plenty.

I'm not sure what day it is... but here are a few more.

This works best if you use vocal sounds/words for rhythmic values: tiki, ta, tor-or for example.
March in time together in 4/4 (=pulse), add vocal sounds ta ta ta then tiki tiki tiki etc. Then you can make it harder. you do a one measure pattern, the child copies it back.

Then you do rhythmic dictation. I don't know why 6 and 7 year olds love this so much, perhaps it is because they are learning the magic of writing at school.

Show them how to write a ta, tiki and a tor-or. You 'sing' a measure "ta tiki ta tiki", they write it down, then add a barline to end of measure. If they ask why tell them it's easier to read with the lines. You repeat the first measure and add a 2nd "ta tiki ta tiki / ta ta tor-or". Keep adding measures in this way. Aha, you have noticed that we are developing the skill of following along a score, as the student has to follow and match the sound to score of the written bars in order to get to the next new bar. Anyone who has ever been reading-challenged with a student will appreciate what this game offers Oh yeah!

BTW with Lleg Rleg I often begin with one part each. And don't forget to go as fast as a bicycle down hill, and as sloooooow as a snail. And don't forget to make some mistakes so that the student can point out your errors.