These flashcards are a nice size for little hands. I like to print out the template sheets on regular paper at home, then take them to the
local copy shop and re-print the sheets there. That way, I
know the ink won't run! Also, I like to use heavy card stock, and that's much easier to do at the printer's.
These used to be a big deal to cut out, involving much measuring with a ruler, and tracing of pencil lines with a straight edge. But now, after trimming the long edges off the left and right sides, I just "eyeball" each grand staff, and cut parallel to the staffs, about a staff's width away. Much faster!
When I give them to music students, I have THEM write the letter name of the note
on the back in pencil, and put "R" or "L" to indicate right or left hand. We start with just a few cards -- maybe two or three! -- and add more cards week by week
as the student becomes familiar with them.
Some simple ways to use them that don't take too much time from playing music:
Start with 2 - 4 cards, such as bass B and Middle C, and treble MC and D. Mix them
up, then ask your student, "Top or bottom? TREBLE or BASS?" (High or low...left or right...)
Scramble them again, and tell the student to arrange them from left to right, or
lowest to highest, or bottom to top.
Pick well-known cards, have the student scramble them and lay them out in any kind
of order, and play the resulting "tune". You may want a double set of cards for that.
One piano teacher I have read about has a "One Minute Club," complete with cool little cards like business cards (stating membership in the club) which she awards to students who can say all the notes in a minute or less. She says her students pack these cards around with pride.
There are many games you can play with these cards, especially with more than one student,
where competition raises the interest level! But music note flashcards are not the answer
to all your students' notereading difficulties. They are only one more tool. I suggest
making them a tiny part of their weekly assignment lesson after lesson until the notes
become very familiar.
Expect that most parents will be too busy to help with the cards at home...sad but true.
Don't be too hard on them -- many of us teachers are parents too!
Choose bright, bold, and pretty colors for the cards, not boring old white. Try using different colors for treble
and bass, or ledger line notes. Ask the kids to pick their own colors! It helps them "own"
the flashcards.
Elania: THANK YOU! This website is a God-send! :D I took piano lessons as a kid, a little music theory, and now I'm a homeschooling mom hoping to pass on anything I can to my kids about music. It is such a gift, for so many reasons!
I have been slowly giving my oldest daughter whatever my memory can dredge up, scouring the internet for free music she can do, but your website with its instructions AND tips on how to teach pieces are going to help me SO much in this endeavor. I just wanted to tell you thank you. Really really! THANK YOU!
Miggy, United Kingdom: I've just found your website and I think I've died and gone to heaven. I've just taken up the piano again after 35 years absence... buying sheet music was getting expensive/a luxury. The tips are great too. I also live in the middle of nowhere so buying from a shop is not really an option unless I fancy a 120 mile round trip for a piece of sheet music! Thank you for your wonderful site. I look forward to having a thorough look...
Mary: Hi! Your website is just perfect for me, a beginning piano teacher, and just now responding to a request for guitar lessons...
Rosanne: I am grateful I found your website! My 7-yr-old and 9-yr-old sons will benefit from it continuously. They have been playing 1 and 4 years, respectively. You and your site are truly terrific. Thank you!
Kim in Washington: My son is hooked...I've been introducing piano to my son on and off for a year or so, but he's not had much interest. Then I gave him "Monsters Everywhere". He loved playing it with the organ sound on our piano. He memorized it that week and I'm printing off the other Halloween songs to keep him going. I love the detailed instructions on teaching since he is my first student! Thanks so much. Dana:That is so neat that your son has experienced the magic and mystery of music through this little song. That is so exciting to me. Thanks for writing, Kim!
Matt: THIS SITE IS AMAZING!!... Thank you so much for your hard work getting these on the web, you have made many children very happy!!
Joy: Thank you. Just wanted to say I found your website by mistake but what a blessing it has been. I am a missionary wife living in Spain (for many, many years) and I teach piano to Spanish children and adults. I have the barrier of very few usable things in Spanish, and can so identify with the need to write things suitable for the student...
California Student: Hi,I want to thank you for such a wonderful and educational website. I have found all the information you have posted and your comments immensely helpful, and I am grateful for your posting it. I am sure you are an awesome teacher and person. I am a beginner piano student, so many thanks and Happy New Year! Lori, homeschool mom, songwriter/musician and private music teacher: Just wanted to say "thank you" for this site and for allof your dedication and hard work! I have literally combed the internet for months on end to find free and "doable" resources for my young students and for my own children, whom I have homeschooled for nine years. I will be returning to this site over and over again from here on out and am excited to presentsome of the tools I found today on here to my voice and piano students later this week! My thirteen-year old son is happily, as I type, working with the guitar chord sheets I just printed for him! Wish I'd found you earlier! Thanks a million, and God bless--
Kelli: I am so relieved to have found this site!! I have been struggling as a music student, not having any previous instruction in high school. I am starting from scratch and this is a wonderful tool!! Kudos to you!! God Bless you!
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Marta: Thank you for the free downloads! I'm a private teacher and I teach piano and beginner voice as well. :) I've been running my studio for about a year and I've come across the same issue; I don't want my students to have to purchase an entire supplemental book for only a couple of songs. So thank you for this site...some great downloads!!
Yolanda: I used to teach piano lessons, and then did not for anumber of years. Now, suddenly, I have 3 beginning students and I am thrilled. I was looking for printable scales and found your wonderful website.
Thank you so much. I know this will be a big help to me and my students.
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Susie: Wow! I cannot thank you enough for the free collection of piano sheet music that you created here. My daughter and I are following everything you wrote and we LOVE it. It is super fun!!! She loves to play because of your website. We have a small binder now that is slowly growing! THANK YOU!!!!
Anna Lee: What a fabulous website! I've been a keen amateur piano player since I first learnt 56 years ago at the age of 8. I now have a three year old granddaughter and am hoping fervently that she'll want to learn - at which point I'll teach her. This is just the kind of resource I'll need to make it comprehensible. Thank you very much.
Stasi: AH!!!!! I am so happy to find a helpful site like this. I started to give piano lessons to one little girl from church and two girls requested voice lessons this spring. Since then, word got out and going into the fall I have 18 students. I am so excited, but I'm running out of materials that they can borrow, and I, like you hate telling the parents to buy morebooks. Because I have such a diverse group of students I spend SO much time making supplemental material and I feel like I have to pick through other websites, to only find one or two useful things. I am so thankful for the wealth of supplement that you have offered here! And it's all SO user friendly!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!
Marybeth: I love your site! It has been an incredible resource forme as a Music teacher. I love your ideas and the music you share...
Rossana: Greetings from Perú, South America. I like your blog, I teach piano to children, and it isgood for all the piano teachers.
Carrie,Voice and Piano Teacher: This site is FABULOUS. For all the reasons you explain on the site itself--this is exactly what piano teachers need! (I still need to go look at the vocal music). Wow. THANK YOU SO MUCH!