Christine Hadlock's Musical Alphabet Games (Playing the Piano, Do Re Mi: The All-in-One Outrageously Impressive Music Method)

Teach the music "alphabets," essential understanding the musical language, and then play games to solidify this knowledge. Music, afterall, is a language. What are the alphabets of music students need to know? Here are a few: 1. Notes on the grand staff, 2. Keys on the keyboard, 3. Key signatures and the patterns of the circle of 5ths, 4. Solfa and curwen hand signs, 5. Rhythms, and 6. Scales and chordsAlphabet knowledge serves our students’ minds in much the same way as shelves in a storage room would; it builds an organized space in which to learn. Creating this mental foundation is building mental shelves, that make for logical, organized synthesis of information and retrieval (remembering what one has learned). Though there is a bulk of information to learn right from the start, the benefits of mastering the basics are well worth the effort. Read more