Piano Games That Make Practice Fun – Play date food.

For a child to develop their technical and musical abilities, it is important that they practice regularly. However, getting small children to practice is not always a straightforward task!

When practice sessions become routine or boring, youngsters steadily develop an aversion to practice. If left unchecked, this disinclination can progress into resentment which frequently leads to kids giving up the piano and turning their back on the world of music completely.

To circumvent this problem, it is exceedingly important to break up practice sessions with engaging activities that make practice more engaging.

Here are five piano games that I have used in the past:

(1) Frog in a pond

On an A3 sheet of paper create a basic picture of a pond containing 10 lily pads that lead from the centre of the pond to the bank.

Place a chocolate frog on the lily pad in the middle of the pool. Then divide your child’s current musical piece into 10 sections.

Make them aware that for each section of the piece they play without a slip-up, the frog will move one step closer to the bank. If they are able to play the entire piece without a mistake, the frog reaches the bank and is free from the pond.

Each day , your youngster can try and rescue the frog. If they make an error, the frog has to go back to the center.

This easy game will make children practice carefully so as to rescue the frog. As an additional motivation, if the child manages to rescue the frog they can eat him!

(2) Secret Message

A good way to help improve your child’s note reading ability is to ask them to help you decode a secret message.

To prepare the secret message all you have to do is take a straightforward message like,

“Meet me at the cafe”

Then replace any example of the letter’s ‘A’ thru to ‘G’ with their corresponding musical notation.

Dependent on the age of your youngster, you can make this tougher by including both treble and bass clef notation.

You can pass this message on to your child along with a reference book and ask them to do the study needed to decode the message.

When youngsters have a real incentive for learning the names of the notes, and they are required to conduct the analysis themselves, they are far more likely to retain the knowledge they discover.

(3) Listening Lion

For this game you will need to obtain a little soft toy lion. Place the lion on the floor and have your child stand on the opposite side of the room.

Next take a seat at the piano and tell them you're going to play a little section from one of their pieces which they must identify.

If they can identify the piece correctly, they get to take one step forward toward the lion. If they cannot identify the piece correctly they must stand where they are.

If your child identifies a number of pieces correctly, they get to move forward and reach the lion which they can then can then play with for the rest of the day.

This simple game inspires children to actually listen and begin to know their pieces instead of simply depending on their muscle memory.

(4) Pokemon Toss

This is a simple game that can help motivate young kids. To set the game up all you've got to do is write the name of your child’s current pieces and scales on some colored cardboard squares. You then lay these squares out face down on a table or on the floor.

Next, you give your child a tiny Pokemon toy (or other small token that they are fond of) and make them throw the toy on to the choice of cards. When the toy lands on a card, your youngster goes and picks up the card and brings it back to the piano where they play the piece or scale written on the card.

(5) Playing With Accompaniment

For older kids, one of the most engaging methods to make practice enjoyable is to procure a backing track for the piece they are practicing. There are several sites that offer musical scores that have a CD that provides pro accompaniment. One of my favorites is www.musicminusone.com. Playing along with these CDs can transform a solitary practice session, into the equivalent of a group jam session. It expands children’s musical horizons and is just great fun.

I'm hoping these ideas will help you to get started. Remember, any straightforward game you can use to break up the monotony of daily piano practice will help your youngster to develop a positive attitude towards playing the piano.

Dr. Anthony Fernando is a musician and software developer living in Melbourne Australia. His piano software Piano Is Fun has helped thousands of children and adult beginners around the world learn how to read music quickly and easily.