Games, Explained
By Mariah Gillespie
In the education world, there is a phrase called “repetitive study processes,” also known as DRILLS: a huge stack of SAT word flashcards. Reciting the multiplication table again and again. Writing a sentence on the board 100 times. Sound familiar?
Repetition and drill-based activities remain an important aspect of learning, and music education is no exception; there are notes and musical symbols that simply must be learned in order to become a successful, well-rounded musician. The challenge for music teachers is to gracefully integrate these activities into a holistic musical experience, and drill-based games allow us to do just that.
It’s 2021! Drills do NOT have to be boring! Technology (specifically apps) allows us to incorporate drills into our lessons in a fun and interactive way—SO fun, in fact, that students are BEGGING to do them! Sure, I could use index cards. I could call out “A” and have them play an A, or call out “F” and have them play an F.
Or…we could go on a unicorn race in the clouds, and when a note appears on the screen (literally in the shape of a flashcard), the student has to play that note on the piano (yes, the I-pad listens). Get it right, your unicorn moves ahead. Get it wrong, it doesn’t. Get enough notes correct, and you win the race!
Or…we could be a NINJA! A note appears on the screen (again, literally in the shape of a flashcard) and the student has to identity that note and tap the correct key on the keyboard below. Get enough notes correct, and the ninja will karate chop a board in half! Students earn colored karate “belts” that (from what I’m told) correlate with the real-life karate belts (black is best).
So next time your student tells you that they played Ninja during their lesson, or went on a horse race, or fed “munchie,” you’ll know that we have successfully tricked them into LOVING drills and that every moment spent playing that game is, in fact, a learning moment.
To understand why these learning objectives are necessary for your child’s physical and cognitive development, please see Your Child’s Brain During Piano Lessons
Piano Maestro: This is my favorite app to use with students, because as you can see in the chart, it has it all: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic parts of the brain are at work. Orchestration, rhythm, note reading, sight reading, eye-hand coordination. Your child’s brain is EXPLODING with neurons firing in all different directions—a true work out for the brain. It is, in my opinion, a “practice app.” Mr. Maestro is a character that helps students learn to read music. Students choose songs, and they are broken up into sections (phrases). It is a listening app, meaning the I-pad hears what notes are played and can discern the difference between pitches. First the notes appear on the screen slowly, with a metronome, and it stops if a mistake is made, only continuing when the correct note is played. When the student masters a section, they play that section again (repetition is key in practicing) with orchestration. When all of the sections are learned in this manner, it’s put together as an entire song. This app encourages students to participate in PRODUCTIVE PRACTICING: slowly, carefully, repeat, repeat, repeat, and rewards them with points, stars, rank, etc. Songs range from Beethoven’s 5th to Taylor Swift. If you have an I-pad at home, we can connect our accounts so that whatever they do at home is reflected on the studio I-pad, and vice versa. I can also assign students songs through the app, and I receive a weekly Teacher Report that tells me how many minutes each student played and on what songs. It covers every area of learning, engages all parts of the brain, inspires conversations about composers, instruments, and music history, and, importantly, is FUN.
Rhythm Swing: This is my 2nd favorite game, because rhythm is ESSENTIAL to cognitive and physical development; being able to keep a steady beat is an indicator that learning to read is ready to happen in the brain, and is a perfect training ground for inhibitory control. And this app is all about keeping a beat. And counting. And listening to jazz and classical music. Students learn about the different kinds of notes (quarter notes, half notes, etc.) and how many beats (counts) each note receives. A rhythm (a set of notes) appears on the screen, and a voice says “one, two, ready, play.” The student must wait for this cue to begin tapping (enter inhibitory control). Then the student must tap the screen to the beat of the music, sometimes fast, and sometimes slow (enter tempo and orchestration) and must hold his/her finger down on the screen for the duration of each note value (1 beat, 2 beats, etc.) There is a monkey swinging from the trees, with a hungry alligator underneath. If the student taps too soon, or too late, or doesn’t hold a note long enough, the monkey falls out of the tree and is eaten by the alligator – they have 3 “monkey lives.” Importantly, there is also “practice mode,” where is there is no monkey and no alligator—just notes. If they make a mistake, there is a “splot” noise, but they are able to continue the exercise to the end without the scary alligator.
Tenuto: We use this app at the start of every lesson, for the “note name game.” For pre-reading students, there is a keyboard on the screen, and one of the keys is red. They must tap the letter name that corresponds to that key (keyboard geography). Some students are finding CDE, CDEFG, some are finding ABCDEFG, and some are also finding sharps (#) and flats (b), which are the black notes. For students that are reading on the staff, they must identity a note on the staff. This is hands down the best music theory app out there (also online—and free—at www.musictheory.net). Categories include intervals, scales, chords, key signatures, ear training, accidentals, and more—and, importantly, each exercise is completely customizable!
Rhythm Cat: This game is pretty much the same as Rhythm Swing, except the student must tap within a circle on the screen (whereas in Rhythm Swing, they can tap anywhere on the screen) – this app has WONDERFUL orchestration, from Minuet in G to Dvořák’s New World Symphony. A great alternative for those who may be a tad intimidated by an alligator, and it’s wonderful exposure to classical music!
NoteWorks: Also known as “Munchie,” this game has a character who likes to eat notes! Notes on the staff are spit out of the note factory, and the student must identify the note on the staff (staff geography), and then tap that note on the keyboard below (on the iPad). For pre-reading students, I call out the note on the staff and they play it on the keyboard (keyboard geography).
NinGenius: Also known as “Ninja,” this game has a ninja character doing karate. A note on the staff appears on the screen (literally in the shape of a flashcard) and, like Munchie, the student must identify that note and find it on the keyboard below (on the iPad). After a few notes, the ninja breaks a board, and the more notes the student finds, the higher color “belt” they get. From what I’m told, the colored belts in this game correlate with the real-life karate belts, with black being the best. It’s a crowd favorite!
Flashnote: Also known as “The Race Game,” this app gives students the option of going on a unicorn race, a horse race, or an outer space adventure (in November, December, and January, they also have the option of a reindeer race). When a note appears on the screen (literally in the shape of a flashcard), the student has to play that note on the piano (yes, the iPad listens). Get it right, your unicorn moves ahead. Get it wrong, it doesn’t. Get enough notes correct, and you win the race!
Orchestra: Curious-minded students love learning about the different instruments of the orchestra! It’s a great app to tap when a student is losing momentum during the lesson, when they’ve just had 10 minutes of focus-intensive productive practicing, or are just plain tired. Students see an entire orchestra on the screen and can tap on any instrument to learn more about it. They will hear a song being played on that instrument, and while they listen, they can read about the history of the instrument (how it’s made, how it works, etc.) There are 2 important quizzes that we utilize: identify instrument by sound (tap the instrument that you hear) and sight (which is the tuba?).
Musical Me!: 3-4 year olds, who generally have 15 minute lessons, get 1-2 minutes of iPad time at the end of their lesson, and it is most certainly time well spent. There are numerous educational games within this app.
Rhythm/Orchestration: In the “Birds” game, birds fly across the screen from left to right (just like how we read music, and how we read books), and the student must tap each bird as it flies across—with each tap, a note is played that creates a song. Twinkle, Twinkle, Muffin Man, etc. This develops eye-hand coordination (symbol-to-sound), orchestration (you can select different instruments to play the song), patternization (the birds are up, down, up, down, and those little fingers must follow that pattern), and focus (sometimes there are balloons in the sky they have to avoid!).
Memory/Ear Training: Another game is the “Planet Game,” which is a fantastic ear training tool (for all ages). There are 3 planets, 3 different colors. The planets will sing a pattern in solfege (do, mi, sol) and the student must tap back what they hear. There are options to have a 3, 4, or 5-note (planet) patterns. You can also switch this sound to different instruments.
Notes/Ear Training/Composition: In the “Underwater Game,” notes are on a staff underwater, and students use their finger to drag a note up and down the staff. As the note gets higher, the sound gets higher, and as they drag the note lower, the sound gets lower. They drag each note up and down and then can play the song they have created! You can also switch the sound to different instruments.
Instrumentation/Rhythm: A row of instruments are at the bottom of the screen. The student drags one of the instruments to the center of the screen and taps it to the beat of the song being played (Old MacDonald, etc.). Again, the importance of rhythm/keeping a beat in childhood development cannot be stressed enough!