by Ben Stiefel

     Learning to read notes on a staff is valuable for all children, whether they play an instrument, sing, or simply love music and wish to learn more about how musicians compose and play.  But learning musical terms such as staff, clef, time signature, key signature, and measure, can be boring.  How do you make the teaching of note-reading exciting and fun?  Here are some ideas:

      Let children write on the chalkboard.  Once you've modeled how to make a treble clef, for example, have four or five students come to the chalkboard and draw the clef.  Play some fun background music while they do it - they'll think they're on a game show.

      Speaking of game shows, you can teach almost any musical concept and turn it into a game.  For example, when teaching line and space notes, you could create index cards that read "third space" or "fourth line," for example.  Make one student the "announcer" who reads any given card out loud.  Then have students draw the note that's been called.  If it's drawn on the correct line (or in the correct space), give their team a point - or a hundred points.  I'd vote for a hundred points - much more fun than earning just one measly point!

     I'm also a big fan of children moving around the classroom.  Using the same example of line and space notes, single notes on a staff can be drawn on large cards and then placed around the classroom.  In this example, a group of students from a predesignated team comes to the front of the classroom.  When the "announcer" says "third space," for example, the students walk to the corresponding card, and are given points if correct.  For more advanced students who have been taught the letter names of the notes on staff, the announcer can simply say "note B," and those students again must walk to the corresponding card.

     There's no reason note-reading should be dull - with a little creative thought, you can shake up your music class and make learning fun! 

(For a fun and easy way to teach note-reading to your recorder, song flute, tonette, and song flute students, see Single-Note Symphonies For Recorder.  For more fun and easy ideas to spice up your general music class, while helping your most difficult students to learn and achieve, see Winning Over Your Toughest Music Class.)