Online Games & Educational Resources
While there is a lot of great educational software out there (and even some free old-school resources in your assignment notebooks!), I'm always a fan of tech stuff, especially in your own home, on your own time, and if at all possible, FREE! Therefore, I've been poking around online and have found a few sites that have online games or drills for free, assuming you are comfortable giving your kids internet time (or you could always work with them and supervise if you're a bit more comfortable with that). Note reading is a crucial skill to develop in young musicians because once you can accurately read notes and deduce rhythm, with enough time you can learn to play any music put in front if you, as opposed to a lot of musicians out there who are only able to piece things together slowly. From my observation, they generally end up only learning new music by ear from hearing it and then ultimately just memorizing.
It's the difference between being able to recognize sight words like "if" "and" or "but" in milliseconds instead of sounding them out every time you encounter them.
Even if I haven't brought it up specifically with you, if there's the time and interest, I think it never hurts to review or increase the speed of recognition. Also, the first site on the list, in bold, has a LOT of fun quizzes that would be educational for every student. Beyond just notes and rhythm, it goes into intervals, basic music theory concepts, learning about composers/musical terms, etc. From what I've seen so far, it just seems to be a really great resource.
It's the difference between being able to recognize sight words like "if" "and" or "but" in milliseconds instead of sounding them out every time you encounter them.
Even if I haven't brought it up specifically with you, if there's the time and interest, I think it never hurts to review or increase the speed of recognition. Also, the first site on the list, in bold, has a LOT of fun quizzes that would be educational for every student. Beyond just notes and rhythm, it goes into intervals, basic music theory concepts, learning about composers/musical terms, etc. From what I've seen so far, it just seems to be a really great resource.
- http://www.musictechteacher.com/music_quizzes/music_quizzes.htm
This is a fun meta site with LOTS of game/quiz links that are music related…would be fun to explore, specifically: - http://www.musictheory.net/exercises
Lots of options here and you can customize what you want to be drilling. For note reading, be sure to click the "customize" box and select the BASS CLEF as well, otherwise it will default to just treble clef and pianists need to be fluent with both clefs! - http://www.teoria.com/exercises/index.php
This is similar to the site above, but you hear the pitches on the piano as well, and also have the option to identify the notes by either the note name OR by where it is on the piano keyboard (both valuable). Again, make sure to select the bass clef as well as the treble clef, and you can opt for the ledger lines as well for a challenge!
- http://www.vicfirth.com/education/keyboard/speednotereading.html
So far this is the best one as far as really grading level… Begins with just space notes, then line notes, then combines. 100 may be a lot of notes to get through though… Unfortunately seems to be only with the right hand/treble clef)
- http://www.funbrain.com/notes/
Good for connecting notes on the staff to the keyboard
- http://rhona-mae-arca.suite101.com/five-free-music-websites-to-improve-note-reading-a182063
This article has links to a few websites with drills