One more post for students who are taking the summer off from lessons and want to keep things fresh in their mind. These are apps that I use in my studio and students love!
All of these are fun, have a variety of levels, and help with note identification, music theory and more. I highly encourage you to check them out!
Back in the 80’s when I was taking piano lessons, the most advanced part of my lessons were the color drawings in my method books. Now, there are so many tools that help in learning. Today, I’m going to share a great resource that has helped my students.
Flashnote Derby is an app that helps students with note identification. You can choose what notes to focus in on, choose how many notes are asked (the default is 10) and you have the choice of a horse race, a Pegasus race and a space battle! Students can either choose the letter on the screen or play on the piano or keyboard.
The game is lots of fun and my students have enjoyed it. I’ve noticed that it’s helped them really improve their note identifying skills, which is a very essential skill to have as a musician!
Check it out at: https://flashnotederby.com/
One of the great things about the technological world we live in is that we can gamify pretty much everything. Back in the olden days when I was taking lessons, the only games were on paper or whatever the teacher made up. There wasn’t many really interactive games to help you learn music.
But now there are! Last year, during our time of staying home, I really honed in on finding apps and creative things for students to do while at home, and still learn about music. Note Rush was one of them.
The thing I find so beneficial about Note Rush is that you can set it to specific parameters. So, if you have a beginning student learning note names and where they are found on the piano, you can focus there. From Bass F to Treble G. And then you can get incrementally more challenging. Or even, design your own notes!
From there, it’s a matter of allowing the iPad/Tablet microphone to pick up your students’ playing. This is where the app shines. A note shows up and the student has to physically play the key. It’s connecting visual placement of the note with playing the key! This is building hand-eye coordination and speed of note identification in the form of a game! And of course, it’s timed, so when a wrong note is played, a time penalty is assessed.
Note Rush is $4.99 either on the App Store for Apple or Android. It’s money well spent to give your learner a leg up and help in note identification, a key skill for playing excellently! Go get it!
