5 Themed Music Days We Hold to Enhance our Students' Learning

To give our students the opportunity to engage with other Greenside Pianists, we organize special themed music days throughout the year. We find that within fun and informal situations we are able to reinforce concepts taught in lessons, as well as introducing material that doesn't necessarily fit in to weekly piano lessons.

1) Easter Games Day 

Each year for the younger students, Georgina organizes a fun day of Easter themed music games. Games in the past have included:

Egg and Fork Race: each student had to collect a plastic egg decorated with a musical symbol and carry it to the other side of the room (while balancing it on a fork) where they then placed it in the space in the egg box where the symbol's name was written.

Musical Easter Egg Hunt: the children were given a list of musical elements they had to find, for example 'Treble Clef C, Minim Rest, Sharp'. These were then found on coloured, laminated eggs that had been hidden around the room. 

Musical Insects and Flowers: the children had to search the room for bees whose bodies were decorated with a note on a stave. Once the note had been read, the bee had to be attached to the flower with the matching letter in the middle.
They then had to find 28 polystyrene balls which had been painted and decorated with a note on a stave. When they had all been found the children had to order them from C to B in order to make 4 musical caterpillars.

The material covered in the games reinforced what the students had been learning in their piano lessons during the past term. 

2) Glock Days 

 
 


















As a result of wanting to provide our students with an opportunity to play with other people and to utilize the skills they have learned in their piano lessons, we looked for instruments that would make that possible. We found that glockenspiels were an inexpensive, portable, and lovely sounding way of bringing students together.

Over the years we've held a variety of Glock Days for a range of ages and abilities, including: Christmas Glock Days, Film Music Glock Days, and World Music Glock Days.

Catherine arranges the pieces to suit the people attending, and writes between 3 to 6 different parts to highlight the importance of listening to others when playing in a group situation. 

3) Percussion Workshops

 
 










We hold percussion workshops in order to introduce students to percussion instruments from around the world, for example: claves, cabasa, guiro, djembe, slit drum, cajon, and agogo. While playing the different instruments, the students' understanding of rhythm is supplemented. Sometimes, rhythms are played with a CD backing, or to melodies performed on various instruments by Catherine, in order to promote the listening skills required to play alongside someone else, and to highlight the importance of keeping a consistent beat.

4) Piano Orchestra 

 
 















A few years ago we realized we have enough electric pianos and keyboards to make a piano orchestra! Catherine managed to create a quasi-orchestral effect by arranging a selection of popular and classical pieces that were learned in lessons and then performed together on the day, with each pianist using a different instrument sound on their keyboard. Performing together meant that no one could choose their own speed, and everyone had to work together as a team. 

5) Halloween Games Day  

A couple of years ago, Georgina invited a selection of Greenside Pianists to help stop the wicked witch, Griselda, from destroying music. Throughout the day the musicians were given musical puzzles and challenges which, when solved, revealed a name of a potion ingredient, such as 'fortissimo' and 'crescendo'. When all the puzzles were solved the children knew how to create the potion needed to stop the witch. While they poured the ingredients into a cauldron they chanted the magical musical words. After they drank the potion, music began playing and we knew that we had stopped the wicked witch from taking away music for everyone!

Last year, the wicked witch returned, and this time targeted the Greenside Musicians! She was planning on silencing all the people who visit Greenside, meaning they could never sing or play the piano again! Luckily, her sister Lucinda is a good witch, and invited everyone to her house. Within her messy rooms were musical puzzles and challenges which revealed musical magical words, which were then translated into potion ingredients, for instance 'pianissimo = bat breath', and 'diminuendo = unicorn dust'. When all of the ingredients had been found, the children entered the Potion Room. In there they poured their ingredients into the cauldron. Finally, they all drank the mixture and knew that, once again, they had defeated the witch. 

The Halloween Games Days require the students to use their musical knowledge to progress in the puzzles and challenges.

Below is a video showing the second Halloween Day in more detail.

We find that all of the themed music days we hold are a successful way of teaching the children and reinforcing their existing musical knowledge without them being aware that they are learning, because they're having so much fun! And as teachers, it's fun for us too!