Become a WHIZ at the Grand Staff with ONE game and TEN Ways to Play
The grand staff is a vast and scary landscape to those who first encounter it's lines, spaces and ancient signs.
Getting to know and memorizing pitch names on this complex grid is like learning the names of 88 new best friends! In addition, musicians need to know the "homes" of all those "88 friends" on the piano keyboard.
How does an early learner become a "whiz" at memorizing the names and locations of 88 pitches? It starts by making REPETITION their best friend. As like to say in my studio:
Repetition is your best friend.
Mind you, it's not mindless repetition! It must be strategic repetition which will help learners not only memorize but, understand that the grand staff is a map pointing the way to pitch locations on the keyboard.
Strategic repetition with a good dose of gamification and socialization is the perfect combination.
When graphic designer, Andrea West, told me she had designed flash cards to review pitch names, I was moderately excited. I've got plenty of flash cards in my studio and my iPad is full of apps to review pitch names. However, when she informed me that these were playing-card size and that she plays all kinds of fun games with the deck in her studio, I was intrigued. None of my flashcards come in a deck and I was eager to hear about her games.
Go Fish and War are her student favorites along with Snip, Snap Snorem and Snap. I couldn't wait to hear how she played these!
Reading through her thorough instructions inspired me as well, and so I created games geared to help beginners. The games require little knowledge about the grand staff and build discrimination skills.
The instructions from both Andrea and me included with your purchase of the playing cards feature ideas on how to set limitations and set stages so that students of any level have fun, learn and succeed.
With Inspector Whiz Cards, you've got games to suit every student!
The purchase of Andrea's Inspector Whiz Cards includes:
Clever "wizard-like" magnifying glass "back" for each card
Sheets with cards of every pitch in the treble clef and bass clef with most ledger lines.
You'll need to print 4 sheets that feature the pitches.Print the back side of each sheet with the “Back of Playing Card” sheet. This will give you a deck of cards with four of each note, plus additional accidentals that can be used as wild cards in any of your games.
You may wish to laminate your cards so they last for while. Scotch laminators are top notch.
Even if you own flash cards, you'll want to purchase Inspector Whiz Cards so you can learn about and play all the games featured in the instructions.
With your small investment, you'll gain a deck of cards and at least 10 games of guaranteed fun. You'll also enjoy seeing your students gain confidence as they dig deeper into the landscape of the grand staff and become friends with all 88 pitches!
-Leila
Get your Inspector Whiz Cards
HERE or click on the image.
On sale for $4.99 (price goes up to $5.99, November 1, 2017)