I Can Heart-ly Wait for the Punchline!

Valentine’s day is a month-long affair at my studio! As I tell my students, it’s a holiday that celebrates pink, I need to milk it for all it’s worth.

We’ve played a few different note-reading games this month and this one in particular had me giggling long after I had memorized all the punchlines for the jokes. It was so much fun to introduce a lot of my students to music theory jokes. From puns to just plain silly jokes, it was so funny to see the wide range of expressions on their faces when they “got” it (most called them “Dad jokes” but they laughed all the same! Because Dad jokes are hilarious!).

I wanted to go all out with this game so that it would be a decoration for my studio space as well as a game (I’m also sharing an easier way to play it up below). I wanted my student to be curious about it when they walked in. I cut out hearts and folded them in half; on the outside was a note on the staff and on the inside was a letter of the alphabet. Here is a reel I posted of how I made them:

I loved the way it turned out!!

To play, I had my students randomly pick a joke:

I would have them read the setup of the joke and then I’d explain that the punchline is written out as a series of colored rectangles that they have to decode. Each color corresponds to a key on the keyboard picture. We would then pick a color and find the key on the keyboard printout (for example, blue is Middle C). Then they had to find that note on my wall of hearts to reveal the letter that goes in the punchline.

They would then write that letter inside the colored rectangle.

Once all the notes had been found and all the colored rectangles had been filled in, they would tell me their joke!

Here is another reel of me playing this game with a student:

I love this game because not only do students have to think about keyboard geography, they have to be able to associate the notes with their exact location on the piano. A tip I always started with was, “Look at the clef first!” because often they would find the correct line or space but the clef was wrong. They caught on quickly!

I have this game available in my shop: I Can Heart-ly Wait for the Punchline. It comes with 10 jokes for students to decode as well as all the hearts. The hearts are double-sided, one side has the note and the other, the letter of the alphabet, so set-up is much easier. I would love to hear what you think if you decide to play this game with your students! We had a blast!

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Musical MASH: A Note Reading Game that Predicts the Future

Did you play MASH (Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House) when you were a kid? All it required was a piece of paper and a pencil! My friends and I would spend countless recesses trying to find out if we would marry our crushes, have 20 kids while living in a mansion (we all wanted the mansion, of course) and driving a Ferrari! It was loads of fun and provided a lot of good laughs! If you want to check out the original game, MASH+ has all the details.

This Valentine’s Day my students and I are playing the musical version of MASH (maestro, accompanist, soloist, hobbyist) that I created! We will be drilling our knowledge of the spaces on the grand staff while figuring out our musical futures!

It’s a fast, easy game to play, and has already given us some funny results! I am using a print-out of the grand staff and some mini-erasers in my example here but it could also be played with a floor staff and beanbags or at the piano (see the instructions in the download for details).

First have the student fill out the four spaces for each category. You can ask them to name the spaces of the grand staff as they write their answers in each space.

Hand them some mini-erasers (I’m using heart shaped ones for Valentine’s Day!). They should close their eyes while dropping the erasers onto the grand staff. They can drop them one by one or a few at a time (the teacher can call out when an eraser has landed on a space).

When they open their eyes they evaluate if any of the erasers landed on the spaces of the grand staff (for added drilling, you can have them name all the lines and spaces that the erasers landed on).

They then take note on the Musical MASH worksheet of where the erasers landed. Repeat the same procedure until the student has obtained an answer in all four categories.

In order to decide if the student will be a Maestro, Accompanist, Soloist, or Hobbyist, you can roll a die (for example, 1 = Maestro, 2 = Accompanist, 3 = Soloist, 4 = Hobbyist, 5/6 = Roll again) or use the traditional MASH spiral method (explained at MASH+). Circle their future career at the top of the page, under the title.

The student should then fill in the blanks at the bottom of the page with the answers to their future!

If you would like to play Musical MASH with your students, download it for free at the new Toucan Piano Shop! I am currently setting up the shop with new products, so if you are interested in staying up-to-date with the latest blogposts and shop updates, join the email list below (no spam, I promise!).

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As a “toucan” of our appreciation download a free set of note flashcards (link in our Welcome email)!

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