Hellooooo parents!
Some of you have convinced me to do what I consider the unthinkable, but I’ve made a concession. I think I understand now. Here it is, your Grand Staff reference page!
Here’s what I’ve realized:
- Sometimes a visual is helpful
- Some of you have never read music before, or you did but it was really limited
- You just want this for yourself so that you can be confident helping your child
- You want a quick reference
I hope it helps you, and I hope you understand that there are many ways to help your child with note reading and playing. Here are a few of those ways:
- Remember the critter stories: who sleeps on Mrs. Treble Clef’s lap? Who has muddy boots? Who is shy and standing in the door? These characters and the way your child was told these stories are incredibly memorable to a child. Even if we think they’re simply cute, they actually mean a little more to the child. I find that they get excited to find out what new character will be doing what each week. Some even like to give them nick names 🙂
- Read in patterns. Line, space, line space all in a row are steps. Line to the next line, or space to the next space is a jump.
- Read by saying finger numbers aloud.
- Read by saying letters aloud.
- It’s ok to put SOME markers on the page (a letter here or a finger number there) but writing them all in disrupts the fluency in music reading that we are trying to reach.
- Be patient. Wait for your child to figure out that vertically up means move to the right on the keyboard, and vertically down means move to the left on the keyboard. Letting your child figure it out means that they can OWN their accomplishment.
- Point ABOVE the notes with a pencil or other small pointer. Then your child can compare from the last note where the next note has moved.
Happy note reading!
Tempo Drive Music Studio 