Welcome to the second series of the podcast takeover of the Piano Game Gurus, Tara Wright and Georgina Wilson. In today’s show, our topic is “in-the-moment teaching” where spontaneity meets engagement in piano lessons. Join Tara and Georgina as they dive into a world of quick and easy piano games designed to captivate and inspire your students. Listen in as they share their favorite no-prep piano games, perfect for those spontaneous teaching moments. Plus, find out how rubber chickens can become your unexpected allies in creating an engaging learning environment. Get ready to infuse your lessons with spontaneity, fun, and effective learning techniques that will keep your students on their toes and spark their musical passion.

• Tara and Georgiana discuss their favorite no-prep and easy piano games for engaging students in lessons.
• Georgina shares about the “I Went to the Shops” game, a memory game involving musical alphabet and note names.
• Tara introduces the “Tally Game” using dice to determine which section of a piece a student plays.
• Georgiana introduces “Treasure Hunt Note” where a student chooses a note and the teacher asks yes-or-no questions to guess the note.
• Tara discusses the “What Happened There?” game where a teacher plays a piece with mistakes and students identify them.
• They share variations and adaptations of the games, such as adding descriptions, rhythms, or chords.
• Tara mentions using rubber chickens as engaging tools in lessons.
• They express the fun and engaging nature of these games in lessons.

Links Mentioned

• Download The Ultimate Checklist to Gamifying Your Music Lessons

Today’s Hosts

Tara Wright

Tara Wright has nearly two decades of experience as a music educator and is the founder of Melodic Mentors where she creates resources and inspires other music educators by combining her expertise in running successful music schools with her background in web design, wedding planning, and ostrich farming. She is also the Community Manager of TopMusicPro.

Georgina Wilson

Georgina Wilson is a piano teacher who is a big believer in making music education fun and engaging for both the students and the teachers. She runs BusyLittleTurtle, a site dedicated to quirky and creative music resources that help make teachers’ teaching lives a little easier and give students another reason to love their music lessons! She is also the Social Media Manager of TopMusicPro.

Today’s Sponsor

Practice Space is an innovative music lesson platform, bringing fun and engagement to your students’ practice routine. The platform offers interactive features such as a leaderboard, long-term goals, and ‘practice gems’ which can be redeemed in a customized shop. Teachers enjoy the ease of assigning digital tasks and organizing multimedia files with a simple tagging feature. Also, students can share practice videos and receive timely feedback, making the learning process exciting and interactive. Practice Space — a game-changer for music education!

Thank you for tuning in!

Consider implementing the ideas from this podcast by writing several actionable steps for your teaching practice if it’s inspired you.

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