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The following are suggestions for changing the games and keeping them fresh for your students. Be creative and try new things yourself!

Be sure to share your ideas with us so we can list them on the site with your name!

 

 

 

 

Legato Lake

• When playing this game with students who are struggling with identifying either notes or symbols, it can help to have the student draw the card and identify the symbol to the other players.  At this point they may be required to tell something about the symbol. (Ex. How many beats a note receives, or the definition of the symbol etc.).
• Another option would be that the teacher can draw the card, call out the name of the symbol, and the students must identify the symbol on their fish without seeing the card. At this point more information can be given by the teacher about the current symbol or note.

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Rhythm Riot

• When playing this game with students who are struggling with rhythm, it may be best to play without the metronome and spinner. It can be added when the student is more comfortable with performing the rhythms.
• When playing with a group of students, some can be asked to perform the rhythm on the card while others are designated to "keep the beat" by performing quarter notes when doing rhythms in quarter time, eighth notes or dotted quarter notes when doing rhythms in eighth time, etc.
• Organize your own drum circle using the Rhythm Riot cards!

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Space Place

Primer Level:

For beginning students who are just learning steps and skips or for the very young, the rules can be changed so that a player need only produce one of each required interval to move from one planet to the next. This makes the game move faster and little hands do not need to hold a large number of cards.

Level 1 and 2:

• When playing with a group, if a player identifies an interval incorrectly, the first opponent to catch the mistake will take possession of those two cards presented as a pair.
• Players who are having difficulty with identifying intervals must prove that they have the required interval by placing it face up before asking for a matching interval from an opponent.
• For those students playing the game for the first time, you may want to have them place their cards face up on the table and help them determine the intervals. In this case, the option of asking an opponent for an interval is omitted.
• When using the game with more students, fewer cards can be dealt to each student, and a team of two players must produce the pair of intervals needed.
• To help students recognize intervals more quickly, it is helpful to explain that odd number intervals are both on lines or both on spaces. The even number intervals will be a combination, one will be on a line and one will be on a space.

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NoteWordy

• Any of the card decks can be used with any of the game boards. This makes it possible for you to customize the game to your student's needs even more. If you have an advanced pianist who is ready for the Level 3 card deck, but is not ready for the more advanced CrossWordy board, the CrossWordy board from Level 2 could easily be used, etc.
• When playing the CrossWordy game, it is sometimes preferable to use a hand of 4 cards instead of 5. "Dead hands" are more frequent and players have to identify an entire hand of "dead cards" more often.
• Blind CrossWordy can be played with any level game. In this variation, after each player has been dealt a hand of cards, the player to the right of Player One chooses the card that must be identified and played. Player One holds his hand of cards so that Player Two cannot see the notes. Player Two picks a card at random from the hand of Player One, and places it face up on the playing surface. Player One must identify that card and place a marker on the corresponding letter on the CrossWordy board.
• Level 1: When playing CrossWordy with very young students, it may better to play with a hand of fewer cards. Players with very small hands may have a difficult time handling more cards.
• Level 2: When playing NoteWordy with only two people, each player can choose TWO "word" game boards and receive a hand of 8 cards. The player completing both "word" game boards first is the winner. Different requirements to win can be set for each game according to the length of game desired.
• Level 3: Players may make up their own words without using the game boards. The length of the word is decided upon before beginning the game. Each player is then dealt the same number of cards as there is in the word. The cards are not revealed until the word is complete. The first person to complete a word with the required number of letters is the winner.
• Level 3: When a player lays down a card and identifies that note name, everyone could be allowed to cover ONE of that letter on their own game board.

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Triple Threat Tiles

• The two games can be used together for the combined sharps and flats game. When combined, the games can be expanded to include parallel and enharmonic keys.
• The Whirligig logo symbol tiles and the keys of C Major and A minor are all available in both sets of games. This makes it possible for those tiles to be used as the adjoining tiles that facilitate the combination set.