“How do you graduate from color coded music symbols?” Once you’ve worked with students using contour lines, clef mnemonics, edge notes, and ledger lines, they’ll be ready for flashcards:
- With some students you can use flashcards before the student hits intermediate level material.
- However, if introduced too early, other students will find that flashcards make note reading more confusing rather than less.
- This will be especially true for LD students.
- However, if you’ve been working steadily with the colors, most students will be ready for the flashcards when they get to intermediate level lesson books.
For example, this will be how you’d help a piano student graduate from the colors:
- Show the student the flashcard.
- Have the student say the note.
- Ask the student to play the note on the piano using the correct hand for the given clef.
This will help you know if the student has problems finding the note in the correct octave. Also, it’ll help the student connect the note with the sound of the pitch and its visual location on the instrument.
I break the cards into two decks.
- One deck has the notes on the body of the grand staff plus middle C.
- The other deck has the ledger lines above and below the grand staff, and most of the ledger lines between the two clefs of the grand staff.
- However, it won’t have middle C, which will be in the first deck.
- I’ll work with the notes on the grand staff first.
- When the student has mastered the first deck, I’ll start working on the ledger line deck.