Teaching Quarter and Half Notes in Private Piano Lessons

 I love teaching piano lessons to young beginners. They’re full of excitement and a sense of wonder about learning to play an instrument! We cover so much in the first year of lessons, and a good lesson plan structure is vital to establishing students with healthy piano technique, solid music reading skills, and a developing sense of good tone and musicality, all while cultivating and maintaining the joy of music-making. To do this effectively, I focus on three steps of teaching each concept or skill: prepare, present, and reinforce. In any given lesson, I am getting the student ready for concepts that I will introduce later, presenting other concepts, and reinforcing concepts presented previously. The plan below outlines how I prepare, present, and reinforce the concept of quarter notes and half notes starting in the first lesson and continuing over the course of several weeks. 

Concept: Quarter and Half Notes
Lesson	Prepare	Present	Reinforce	Resources
1	Teach “Engine Number Nine” on the black keys by rote; student experiences short and long rhythms (quarter and half notes) but does not see or name them yet.	Present the feeling of a steady beat, noticing that when we sing the song the note at the end of each phrase is longer (thus teaching the difference between short and long but not showing notation yet).		Music Pathways Piano Solos A (Engine Number 9 on page 2)
2		Show the pre-staff notation for Engine Number 9 and what short and long notes look like. They are not named yet. Present the short-short-long rhythm pattern in “Rising” and “Falling.”	Continue playing and singing Engine Number 9. Reinforce the concept of a steady beat with “Pecking Rooster” and “Pecking Hen” played as duets.	Faber Piano Adventures Primer Lesson Book (Pecking Rooster and Pecking Hen on pp. 8-9) Music Pathways Piano Discoveries A (Rising and Falling on p. 6)
3		Present the Quarter Note by name. Student learns to draw quarter notes.	Reinforce short-short-long rhythm pattern and playing with a steady beat through several solo pieces and student-teacher duets.	Primer Lesson Book (Quarter Notes p. 14, pieces pp. 15-17) Piano Discoveries A (pp. 8-12)
4		Present the Half Note by name. Student learns to draw half notes.	Play the Keyboard Race game with quarter and half note cards to reinforce the names of these note values and how many beats each receives.	Primer Lesson Book (Half Notes p. 18, pieces pp. 19-20) Keyboard Race game
5			Continue reinforcing quarter and half note rhythms through playing pieces and duets. Play Over the Edge game for additional reinforcement of note value names and beats.	Primer Lesson Book Piano Discoveries A Over the Edge game

Resources

Method Books:

Faber Piano Adventures Primer Lesson Book

Music Pathways Piano Solos A 

Music Pathways Piano Discoveries A

Games:

Susan Paradis’ Keyboard Race

The original game reinforces the letter names of the keys. I use it for this purpose later, but I also take the same game concept to reinforce the names and values of quarter and half notes using the cards from Over the Edge (see below; you can also create your own deck of quarter and half note cards). The student and I each pick an animal eraser and start at opposite ends of the keyboard. We take turns drawing a card and naming it; if it’s a quarter note, we move 1 key closer to the middle, and 2 for a half note. The first person to Middle C wins! I always have the student start at the bass end, and only one of my especially perceptive students thus far has figured out they won so frequently because middle C is not in the middle. :) 

Over the Edge 

This game unfortunately doesn’t seem to be available on the Internet anymore except this instructional sheet. Each player has a game board, and we take turns filling the spaces with flat marble gems (1 for a quarter note card drawn, 2 for a half note). If you overfill your “river,” you have to start over! Once the student learns whole notes, we add the whole note cards.

DOWNLOAD Lesson in PDF Format

LESSON WRITTEN BY Emily Valine - Admin Assistant Music/Staff Accompanist - CSS