STUDIO: Fun Reader

Description

What is Fun Reader?

Are you looking for fun ways to improve your students note reading skills? Sight-reading is such an important skill to develop but sometimes a book full of plain exercises isn’t the most inspiring for beginner learners. Playing games like ‘Don’t Wake Lenny’ and ‘Treasure in the Desert’ adds some excitement to this process!

The games can be customised to suit the individual student, and are perfect for studio leaderboard competitions (printable leaderboards included). Each time a question card appears, teachers set any five notes by dragging them up or down the stave. When the student is ready for more, the companion printable book for beginner pianists, “Sight-Reading Ninja”, can be used to replace the in-built question tools.

Sometimes students can be overwhelmed when sight-reading. There is a lot to juggle including not only the notes, but rhythm and expression too. Fun Reader lets me reduce the complexity of reading so beginner students can focus solely on reading while playing. I put my tablet or computer on the music stand, set five notes, and then ask them to play. They are highly motivated to succeed as the score I give is added to their overall game score!

Ideal for music lessons

• This is a ‘studio’ pack for music teachers and has been designed for use in music lessons.
• The games in this pack work great for in person lessons. A few are also suitable for online teaching and using a platform like zoom, teachers can share their screen with students to play and control all aspects of the game from their end.
• All the games are customisable and either allow the teacher to set five notes to play in free time, or include some simple rhythms and time signatures to drag onto the stave.
• When students are ready for more, this pack includes a printable book to download and use with beginner pianists called “Sight-Reading Ninja”. It is full of sight-reading exercises starting from Middle C position and branching out to other five finger positions. These exercises can be used in place of the in-built tools and use time signatures of 2, 3 and 4 beats in a bar, and time values of 1, 2, 3 and 4 beats (plus half beat quavers in the final section).
• Studio packs give access for one teacher to use with their own students for one year.
• These games can also be found in the Studio Teacher pack.

List of games

SECTION 1: the music teacher chooses five notes at the start which then appear in a random order in the question cards (with the option to adjust notes if you wish)

• Don’t Wake Lenny: collect as many precious gems as you dare – but don’t wake Lenny the sleeping lion! A leaderboard game.
• Fruit Ninja: fly the little watermelon to safety and avoid the fruit ninjas. A game of perfect timing!
• Garbage Monsters: are you brave enough to turn over the next monster bin? Collect points in this leaderboard game – just don’t turn over a red monster!

SECTION 2: a collection of games where teachers can choose any notes in each question card by dragging them up or down the stave

• The King and the Thief: creep through the castle corridor reclaiming the treasure King John stole – but don’t wake up the dozing Knights
• Treasure in the Desert: search for treasure but watch out for snakes!
• Supercow: fly Sally the Supercow through the obstacles and complete her flight training. Just try not to give her a headache! A leaderboard game.

SECTION 3: includes some simple rhythms in time signatures of 2, 3 or 4 beats in a bar (uses 1, 2, 3 and 4 beat notes). Drag the note values on to the stave in any position you wish.

• Don’t Catch The Penguins: the title says it all! Collect as many gems as possible but watch out for those sliding penguins.
• Basketball: shoot some hoops to score points. The longer you wait the more points you score – but don’t wait too long or the timer runs out!

Set up a leaderboard competition!

This pack includes a set of free leaderboard templates. Set up a competition in your studio and motivate students to reach the top (see Susan’s leaderboards in action on the Learnatune Facebook page).