Do you and your students get lost in a sea of black pencil marks in their music? If you work on the same piece for long, it can get very confusing! My solution is to brighten up your lessons (and the sheet music!) with erasable colored pencils.
Each week my students get to choose a different color, making it easy to track which suggestions are the most current. If the color of the week is orange, they know to look for all the orange markings in their score that week while practicing at home. (Tip: I always save the red pencil for the last lesson before a performance.)
Give these a try and post a comment below to let us know what you think!
Dr. Olivia Ellis teaches piano, group piano, pedagogy, and chamber music at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. She’s an editor for Piano Magazine and has published several books including the Easy Piano Lead Sheets and Chord Charts series. She’s constantly creating new activities and games to teach concepts, and loves helping other teachers find their niche.
I used the twistable colored pencils for years but they’re hard to find. I recently started using erasable markers, which I love. The only downside is if you use it too much in a day sometimes they start to not write well. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QFS7Z4Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I also recently bought the same pack of colored pencils you’re talking about and really like them too! At the moment I just pull them out when I have my younger students do their own artwork for a piece, but maybe I should start using them myself on a daily basis! I think I just shy away from the whole having to sharpen them frequently thing.
The sharpening thing is real! I have an electric sharpener, so that helps. 😊 I agree about the erasable markers… love them to death, but they don’t last as long as regular ones. Trial and error! This brand of pencils lasts for a long time, so they’ve definitely been worth it for me.
I love using these erasable colored pencils at every lesson! I wrote a post over ten years ago with other ideas for “handing over the pencil” in music lessons that you might enjoy. Shading dynamics is the one I use most often and some children love when they have a crescendo to shade different colors from light to dark.
https://heidispianonotes.blogspot.com/2010/04/hand-over-pencil-actively-engaging.html?m=1
Love this! Thanks for sharing it!