I generally try to drill notes on the staff for at least one week each month. This week we did Giant Staff—Twister (Music Twist), Giant Staff—Hopscotch, and Giant Staff—Bean Bag Toss.

However, some of my students have advanced beyond mere note drills. Some of them are old enough not to need an activity in the lesson at all, but several have not, and there’s nothing I dislike more than having to come up with more than one activity for the week. So this week, I’ve dreamed up a few ways to make note drills more useful for advanced students. These will work with pretty much any note name game.

1. Set a key signature and then play the game as usual. For example, if the key is G major, all the notes would be normal, except any F would have to be named as F-sharp.
2. Set an interval. The student must name both the note and the note that interval above (or below). For example, if the answer is C and the interval is a 3rd, the student must say C and E to get credit.
3. Set a key signature. Then use solfege or the scale degrees instead of note names in the game.