Category Archives: Student Tools

Student Tools

To start off, here is a tool for note learning called Note Houses, that I began using a few months ago, after watching some videos of the (highly regarded by me) piano teacher Valeri Pyasetski. I have been drawing these with my students aged 5-10, and so far the results have been pretty good. My 6-year-old returned the week after we did the drawings, and proudly announced, “I learned a new piece from the book all by myself, because I had my houses! I didn’t need you!” Doesn’t every teacher live to hear that…

You tell them that the notes are windows in the house and that the houses are on the same street (treble clef). Of course, it works to place all the notes on the staff in one house – there are many variations. It’s the relatable context that I like in this concept. It’s easy to talk about houses and windows and neighbours and friends.

Once you have the treble notes down, you flip the paper and draw the Bass Clef houses (or whatever other clef you are learning.

Here are a couple of versions, with and without note heads. 

Note Houses V1 Note Houses V2