2020 One Minute Club

It’s that time of the year! ⌛️ The One Minute Club is an incentive to “say and play” notes on the grand staff in one minute or less. This is the activity I do each year so students learn how to quickly find notes on the piano keys. Once they can do it, I give them a “membership” card and put the card in a clear plastic badge holder and attach it to their music bags. I want to credit the late Jane Bastien for giving me this idea, and I adapted it to my studio.

Prepare for this months in advance with all kinds of note reading activities.

Teachers often ask me questions about the rules, but since you are the teacher, you get to decide how many cards the students use. There are no national standards! If they can play 7 or 8 cards in a minute, that is really good for some students! You can have a different amount of cards for each grade level. To be successful, before you time a student, prepare for this months in advance with all kinds of note reading activities. If you can’t make this a fun activity, it’s not for you! 😉 Used incorrectly it can be harmful drudgery.

The challenge for me is flipping the cards really fast without notes flying all over the place!

Teachers often ask me questions about the rules, but since you are the teacher, you get to decide how many cards the students use. There are no national standards! If they can play 7 or 8 cards in a minute, that is really good for some students! You can have a different amount of cards for each grade level. To be successful, prepare for this months in advance with all kinds of note reading activities. If you can’t make this a fun activity, it’s not for you! 😉

How to Print

• Download and save the file in Adobe Reader, a free program that is the gold standard for PDF printables.
• To print these cards, use an 8.5″ x 11″ pre-perforated 2″ x 3.5″ business card template, 10 cards to a page. There is extra ink printed around the individual card (called the “bleed”) in case the cards don’t print evenly. Home printers are often slightly “off”, and even 1/8″ can be noticed, so I hope this helps.
• It you are using a business card template, is very important that your printer settings are correct or the cards will not fit inside the perforations. “Page sizing & handling” should be set to “actual size” and not “fit” or “page scaling.”
• If you don’t have pre-perforated business cards or you have A4 cardstock, there are hash mark cutting lines on the edges of the page. Using a ruler, connect the hash marks with a pencil to make cutting lines.