Notes In the Fast Lane
Notes In the Fast Lane was created for a teacher, Kathy, who wrote me wondering if I would like to make a set of timed progressive tests to teach students to identify notes quickly. Her students are using something like this that she collected from various sources and they really like the challenge of moving up levels. She thought it would be helpful to have a set written just for piano, using a grand staff.
If you use these, you will have to decide on the score and/or time the students will have to accomplish before they move on to the next level. Also, just because they pass a level this week doesn’t mean they will remember it next week! I am going to require students to repeat each level over and over until they are very fast before they move on. If they have to count up the staff to find the note name, they are not ready to move on!
Also, remember that just knowing note names does not mean a student can sight read or play with artistry. Students need to be encouraged to read music by intervals and not think of note names when they play. But they need to know note names, also, so this is to help with that part. And, of course, some students know the note names but have no idea what octave they are on the keyboard. You might even want to use these sheets in two ways, writing the notes and also playing the notes.
I created this set of 4 levels, with more to come. I haven’t actually used them with my students, so email me or leave a comment if you see mistakes. Level 4 includes all the notes from bass C to treble C. Obviously I need to create a set with the other notes on the grand staff, and a set with ledger line notes, so check back here if you are interested.
Thanks to Carol for reminding me to post that these can be laminated or put in sheet protectors and used over and over. That saves a lot of printing costs!
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Editor’s note: This post has been updated for accuracy.
I happened upon your site and I am in love with it! Thank you for inspiring me to be a more creative piano teacher. I was thinking that a really cute way to keep track of how many levels the students passed off would be to have a little road graphic and little cars that they get to move along the road continuum as they master each level. The road could be labeled with numbers 1-12 on little signs or pit stops. Each student’s name could be on a card and you just move them along the road as they pass things off. Would it be possible for you to make a graphic like this?
Thank you so much!
Jamie,
I think your ideas sounds great and it is something that would be fun to make. However, I’m not quite sure what you mean about moving little cars. Please email me to explain what you concept is. Thanks!
Great quizzes. The theory pages are not boring, but rather so colorful and fun to do! My students love them and for me, I got to see who is strong with reading their notes and who needs more individual encouragement in this area. Now you have more levels available… wonderful, thank you so much!
My students loved this! They are asking for more levels!
More are coming soon! I’ve been tied up with other things.
Loved it!! Absolutely loved this one. The graphics make what could be a boring activity really quite fun.
I also laminated mine and I think I’ll make up a “Notes in the fast lane” sticker that I can put in lesson journals that I can write what level they did and what time they scored so it’s easy to assess next week.
I got quite a suprise actually, a few of the kids I expected to do much better actually performed quite poorly at this. Yet one kid in particular, who has really been struggling managed to get it in record time!
Love your work
Thanks much for these! I’m laminating them so we can reuse them. Any ideas for an extra score card?
That’s what I did with multiple copies of your Valentine Note Hunt, sending them home with the students (and a non-permanent red pen) to do as “homework” 3 more times during the week. The girls really liked that and they all improved their scores substantially during the week. Will be glad to have something the boys will enjoy now.
The constant recall seems to help them get the notes down like they eventually “get” the multiplication tables, etc.