Meridee Winters Note Quest (Piano Game Book): Note Reading Drills and Activities

I am a current private voice and piano teacher with a degree in music education teaching lessons in central Oklahoma. I love this book as a tool for helping my students increase their sight reading skills! I like to vary the games we use, depending on the students’ ages and skill levels. One of my students' favorite games: pick one of the pages, take counters or small toys/dice (I have a box of tiny animal toys that works great), call out a note name and have the student find all the notes of that name and cover them up with a toy, continue until all notes are covered. Then, they remove the counters one by one and have to name each note again as it is uncovered. I've also used these pages as part of a timed note drill with various levels/rewards: how quickly can they name all the notes on the page? 60 seconds or more: needs work/bronze medal; 45 seconds or less? doing well/silver medal; 30 seconds or less? gold metal/rock start status! :)Basically, you get out of this book what you put into it: this is a tool (albeit a colorful, cleverly designed one) that needs a bit of direction and creativity to be used to full effect. To use this book well, you should really pay attention to the pages that describe many games, activities, and unique ways to use it. I've been using this with my students to review and drill note names for years and it is always fun and effective! It works well for relatively young students (think 6-7 years) as well as my older students (I use this with teens and even adults) to really isolate problem areas and drill the note names in a colorful way.Final note: Unless your student is VERY motivated, this will probably be something that needs lots of teacher/parent guidance, at least at first. This is not really a resource for a young student to use alone, but something to supplement and support their journey to becoming a more confident and capable sight-reader and musician.

To preface, I am a teacher and I use this book with my younger piano students. This is NOT a repertoire book that gives them a hundred little songs for them to play. This is a book full of activities and games designed to get students to READ MUSIC. Every time I start with a new student, I use these activities to teach them how read treble clef, how to read bass clef, and then switching between the two. The best part is that the activities are visually designed for reusability. You can vary up the way the students have to read the notes because they aren't laid out left to right. So students aren't just memorizing a pattern to get the correct answers. I highly recommend this to anyone either as a supplementary book or as a primary resource.

I've taught private lessons before, but I just started working for the Meridee Winters School of Music. Out of all the theory books and methods out there, this is by far the most effective way to teach note reading that I have ever used! Notequest can be used for all ages and levels of musicianship--from pre-reading all the way up to extravagant grand staff readers! My students love it when I time them on each of the planets; they love beating their scores from week to week. Although the cover reads "piano game book", it can be used for students on all instruments! It is extremely versatile. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone teaching private lessons. Don't hesitate to purchase it and go on a Notequest of your own!

When I was a piano student, working on notes was my least favorite activity, and as a music teacher I wanted to find interesting and engaging ways to help my students learn note names. With bright graphics, fun mnemonic devices, and a full story line this book is the answer. Not only will students learn notes, they will enjoy learning. The book can be used with all ages and levels of learners. There are pages for students to make their own games, and even a certificate in the back to remind your student just how special they are and how far they've come. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to strengthen their note reading game!

This book is great because it makes a potentially tedious activity (learning to read notes) more engaging and fun through colorful designs, clever titles, and a logical progression through the different stages of note reading, from beginning to advanced. It starts out with the simplest notes (F-A-C-E in treble clef) and moves on from there. As my piano students learn their notes, I periodically get out this book and time them to see how fast they can name all the notes on a page - they love competing with their previous scores and trying to get faster. This book makes an excellent supplement to any lesson plan and works for younger and older students alike.

We bought the Note Quest Piano Game Book for my 6 year old son to help him with note reading and it has been a success. His teacher uses the book during class time with games and drills and makes it so fun for him to learn. My son feels successful an is able to play his songs by reading music! I recommend this book to anyone who is looking to help their son/daughter/student with reading music. It's been such an easy book to use and most of all my son is happy.

This is a great resource for all of my piano students, no matter where they are in their note reading experience. The five finger hand positions are wonderful for my young beginners, and the ledger line exercises and the "Big Bang" section are great tools for my intermediate/early advanced students. I like to do timed play throughs of the exercises and write them down so my students can compete with each other's times. I highly recommend this fun game book!

I am piano teacher, and after studying classical piano for 9 years, I have to say this book is incredible and beautiful! not only shows how to learn music in a fun and creative way (which is IMPOSIBLE to find in the music industry) but its also very visually attractive which is a MUST for young music beginners! 100% recommended. I just hope to have the rest of the method up on amazon soon! =)

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