Online Theory Practice

Here are a couple of websites that can be used to reinforce music theory principles:

http://musicteachersgames.com/

http://www.knowledgeadventure.com/games/musical-notes/

I'd recommend singing the notes/intervals as you go; it helps in ear training.

Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

I've been studying a book by James W. Bastien called How to Teach Piano Successfully. Now I've been teaching piano a loooong time but I'm learning a lot.

One thing that I learned today that I will be incorporating into my teaching is the use of flashcards--not only for learning notes and musical symbols, but also for learning how to sight read.

I like the idea of showing a student a short musical phrase and having him identify the pattern/inversions/chords/fingering/etc. etc.

It seems like musical phrase flashcards are a great stepping stone to eventually sitting down a sight reading a complete piece of music.

Musical Symbols Identifying

Here is a great website for quizzing yourself on musical terms, notation, and symbols:

http://www.pianodiscoveries.com/html/dictionary.html#topAnchor

Identifying Music Intervals

This is a good website for learning to identify musical intervals, both by sight and by sound. A good help in learning to identify a specific interval is matching a familiar song in which the interval is played the first few notes.

file:///Users/Marianne/Desktop/The%20Musical%20Intervals%20Tutor%20:%20Listen%20to%20Intervals.webarchive

Free Printable Flashcards

This is a great resource of free printable music theory graphics. If you can't negotiate the link, just type in the url. There's a long listing of various types of flashcards, etc. along the right side of the website.

http://linkwaregraphics.com/

Name That Note

One of the things that can slow down progress for the beginning pianist is being unable to identify the notes on the staff. Yes, there's the tried-and-true flashcards, but the the generation that loves being on the computer, try out this great website:

http://www.musicteachers.co.uk/namethatnote/?service_path=namethatnote