Pipe Cleaner Staff

Students who are new to the staff as well as those who have been working with it for awhile can benefit from a kinesthetic experience. I got the idea from Dan Shure at Evolving Music Education, who makes a grand staff out of clay and calls it ClayTime Piano. Being able to touch and feel the lines and spaces gives students a new awareness that they can apply when they're reading notes on the page.

My version is made out of pipe cleaners and foam board:

 First I hooked the both edges of the pipe cleaners around the back of the board. The board had an "invisible grid" on the back - I spaced the lines two gridlines apart. I put a piece of scotch tape on both edges and one in the middle. I chose to make treble clef lines one color and bass clef lines another, and then I made the guide notes Treble G and Bass F both green.

 Then, I decided to fashion a treble clef and a bass clef out of pipe cleaners. One of the first things I have students do is place the clefs in the correct place on the staff.

 So far I've used foam shapes as notes. A student discovered that you could tuck the notes behind the lines for line notes! This way, it's really hard to confuse line notes with space notes.

My students love the fuzzy feeling and the colors! There are lots of ways it can be used for students of all different levels. I like Dan Shure's activity where students move one note around to the correct place on the staff matching a song in their book. It can also be good for practicing intervals, note naming, chord building, key signatures.... time to make pipe cleaner sharps and flats!