Teaching boards of all kinds act as a bridge. They introduce a physical representation of a concept or a skill, in this case the skill of reading musical sheet music and attempt to break it down into manageable steps. The following will help guide you in the use of The IPI Treble Clef Board and provide you with examples of how to effectively incorporate it into your teaching session.
The Front of Your Board
The symbol to the left is called a Treble Clef. For our purposes we will be pairing this symbol with a specific set of letters and words. These letters (A, B, C, D, E, F and G) will later be paired to keys on the piano but that will come later.
You will notice that there are five horizontal lines intersecting the Treble Clef. These lines create spaces in between. On your IPI Treble Clef Board thin, black 'hard' or hook Velcro strips are included on each line. On the left of the board, nearest to the Treble Clef symbol, there are small, white 'soft' or loop circles that will receive the space letters.
Here is how the front of your IPI Treble Clef Board will be set-up when you receive it. Notice the long white, soft Velcro strips toward the bottom of the board and the two E letter prompts. Also included is a representation of a musical note. This removable note will attach to your board securely and allow you to move it in such a way as to have the circle section land on a line or a space in between two lines. Both hard and soft Velcro circles are included on the circle section of the note.
The Back of Your Board
The back of The IPI Treble Clef Board is where you will find the possible Note Reading Prompts you can introduce as well as the Piano Key Letter Prompts that will be placed on the piano keys. To more gradually introduce the skill of reading music, the Treble Clef Space Letters on the right will be included with the IPI eBook 2 Kit. You will find the Line prompts on the top left and the Space prompts section on the top right. Notice that all of the Line prompts include soft backing Velcro so they will only attach to the lines on the front. Subsequently, the Space prompts section on the right has Hard Velcro in order to secure to the white, circles near the Treble Clef on the front.
There are a number of different mnemonic systems to aid in learning the letters associated with musical notation. It really doesn't matter which aid you choose or even if you are familiar with the Do, Re, Me system. Any and all of the prompts must eventually be faded away so, as long as the student plays the correct piano key at completion, it is effective.
Find the three vertical, hard Velcro strips in the Line Letters Section of your board. Traditionally, the mnemonic Every, Good, Boy, Does, Fine has been used to help identify these five lines of the Treble Clef. Starting from the bottom line, Teachers will label the lowest line as Every, the next highest as Good and so on. To also help non-readers match the board-prompt (which is on the line) to the teaching-prompt (which is located below the lines of the Treble Clef) two sets of letter only prompts are included. Therefore, some students will respond better if the single letter prompt is on the line and an identical single letter prompt is below (as opposed to using the entire word as a prompt).
To the right of these three strips is the Space Letter Section. Again, if you don't see any prompts in this area don't worry. You will be receiving these with the eBook 2 Kit. These letters conveniently spell out the word "FACE" with the F prompt again starting at the lowest space on the board. The A,B,C pattern on the piano (and therefore on the Treble Clef as well) repeats up and down the keyboard.
Another way to view this pattern is: E (line) F (space) G (line) {pattern resets back to A} A (space) B (line) C (space) D (line) E (space) and F (line).
Finally, located on the bottom left of your boards back you will see a card containing the Piano Key Letter Prompts. This first octave traditionally starts with Middle C, then D, E, F, G, A, B and then back to high C. The hard or hook Velcro backing on these prompts are designed to attach to the soft Velcro circles included with the Token Board. These are not intended for use with the Treble Clef Board and should only be used with eBook 1.