Music Theory with Mirrors

We have done our fair share of music activities around here, but it's the first time that we have used mirrors to explore music theory.  This activity can be tailored to different ages as I will explain below, but both of my boys had a blast with it.

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For this activity, we used:

• Mirror (ours is from Dollar Tree)
• Colored glass stones (buttons, pom poms, or transparent counters could be substituted)
• Window markers or dry erase markers

I drew a grand staff on the mirror using the window markers and set out a variety of colored glass stones.

After letting the boys explore the materials on their own for a bit, I pointed out how the grand staff has lines and spaces.  Identifying the differences between lines and spaces is an important step in reading music, so it's an easy music theory activity for preschool aged children.  Additionally, counting the lines and spaces is another preschool friendly activity.

Older kids can practice note naming by placing the glass stones on the lines and spaces for particular notes.

J started placing glass stones on each line and counted each line.  He told me there were ten lines.  

Then the boys did the same thing with the space notes.  Just like they did for the line notes, the boys counted the number of space notes on the grand staff.  

Toddlers may also be able to identify lines and spaces or count the number of each.  However, my toddler had some other suggestions...

Like standing on the grand staff.  One foot for each clef!

And since a mirror was involved, K, of course, had to take a peek at himself, which lead to him getting blue marker all over his face.  Then J joined in until the mirror (and their faces!) were completely smeared with blue marker.  The giggles that erupted from these two were definitely a highlight for me!

Looking for other ways to explore music theory using the grand staff?  Check out this grand staff game!