Landmark Games and Resources for Your Piano Lessons
If you love teaching landmarks, then you’re in the right place! I’ve gathered all my landmark resources in one place, both digital and printable!
Full disclosure, growing up, as soon as I was taught the mnemonics for the notes on the staff, it was a game changer. Never had I been told the notes in the spaces i nthe treble celf spelled FACE, or that I could memorize the sentence “All Cows Eat Grass” for the spaces in the bass clef… However, if you pull any of my old sheet music from my childhood, you’ll see it’s COVERED in notes… I would write in EVERY single note you could imagine, because I didn’t trust my reading skills. I always relied on my ears and on my teacher to play the piece, instead of actually being able to read music.
Every student learns different, so I’m always open to trying new methods, and teaching landmarks is a new one for me.
I’m also the creator of the piano reading tool NoteMatch, so that’s helped tremendously in my piano lessons, as well as in lessons for teachers and students around the world. So while I love the mnemonics, I’ve been incorporating landmarks as well, and leaning a lot on directional reading, which has been extremely successful.
Here are over 10 landmark resources I’ve been using to help my piano students with their reading!
Landmarks on the Staff
This digital piano game (boom deck for those who are familiar with them!) will help your students reinforce their landmarks! Landmarks included are: Middle C, treble G, treble C, bass F, bass C.
The first 10 cards will never shuffle and will act as a review of these landmarks. They also use personal illustrations and show letters instead of a whole note, just to help! Once the 10 cards are done, they’ll shuffle between the ones you see below, and ones with real whole notes.
Landmarks for Beginners
This beginner landmark boom deck will teach your students to situate landmarks on the keyboard first! The first couple of slides won’t shuffle, so that they can review the landmarks. Landmarks included in this deck are: Middle C, Treble G, Treble C, Bass F and Bass C.
Students will then either have to identify the correct landmark on the keyboard, or match the landmark they see on a staff, to the correct key on the keyboard. The notes shown on the staff are note real notes, but rather letters such as “C, G, and F.” I have another deck to take it to the next level (as in the game above!), so this is a great deck to start with if you’re just starting to introduce landmarks!
Landmark Guides
Looking for Landmark guides for your students!? With 21 variations, I’m sure you’ll find the perfect version that will fit your student’s needs as they learn new landmarks!
These landmark pages have either notes written out on the staff as “C, F, G” or as real whole notes.
I have so many variations, from your beginner 3 landmarks, all the way to the high and low C. Some have the landmark names beside them, like “Treble C, Treble G, High G, High C” and “Bass F, Low F, Low C…” Everyone learns differently so there’s 20+ variations you can pick from for your students!
There’s also a blank grand staff included, because who doesn’t need a blank grand staff!?
There are detailed descriptions included on ways you can use these landmark pages, and turn them into games with your students!
PS: Check back later, because I’ll be creating a blog for this resource alone, on all the ways you can turn them into GAMES! These landmark guides are great to have as a visual, but kids want to have FUN, so turning them into games is a MUST!
Heart Landmarks
This adorable Valentine’s Themed deck will help students reinforce 3 landmarks: Middle C, Treble G and Bass F. On each slide, they’ll have to move the little teddy bear’s heart, and place it on the correct spot on the staff!
My students in my Piano Clubs have been LOVING this resource! It’s perfect around Valentine’s Day, but if you’re a pink and heart lover like I am, it works year round! 😂😉
C Dinosaur Landmarks
If you have dinosaur-loving students, then this is the boom deck for them!!!🦕 Here’s a super cute dinosaur-themed digital piano game, that focuses on the 3 C’s on the grand staff: Bass, Middle and Treble.🦖
Students will start by identifying the C’s on an actual keyboard, and then we move to staff notes. Just like my Landmark guides above, I also have some slides with the notes are written in with letters, so instead of seeing whole notes on the staff, there will be a “C.” I love sprinkling in easy slides to keep the students engaged and feeling good about themselves! The best sentence I ever hear is, “This is so easy!” If they feel that way, they’ll keep working on these decks!
Dinosaur Landmarks: C, F & G
Just like the boom deck above, this adorable dinosaur-themed deck 🦕 of 51 cards will help your piano kiddos review and become confident in the 3 core landmarks; Middle C, Treble G and Bass F.
Some slides will have students tap the right answer on a keyboard, while other slides will have students recognize those notes on the staff. The first 9 cards won’t shuffle, to be sure that students really get the landmarks down, before shuffling in the other cards! 🦖
Penguin Landmarks
Do you have penguin piano lovers!? If you do, this adorable penguin-themed digital piano boom deck will have your piano students pro’s in no time in identifying their 3 core landmarks: Middle C, Treble G and Bass F!
All students will need to do is tap the right penguin with the landmark being asked of them! This is a fun one to bring around your lessons year-round!
Landmark Love Notes
This one’s for all you physical piano game lovers! Landmark Love Notes is the perfect piano game to play during February! If you have students learning their landmarks, this is the game for them! Landmarks covered in this game are All C’s (middle, bass and treble), as well as Treble G and Bass F. There are so many ways you can play this game! You can find all game variations included inside!
Here’s the simple way to play:
- Shuffle the playing cards and place them face down (*see low prep option)
- Student pulls a card and moves to the correct spot.
- First player to reach the mailbox wins.
BUT! I’m always about finding alternative ways to play!
- Shuffle the playing cards, and place them face down in a pile.
- Students pull a card and play the note in question, on the piano. For example, if they pull “Bass C,” they have to play bass C on the piano.
- Taking it a step further, if you have a printed grand staff, student will place a pawn in the correct space. For example, if they pull “Middle C,” they have to play the pawn on the middle C location on the staff.
- Taking it a step even further, instead of placing a pawn, students will draw the note in question. I personally always have a laminated grand staff on hand (with a magnetic sheet behind it), so I can either have kids draw on it with a white board marker, or play with round magnets that act as “notes.” The possibilities are endless with that grand staff, and so adaptable to piano games!
- You can also play with a dice. Roll the dice and student moves to the correct spot. Student will name the note they land on.
If you don’t have time to cut up the playing cards, you can get the digital version of these cards! That game is coming up below!
Landmark Cards
The original reason I made this boom deck is to have a low-prep option to go with the Landmark Love Notes printable game above! Instead of printing and cutting out all the playing cards, you can use this boom deck instead!
However, these “landmark cards” can serve multiple purposes! I am always about making resources that can be used several ways.
Simply put, you can use these cards and have students identify the note the card says. For example, if the card says treble G, they have to play it on the piano.
A step further would be to either draw it out on the staff, or place a little erase/game piece on a printed grand staff.
The best part about this piano resource is that students can move the card, and see the actual note on the staff! So if they’re practicing writing them out on a staff, they can double check their work!
Mailing Landmark Notes
Can you tell I love LOVE!? Here’s yet another Valentine’s Day Themed landmark boom deck! This game has all 3 C’s from the grand staff (Middle C, Treble and Bass), as well as Treble G and Bass F.
Students will have to “mail” the correct landmark, by dragging the note into the mailbox.
This is perfect if you’re low on prep time but want a cute love-themed piano game for your students!
Lucky Landmarks
How could you pass up a $1 landmark game!? That’s right! This St Patrick’s Themed deck is cheaper than your dollar item at the dollar store! 😂 Just like the other Valentine’s Themed game, instead of having to drag a heart, students will have to place the coins on the correct landmark space!
Landmarks included in this simple deck are Middle C, Treble G, and Bass F.
Pumpkin Puzzles
This fun pumpkin-themed deck of 26 cards will get your students excited about working on landmarks around Halloween! Students will have to complete the pumpkin by finding the correct landmark in question!
Make sure you have this fun piano game in your piano game arsenal especially come October!
Landmarks on the Staff
Don’t roll your eyes, thinking these are just another set of boring regular flashcards… I mean yes, they are regular flashcards, BUT, if you like to think outside of the box, you can play so many games with these!
Obvisouly, you can use them to review all the notes on the staff, but they don’t have to just be used as flash cards! You can separate them and reinforce landmark cards, and be creative, turning the game into “Go Fish!” There are several ideas and variations of how you can use these cards in your lessons, included in the directions of the game!
