‘Try and catch the fly!’ a game by Piano Comics for piano beginners to train their rhythmical skills

‘Try and catch the fly’ is a funny game that young kids, even preschoolers, love to play during piano lessons.

It is essentially a rhythmical game where the student has to clap whenever they see a fly on top of a note written in a rhythmical short phrase (6-12 bars) the teacher plays. Let’s break it down so that the student understands how to play it.

1st step: the teacher plays this easy, one hand rhythmical ‘melody’ on the staff while moving the pencil as he moves from one beat to another, one bar to another. This is an important warm-up for the eyes of the students to get used to looking at the scores and how the time/rhythm passes by on a piece of paper, virtually. We only play one key so that we make it easier for the eyes of the student to follow the scores.

2nd step: repeat the 1st step while counting out loud and ask your student to help you with the counting.

3rd step: now ask your student to look for the flies on top of some keys and whenever they see one, they have to clap as if to try and catch it. So at the end your student, having practised looking at the scores and getting the pulsation of the beats inside him through counting out loud, already is warmed up to expect when he has to clap whenever the key with a fly on top appears.

4th step: make it funnier for the student ( harder but more fun! = best recipe for a teaching process) by asking them to add another insect or animal and doing another movement ex. bees: movement of a hand to shoo them away because we don’t want to clap if we see a bee cause we don’t want to get a bee sting!, and draw those new invaders on the bottom of the key (tip: don’t draw that 2nd insect at the same key where there is already a fly) .  And now the student has to focus on clapping to catch a fly and shoo away with his hand whenever he sees a bee ( making it a more advanced rhythmical exercise and body movement training).

That’s it. Happy hunting!

This game trains many things to piano beginners: sense of rhythm, keeping a stable beat while counting out loud, learning to count out loud, looking at the scores, seeing how time passes on the scores, reflexes of their body to synchronize the ‘melody’ of the teacher with the body movements they choose.

Here is a short video ( the whole video you will find on my social channels) of me explaining how I play this game which is also suitable for preschooles and a music classroom. More games and piano material to make piano lessons light, funny and long-term effective you will find here: ‘Workbook Sheet Music’ for piano beginners by Piano Comics. 

Here are the scores for this game: