The 12 Days of Christmas - Notable Music Studio Style!

My studio Christmas recital is December 2nd and we are in the process of all the planning and practicing as I'm sure many of you are as well.  It's always my goal to create an atmosphere of quality musicianship, but I also want it to be fun.  I want students as well as parents to enjoy the evening together.  So...this year as part of my recent group workshop, the students and I worked on a little "surprise" for their parents!

I put together a Notable Music Studio version of the Christmas song, "The 12 Days of Christmas" and the kids worked together to figure out who would do what part.  We had SO much fun practicing and they're really excited to share it with their parents in a couple of weeks.

Here's our version:  
  On the first day of Christmas, Miss Sheryl gave to me...The One Minute Club for Note ID
  On the second day....2 rhythm sticks
  On the third day....3 guitars strumming (3 young guitar students I teach will strum together!)
  On the fourth day...4 beats a measure
  On the fifth day....5 BA-CH Bucks!
  On the sixth day...6 Continents to Conquer
  On the seventh day...7 Music letters
  On the eighth day...8 notes an octave
  On the ninth day...9 flashcard drills
  On the tenth day...10 flashy fingers
  On the eleventh day...11 finger puppets
  On the twelth day...12 Major scales!

Of course, we'll have lots of visual aids to go along with the song and occasionally, we added a few extra "expressions" that work with it!  When we originally starting practicing, I gave them some things to hold up/use but as we went along, they came up with some really great ideas to work into it as well!  So fun and SO creative on their part! 

Doing something like this is unique and fun, but it also gives my students something fun to look forward to!  It really helps to offset some of those nerves!  Are you planning something unique or fun for your recital this year?