Resources Mentioned
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It was about this time last year when I got a panicked email from a parent: “Jack broke his left wrist this week. What does this mean for piano? He’s in a cast.”
Has this ever happened to you? Some parents may assume that lessons need to be paused during this time. I mean, they can’t play with only one hand… or can they?
The answer is yes, and there’s more and more one-handed repertoire available. With a broken foot, we can focus on repertoire that doesn’t use the pedal, or they can learn to pedal with their left foot for a few weeks.
But more importantly, what I want to convey to parents (and students) is that playing is only one facet of musicianship. There are so many other things we do in lessons, so many other skills we’re working to develop. It reminds me of something Frances Clark once said, “Teach the student first, the music second, and the piano third.”
Instrumental technique is an important part of our work, but sometimes, a situation like this gives us a good excuse to focus on other musical skills we don’t spend as much time on.
“Oh no!” I wrote. “There’s still a lot we can do in piano that doesn’t involve two-handed playing. We can focus on right-hand technique, ensemble skills (with me playing the left hand), single-line sight-reading and transposition, rhythmic reading, aural skills, discrimination, etc.”
The more I wrote, the more ideas came to mind. And I started to see how we could turn this physical setback into a positive learning experience.
Today, I’m sharing a list of nine lesson activities you can do with a broken arm. Some of these are specific to piano, but some are relevant no matter what instrument you teach. I hope the next time you find yourself in a situation like this, you’ll have just what you need to continue learning and making music together.
Your Student Has a Broken Arm. Now What?
That first week, when Jack came to his piano lesson with a cast on his left arm, I had a whole list of activities planned. I thought we might repeat these activities every week, but as it turned out, I had more than enough activities to get us through an entire month of lessons.
That Wednesday afternoon, we spent time on and off the bench, and I found that the time seemed to go quicker than in a regular lesson. We were having so much fun! Jack was engaged and focused the whole time, and I could see him leaning into the other aspects of his musicianship and relying on his ears more. As a teacher, I felt more connected and involved in the music learning process; I participated more and felt more like a collaborator.
Here are some of the activities we did in lessons:
9 Music Lesson Activities You Can Do with a Broken Arm
The first two are reading-related:
1. Sight-reading (one handed or as a duet with me). This actually had the two-fold benefit of developing reading skills and listening to a duet partner. We talked about tempo, starting together, balance, and phrasing. You could also have your student sight-read both parts with the same hand. Sometimes, it’s good to practice playing the LH part with your RH or the RH part with your LH to give both hands the opportunity to play the melody and the accompaniment. I love the Sight-Reading and Rhythm Every Day series by Helen Marlais for exercises like this.
2. Rhythm reading. We did this on a conga drum one week and a drum set another week, because we happened to be in a classroom that had those instruments. You can use a sight-reading example and just work on the rhythm or use a non-pitched example meant just for rhythm practice, like the ones found in Rhythm Keeper, Vol. 1. We turned this into rhythm duets and I challenged Jack to perform at different tempi. I shared 7 ways to practice rhythm in Ep. 059, if you’re looking for more ideas.
The next two are related to aural skills:
3. Learning a pop song by ear. This could easily be turned into a multi-week project: listening and identifying the key one week, outlining the chord progression and form the next week, figuring out the RH notes and rhythms, and putting it all together. Jack worked on “High Hopes” by Panic! at the Disco.
4. Aural skills. This includes playbacks, where you play a short example 2-3x and the student plays it back, tapbacks—the same as a playback except rhythm only, melodic or harmonic intervals, major vs. minor blocked triads, or a simple chord progression such as I-IV-I. I share some of my favorite aural skills games and activities in Ep. 026.
We did do some technique work—this felt like a good time to focus on just one hand:
5. One-handed technique. We did scales, blocked/broken triads, arpeggios, and rotation exercises.
We also worked on music theory:
6. Theory review. We reviewed key signatures, note-naming on the staff, and did some meter ID based on music listening examples. “Is this in triple meter or quadruple meter? Is this simple or compound?” You could play examples for your student or create a playlist in advance. Consider using music of different styles and time periods—maybe even some pop music—so it doesn’t all sound the same.
Musical creativity is another important facet of musicianship and one that does not require two hands:
7. Improvising/composing. These projects include creating a simple melody based on a given rhythm, improvising with a given chord progression, or creating a short piece and taking the time to notate it. I talked about improvising on the podcast recently, in Ep. 085, and shared three examples from my studio.
The last two activities are related to music listening, which is something I’m always looking to do more of in lessons:
8. Music listening and score study. We took time to listen to and compare a few recordings of pieces Jack was working on before breaking his arm. We studied the score and analyzed the form, looked for repeated patterns, and observed articulation and dynamics. You could also take this opportunity to prepare for new pieces you want your student to play once they get their cast off.
9. Musical Memory game. This is a game Steve and I created back in 2011 for a community event we were hosting as part of our summer music festival. We’ve since done it in other community settings, I presented it as part of a presentation on musical engagement and meaning making when I was doing my doctoral work at Eastman, and I created a version that I use with my intermediate students in studio classes (it’s one of their favorite games). It’s played like the card game, Memory, but each card represents a piece of music. Among the cards shown, there’s a musical match—not the same track, but the same song or piece set in a different style or two pieces that features the same prominent motive.
A few short weeks later, Jack got his cast off and resumed playing with two hands. We returned to two-handed technique, sight-reading, and repertoire, but we kept rhythm-reading, working on a song by ear (he went from “High Hopes” to “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”), and improvising as regular lesson activities. The others get folded in when there’s time or built into studio classes.
I love reviewing theory concepts in a small-group setting, and last year, we did several listening projects as a group. I talked about one of them in Ep. 083: Bernstein and Bill Evans.
Of course, I wouldn’t wish a broken arm on anyone, but I’m grateful Jack’s parents were willing to have him continue lessons during those weeks. I took it as a personal challenge to come up with a range of musical activities we could do together. It was a great opportunity to assess Jack’s skills and musical development, and I was really pleased with how much he seemed to enjoy those lessons.
I hope this inspires you to think creatively about how you approach lessons—for all students, but especially when you have a student with a broken arm or who is otherwise unable to play.
Conclusion
To recap, here are those nine activities once more:
Sight-reading: one-handed or as a duet
Rhythm-reading
Learning a pop song by ear
Aural skills
One-handed technique
Theory review
Improvising and composing
Music listening and score study
Musical Memory game
I’d love to hear from you:
Do you have any other activities to add to this list? I’d love to hear your creative ideas and suggestions.
