Climb-the-Mountaincreated by Julia Jensen Baxter
Climb-the-Mountain can be played in at least two different ways and by one or more players. With the first, the player or players can race up the mountain. At first the ground is gradual, but it gets increasingly steep as they get closer to the top. To move up a step, each player will need to play a pre-chosen passage perfectly at a slow speed. As the difficultpart gets easier the speed can be increased and the blocks or traps (explained below) more frequent, thus making the steep grade more challenging! If a mistake is made the player must remain on that step until the part has been played with no errors. Then, he/she can resume climbing. If he/she plays it perfectly the student is allowed to roll a "dice" and move however many steps up the mountain are indicated by the dice. Students soon become interested in how many rolls of the dice it takes to "climb the mountain".
For a PDF copy of the Climb the Mountain game board......Click here. The second method of using climb-the-mountain makes the activity more difficult because there are traps on some of the steps. If a mistake is made on a step with a trap there is a fine. The number of traps can become more frequent the closer the player or players get to the top of the mountain. Before this game begins, a parent or teacher numbers the steps and may even choose to keep secret which step numbers have the traps! The fine for making a mistake on a trap is to go back a pre-specified number of steps. The number of traps can become more frequent the closer a player gets to the top. This can help the student learn to play the part well even under stress. If climb-the-mountain is a race between students the teacher can keep a running total of which steps the students are on. This game could even be played throughout a practice week and not just on one day. The first student to the top wins the game and even, perhaps, a prize! This game can be very exciting! The players don't even have to all be present to play if the teacher keeps track of where each player is. He/she could even post the race in his/her studio. It can also be a good game for siblings as well because the players don't have to be at the same experience level and don't have to be playing the same difficult passage. I have used this "mountain climbing" activity with my ownstudents and have been pleased with the results. It's been fun to observe how quickly difficult passages become easy the closer a student gets to the top. However, I have found that it's best to introduce the game by having a student play it during a lesson. If I simply explained it at that time and asked the student to use the game during practicing he/she usually didn't do as well with it as when it was actually used during the lesson.
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