I had a “light-bulb” moment the other day, when I was teaching a young lad who is good at playing by ear, but is finding reading the notes on the music hard work by comparison. This pen-torch

happened to be lying beside the piano, so I picked it up, switched on, and used it to “high-light” particular notes on his music;

for example         “That’s an E, and that’s an E, and can we find another E?”

He was very pleased indeed to be given the torch, and had a thoroughly enjoyable time “focusing”  in on various notes in his pieces.

The more fun ways I can devise to encourage the pupils to get to grips with reading music, the better.  This one was a winner.