Games and Activities for Young Music Learners

Recently I went to the internet in search for some ideas for games and activities that would help an 8-year-old student learn tablature (a method for writing music for guitar or other stringed instrument players). I was surprised to find nothing useful for a kid, so I decided to do something that I thought I'd never do which is to post some of my ideas for music learning games online so other teachers can take advantage of them. I figured if there isn't much online with regards to teaching tablature, then the music teaching methods I've recently developed largely on my own based on some teaching philosophy I learned while teaching throughout college, studying for my TESOL, and teaching in Istanbul might be beneficial for some teachers out there. And once I come up with some ideas about tablature I'll try and remember to pass those along as well.

Also, just a word to clarify: I don't believe music should be taught from the page. We absorb music mostly through the ear and we create it mostly by a combination of listening and feeling. Written music is largely a way to a) communicate efficiently with other musicians, and b) preserve information that might be lost or forgotten. I wouldn't teach written music except when the student has reached a point where he or she has learned more than I feel is beneficial to have completely memorized.

Anyway, onto some of the teaching methods!

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1) Spin is one of my favorite games to play with a group of students, although it doesn't work very well one-on-one. You need a lot of space to play this one, but, as you'll see, I often try and utilize the entire room as often as I can with these exercises.

I have my students, who at this point know two or three guitar chords, strum one chord while sitting in their chairs. Then I name another chord and yell, "Spin!" Everyone (including the teacher of course) stands up with the guitar and runs around his or her chair. After sitting down again, the first student to correctly play the chord I named earns a point.

The point of the physical action of "spinning" is to encourage students to forget the shape of the first chord - indeed, the shape of any chord - and start completely from scratch when sitting down, forcing them to reconstruct the chord shape without any finger positions from previous chords as references. Also, and more importantly in my mind, the spinning enhances the student's physical connection with guitar chords as well as the mental connection. And of course this game can be played with musical forms other than chords and with instruments other than the guitar. Later the students can take turns being the leader, which allows the teacher to make "mistakes" and "get caught" by an alert student leader, further reinforcing relationships with the chords.

2) Up and Down Game is a quick game that works well when the student leads, designed to familiarize a student with the difference in the sounds of an up strum and a down strum on guitar. It can also be used with ultimate beginners to introduce the concept of low notes and high notes.

It's very simple: if the leader strums up, the followers go up (usually they sit down at the start). If the leader strums down, they go down. If the leader strums up and the followers are already on their tiptoes (I try to discourage standing on chairs and tables), then the followers have no choice but to jump up, which can be very fun for a student who wants to repeatedly strum up and force their teacher to bounce up and down - even more fun if the teacher pretends it's torture! If the leader strums down and everyone's already lying on the ground, they have to press their cheeks into the ground. And - best of all! - if the leader strums up and down and up and down as fast as they can, then the followers look like bunnies, crouched and hopping in place.

This game can't keep a student's attention for too long, but it accomplishes one of my favorite things: pairing a concept with a physical action. This game is based somewhat on a great method called Total Physical Response (TPR), which essentially attempts to create connections in students' minds between certain ideas (be they vocabulary words, names of the guitar strings, letters of the alphabet, or what have you) and specific physical actions they either performed or witnessed. This game is a very simplified extraction of that method.


3) String Stations is a way to help a student become acquainted with the names of the guitar strings, although it could be applied to just about any particular concept.

First the students create 6 full page drawings - one for each string - with a large name of each string in the middle, EADGBE (the two Es can be Etop and Ebottom or whatever nomenclature works best for the student). If there are multiple students, divide the work between them. The students use the letter to draw a picture of a word that starts with that letter: E is for elephant, A is for apple, and so on. The students should make each of their 6 pictures very distinct from each of the others.

Then tape these pictures to surfaces all around the room. Use as much space as there is! Make sure the students know where these "stations" are, or even let them make the stations themselves. Then the teacher plays an open string, and the students race to the corresponding picture. This can be a lot of trial and error for students who are new to string names, but it's amazing how fast they catch on. And as they get the hang of it I can play the next string as they're arriving at a station, making them run nonstop throughout the room.

I've found this game works great for a couple different reasons. First, by utilizing the wide room, it provides a nice contrast to focused sit-and-play. Likewise, this game can wear students out (or rile them up depending on who they are) and prepare their minds for a coming focused exercise. This game also includes art, which facilitates even another connection for students between the music concept and something of their own design. It's very important to me that my students make their own unique meaningful connections with the concepts at hand, and this use of artistic creativity as associated with a musical idea creates that kind of meaningful connection. And, once again, this game is quasi-TPR, forcing the learners to associate a string's name with a physical area of the room.

4) Hidden Chord Stations uses the same kind of stations idea as the String Stations, but in a hide-and-seek context. Again, it isn't limited to teaching chords, although that is where I have used it most often.

The student can prepare papers with the names of chords on them, designed to mean something particular for the students as in the above exercise. Then, while the students are out of the room or with eyes closed, the teacher or another student hides the papers throughout the room. When the students search for the papers, each time they find a paper they play the appropriate chord before searching for the others.

Alternatively, using some origami folding skills, the teacher can have the students (or prepare beforehand) fold the chord papers into unique shapes. Here I find it important to use multiples of the same chord, using the same origami and pen colors for each page, further creating a connection in the students' minds between the exercise and the specific chords. I also like to put the chord name somewhere hidden so students have to search for it. Eventually, after enough times through this game, students know which origami shape corresponds to which chord without needing to search.

This activity has many of the same merits as the String Stations game does, although there are some important differences. Unlike with String Stations, this game requires more calm focus from students and less running around, even though the hiding places utilize the entire space. Hidden Chord Stations is often best followed by a game that uses more of a direct TPR focus, or just something that helps students get their yah yahs out. Finally, this game flows directly into songs very well if you have enough chord papers to cover each of the song's sections. Like a puzzle, the students can arrange the origami chords, once found, into the correct order for the song, creating what's basically arrangeable written music. (I plan on using a similar technique to tackle my tablature problem.)

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That's enough for now. I hope someone finds some of these ideas to be useful, and if so I might decide to post some more, perhaps directed at instruments other than the guitar or different age groups that aren't so proficient with pen and paper. In the meantime, enjoy these activities!