Piano games and music activities are SO beneficial when it comes to teaching beginner piano students, especially in group classes.
Piano games and music activities are SO beneficial when it comes to teaching beginner piano students, especially in group classes. Whether you’re looking to use games as a little break or as a fun way to reinforce music theory, Heather Nanney is here to give us a step-by-step plans of action for her various games and activities.
Thank you so much to Heather for sharing all these great resources for free. Make sure you check out all her freebies at Fun Key Music (cool name!!)
Table Of Contents:
A great way to teach beginner students is by incorporating group lessons into your studio. But how do we do that?
Group sessions work for a number of teachers in a number of formats. No way is “the right way”. Whatever works for you and your students is right!
In my studio, I hold six group classes on a yearly basis in place of regular lessons.
I try to group students together by age and ability as much as possible, however I have found that having a mix can be a wonderful thing. Younger students can learn a lot from older students and older students can gain confidence in helping and leading younger students.
The games below are designed for groups of four or more students (and let me tell you, kids love these games!)
If you’re looking for more information about setting up group classes, check out this blog
I like to start the piano lesson with a self-guided activity that can be done with one just student or with the entire group. As they all arrive at different times for various reasons, it’s great to have a fun game that any number of students can be playing while they wait for others to arrive (and that’s easy for the other group members to jump in upon arrival).
Music games in the form of apps are a fun and simple way to do this. The first student to arrive begins by playing a game on your iPad by themselves, then when the next person arrives they can take a turn. This is also really useful for you as the piano teacher – while the students are engaged playing a game you have a little extra time if you need to gather materials, talk with parents, turn off the sound on your phone, text back the mom who lets you know she’s running behind, etc.
Some of my favourite apps for the starting activity are Ningenius and Music Flash Class using the “Hot Potato” mode.
If you’re looking for more tech games to reinforce rhythm and composition, check out these recommendations.
Rather than jumping straight into playing music, I recommend starting with an ice breaker. This is because…
This is the one point in the lesson that if the activity doesn’t relate to music at all, it’s OK. I let myself off the hook if icebreakers are not music themed.
There is so much more to our students than piano and this is a time to celebrate that! They have other hobbies, interests, talents, etc. and icebreakers are a good way to get them talking about these things.
Here are two icebreakers to get your students talking and interacting:
Here are some ideas for Get To Know You questions:
It’s so fun when students discover the things that they have in common with one another and hearing conversations like, “I thought I saw you at school!” or “What?! Twenty One Pilots is your favorite band, too?! Did you see their latest video?”
Be proactive in creating these connections among your students.
If you know two of your students share a common interest, say something like “Hey Sara, did you know that Amanda also takes dance? Why don’t you show each other your favourite dance step from a routine you’re working on?”
Have students line up in a random order that you give to them:
For a challenge, have them form these lines without using their voices!
Now that students have arrived, everyone knows each other’s names, and they are interacting, that’s where the music making and learning starts!
If you have a group of older and more advanced students, you could also incorporate activities from this list of 20 Creative Ways To Start A Piano Lesson.
Here are a variety of things you can do at this point.
Piano games are a great way to reinforce music theory and help your students on their musical journey.
Whatever concept you’re looking to reinforce, you can turn it into a great game by incorporating movement. An easy and fun way to do this is with Flashcard Relays.
Flashcard Relay is a great music game as it can be adjusted to cover a range of music theory. For example, your students can sort chords into major or minor, sort half notes and quarter notes into their correct values, or even sort minor scales into natural, harmonic, or melodic.
In addition to sorting, teams can also race to complete a task. By using a fun game (especially a timed game) to put students’ theory knowledge to the test, you can level up their understanding of certain concepts.
Timed challenges can include:
There are many reasons why relays and timed challenges make great piano lesson games:
If you’re looking for fun ways for students to reinforce their understanding of chords, the game ‘Chord Pong’ could be for you! In a nutshell, this game sees students bouncing ping pong balls into cups in order to build chords.
Here’s what you’ll need:
1. 6 ping pong balls
2. 15 plastic cups
3. Card stock
Preparation and Setup:
1. Print the Chord Pong file found here on card stock and cut along lines.
2. Set up cups in a pyramid. (1st row=1cup, 2nd row=2 cups, etc.)
3. Shuffle the cards and place several letter names in each cup.
How to Play:
1. Player one picks up 3 ping pong balls.
2. On their turn, they have a chance to throw each ball once (a total of three throws per turn). If a ball does not land in a cup, that ball is out of play for the remainder of that turn.
If a ball successfully lands inside one of the cups, the player choose one of the notes inside that cup (without peeking)
3. Play continues until one student has collected 3 chords.
Planning a group lesson with multi-level students? Read this blog for tips!
Students race to gather balloons and reinforce note values.
Here’s how to play:
Blow up balloons and write one note/rest on each balloon. I used around 15 balloons and used eighth, quarter, half, and dotted half notes/rests.
Divide students into two groups. Call out a number at the beginning of each round. The number represents the number of beats your teams will be collecting. (8 beats, 5 beats, 6, 4, 9, 3, etc.)
Students race against the clock to guess as many musical clues as possible.
Download the Heads Up! App on your mobile device and buy the in-app purchase of “Build Your Own Deck”.
Enter as many musical clues as possible, or if you are focusing on a particular subject, enter clues relating to that subject.
Once your clues are entered, students have one minute to answer as many clues correctly as possible, without rhyming, using any part of the clue itself, or giving the first letter of the clue. It’s fun to see how students describe each of the clues!
Here are some other ideas to spark your creativity:
Remember, you do not have to invent new games for groups.
Think of ways you can adapt what you are already using successfully into a group setting. Do you have a games for an individual that you can turn into a group game? Do you have a game for reinforcing note and values, but you want to cover scales instead? How can you make it work in a different way? You can do this!
Group classes are a great experience for both students and teachers and I hope this gives you some ideas for your groups!
What is an activity that you already use in private lessons that you can adapt for groups? Share the instructions in a comment!
Meena says:
Happy to have found your blog. I have been teaching group lessons for a year now after teaching 10 years of one on one and I am absolutely loving this new way of doing it. I have adapted some of the most loved games like twister and the fishing game with the little plastic fish that go around and around and other board games. I just take circle label stickers from the dollar store and write whatever I need them to learn whether it’s a letter of the alphabet that is in coordination with the musical alphabet or a symbol like a quarter note or an eighth note etc. and I put the stickers on the game pieces and throw in an element like they need to play that note after getting the piece in the game. For twister I wrote the notes and symbols and instead of calling out a color I would have the kids call out “quarter rest right foot, half note left hand etc.) We also play sharks and minnows and whoever gets tagged hast to play out of their book in front of everyone else. The catch is that everyone who is watching can get called on at any time and they have to point to where the player last played in this make sure that everyone pays attention. I give students points for pointing to the right place when called on and have prize baskets with different values like 50, 100 and 300 with the prices going up in worth.
Harold Burton says:
Kinda suprised Kirby Super Star didn’t make it, but Kirby’s Dreamland 3 did, mostly ’cause KDL3 is barely talked about meanwhile everyone and their mama talk about Super Star (I love both Dreamland 3 and Super Star btw)also Super Metroid didn’t make top 3??
Harold Burton says:
am i the only one that played “”B.O.B”” and thought it should have been number two??? (lets face it Zelda deserved to be number one all day long) or at least on the list at the very least…. i mean a robot going through all that to get his dipstick oily is just to much fun…
Jenny says:
Thanks very much!!! Going to try a couple of these tomorrow and really appreciate you sharing them!
Mariyn Long says:
Thank you Heather! I taught Vocal Music in the classroom for 30 years with centers, etc. I teach in my home now and am always looking for fresh new ideas for Group Lessons. Love your ideas!!!
Becky says:
Thanks a million Heather and Tim!!! I have 18 kids coming tomorrow night for a “Kick Off” party. You saved me with all these great ideas!!!!
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bkosten says:
So so helpful. I will be incorporating all of these ideas soon. Thanks Heather & Tim!
Marie Lee says:
Your Chord Pong and Balloon games are brilliant! Just subscribed to your blog, Heather!
Heather Nanney says:
What a compliment! You made me smile big time :)Thank you so much, Marie!
Paul Myatt (ForteMusic) says:
Great ideas Heather – thanks for sharing.
Heather Nanney says:
Thanks, Paul! I’m so glad you enjoyed it.
Heather Nanney says:
Thanks, Paul! I’m so glad you enjoyed it.
Heather Nanney says:
Thank you, Paul! I’m so glad you enjoyed it.