5 Easy Music Lesson Games

This blog post was published by Mckenzie Clawson on the Plucky Violin Teacher Blog on October 13, 2015 so links and resources may not be current.

How to Make Lessons Fun Without Spending Any Money!

It is really easy to get in a teaching rut. Do you feel that way, too? Some weeks I just get into my routine, say the same things (bend your thumb, that’s sharp, blah, blah, blah), do the same activities, and even I get bored. And I’m the teacher! The whole lesson is bland and uninspired. When I start to feel this way, I look for games to play so I can have more fun while I teach.

I love surfing Pinterest for great ideas to incorporate into my teaching (follow Plucky Violin Teacher to see some of the ideas we’re loving), but so often the games involve print this! or buy this! and I neither have a printer at my home or a lot of money to buy more violin games. I love simple activities with minimal prep and no extra cost. Here are some of my favorites:

Toilet Paper Tubes
These can be decorated with stickers and markers to be personalized for each student. (A great way to keep one sibling occupied during the other’s lesson!Hold it over your student’s left shoulder and practice a straight bow.

Tissue Paper
Put a small wad of tissue paper in the “mouse hole” (space between the left thumb and first finger underneath the violin). It will give a tell-tale crinkle when your student starts squeezing their thumb. This is great physical reminder for kids to loosen up if they have a hard time realizing when they’re tense.

Flashlight
When repeating a tricky passage (over and over and over), turn on the flashlight when the repetition was perfect. If you have a headlamp with a red light and a white light, you could use the red light for “try again!” and the white light for “great work!”

Tupperware Lids
Set up four tupperware lids in a small baseball diamond. When they play their piece correctly they can advance to the next base. Four perfect repetitions and they get all the way home. If they blow you away with an amazing sound, give them a home run!

Dice
In a previous post on making practicing fun, I wrote about using dice to choose the number of repetitions, but the possibilities here are endless! Make a list of rhythms beforehand associated with the number they roll, then they use that rhythm in their scale warm up. For example, if they roll a 3 they may have to play their scale in triplets. You can also use this same idea to pick a position for shifting exercises, a review song to play, or their key for the week for scale practice. I especially like this last choice for my advanced students. This way they don’t hate me for making them practice C# minor. (Insert evil laugh. Mua ha ha ha.)

Sometimes I wonder if my games are too simple and too dorky (especially for my older students), but somehow every time we still manage to have fun. This also may be because my students are polite and put up with me. Either way, I’ll take it.

​Please comment and tell me about your favorite super simple lesson games. Do simple games work for your students? Or do they require more pizazz?
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