Beginning Band

Beginning Band - do you cringe just hearing those words? I remember the Christmas Concerts at my elementary school. As soon as the band was announced everyone braced themselves for who knows what. As Music teachers, we need to acknowledge the parental squirminess when it comes to listening to beginning band songs and realize that those feelings can unintentionally transfer to our students. How do we build confidence after those first few weeks of excitement have worn off? We need to play beginning band games. Let's keep it fun as we teach our students to push through the struggle of learning how to play a new instrument. Because let's face it, they don't sound melodious when they first start playing, learning an instrument is HARD and a lot of students just give up. 

Here are three fun games you can use in your Beginning Band class right away with little to no prep!

Around the World is super easy to play when band students are working on playing long tones. Who doesn't love a little competition? Maybe the flute and tuba players but we can make some accommodations for them. Click here for the game instructions. 

Reverse is an excellent game to play if you really want to get your students' brains going. Use a set of rhythm flashcards. Display four to six flashcards to start. Have the students clap and say the rhythm flashcards to ensure that everyone will be successful reading them in order to play the game. Then pick a pitch and have students play the rhythms using that pitch.

Split the class into two groups. Group 1 will clap and say the rhythms forward. Group 2 will clap and say the rhythms backward - at the same time as Group 1! Switch parts. Now, add pitch to the rhythms and play it again. 

To make it extra challenging turn it into a canon or have students roll their own rhythm patterns using rhythm dice. 

Mystery songs are a great way to get your beginning band students to improve their listening skills and pattern recognition without them even realizing it! You can use these mystery songs with the whole class, split students up to play them in small groups or even use in centers. 

When coming up with mystery songs I take a simple, familiar song, like a nursery rhymes or folk song, and create a melody map for that song using different colours or symbols for each pitch. You can draw it out on chart paper with markers or you can grab my printable and projectable (PowerPoint and Google Slides) ready-to-go version here. 

Whenever I introduce a new game to the class I always model how to play it with the whole group but if you are feeling brave or if you have a really advanced class you can always set them loose to try it on their own. 

This game is all about experimentation and listening. Split students into similar instrument groupings to start with and give them the starting pitch or one of the pitches in the song. You can project the mystery song on a screen or print and laminate copies for each group. Students can just "noodle around" with the music, trying different rhythms and figuring out the melody. Once they think they have figured out what the song is they hold up a "Got It" sign. I love using the signs because it is just too noisy to hear anyone call anything out and I don't want other groups to overhear the song title. When most groups have figured out the mystery song we play it together as a whole class. It's super fun and educational which is what we're all about. 

Beginning band doesn't have to be "cringey." Once you get your students hooked with band games that stretch them as musicians and keep them wanting more those concerts will be much gentler on their parents' ears.