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I co-teach a youth music program at the Salvation Army church in Lancaster, PA. This
program involves about 20 students 6-14 years old. Many of the students joined the program at
the beginning of the school year, and had never played an instrument. In addition to offering
beginning instrumental lessons and chorus, this program includes a music theory class. Rather
than relying on a music theory workbook and worksheets, I decided to create fun and engaging
learning games (Froebel). The overall goal of all of these games was to teach music literacy, so
that our students could read music and be able to transfer their knowledge to playing their
instruments and singing. After several weeks of introducing each game, we offered them in
different stations so the students could rotate between all of the games, and were therefore
able to practice reading notes. Towards the end of this activity, we introduced a rhythm-reading
game.
The theory games included note-naming games such as a timed flashcard station,
hangman, a life-size staff for bean bag toss, and music theory twister. The timed flashcard
station involved students saying note-names as quickly and accurately as possible within a 60-
second time frame. I recorded the number of correct notes that they identified, so that they
could practice at home and then try to beat their own record the next time they played. This
game was very helpful because students wanted to challenge themselves and beat their own
high score. I noticed remarkable improvement in their note-reading speed and accuracy. In
addition to this game, students also enjoyed playing a musical version of hangman. This
involved words that could be spelled using the musical alphabet. Each time a student guessed a
correct letter, they would write the letter in its space and draw the note in the staff above it. This
helped familiarize them with the musical alphabet, and helped them learn how to draw notes on
a staff. The last two games involved a life-size staff taped on the floor (Carabo-Cone). For the
beanbag toss, the students would gently throw a beanbag onto the staff, and then they would
say the note name for whatever line or space it landed in. When students played music theory
twister, I would call out various directions such as right hand on line D, left foot on space
Fetc. This allowed them to become familiar with where the notes were on the staff, while they
were moving around and having fun. Kinesthetic learners greatly improved from these activities.
Finally, I created a life-sized music board game to act as a music review game to reinforce
reading musical notation and other aspects of basic music literacy (Gardner). My students had
a lot of fun with this game, and were able to enjoy a comprehensive and interactive review of
One of the other stations offered a rhythm basketball game. Students in this station
would stand behind a line and toss three balls into a game board with 3 holes in it. Each hole
had a different color around it, and each color stood for a type of note (quarter, half, or whole).
They would get the equivalent number of points as beats for whichever hole they tossed the ball
into. For example, if a student tossed the ball into the red hole, and red was the quarter-note
color, they needed to say a quarter note equals one beat in order to earn one point. If they
tossed it into the green hole, and green was the whole note color, they would say a whole note
equals 4 beats in order to earn 4 points. This game helped reinforce basic rhythmic values
since each student was required to identify the type of note for each colored hole and state how
Throughout the several weeks when we offered these music theory games, I noticed a
significant change in the student's attitude about music theory. Instead of being frustrated that
they had to learn how to read music, most of them were excited to play the games. This helped
create a positive and fun learning environment for all of the students, and gave them an