Musical games to play with your children

Children generally love games and music. Why not combine the two and play musical games with your family?

These musical games I will share, may not necessarily reinforce musical concepts, although you can adapt the game rules to include objectives to teach musical concepts. I will include some ideas for music lessons, and also share the teachable moments for each game. Read on to find out what the games are!

 

Besides musical play, would you like a holistic, musical environment in your home?

Bloom School of Music & Arts offers Musikgarten programmes for pregnant mothers, and newborns through 3 years old. It is an acclaimed Early Childhood music programme from USA.
Songs, dances, rhythms and stories are repeated appropriately, building on what each child has mastered. CDs with songs sung in class, and age-appropriate instruments are included in the lessons, and helps bring the lessons into the home environment.
With Musikgarten, music learning involves the whole family, and enhances parent-child interactions. Children will also develop a deep affection for music, and possess the ability to express it. Over time, they will be well-prepared and ready to continue individual music lessons.

Contact us to find out more about the courses we offer, and to find out our schedules for classes.
Click here to submit an Online Enquiry Form, and we will get back to you!

 

For starters, here are some low-effort, self-entertaining, indoor/outdoor musical game ideas to play with music and/or musical instruments:

 

Musical Chairs

This is a top favourite, and a popular game to play at children’s parties.

You start with one chair fewer than the number of players. The players walk around the chairs (arranged in a line or a circle) when music is playing. When the music stops, the players have to sit on a chair each. The player without a seat will then be out of the game. The game continues by removing one chair before each round, and the players will play until there is only one champion left.

One not-so-fun part of Musical Chairs is that there will be disputes, especially if two buttocks land on one chair, and neither child wants to give up their seat. Adults have to be prepared to mediate in such a situation. Tantrums aside, playing Musical Chairs is a safe way for children to learn practical life skills such as patience, resolving conflicts peacefully, sportsmanship, and dealing with disappointment.

Lesson ideas: You can teach the concept of beats with Musical Chairs; choose a piece of music with a strong, steady beat, and include the rule that players have to march according to the beat.

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FREEZE!

This game is another party favourite, and is so simple to play! All you need is some music, and children who are ready to bust some moves!

The rules are simple: While music is playing, players can move or dance freestyle. When the music stops randomly, players have to stop moving, and “freeze” in whichever position they stopped at. Anyone caught still moving when the music is stopped, is out of the game. The game then continues in an elimination manner, until someone is declared the winner.

If you think about it, this is as much a strategy game as it is a simple game of Freeze. Smart players will know that it is better to stay grounded (pun intended), lest they get caught off-guard with a foot off the floor! Unless you are good at balancing, it is a good idea to do mainly upper-body movements, to stay on top of your game.

Lesson ideas: Freeze is a Music & Movement lesson in disguise. The music for each round of the game could be of a different genre, and the players have to move accordingly to how they feel about the music.
Not only will children be introduced to various types of music (classical/jazz/pop, to name a few), the children will get to practise directionality (the awareness of space, and the ability to orientate themselves through space) with locomotion. It is also a good opportunity for children to explore their bodies’ capabilities (for example, learning how far they can bend backwards or forwards).
It will also be interesting to see how the children interpret that piece of music with movements.

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Hide & Seek Instruments

Honestly, this idea came from the Hide and Clap scene in the horror movie The Conjuring. The game does not have to be creepy though!

Hide & Seek Instruments follows the general rules of Hide & Seek: There will be a seeker, and the other players will be the ones hiding. For a musical twist, the hiders hold on to a musical instrument each, and they will sound off their instruments after the seeker counts down and shouts “Ready or not, here I come!” The seeker then has to find the hidden “instruments” (the hiders). After all the hiders are found, this round is over. The players can then take turns to be the seeker, and the game continues.

Lesson ideas: Hide & Seek Instruments will be a great game to practise listening skills, since the seeker has to look out for where the sound is coming from. The game’s difficulty level can be increased by changing the objectives of each round; for example in this round, the seeker would have to find only the bells amongst the mix of bells and drums. Do note though, that unless you’re playing with gifted musicians, the sounds made by each instrument have to be well distinguishable.

You can also choose to play this game outdoors, so the seeker has to filter out more sounds to be able to find all the hidden instruments.

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Drop Handkerchief

This game goes by many names, the familiar one being Duck, Duck, Goose. A player goes around the circle to choose a catcher. The chosen catcher has to get up to chase the player, and the player has to run around the circle and sit in the place vacated by the chosen catcher. If the player gets caught before getting to the seat, the player has another go to choose another catcher. If the player manages to get to the seat, the catcher becomes the player, and chooses another person as the catcher.

 

 

Drop the napkin, drop the napkin
Softly behind your friend’s back,
Everybody stays quiet,
Quick, quick, catch him!
Quick, quick, catch him!

 

This variant is in Mandarin, with the difference being the player drops a handkerchief behind the person the player has chosen. The children seated in the circle will sing this song as the game is in play. This video shows an example of the game that is enjoyed by kindergarteners. This is a great way for non-Mandarin speakers to learn the language, as the song lyrics explain the rules of the game.

Lesson ideas: Fast and slow (tempo) can be a concept to be taught with Drop Handkerchief. While the player is going around the circle to choose the catcher, the players in the circle sing and clap along to the song slowly. When a catcher has been chosen, and he/she is getting up to chase the player, the players in the circle start singing and clapping along to the song faster. This would increase the intensity and excitement for everyone in the game!

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The Telephone Jingle

I enjoy being a spectator of the Pass The Message game—also known as The Broken Telephone Game—because it is amusing to guess where in the line the message got broken, based on confused looks of the messengers!
It is not that fun to be the messenger though! Especially if you have got a particularly difficult and long message to remember.

The gist of Pass The Message is to pay attention!
In the original game, all the players stand in a line, close enough to hear the message whispered to them, but not so close that other players down the line can hear. The person at the end of the line is the intended recipient of the message. The other players are the messengers. The first messenger passes on a message—usually a funny, uncommon phrase—to the messenger next to him/her in the line. The game continues with the messengers passing the message until it reaches the last player. The intended recipient must then say the message out loud, so everyone can hear how it has, or has not changed from the original message.

Lesson ideas: The Telephone Jingle is apt for listening, and pitching practice.
In this musical version, instead of passing a message in words, players would pass a message in musical notes or musical rhythms! Depending on the players’ music level, each messenger can play a musical note or a bar of notes (on a xylophone), or clap out a rhythm, to the next messenger.
The challenge can be increased by allowing each messenger to compose their own bar of notes, and the last person must be able to replicate the melody!

There are some learning points in playing the various versions of Pass The Message. This is a fun way to show how small misconceptions can end up making a huge difference. It also provokes reflection about the consequence of passing on the wrong message, intentionally or not (gossip and rumours). It definitely helps to pay attention to ensure you are relaying the correct message, and this game is good practice for active listening, a skill that is very much needed in the real world.

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What are your favourite musical games to play? I hope this list is useful for you, and will be added to your repertoire of games to play at home with your family, or at the next party you are planning.

Let me end with these quotes by Fred Rogers of US preschool television series, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood:

Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning.
But for children, play is serious learning.
Play is really the work of childhood.

 

So, let children play!

From all of us at Bloom School of Music & Arts,
here’s wishing all children, and everyone young at heart,

Happy Children’s Day!