Music Activities
Rhythm
These activities provide opportunities to practice reading and performing rhythmic patterns:
Performance Activities
These activities provide opportunities to perform music with others:
Musical Instrument Families
Fun Resources
Theory Activities
These activities provide opportunities to explore the theory of creating music:
These activities provide opportunities to practice reading and performing rhythmic patterns:
- Intro to Rhythm Reading Level 1: Quarter Notes & Half Notes
- Intro to Rhythm Reading Level 2: Quarter Notes & Eighth Notes
- Intro to Rhythm Reading Level 3: Quarter Notes, Eighth Notes & Half Notes
- Jingle Bells Rhythm Practice
- Jingle Bells Rhythm Puzzle
- The Cup Song
- Body Percussion: Dance Monkey
- Name Game
Performance Activities
These activities provide opportunities to perform music with others:
- Open Mic
- Songs to Sing
- Listen & Tell
- Imaginary Instruments
- The Sound Machine
- Musical Game of Feelings - DICE
- Musical Game of Feelings - CARDS
Musical Instrument Families
- Woodwind Worksheet
- Brass Worksheets
- String Worksheets
- Percussion Worksheets
- Color by Instrument Family
- Instrument Word Search
- Instrument Family Coloring Sheets
Fun Resources
- Museum of Imaginary Instruments
- Coloring Sheet
Theory Activities
These activities provide opportunities to explore the theory of creating music:
- Musical Instrument Card Games
- Songwriting
- Rhymin’ Simon
- Protest Song: If I Had a Hammer
- Music Vocabulary
- Dynamics: Volume of sound (loud or soft)
- Tempo: Speed of sound (fast or slow)
- Rhythm: Pattern or sound
- Whole Note: 4 beats of sound
- Half Note: 2 beats of sound
- Quarter Note: 1 beat of sound
- Eighth Note: Half beat of sound
- Sixteenth Note: Quarter beat of sound
- Rest: A duration of silence
- Pitch: Frequency of sound ranging from high to low
- Note: A moment of sound with a particular pitch and duration
- Scale: A set of notes that are used to create music:
- Chromatic (12-note scale)
- Nonatonic (9-note scale)
- Octatonic (8-note scale)
- Heptatonic (7-note scale)
- Hexatonic (6-note scale)
- Pentatonic (5-note scale)
- Tetratonic (4-note scale)
- Tritonic (3-note scale)
- Ditonic (2-note scale)
- Sharp: Raise a pitch by a half step
- Flat: Lower a pitch by a half step
- Major Scale: A seven-note scale consisting of whole steps and half steps (Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Whole).
- Example: C, D, E, F, G, A, B,
- Minor Scale: A seven-note scale consisting of whole steps and half steps. Every major scale has a relative minor scale, which starts on the 6th note (Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Half, Whole).
- Example: A, B, C, D, E, F, G
- Time Signature: Indicates how many beats are in each measure (and which notes gets the beat)
- Key Signature: Indicates what scale the music is played in, as indicated by sharps or flats
- Forte: Loud
- Piano: Soft
- Crescendo: Gradually getting louder
- Decrescendo: Gradually getting softer
- Accelerando: Gradually gettin faster
- Ritardando / Rallentando: Gradually getting slower
- a tempo: Return to the original tempo
- Ensemble: A community of teamwork and respect working together to create music
- Melody: An order of pitches in rhythm.
- The melody is usually the most memorable aspect of a song—the one the listener remembers and is able to perform.
- Harmony: Two or more complementary notes sounded at the same time.
- Lyrics: The words of a song
- Verse: A repeated section of a song that typically features a new set of lyrics on each repetition.
- Chorus: A repeated section of a song and embodies the overall lyrical message of the song.
- Refrain: Similar to a chorus, however a refrain consists of only a phrase or a single word.
- Bridge: A section of music intended to provide contrast.
