Music Fun Games

Everyone loves music. To many students, however, learning to master musical elements such as the grand staff, note identification, rhythm, and key signatures can be intimidating.

 

As a piano instructor, my primary goal is to make the study of piano a joyous and rewarding experience. Therefore, it has always been very painful to watch whenever my students struggle for accuracy in their rhythm, tempo, notes, and dynamics while pursuing excellence in their playing. I frequently ask myself questions such as: How can I help? How can I shorten their struggle? How do I make this learning process more fun and enjoyable? Instead of seeing that they feel they are not good at music, is there any way or any tool to make my teaching more effective?

 

I strongly believe that the more I seek solutions to help students learn more effectively, the better the teaching skills I will attain. This summer, after playing with lots of music apps, I found that the following games are fun to play and should accelerate learning process. 

 

 

Rhythm

 

1. Rhythm Cats

• Very fun games for beginner and intermediate students to learn rhythm.
• Interesting designs for holding longer beats.
• 15 levels, from simple to complicated rhythmic patterns.
• Great background music when students play the games.
• Helps eyes, hands, and hearing coordination. 

2. Rhythm Training

• Each exercise contains a short rhythm example (three to five bars).Beginner, intermediate, and early-advanced students can all benefit from playing this app.
• 50 lessons total.
• The speed of the metronome can be changed.
• Good preparation for those who will participate in the Royal Conservatory Program.  

 

3. Rhythm Lab 

• Activities in the higher levels are fairly challenging, but this app provides lots of options and settings that may help beginners build good skills and a sense of rhythm.  
• Players can choose:  
• One-handed or two-handed exercises. 
• Different patterns of rhythm such as rests, ties, 2 against 3, 3 against 4, and dotted quarter-eighth note.  
• Composers: Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Mozart, Haydn, etc.  
• The speed and sound of the metronome can be changed to fit a player’s personal and comfortable pace.

  

4. The Most Addicting Sheep Game

• Fun, simple, but challenging game for rhythm, especially hitting right on the beat.
• Many students in our studio love this app and cannot stop playing it.
• Cute background music and graphics.
• To win points in this game, students must keep an internal beat.  

 

Note Reading 

 

1. Note Squish

• Great music-reading game.
• Both beginners and intermediate students will benefit from this app.
• Various options for:
• Speed: turtle, rabbit, or car
• Clefs: treble, bass, and C-clef
• Note names: ABCDEFG
• Solfège: do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti
• Clear instructions about the game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Note Perfect

• Activity difficulty is divided/designed for three different levels: beginner, intermediate, and virtuoso.
• Limited by a set time, students need to complete their note reading against the clock.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Flashnote Derby   

• Fun horse race games for identifying and naming notes.
• To make your horse run faster to win the race, you must give a correct answer in naming notes.
• Students can review their correct and incorrect answers.
• Settings for different clefs (treble and bass; line and space).