I feel like I am always in search of good, fun, and free music theory games in my piano lessons that are painless to throw together.  I wanted them in one place to just refer back to when I need music theory concepts that I want to teach or review and have fun at the same time through games.

Here is my tried and true list of fun music theory games.  They are quick and easy to prep with inexpensive materials.  These are organized by music theory concepts.  

Use this to help teach piano students in individual lessons, or as a group lesson, or in a music classroom.  These games are adaptable to whatever your needs are!

 

 

Music Notes (Quarter, Half, Whole, and Eighth Notes)

 

• Music Note Twister (pianotels.com): throw notes on the floor, roll a die and must touch notes with hands or feet that add up to the amount rolled
• Music Note Jenga (pianotels.com): Using the game Jenga, use music notes and rhythms to pull out blocks until the tower can’t stand anymore and falls to the table amidst laughter.
• War…Piano Style (pianotels.com): Pass out music note twister cards evenly to each player face down.  Each player takes one card and flips it over.  The person with the highest worth of a card, wins all the cards of that round.  Play continues until all the cards are with one person.
• Egg Carton Shake-Up (teachpianotoday.com): using an egg carton, label each hole a note.  Place a single piece of candy or small toy such as an eraser in each hole.  Then close it up and student can shake it.  Before opening it, tell them they are allowed to eat/keep all the items in the “quarter notes” or whatever you name.
• Swat the Note (teachpianotoday.com):  All you need is a flyswatter and flashcards.  When you call out the note, they swat it!

 

Rests

 

• Ping Pong Toss with Rests (pianotels.com): The students love this one as they get to toss ping pongs, marked with various rests, into a bucket.  The ping pong balls that make it into the bucket are counted according to their worth and the person with the most points wins!
• Eggscellent Matching (pianotels.com): on plastic easter eggs, write a rest on the top of one egg and a note that matches that count on the bottom.  Mix the tops and bottoms up and they have to match them together.

 

Rhythm

 

• Rhythm Bingo (dsmusic.com/au): this is a super quick game to pull together as all you need to do is print out the sheets and go for it.  This game makes the students think as they look for identifying the right rhythm as it is clapped.
• Cup Game (youtube): Take 3 mins to learn this game off of a youtube video.  Grab a cup for each student and you are on your way to a fun rhythm game!
• Can You Guess It? (pianotels.com):  for this game, take a song and clap out a rhythm from one measure in base or treble clef.  The student(s) figure out which measure you just clapped.

 

General Music Terms

 

• Hedbanz with Musical Terms (pianotels.com):  using headbands and index cards, figure out what term is on your forehead with the help of other students and the teacher
• What am I? (pianotels.com):  This is a variation of Hedbanz with Musical Terms (as described above) but this time you pin music terms on the backs of the students.  The student is only allowed to ask yes/no questions to find out “What am I?”
• Music Terms and Definitions Set 1 (pianotels.com): This is a document you can use to print out and have them match the definition with the name.  You can also print and cut them out and then use them as a memory game as they match the definition/symbol to the term.
• Music Terms and Definitions Set 2 (pianotels.com): similar to set 1, but with more terms, symbols, and definitions!
• Line Rider Video Clips (YouTube):  If you haven’t seen these videos from DoodleChaos yet, you have to check it out.  So fun to watch, review terms and symbols, and visualize these songs!

 

 

Piano Key Awareness

 

• Snowflake Keyboard Note Race (susanparadis.com):  I love this game!  Using the music alphabet in flashcards, use pawns to travel across the keyboard and be the first one to reach the other side.
• Whole and Half Step Piano Race (pianimation.com): Print out these cards, grab a couple of playing pieces, and race to be the first one across the keyboard.  Although similar to the Snowflake Keyboard Note Race listed above, this uses knowledge of whole steps, half steps, sharps, and flats.

 

Notes on Staff

 

• Free Online Music Note Flashcards Game (pianotels.com): A Game to learn your note names fast!  Quickly name your note and see how fast you can do it.
• Musical Note Spoons (pianotels.com): Have you ever played the game spoons?  This is a high speed note name version of the game Spoons where you seek for 3 consecutive notes in a row.  This game is excellent at helping the student better sight read the notes on the staff quickly.
• Note Rush App:  This is an awesome, affordable ($5) app that the students play over and over again as they seek to play the key on the keyboard that matches with the note shown.  I really like this app and it is useful for beginners or advanced. You can create your own custom notes level as well which has been amazing for my more advanced students.
• Codebreaker (pianotels.com): call out a word and the students create it with note cards.  Some words that work with this game: bag, face, be, cab, bead, fade, deed, bee, ace, babe, cafe, facade, fed, dad, faded, gag, bed, bad, age, cab, cabbage

 

Intervals

 

• The Interval Game of Sorry (pianotels.com): Using the gameboard Sorry, review your intervals as you play the game against the teacher and/or other students.  You can often find the game Sorry at a 2nd hand store.
• Interval Bingo (susanparadis.com): quick and easy to print out, this Interval bingo can be used to call out the intervals, or use ear training as you play the interval for them to identify.

 

Key Signatures

 

• 9 Keys or 15 Keys (susanparadis.com): This is a fun way to review key signatures on a printable game board with printable cards.  I suggest printing out two game boards and connecting them together because the game goes by a little too quickly otherwise.

 

Time Signatures

 

• Whack-a-Time-Signature (pianotels.com): See how well your students can work together to create different time signatures as they play this no set-up game.
• Tag You’re It (teachpianotoday.com): This game is a little like tag and works well for a small-medium group. The teacher counts out 4 beats in a measure, accenting the first, and students try to tag each other by moving only on the first beat of the measure. Of course, it can be adapted to teach any new time signature!

 

Finger Numbers

 

• Where is Thumbkin (Finger 1)? (pianotels.com): Easy to learn your finger numbers with this activity AND you practice dexterity too!
• This Diamond Ring (teachpianotoday.com): This is a cute game with 2 different colored dice (one for LH, one for RH) and a bag of dollar store rings.  When they roll the dice, they put a ring on the finger number.  The fingers can get loaded up!

 

Dynamics

 

• Forte, Piano!  (pianotels.com):  Students hide an object in the room.  Another student tries to find the object by receiving hints from the other student.  Holding up various dynamic signs, louder means they are getting closer, piano means they are getting further away.
• Dynamic Pictionary (pianotels.com): this is the classic game of Pictionary, but with dynamic style!

 

Tempo

 

• Tempo Musical Chairs (pianotels.com): to review the names of tempos, play this active and fun game of musical chairs with a twist.  The players can only walk to the beat of the tempo that is chosen!
• Tempo Light (takelessons.com): Red Light! Green Light!  Instead of shouting those out, they shout out a tempo and can walk at that speed.  They have to pause when fermata is shouted out.

 

Chords

 

• Connect-a-chord (pianimation.com): This printable version of Scrabble allows the students to build chords with letters.  What a creative way to create cords on a whole new level!

 

Ear Training

 

• Opposite Bingo (pianimation.com):  These super cute, printable bingo cards can be used for a fun Bingo game as the students listen to you play and mark their cards accordingly.

 

Organizing Your Games

 

Putting these games together is so much fun and brings so much more creativity and learning to your lessons.  But they won’t do you any good if you don’t have a way to access them quickly and easily.  Check out how I do this in Organizing Your Piano Studio.  It has some great tips for organizing these games well.