Teacher Resources
Enjoy these free resources for your instrumental class! Each activity aims to help students improve both their aural skills and independence on their instruments. These activities can be adapted for all melodic instruments. More activities coming soon!
Telephone numbers is a fun and accessible composition activity. This activity uses the digits in a phone number and assigns each digit withy the corresponding scale degrees to create a short phrase of music.
The teachers claps different rhythms (usually 4-beat rhythms) and students copy the rhythm back. The teacher (or a student) then chooses one rhythm which if played, is NOT to be copied back!
‘Delete’ develops awareness of scale degrees and aural skills and helps students become more familiar with the notes and degrees of a scale beyond pattern recognition.
Clapping Ladders helps students to develop their aural skills, rhythmic skills and learn scales.
This is a compositional activity with a difference. The possibilities expanding this activity are vast, although there will be some parameters depending on the instruments you are using in your group.
A fun activity for students of any level is to take this well-known piece and learn to play it starting on each of the different fingers; an open string version, a first finger version, a second finger version, a 4th finger version, even different positions - you choose!