For teachers · ages 6 to 10 · nothing to print
Every game written out in full: which age, how many minutes, how loud it gets, what you need and what you say. Most need nothing but bodies, voices and the room. Seven games in the browser at the top, a ready-made 45-minute lesson at the bottom.
Mika: In music lessons I lie among the papers and listen until someone claps.
Only bodies and voices? Every game without materials is collected on Music games without instruments. Covering a class today? Substitute music lesson is a lesson minute by minute.
Mika plays two notes, the class points up or down, you tap what most of them show. The notes move closer with every right answer.
5–10 years · one round 5 min · quietearsTwo short tunes: thumbs up for same, a wiggling hand for different. When it’s right, Mika howls.
5–10 years · one round 5 min · quietearsMika shows the fingering, a child plays for two seconds, the page names the note and gives a breathing tip instead of a “wrong”.
6–10 years · one round 10 min · a bit loudmicA child sings a note, Mika plays it back and says its name. If it sits in between, it’s “very close to G”, never “wrong”.
4–10 years · one round 3 min · a bit loudmicMika claps two bars, a child claps them back, into the mic or on the screen. In class mode one tap brings on the next child, no points, no list.
5–10 years · one round 5 min · loudmic + earsA child hums a tune, the page shows it as colours, the class plays it back on the tubes.
6–10 years · one round 10 min · loudmicFive plastic bottles, a little water: the page says whether to add more or pour some out until the scale is right. Then Mika plays it.
4–8 years · one round 15 min · a bit loudmic
Every game with age, minutes, noise level and materials. No game has losers: whoever makes a mistake stays in.
Everyone closes their eyes and just listens for half a minute. Then three children say what they heard: the heating, a car, the breathing of the child next to them.
Eyes closed, very still. Who can hear three sounds? Tell us only when I say “open”.
Ages 8–10: Which sound was the quietest? Where did it come from?
Everyone sits with their eyes closed. Whoever thinks a minute has passed quietly raises a hand and stays silent. Afterwards you tell them how long the minute really was.
When I say “go”, everyone counts silently in their head. When you think a minute is up, hand up, eyes stay closed.
Good for: after break, before a listening game.
You rub your hands together, the child next to you takes over, then the next one, until the rustling has travelled once round the room. Then back again with finger clicks.
The sound travels. Start only when your neighbour has started, and stop when it has moved on.
You sing “Good mor-ning” on two notes, high and low, like a cuckoo. The class sings it back exactly the same. Then you sing it sleepy, cheerful, very tiny, and the class copies.
I sing, you are my echo. Exactly the way I sing it.
Ages 8–10: A child may lead.
You sing slowly up the scale, and the children’s hands climb from their knees over tummy and shoulders to above their heads. Back down the same way. Then you jump: a high note, a low one, and the hands jump too.
Low notes live at your knees, high ones above your head. Listen for where the note lives.
Everyone closes their eyes. You walk quietly through the room and knock twice on a table somewhere. With eyes still closed, everyone points to where it came from, then eyes open and compare.
Eyes closed, and point to where the knock was. Point first, then look.
Ages 8–10: A child knocks, the others point.
You hum a song everyone knows, no words, just “mmm”: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Frère Jacques, Happy Birthday. Whoever recognises it puts a finger on their nose until everyone is ready, then everyone says the name together.
I’ll hum a song you know. Don’t call out: finger on your nose when you know it.
Harder: only the first three notes, or backwards.
You clap two short patterns one after the other. If they were the same, thumbs up; if something changed, wiggle a hand. Then a child claps what was different.
Two patterns. Same: thumbs up. Different: wiggle your hand. Who can show us the difference?
With the phone: the same with tunes in Same or different?
You sing notes on “oo”: some long, some very short. For a long note the children draw a long line in the air, for a short one a dot. Then a little sequence: long, short, short, long.
A long note is a line, a short one a dot. Draw what you hear with your finger.
You hum a short tune of three to seven notes. Everyone silently shows how many on their fingers. Then you hum it together and count along.
Count silently. Show me the number on your fingers when I’ve finished.
Every child finds a sound at their desk: a pencil on a ruler, the zip of a pencil case, a rustling sheet of paper. One child plays their sound behind their back, the others guess what made it.
Find a sound at your desk, but don’t play it yet. Who’ll show us theirs first, behind their back?
Everyone hums on “oo” and follows your hand: when it goes up, the voice goes up; when it goes down, so does the voice. Only as high as is comfortable. Then a child leads.
Your voice is a lift. My hand is the button. Nobody has to reach the top floor.
You sing a short line on “la”, two to five notes, and the class sings it back. Very simple at first, then with a jump. Finally a whole line of a song.
I sing, you sing it back. Listen first, then sing.
For children who don’t like singing: they hum along or show the notes with their hand.
You sing a name on the cuckoo call: “Lu-cy”, high and low. The child sings their name back, as loud or quiet as they like, then the class sings it. Whoever doesn’t want to says “pass”, and that is fine.
I’ll sing your name, and you answer: “I am here.” Whispering counts too.
You hum a note. The first row takes it over and keeps humming, then the second row, while the first one stops. So a note travels through the room without a break.
The note must never stop. Start before the row in front of you stops.
You sing a question to any tune: “What did you have for break-fast?” A child sings the answer with a tune of their own. There is no wrong tune, only their own.
I’ll sing you a question. Sing me the answer any way you like. Speaking it is allowed too.
One sentence for everyone, for example “Today it’s raining spaghetti”. The class says it high like a mouse, low like a bear, slow like a snail, fast like a racing car, whispered like a secret.
Now let’s say the sentence like a bear. And now like a mouse.
Ages 8–10: The children invent the next voice.
You clap four beats, the class claps them back. Then patterns with a rest, with stamping, with clicking.
I show you, you copy. Exactly like that, not louder.
With the phone: Mika claps first in Clap it back.
One clap travels from child to child through the class, each claps exactly once. Slowly at first, then faster. How fast can you go round once without losing the clap?
Everyone claps once when it’s their turn. Don’t drop the clap.
Four sounds from the floor up: stamp, pat your thighs, clap, click. You build a four-beat pattern from them and the class plays it over and over. Then two groups with two patterns at the same time.
Stamp, pat, clap, click. And again, without stopping.
Every name is clapped in syllables: “Ma-ri-a” is three claps, “Tom” one. The class claps each name back. Who has the most syllables? Who has a name that sounds just like theirs?
Say your name and clap along. We’ll clap it back.
Three groups, three words: “Ap-ple”, “Ba-na-na”, “Ki-wi, ki-wi”. Each group says its word over and over to the same beat and claps along. Then the groups start one after another until all three sound together. Finally just clapping, no words.
You’re the apples. You start. The bananas join in after four beats.
You knock a steady beat on the table and the children walk through the room, one step per beat. When your beat speeds up, the steps speed up; when you stop, everyone stands still.
Your feet listen to my hand. When it’s quiet, you’re statues.
Ages 8–10: A child knocks the beat.
You tap a short pattern softly on the shoulder of the first child in each row, who taps it on to the next. The last child claps what arrived. What changed on the way is the fun, not a mistake.
Tap it on the way you felt it. The last child claps it out loud.
You sing or clap, everyone dances on the spot. When you stop, everyone freezes. Nobody is out: whoever wobbles just carries on as a wobbly statue. Then a round with music from the phone.
When the music stops, you’re made of stone. And whoever wobbles is a wobbly statue.
A thunderstorm with your body: rub your hands (wind), click your fingers (first drops), pat your legs (rain), stamp (thunder), and then everything backwards until only the wind is left. Your hand shows when the next sound comes in.
First comes the wind. When I point at you, it starts raining where you are.
You read out a short story, for example a trip to the woods. Beforehand you hand out sounds: one group is the stream, one the birds, one the footsteps. Whenever its word comes up, the group makes its sound. At the end the class tells the story with sounds only.
You’re the stream. Every time I say “stream”, you rush. When I raise my hand, you stop.
Groups of four invent a four-bar pattern with stamping, patting, clapping and rests and write it on the board with symbols: a foot, a hand, a dash. Each group performs its piece and the others read along.
You have five minutes. The class has to be able to play your piece from the board.
The first child hums a note. The second hums that note and adds a new one, the third hums both and adds a third. How long does the tune get before it changes? The whole class hums the final version.
Hum what you heard and add one note.
With the phone: hum the finished tune into Brumm Kids and hear it with a beat.
Everyone hums one note. A child conducts: hands wide apart means loud, close together quiet, a fist means silence. Then two conductors with two groups.
You only watch the conductor. The conductor doesn’t speak, they show.
A song everyone knows. With every line it gets quieter, until it carries on only in your heads. Everyone sings the last line out loud again, together, when you nod.
Now we sing only in our heads. When I nod, the last line comes back out loud.
The whole class tries to clap exactly once, together, when you raise your eyebrows. No counting, just watching. When it sounds like a single clap, the lesson is over.
Clap when I raise my eyebrows. Not before.
To say goodbye, every child who wants to hums or claps what they liked best today, in one bar. The others guess which game it came from.
Show us in one bar what was the most fun for you today.
Built from the games above, for ages 6 to 10, with the phone only in the middle. Loud and quiet take turns.
Eyes closed, very still. Who can hear three sounds?
The voices are awake.
The loud part, while the energy is there.
With the phone, the class points with their arms. Before it, two minutes of siren.
At the desk, quiet. For ages 8 to 10, “How many notes?” afterwards.
Making things up: first everyone together, then child by child. If there’s time, the finished tune can go into Brumm Kids.
When I nod, the last line comes back out loud.
A lesson with every sentence to read out, for emergencies: Substitute music lesson. How children make their own tune with a beat in 20 minutes: Your own tune in 20 minutes.
No game here has losers, none has a ranking. Whoever makes a mistake stays in the game, and whoever doesn’t want to sing alone may hum, whisper, clap or say “pass”. The games are music-lesson classics, written down for you; you need no sheet music and no instrument.
Nothing to print, no account. The phone games at the top run in the browser; the microphone only switches on when a child taps, and the sound stays on the phone, nothing is uploaded. Please don’t share songs with children’s voices from a lesson without the parents’ consent (Privacy at Brumm Kids).
This page is new. If you try a game, tell us what worked and what didn’t: hello@brumm.ai.