Beat and Rhythm Music Games

Exploring beat and rhythm with students is a great way to incorporate multiple musical techniques like fluency (continuous flow of the beats), pacing (learning how far apart the beats are), timing (learning where the beats fall), synchronicity (playing the beats together), agility (noticing how the beat patterns change throughout the music), coordination (hitting, tapping, or shaking an instrument with a body part at the right time).

There are so many ways to engage students using beat and rhythm. We’ve compiled a list of seven games to play that incorporate music across different content areas. Choose a few and give them a try today!

Beat and Rhythm Games for the Classroom

Play The Beat

Show a steady underlying pulse in various ways as the students follow along: body percussion (patting, clapping, snapping, stomping), alternating hands right, left, right, left (RLRL), feet marching, on an instrument, tapping various parts of the body (head, heart, fingertips, tongue, and so on) as the children follow along.

Echo

Perform a certain number of beats and have the students repeat them. Change the tempo and volume of the beat, and see how well the students follow. Produce a rhythm while maintaining a steady beat and have the students repeat it, alternating back and forth in call and response style. Invite various students to be the leader.

Rhythm With Words And Phrases

Use voice, body percussion, or instruments to produce the rhythm of student's names, a nursery rhyme or poem, or words to a familiar song. Divide into 2 or 3 groups and play different patterns simultaneously to the same steady beat.

Put The Beat In Your Feet

Play a steady drum beat and invite the students to walk with the beat. Instruct the students that when the drum starts they start, when the drum stops they stop. Vary the tempo by accelerating and decelerating. Vary the volume by playing loud or soft.

Drum Circle

Give each student a hand-held percussion instrument or have them clap. Play a steady beat in unison. Invite the students to improvise a rhythm while staying with the beat of the group.

Sound Cues

Sound cues cue a behavior. For example: "Walk when the drum beats." "When the chime signals, please stand and turn."

Soundscapes

Invite the students to play various instruments, body percussion, or found sounds to accompany a story or poem. Discuss the message and meaning of a text and create a musical way to represent selected words or phrases that are repeated or descriptive. Perform the created piece as the text is read aloud.

Invite the students to play various instruments as a soundtrack for a story or to tell a story. Discuss the message and meaning of parts of the story and select a musical way to represent each idea. Perform the created piece.