Enriching lives through participation in music
Music Therapy Services of West Music
Musical Games
05/03/23
Add unique fun to your sessions by incorporating musical games! Popular games and shows can be changed to focus on musical subjects. Not only are they fun, but they can also address goals such as group cohesion, communication, socialization, and cognition. Here are some ideas of musical games you can incorporate into your sessions.
Wheel of Fortune
Have participants solve word puzzles to reveal the name of a singer, band, or song title. You can get fancy with PowerPoint to create the game or just use a simple white board and dry erase marker to indicate the letter spaces. Make sure to give a “category” as a clue to the answer. For example: “female artist” or “love song”. If you have a whiteboard, allow opportunities for participants to be the “game host” and come up with a music related puzzle for the group to solve!
Download a Wheel of Fortune Game here!
Name That Tune (or TV Show!)
Download a sample
Name That Tune here!
Split the group into teams and give each of them a desk bell or work as one large group. Have a playlist of age-appropriate songs ready to play a 10-15 second excerpt of. The first group to name the song title gets a point. Bonus point if they can also name the artist! It is also fun to have puzzles that fit the season or upcoming holiday. For example, around Halloween, you can play excerpts of theme songs from popular “creepy and kooky” TV shows and movies. If needed, provide extra support for guessing by providing pictures of the artist, TV show, or movie to choose from.
Musical Crossword
Create a crossword puzzle in PowerPoint or by using a free crossword generator which you can find online and print off. Give clues for participants to solve the puzzle filled with song titles, lyrics, bands, singers, instruments, or musical genres.
Download a crossword example here:
Scattergories
In this game, a letter is selected at random. A categories related to music are also selected (ex: instruments, bands, title of a country song, title of a song from the 80’s, name of a musical artist). Then, the team/group must come up with one response that starts with the selected letter for each category.
For example, if the letter selected is “R” here are some possible responses to each category:
- Instruments: Rainstick
- Title of Country Song: Ring of Fire
- Musical Artist: Rhianna
To simplify the game, have each team see how many responses they can come up with overall instead of requiring one response per category!
These games are easy to adapt to all age groups, backgrounds, abilities, and music preferences. Plan a time to incorporate a musical game into your session!
