8 Games To Play With Your Music Theory Classes

We recently chatted with Dr. Stefanie Dickinson, who shared some of the music theory games in her chapter of The Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy. From her list of games for reinforcing pitch, harmony, rhythm and more, Stefanie tells us about the favorites she uses in her classroom and how they’re played. Here’s a quick peek at two of her games, “Interval Train” and "Triad Bingo."

Interval Train

Divide students into small groups or teams. Invite one student from each group to the board. Give the students a starting note, direction and interval – for example, “G, ascending major third.” After each team has notated the first interval, the next players come to the board for a new interval, and so on, for a series of 5-12 intervals. The group(s) that get the correct final note win.

Triad Bingo

Prepare traditional Bingo cards with the letters B I N G and O across the top, and a five-by-five grid of boxes, aligning the columns with each letter. Place a single chord in each box. Vary the chord qualities; for example, under the O column you may have F major, D minor, C augmented, E minor and B diminished triads. As you play, call out a letter and chord quality, such as “N minor.” Students will place a chip on the minor triad box in that column, if one exists. The first student to create a line of five chips declares “Bingo!” and wins if all answers are correct. Feel free to get creative - you could play this game with intervals, too!

To hear her music theory games explained (and one bonus game from Greg!), listen to the full episode of Notes From The Staff.

Notes From The Staff is a podcast from the creators of uTheory. Join us for conversations about pedagogy, music theory, ear training, and music technology with members of the uTheory staff and thought leaders from the world of music education. Subscribe to Notes From The Staff on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.