Spin the Bottle on Lead Sheets

Everybody loves Christmas music, but some of the students just aren’t ready for reading them. Here’s a fun way to incorporate a lot of Christmas music into a lesson, regardless of the student’s level. Naturally, you could do this at any time of year with other lead sheets.

What You Need:

• Christmas lead sheets, such as:
  • Angels We Have Heard on High in C, G, D, F
  • Deck the Halls in C, G, D, and F
  • Jingle Bells in C, G, D, or F
  • Oh, Come All Ye Faithful in C, G, D, and F
  • Silent Night in C, G, D, F
  • We Wish You a Merry Christmas in C, G, D, and F
• A bottle

Setup:

• Lay the lead sheets out on the floor in a circle, with the bottle in the middle.
  • I put out a stack for each song, with all key signatures in the stack, but that’s optional.

How to Play:

• Have the student spin the bottle. Whichever page it points to is your lead sheet for the round.
• Depending on the level, you can do one of the following:
  • Student plays root note only. Teacher plays the melody.
    • Teacher may need to point to each measure to keep the student on track.
  • Student plays root chord only. Teacher plays the melody.
  • Student plays a basic pattern, such as oom-pa-pa or Alberti bass. Teacher plays the melody.
  • Student makes up their own accompaniment pattern. Teacher plays the melody.
  • Student sight reads the melody. Teacher plays an accompaniment.
  • Student plays the melody with root chords below.
  • Student plays the melody with an accompaniment pattern below.
• When you’ve gone through the song, spin again for another one.

Variations:

• Most of the variation comes in what part you have the student play, but you can also make it harder or easier by controlling the key signature. My beginners played only in C major. My more advanced started in C major, but if they spun the same song twice, the second time I changed the key.