Tag: leadsheet

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.

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Jingle Bells, Lead Sheet Activity

In the final week before Christmas, we were playing around with lead sheets and accompaniment styles. Jingle Bells is a great one to use because the kids all know it, and the right hand never goes out of a standard 5-finger pattern. Songs like that are rare.

When I planned this, I was worried it would be hard and frustrating for some of my kids, so I had planned a lot of Christmas jokes to use as interludes to break the tension. I needn’t have worried. They all enjoyed it, and I didn’t end up using any of the jokes at all.

What You Need:

Setup:

  • For older kids, no setup required.
  • For younger kids, you could lay the cards out on the floor and use dice and a Christmas ornament to select a card.

How to Play:

  • The student starts by sight reading just the right hand of the melody.
    • Beginners could do just the first line, or they could learn it by rote instead of reading.
  • Introduce or review the concept of a lead sheet.
  • Reinforce the concept by playing Jingle Bells with the Root Note Accompaniment. That card has a carrot on my cards.
    • Depending on the student, they could either play both hands or just the left hand.
  • Once they’ve got the idea, start drawing cards (or rolling dice) and play Jingle Bells as many times and in as many ways as you have time for.
    • The notes on the bottom of each card are there as a reminder only. The student should play by understanding the pattern, not by reading.
    • The accompaniment styles vary widely in difficulty. For each card, make a quick evaluation about whether this student should play right hand, left hand, or both. As the teacher, you play whichever hand the student is not using. Many of the styles can be made easier by using both hands to play it.
  • At the end, spread out all the cards the student has used and ask their opinion on which style of Jingle Bells they liked best. They liked being able to give their own musical review.

 

Jingle Bells, Accompaniment Style