Songs for Instruments

Encourage the children to explore the different sounds that can be made by each instrument and to become more accurate in distinguishing between tapping, shaking and scraping. Some children will require lots of reinforcement.

Children also need to have plenty of opportunity to explore sounds found around the home or classroom, such as tapping two objects together or shaking packets of seeds.

Choose lively pieces of music for children to play along to and encourage them to move as they play. Try making quiet sounds to accompany a gentle piece of music, thus exploring dynamics and encouraging control over how the instruments are played.

Begin by helping the children to start and stop playing together. This offers plenty of opportunity for children to lead the activity and to control the playing. As well as exploring loud and quiet playing, help the children to understand tempo by playing fast and slow. You could also use symbols to encourage fast and slow playing, such as a picture of a sports car and one of a tortoise.