Rhythm was my weak point as a student, so as a teacher I am always looking for quick and easy music rhythm games to help my students get a better understanding of timing.
All you need for our 3 easy music rhythm game ideas today is a set of rhythm flashcards.
Then, you can keep these ideas in your back pocket to pull out in just seconds anytime your students need a little extra rhythm help.
Now, for our 3 quick and easy music rhythm games!
1. Rhythm Slap Jack
Who didn’t love Slap Jack as a kid? It is a very easy game for children of all ages to play, and you can make it into an easy music rhythm game by using rhythm flashcards.
Play with the whole deck of rhythm flashcards BUT assign 1 special card to be “Jack” (the card you slap)
You might start with the whole note (semibreve) as “Jack.” Every time a whole note is laid, the players race to slap it. Then, change it to the dotted half note (dotted minim), where players slap only the dotted half note.
You can work your way through ALL the different notes to help your students learn the names of all of the notes.
Bonus: remember, you can also slap doubles for extra cards!
2. Note Slap
What can I say? I like slapping games.
Here are the instructions to use this game with Rhythm Reef, but you can also play it without a gameboard.
Lay four cards face-up so students can see notes and rests.
Say one note or rest (e.g. eighth note/quaver)
The student to slap the correct card first gets to keep the card.
When a student has collected 3 cards, they get to move forward on the Rhythm Reef board and the cards get reshuffled and you start over.
First player to “Finish” wins.
You can also adapt this game to be played with beats instead of note values (e.g. “one beat” or “one beat of silence” instead of “quarter note/crotchet”)
3. Rhythm Speed
If you want to help your students gain speed with note recognition, then this is the game for you!
Flip up a card, if the student identifies it correctly, then flip up another.
Give the student 3 seconds to answer correctly before their turn is forfeited so they don’t take forever.
Keep going until the student either runs out of time or says a note incorrectly.
Then it’s the next student’s turn.
The student with the most cards at the end wins.
You can also adapt this game for students to review note rhythm names and then how many beats each note gets.
Bonus Easy Rhythm Games: Rhythm Reef!
I have mentioned Rhythm Reef a few times in this blog post already.
Rhythm is tricky and it seems like students need constant review.
Well, Music Game Club’s May 2024 game of the month is a fast-paced and FUN rhythm game that will get your students learning note values quickly (especially rest values!).
Based on my childhood favorite game, Egyptian War (also called Egyptian Rat Screw, Slap, Snot, or War), Rhythm Reef focuses on rest values and agility.
You can play it with 2-8 players in just one round or several rounds with the gameboard.
Here is the gist of Rhythm Reef easy music rhythm game:
Deal the cards evenly between all players
Discard in the center like “Slap Jack”
When a rest card is discarded, the next player has to “pay” as many cards as the rest is worth (e.g. a whole rest = 4 cards, half rest = 2 cards)
You can slap doubles!
Whoever ends up with all the cards at the end wins!
If you’ve not played rhythm flashcard games in your piano studio, then you are missing out!
One of the top struggles most music students have is rhythm.
And one of the first steps is to help students thoroughly understand the beats of every single note–plus giving them a randomized rhythm exercise to do.
Making rhythm exercises a game is one easy way to get students to understand and appreciate rhythm.
We’ve compiled a list of 10 rhythm flashcard games your students will love.
While you can use these with any rhythm cards, we are using the cards from Music Game Club’s Beginner Rhythm Flashcards.
1. Beats in order
One of the easiest rhythm flashcard games is timing how quickly a student can order the beats.
You can go from least-to-greatest beats or greatest-to-least.
2. Match notes & rests
Sometimes, students get very confused about rests.
So doing a rhythm flashcard game where students match notes and rests will help clarify any confusion.
You can play this like normal “memory match” games where the cards are laid out and students flip over two at a time until they get a match (e.g. quarter note and quarter rest).
Or, you can have the student flip up the cards and lay them face-up, pairing matches as soon as they flip up the pair (e.g. student may flip up an eighth note, half note, and whole note before getting the eighth rest to match on top of the eighth note).
3. Claim the beat
Lay all of the rhythm flashcards out face-up.
Teacher says “1” and the student grabs a card with the correct value (in this case, a quarter note or rest).
Continue saying other numbers until all the cards are gone.
You can time it to see how quickly the student can find all the right notes.
4. Rhythm Four Corners!
Label the four corners of your room 1-4 (you can either label them random with 1 = whole note, 2 = eighth note; or you can be mathematical about it and 1 = quarter note, 2 = half note, 3 = dotted half note, 4 = whole note).
Teacher holds up a note or rest and students rush to that corner.
5. Rhythm War
Play “war” with rhythm flashcards!
Split the rhythm flashcards into two piles; teacher gets one, student gets one.
Teacher and student flip up a card.
Whoever has the highest note value “wins” that round and collects all cards.
If there is a tie (same note or value), flip up another card and the winner of that round wins all cards on the table.
You can also swap this one around and the lowest value wins.
6. Rhythm dictation
Clap a rhythm.
Have the students rush to lay our rhythm flashcards and finish first.
For an extra fun flair, have a bell that the student can ring when they are done!
Keep points to see who can lay out the most rhythms if you need a little competition.
7. Familiar Song Rhythm
Play a portion of a melody that your student is learning or a familiar tune.
Student creates the rhythm with flashcards.
You can play this like #6 (Rhythm Dictation) if you have multiple students; they can race to finish first, ring a bell, and keep score.
8. Guess the Rhythm
Lay out two rhythms.
Clap or play one of them.
Have the student identify which rhythm they heard clapped or played.
9. Clap Back
Lay out a rhythm and have the student clap it back to you.
To make a game of it, assign points if the student claps it perfectly, deduct points if the student holds a note too long or short, etc.
10. Rhythm improvisation
Work with the student to create a rhythm.
Clap and count the rhythm then go to the piano (or another fun instrument) and create an improvisation based on the rhythm.
If your student freezes at the thought of improv, then add some note flashcards to the mix and assign a note flashcard for each rhythm flashcard (it doesn’t have to be set in stone; if the student thinks one of the notes sounds funny, you can go from there to change it and come up with a melody the student loves).
11. Bonus! Four-Four Foxes!
In addition to these 10 rhythm flashcard games students love, here’s one you’ll want to add to your studio!
Last summer, we released a Candyland type of game for note reading, and it quickly became a teacher and student favorite (Keyboard Kittens).
So we decided to create another Candyland game, this time focusing on rhythm.
Use Four-Four Foxes for new beginners
We wanted a rhythm-focus for this game, specifically for teaching young beginners what all the notes are called and how many beats they get.
The cards include eighth notes & rests, quarter notes & rests, dotted quarter notes, half notes & rests, dotted half notes, whole notes & rests, and a few specialty cards.
Even your youngest beginners can play this game!
Use Four-Four Foxes for intermediate students
Of course, we realize you need games for more than just very beginning students, so we brainstormed a gameplay variation for your more intermediate students.
The easy way is to flip a card and move to that spot. But for students too advanced for that, challenge them to build a complete 4/4 measure before they move at all! There is some strategy involved in it!
Four-Four Foxes Gameplay
The gameplay is a simple, Candyland-type gameplay where students draw a card, identify the note, and move forward–unless, of course, they get a specialty card, in which they could move forward or backward!
We know students are going to love it!
See how it’s played in our video…
A complete breakdown of what you get in the music game download
A step-by-step tutorial for how to play the game
A few teaching tips and suggestions
Don’t see the video above? Watch How to Play Four-Four Foxes on YouTube here.
Here’s what you’ll get with the Four-Four Foxes download:
Four-Four Foxes game in US Letter size and A4 size
Four-Four Foxes game board with notes
59 note and specialty cards
8 fox game pieces
Four-Four Foxes success poster
Four-Four Foxes activity sheet in US Letter size and A4 size
Print release
Bonus Four-Four Foxes group game board (poster sized and A3 size)
In addition to the Four-Four Foxes printable game, we have launched four Boom™ Cards (digital music theory games) that you can get to review rhythm in a different way.
See a preview of all four digital music games in this video (don’t see the video below, watch it here).
You can get our Music Game Club Boom™ Cards each month with the Boom™ Cards membership at $9/month.
Or, save and get boththe printable game and 4 Boom Cards with our top membership tier for just $15/month.
