Teaching musical terms to our piano students is super easy when it’s super FUN. This game makes teaching those Italian terms a cinch and it’s perfect for group lessons.
This game is loosely based on charades, adapted for our music teaching purposes. With Silent Lingo my students didn’t even notice that I was teaching musical terms. I love this kind of stealth ninja music theory teaching.
How to Play Silent Lingo
- Put all the cards in a hat or bag.
- Choose the first performer and ask them to draw a card from the hat.
- The performer must act out the term on the card without speaking or making sounds until someone guesses correctly, or time runs out.
- The guesser chooses the next person to perform (it could be the guesser herself, or another player).
- If time runs out during a turn without the correct answer being guessed, the umpire (teacher) will choose the next performer.
Optional Extra: Play the game in teams for a competitive element, minimum two people per team.
Game Assembly
- To assemble this game:
- Print out the game cards (pages 3–4).
- Print the optional backing if desired (page 5).
- Cut the cards apart along the dotted lines.
- Laminate if desired.
Download the Silent Lingo Game
I hope you enjoy this game as much as my students and I have!
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Musical Terms Flipped Learning Video
In this video, I teach students Italian musical terms, using imagery to make them more memorable. Feel free to send these videos to parents for their kids to watch, use it in group lessons or as part of lab time.
These videos are designed to be clear and concise so that students can watch them – and then get on with some writing work for reinforcement. Saving you time to do fun activities during the lesson time.
These videos correlate directly to Thinking Theory Book Three page 20. View the full Thinking Theory series here and see what makes these workbooks so special.
More Flipped Thinking Theory
If you liked this music theory video, you might also like these others:
- Flipped Basic Note Values
- Flipped Beginning Solfa
- Flip and Gameify Landmark Notes
- Flipped Time Signatures
- Flipped Note & Rest Values
- Flipped Dynamics
- Flipped Accidentals, Tones & Semitones
- Flipped Articulation Marks
- Flipped C and G Major Scales
- Flipped Tempo Marks
- Flipped Ledger Line Landmark Notes
- Flipped Intermediate Note Values
- Flipped Note Stem Rules
- Flipped Solfa Scale Singing
- Flipped D & F Major Scales
- Flipped Note Grouping/Beaming
- Flipped Expression Marks
Have you ever tried a musical version of charades?
What way did you adapt this game? Tell us all about it in the Vibrant Music Studio Teachers community on Facebook or in the comments below.
Thanks for the free ideas. I am excited to try them in my music classes.
You’re welcome Connie!
Great! I’ll use this game in my piano camp this week. Thank you for such great content, Nicola!
Woohoo! Good luck with the camp Cara! 🙂