Dynamics Performance Game

Use the two dynamics charts below during this activity (click on them to make them full screen) to help your students learn different dynamic terms.

For this activity, students can use percussion instruments, their voices, body percussion sounds (like patting their legs with their hands), etc.

Ask students to start making sound using their “instrument” of choice and tell them that when you point to a new dynamic term/symbol, they should bring their playing up or down in speed to match that dynamic as quickly as possible.
- Use the first dynamic chart for beginner students and the second for more advanced students. Quickly and suddenly point to different dynamic terms as students are making their sounds to have them adapt to the new dynamic.
For extra fun, turn this into a game – if you hear students lingering on a louder dynamic when you’ve dropped from a loud dynamic to a softer one, those students are out. Play multiple rounds until you have just 1 or a handful of students who are deemed winner(s).