Many moons ago, I shared on Twitter a very light load to my music therapy sessions at local assisted living centers. Two bags, no guitar.
I finally am taking the time to unveil this game twist sing-along tool to you. The biggest part of the load is my frame drums. (You could use a variety of percussion or even kazoos if you prefer.) This is one of the few times I didn’t have my guitar and didn’t miss it. The rest is very light – both to transport and on the pocketbook. The main piece is a round plastic table-cloth. I used black tape to divide the circle in 1/4ths. The sections were then labeled with a black permanent marker: name, play, sing, choice.
Songs were preselected by me and placed onto old business cards. A bean bag or two completes the supplies. 
To play, the group sits in a circle around the game board. All were provided drums. A group member throws the bean bag onto the board while the next group member pulls a card.
- Sing – Sing the song selected
- Play – Play the rhythm of the song (this was the most difficult for the group)
- Name – The leader or the person who pulled the card would “la” the melody while the group tried to guess the song
- Choice – They could select from any of the above or both singing and playing.
It was fun watching how much effort people would take to get a bean bag onto a particular area of the game! This could easily be modified by the songs selected. You could also have separate decks for each of the four areas.
Share your feedback on this low-cost, easy to transport game in the comments below. I’d especially like to hear if you try it with a group!
JoAnn,
I’m so sorry I missed this the first time you posted it. What a great twist on a classic idea! This would be excellent with all of those too-familiar Christmas songs. I’ll be breaking this one out in the near future, I’m sure. (As soon as I get around to buying a round plastic table-cloth, anyway.)
P.S. Anything that is easy to transport gets extra bonus points from me!
Thank you!
Thanks for this great idea, JoAnn! I am going to use it this afternoon. I don’t have a bean bag or a table cloth, but I do have some note cards, a gojo bag (look it up at westmusic.com), and some drums and kazoos. I wrote the four words on notecards and taped them to shape drums that I’ll put on the floor. The group members will toss the gojo bag to select. I wrote some songs on old business cards (great use for those cards with outdated info on them!) and we will use kazoos for the “play” part. I’ll try to post a picture on twitter later.
Love to hear and see how it went today. I love reusing old business cards for things like this.