You might be asked to step in to lead a group class at the last minute.

Not only do you not know the level and needs of the students in the class, but you don’t have much time to plan. You need a class like this in your back pocket.

Below I present a three activity group class which is almost always fun and engaging for students regardless of their age, level, or energy.

The excitingness of the activities stem from their open ended nature. The activities present challenges which are easy to navigate at some level, but then you as a teacher can ratchet up the difficulty to a extreme level based on the group in front of you.

The activities could also go on forever. You can move from one activity to the next based on the energy of the group. If you and students keep coming up with clever ways to continue the delight of the challenge, then go with it. If their interest is waning, it’s time to move on. If you run out of time (which I rarely do) circle back to one of the other two activities.

The Plan…

CHALLENGE TWINKLE

As soon as everyone is tuned an in lines, I slowly look over the whole class making eye contact with the students who are paying attention. Without saying a word I put my violin into play position and launch into the intro of Twinkle Var. A. We all play it together — those who weren’t paying attention get with it pretty quickly.

Once finished I keep my violin up, and immediately start the intro to a new variation with some kind of twist. Maybe we transpose down the string or start on first finger, maybe we play with an extreme dynamic, or maybe we wave on the open A’s and E’s.

Usually the fact that you’ve done this– especially without talking– will throw them for a loop. This is a good thing.

See I think of this activity as a bit of a shakeup. It is a bit like bull-riding, and I am the bull. I’m going to buck and twist to shake them off, knowing full well that my actions will just wake them up and clue them in. If I were to passively walk, carrying the weight of the class on my shoulders but not engaging the students in any way, they would have no buy in, and therefore no fun.

Keep adding fireworks to your Twinkles to see if they can follow. You can add
– complex rhythmic units
– harmonics
– double stops
– one string shifting
– play in minor
– shift into outrageous positions
– change tone quality (water spider, goldfish, hippo, tuna)
– advanced bow strokes
– upside down bow

You can also have each student come up with their own signature variation and play it for the class.

The beauty is that in most cases the student can still somewhat hold on to the tail of the activity even if they don’t know how to do advanced shifting/harmonics/bow strokes. Everyone knows Twinkle and they can figure out an approximate way to attempt the challenge without the fully developed skill.

NAME CHAIN

Now we go from an activity with all playing, little talking to a start of no playing and all talking.

I ask students to sit down with their instruments in a circle. I also sit in the circle. I take this moment to introduce myself to the class.

The game now is to set up a chain of names. I say the name of a student (usually one I picked up during tuning) and instruct them to stand. They then chose the name of another who stands. That new student chooses the name of someone else and the pattern continues until everyone is standing.

Have everyone sit, then see if they can recreate the exact same chain.

Once you have confidence in their name chain, start to add some challenges to it…
– do it as fast as possible
– with eyes closed
– go backwards
– say the name of the person two in front of you (even though the pattern stays the same: A says C, B says D, C says E, etc.)
– say the name of the person before you (A says G, B says A, C says B)
– say anyone’s name, but still go in order (A says any name, B says any name, C says any name)
– go forward, but if I clap they reverse direction (ABCD *clap* CB *clap* CDEFG)

If they seem into these sorts of challenges set a new name order and run through the challenges again. They will like knowing they are getting better.

If they’re barely grasping the mind-twisters it’s now time to move on to the next phase of this activity which is passing music through the name chain.

Still standing in a circle, have students go to play position. Now you can pass anything you would pass around in a circle but through the name chain instead.

Here are some ideas…
– twinkle rhythms (repeat)
– passage work (repeat)
– bow stroke (repeat)
– notes of a scale
– notes of tonalization
– notes of a piece
– measures of a piece
– students improv four completely random notes
– students improv four notes from a scale set
– students improv notes which respond to the person who came before

Apply the challenges from the just name saying phase
– as fast as possible (you can time it with a stopwatch, too!)
– with eyes closed
– backwards
– clap to change direction

The purpose of this activity is to sharpen the brain, develop a sense of group think and group pulse, and isolate certain technical skills to develop.

If you think the group needs to work on intonation practice matching pitch exactly all the way around the circle and playing scales. Tailor all of your feedback, positive and negative, to intonation.

If you think the group needs to work on bow control have students pass Twinkle rhythms in different parts of the bow and various bow strokes (using their real names as you introduce them). Tailor all of your feedback, positive and negative, to the way students are using their bows.

REVIEW WITH PURPOSE

The final activity is to review with one goal in mind.

First collect pieces to play. If you have an agenda which requires particular pieces, just collect those in your own mind. If your goal is not dependent on repertoire, then ask each student to name their favorite review piece and write them on the board.

To start working on the pieces draw the bow stroke of the piece in the air and have students guess what you are playing. This is a fun way to hook up the piece name to the music to make sure they aren’t just playing by ear all of the time

As you play the first piece together, you leading, get very clear on what the group needs to work on the most. 99 times out of 100 this is either posture or watching and responding to the leader.

Then use all of the rest of the pieces to explore ways to get better at posture, or following, or whatever your goal is.

---

I would feel just as comfortable using this lesson plan with MM and DMA students in a technique class at a conservatory as with a 30 person early Book 2 class at an institute.

Have a collection of super simple, fun activities you can do without prep or props is SO necessary for your professional teaching life. Pull these activities into your teaching repertoire and you will never be hesitant to seize those last minute teaching opportunities.