Finding the balance between following and initiating is probably one of the most challenging aspects of teaching. Most of the young pupils (especially under 6s) find it hard to follow instructions. They perhaps haven’t quite grasped the idea of having lessons and would like to spend the time chatting with me. The art of teaching young pupils, is perhaps to master balancing following and initiating, such that they could take ownership of their learning, made to feel comfortable and confident to learn whilst ensuring that they would be led on the right track.

There are a few musical games that I usually play with my pupils but some of the young learners find them challenging, having to follow various different instructions for the 30 minute lesson, with sophisticated tasks for their young age. One of my pupils likes to create her own game during lessons, and I would try to think a way to make those games educational. I have a pile of rhythmic cards with me and she usually makes games out of them. For example, she would say the rule is for one person to hide the cards in the room and then the other would have to find it (thinking it is just a game of looking for hidden objects). I then would suggest that perhaps you could only collect the card if you clap it correct. She would then happily play the game and learn about the rhythm whilst I gradually introduce more complex rhythm. (I made the cards with different colour according to their complexity and my pupils find it very rewarding when they are allowed to use a new set of cards!) In this way, we created many different versions of the rhythmic game, dancing with the rhythm (which she could create different moves each time), memory game with the cards turned over, and making up tunes (improvising) with the rhythm etc.