Are you looking for more fun ways to incorporate and use the collection of “I Can Play It” Primary songs in Singing Time? You’ll love these 6 easy ideas that will help you make the most of the free resources on the church website!
For more help, make sure you visit our post with a printable master list of more than 80 I Can Play It Simplified Primary Sheet Music!
6 Ways to Use “I Can Play It”
Primary Songs in Singing Time
1. Senior Primary Pianist
Invite one of the older Primary children to practice and prepare ahead of time to be the pianist while the Primary practices and learns to sing one of your song picks for the year! You’ll want to give them 2-3 months ahead of time to practice and prepare.
Keep in mind, they likely haven’t played while people sing before, so plan to take singing slower the first few times through. You can also alternate with one time with the piano accompaniment and one time without alternating back and forth during your activity to take a little pressure off the child.
Encourage them to play the accompaniment for the Primary Program, too, with enough practice!
2. Make Easier Bell Charts
If you love using Handbells in Primary, but struggle to make handbells music charts, you can refer to the simplified music to help you pick out the main notes to play!
One benefit of simpler bell charts, without multiple notes being used, is it’s easier to follow along and know just when to play so it cuts down on a little bit of the confusion (and concentration needed) so the bell ringers are more likely to sing along!
It can also be helpful for smaller Primary groups so you keep some kids singing while others are taking a turn ringing the bells.
3. Play Name That Tune!
Use the simplified notes to let an older Primary children play the first few notes of the song for a game of Name that Tune! They’ll feel more confident facing simplified notes that don’t have more than one note to play at a time.
This would be a wonderful activity to use for a review week or if you don’t have a pianist!
Simply roll a 6 sided dice (the biggest one you can find!) and then play the number of notes you rolled. To make it easier, you can have a list of song titles on the board. Or, roll 2 dice to give the younger children more notes to go off of!
To make it more of a challenge, start with 1 note, then try 2 notes, then move on to 3 notes, etc until they can guess it! See how many songs they can guess in 4 or less notes!
4. Make a Melody Chart
I really love using melody charts in singing time! They are so engaging and interesting and I think it really helps the children better visualize how the music is moving along with the melody to see the rise and fall of the notes.
You can clear out the “clutter” so to speak of a traditional sheet music and just look at the simplified notes to help you make a melody chart that hits all those key notes and stays true to the melody.
Bonus: It’s even easier to notice similarities in the melody lines (and differences) to capture those repeating patterns and variations.
5. Primary Pianist Appreciation Day
Marybeth Lemon had a wonderful idea to use the series of I Can Play It songs to give your pianist a day off! You’ll start by preparing a list of songs and recruiting kiddos from your Primary to play a few of the different songs.
Then, when your pianist arrives and is ready to play that Sunday, you’ll surprise them with a “day off!” Let your pianist take a seat with each of the different Primary classes and switch with each song.
This is a great way for the children to get to know the pianist who puts in so much time into her (or his) calling usually without much notice or thanks! They will LOVE getting to be a part of Primary from the other side of the piano.
6. Play at Home Challenge
Offer an incentive (maybe a plate of cookies, a sheet of scripture stickers, or a special role as your helper in Primary) to any piano-playing kiddos in your Primary room!
You can simply ask the children to raise their hands or see you right after Primary if they are learning to play the piano and want to join a special challenge! Then, share the task and write down their names so you can follow up with anyone that wants to participate.
You can have them take a video of them practicing playing the songs, let them play the song in Primary for the rest of the group, or simply have a checklist with a goal to play through the song at least “x” number of times (somewhere between 5-10 would probably work best!)
Bonus: They’ll be spending lots of time listening to the music and singing along the words so they will be building in singing time practice, too, without even thinking about it!
Instruments: You may have some children in your ward that can play other instruments. You can absolutely include them on the challenge, too, and maybe even be able to encourage kids that aren’t learning an instrument to consider giving it a shot!
Go see the full List of “I Can Play It”
Simplified Primary Songs Sheet Music!
What other easy ideas do you have for incorporating these I Can Play It Primary sheet music resources into your Primary?
