Did you know that Rock and Roll or Pop music didn’t even exist until the 1950s? The only music that existed before that was Classical, Jazz, Blues, Big Band and singers such as Frank Sinatra! People would do ball room or couples dancing, but there was nothing for people to sing and dance along to like we do now.

This all changed when a band called Bill Haley and the Comets launched a smash hit in 1954 called Rock Around The Clock, often referred to as the beginning of Rock and Roll. This song rose to number 1 in 1955 when it was included as a soundtrack of Blackboard Jungle, a movie about juvenile delinquents, with Bill Haley portrayed as a young rebel. The teenagers watching the movie couldn’t help but to get up in the aisles and dance as soon as they heard the music. Rock Around The Clock was a new type of music which appealed especially to white American teenage kids who could now easily dance, clap and sing along, while having fun watching the band perform crazy antics such as saxophone acrobatics and riding the double bass as a pony.

Throughout 1955 and 1956, Bill Haley became one of the most popular rock and roll performers in the world. Within two years he had 12 top 40 records which included songs such as Shake Rattle and Roll, See You Later Alligator and Razzle Dazzle. In 1956 he also starred in two of the earliest full length Rock and Roll movies called Rock Around The Clock and Don’t Knock the Rock. By 1957, other crazier and wilder acts such as Elvis Presley and Little Richard (who sang Tutti Frutti) started to dominate the American scene, so Bill Haley looked for fame in other parts of the world, becoming the first Rock and Roll group to tour the world.

This is just a little exceprt of the content which is included in the Fun Music Company music lesson plans on history of Rock and Roll. The lesson Plans include complete fact sheets for fifteen lessons ranging from 1950’s Rock and Roll through to 1990’s dance and grunge music. It is almost impossible to include everyone in the history of Rock, as it is such a huge topic, but we hope to cover all the major artists in this series.

Rock around the Clock (Bill Haley)
Shake Rattle and Roll (Bill Haley)
See You Later Alligator (Bill Haley)
Razzle Dazzle. (Bill Haley)
Maybelline (Chuck Berry)
Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry)
Rock and Roll Music (Chuck Berry)
Roll Over Beethoven (Chuck Berry)

Children love to move a lot since they are bursting with energy. You can keep them focused and interested in your lessons by using Action Songs and Educational Music Games. Action songs are very popular especially to toddlers and children. Here are a few simple ways that you can use Educational Music Games in the Classroom with Action Songs.

1. Use action songs as motivation. When they start the lesson do a couple of songs that they know straight away. A warm up like this will get preschool children moving and ready for the rest of the lesson.

2. Use your action songs all day, in many different subject areas. There are educational music games that help kids learn about the parts of the body, be familiar with the letters of the alphabet, and even name shapes.

3. Use Educational Music Games as a replacement from traditional worksheets or tests. Since they are in the form of music, they are easier to remember and even memorized. Your activities will be enriched and enhanced by engaging in games as part of your lessons.

4. Action songs can develop your children’s imagination and creativity. Children can do amazing things when asked to creatively come up with actions for a song. They also develop their attitudes of cooperation, patience, and helpfulness.

By using some of these action songs in the classroom, hopefully you can improve the chances of Music Theory being popular with the students.

Sue Henshce is a preschool and elementary school expert, and a Mother. She also works in an informal role as an advisor and editor for the Fun Music Company in working on their Elementary Music Worksheets and their Educational Music Games for young children.

After you’ve watched some videos of Chuck Berry doing his trademark “Duck Walk” you could hold a competition to see who could do the best Duck Walk in the class!

.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3rG73VOqyo

This is just one idea which is included in our upcoming series of music lesson plans on the History of Rock and Roll. Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and all the early pioneers of Rock and Roll are covered in just the first lesson of this fifteen lesson module which is complete for upper elementary or junior high school . Great information, and presented in a way that is fun and engaging for students

1) Work in groups to create a role-play of a group of people explaining what rock and roll music is to someone who is deaf. For added interest, someone could even act as the interpreter, signing the responses.

2) Imagine you are the parent of a child from the 1950′s. Write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper expressing your disapproval of this “new” style of music. Include reasons for your concerns. This activity could also be done as a role play of a discussion between a child and a parent who is protesting about their child’s new interest in rock and roll music.

3) Design a Facebook profile for either Chuck Berry or Bill Haley. Include personal information such as birth date, relationship status etc, a friends list and some fictional groups that they may have belonged to.

For more information on the history of Rock and Roll Module visit our Classroom Music Lesson Plans page.

Would this product be suitable for one on one studio lessons?
Of course! Some of the products are more suitable than others, for instance Musical Terms for the Digital Age is highly appropriate for private studio teachers preparing students for theory exams.
We have tried to make instant print music lessons universally adaptable to a wide variety of teaching situations, including private studios.
Are there any copyright restrictions in using Music Theory Fun Sheets?
We ask that you agree to our terms of our license agreement the first time you visit the members area. The license agreement simply gives you the ability to use and print out the worksheets for teaching your classes, but you cannot distribute, sell or otherwise share it.
This is simple common sense – we have avoided placing unnecessary restrictions as we trust that teachers will exercise discretion when using the materials.
I’m not really a music teacher, but would love to use the worksheets- would they be suitable for a teacher who is a beginner in teaching music?
We have tried to make the worksheets as “beginner friendly” as possible, so that they can be used by fill-in or relief teachers if necessary. They all include answered versions, and as much as possible no musical knowledge should be required to give them to a class.
Can I get teaching advice and help? Are there any lesson plans and ideas I can check to go with Music Theory Fun Sheets?
The Fun Music Company is working on creating a lot of resources for music teaching, through this and several other sites. You’ll find a lot of free resources at www.musicteachersblog.com
Can I contribute some feedback on the product to be included in the next revision?
We love to hear your feedback, ideas and suggestions. Simply contact us via the Fun Music Company helpdesk and we’ll be in touch.
Can I buy the Music Theory Fun Sheets package as a printed version?
At the moment Music Theory Fun Sheets is only available as a digital self-print product. However we are looking into making a printed version available soon.
What other products does the fun music company have and where can I find them?
The Fun Music Company has a range of other products for Music Education, both for classroom music teachers and studio music teachers. Please visit www.funmusicco.com to check out the full range.

Our members area uses the Amember management system – this allows you to choose your own username and password, and once your payment is confirmed you should be able to log in immediately.
Can I upgrade to buy all the Music Theory Fun Sheets set if I’ve already bought one of the worksheet sets?
Absolutely! Simply Login to your account, and then choose the appropriate upgrade from the members homepage.

Can I download the entire Music Theory Fun Sheets package onto my computer?
Absolutely! Inside the members area you’ll find zip files containing each module of Music Theory Fun Sheets, which you can download to your PC. We encourage you to check back into the members area regularly, so that you can have access to the latest updates.
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Music is an art form, and when writing music on manuscript the dots, lines and curves are a graphical representation of that art. Therefore students need to develop a manuscript style of their own, and learn to write impeccably when writing manuscript.

The most important tool is a pencil. Certainly when starting out with music theory the pencil is the one and only tool that should be used for writing manuscript.

Once they have completed the work in pencil many composers and music copyists traditionally completed their final drafts using a fine felt tipped pen – this makes for an excellent manuscript style. This makes it easy to photocopy and makes it easy to use. These days however this practice is quite out-dated, as computer layout programs will do this job in a much better way.

When completing simple music theory worksheets however the best rule of thumb is to stay with a pencil, as this will make corrections easy.

It is also important to choose a pencil which is appropriate for your writing style. If you are particularly heavy handed, then perhaps a hard pencil like a “H” might be appropriate, or if you are light then perhaps a “HB” or “2B”. Experiment and choose the best for you. It is always worth buying top quality pencils for music theory, as cheaper ones will break and not produce the best results.

The other important tool is a pencil sharpener. The pencil must always be 100% sharp, as this will really effect your manuscript style.

So when structuring a music lesson plan for music theory teachers should firstly make sure that their students have appropriate tools to write their music theory.

Like it or not, music students are going to have to face the fact that there is no other choice but to sit down with a pencil in the hand and make the music theory study happen.

A search for “music theory” on twitter every day will show you how students feel about preparing for music theory assessments and doing music theory homework. This is a very enlightening thing for a teacher to do, as you really do get a concept of how the students are feeling about the subject.

There is no real reason for the students to dislike learning music theory. Personally I find that music theory is a very satisfying activity in itself, and I find that I enjoy sitting down with a pencil and paper and working out a harmony exercise. I find that one of the best ways that I can get the students inspired about music theory is to share my enthusiasm for the subject. If I am enthusiastic about music theory, then the students will be as well.

But what do you say when the student comes to their lesson, and their music theory worksheet is not done, and its been happening over and over?

Well there is no value in taking privileges away from them – or trying to somehow “punish” them for not doing it, as this will just make the activity more negative in the student’s mind.

There is also not a great value in Extrinsic rewards, like sticker charts or stars, as this might work in the short term, but not really in the long term. The only thing that really will work is getting the student to enjoy the activity for the activity’s sake.

If students can enjoy music theory for what it is, then they will find doing music theory worksheets a breeze!


There is one thing that over everything else makes certain worksheets and educational materials more effective in this area. This one thing is an educational concept that good educators in every subject understand, and that whether you’re teaching preschool or very young children right up to adults need to understand.

That one thing is concept isolation. The worst theory books are those that introduce everything in a hap-hazard way, and have a mixture of concepts taught on one page.

The best books take one concept and expand on this through different activities based on that one concept. For example if you are working on understanding scales, don’t introduce a rhythmical element to it until the students are very familiar with what you are trying to teach them.

For example a badly written question asks the student to write a scale in a particular rhythm, or fit it into a set time signature. Then the student is not really learning anything – they are trying to assimilate two concepts at the same time. Leave the learning about time signatures and meter for another worksheet focusing on that content, and teach the scales properly.

A much better way to ask them is to ask them to write a scale and don’t mention any specific rhythmic type of note at all. This way the child will be able to concentrate on writing the scale and won’t be split between concepts.

As music is such a multidimensional language with pitch and rhythm coming together it is obviously impossible to isolate everything, but doing it as much as possible will definitely help the students with their learning of music theory.