Music Team Building Activities

Whether you’re putting together a team-building activity for company employees, a church group or a family outing, the goal of the game is to get participants to work together, become more comfortable around each other and achieve a common purpose. When you use music as your inspiration, participants may soon hear the high notes and begin singing sweet music together.

Let your team bond together as it creates a group song, changing the lyrics of a popular song to fit its purpose. If your group is attending a corporate team-building retreat, assign groups the task of writing lyrics about the company’s product or service, such as construction or software. You’ll find free searchable databases of song lyrics on Internet websites such as Song Lyrics, eLyrics, A-Z Lyrics Universe and Lyrics Mode. You can search by artist, song title, genre, album and on some sites, subject matter. Let teams brainstorm and write their own material to the beat of their own drummer, then perform the new lyrics in time to the music.

Teams participating in musical team building will need musical instruments, but that does not mean you have to buy them. Instead, let groups get creative, exercising their brains and using problem-solving skills to make their own musical accompaniments. Team members can scavenge their location for inspiration with making musical instruments, such as the empty office coffee can and a couple of boxes of paper clips as a noise maker and some rubber bands wrapped around the coffee lid as a mini-drum. Encourage groups to work together to come up with the most original instruments, such as a cardboard paper mailing tube digideroo or cymbals made of garbage can lids.

With a musical makeover activity, participants get to step into the (sometimes very high-heeled) shoes of their favorite singing stars. Create a list of musicians on slips of paper, and then have team members each choose one to personify. Selecting musicians with extravagant style, such as Elton John, the members of the band Kiss or Lady Gaga, means more creativity and laughs for your participants. Keep musician staples such as long jackets, glitter, dark eye makeup and outrageous glasses on hand for creative costumes and styling options.