Name That Tune Family Game

Optional: paper and pencil for keeping score

Just your voices and ears

Decide who will be the first "hummer" — the person who presents the musical clue.

The hummer thinks of a well-known song and hums just the first 3-4 notes. No words allowed.

Other players try to guess the song title. First correct guess wins a point.

If no one guesses from 3 notes, hum 4 more notes. Still stuck? Hum the entire first line.

The player who guesses correctly becomes the next hummer.

Mix up presentation methods: hum, whistle, tap the rhythm on a table, play on a toy xylophone, or even just clap the rhythm without pitch.

Play to 10 points. Keep a running tally on paper.

Start with songs everyone knows: nursery rhymes, movie theme songs, holiday songs, popular radio hits. The game is only fun when songs are guessable.

Tapping JUST the rhythm (without the melody) is the hardest version. Try it — you'll be surprised how difficult it is to recognize a song by rhythm alone.

This game exercises musical memory — the ability to recognize patterns of pitch and rhythm that you've stored in long-term memory.

For mixed-age groups, give younger kids easier songs or extra humming time before others can guess.

Keep a list of "stumper songs" — ones that took many notes to guess. These are fun to revisit in future games.