Detective

Duration: 5 – 10 minutes
Age range: 7 and over
Players: 5 – 15, becoming increasingly challenging as the numbers increase

Besides developing listening skills this is a good way of introducing the names of instruments, especially all those odd bits of percussion. The game can also be played with voices providing the members of the group know each other well enough and the numbers are kept small.

• Form a circle around one person who stands in the middle. Blindfold this person and then play, briefly, one of your instruments.
  
• Now hand an instrument, including the one you played, to everyone else in the circle and choose one for yourself. At your signal everyone starts playing at once. The person in the middle has to find the player of the instrument heard at the beginning. If you are using voices rather than instruments, the person with the blindfold must determine the owner of the voice.
  

Tips: If you think the detective may have heard some extra clues when the instruments were being handed out then turn your sleuth around a couple of times and get some people to swap places across the circle.

If the player of the chosen instrument is inclined to play too quietly in order to avoid detection, signal them to play louder. Alternatively, begin 'switching off' the other instruments to reveal the hidden sound.