Music Teacher Sub Plans Any Sub Can Run: 5 No-Instrument Lessons

The best music teacher sub plans don’t ask the substitute to play, sing, or read music. They ask students to listen, clap, sort, and research while the sub runs a clear routine. Below are five ready-to-run lessons, a bell ringer and exit ticket for each day, and every answer key a non-musician needs.

Daily Bell Ringers is written by a social studies teacher, not a music teacher, which is exactly why this set is built the way it is. If a history teacher can run it without help, any sub can.

What makes music teacher sub plans work for any sub

Most music rooms have instruments, risers, and a lot of expensive gear. A substitute who doesn’t know the room can’t safely manage a full band or choir rehearsal, and you shouldn’t ask them to. Good plans keep students in their seats and keep the instruments in their cases.

• No playing or conducting. Students clap, tap, and write. Nobody touches the piano, the drum set, or the storage room.
• Same routine every day. Bell ringer, main activity, exit ticket. Students know what’s coming, and the sub has three clear checkpoints.
• Answer keys inside the plan. The sub should never have to guess whether “flute” is brass or woodwind.
• Public-domain listening. Classical pieces from centuries ago are easy to find, school-appropriate, and free of lyric problems.
• A no-tech backup. If the speaker or projector fails, lessons 2, 3, and 4 still work with paper alone.

If you want a general structure for the folder itself, the sub plans template on SubstitutePlans.com pairs well with these lessons.

Music sub plans for non music teachers: the five-lesson set

Each lesson fills a 45 to 55 minute period. Shorter periods can drop the extension. Every lesson opens with a bell ringer and closes with an exit ticket so you come back to evidence of what happened.

Lesson 1: Listening journal

Bell ringer: “Name a song or piece of music that changes your mood. What does it make you feel?” (Open-ended. Students write titles only, not lyrics.)

How it runs: The sub plays three or four short excerpts (two to three minutes each). After each one, students answer the same five prompts in their journal:

1. Tempo: Is it fast, slow, or does it change?
2. Dynamics: Is it loud, soft, or does it change?
3. Instruments: What instruments or families do you think you hear?
4. Mood: Pick two words that describe the feeling.
5. Picture: If this were a movie scene, what would be happening?

Choose from these public-domain pieces. The “listen for” notes are what the sub can read aloud after students write.

• Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, first movement (premiered 1808). Listen for the famous four-note opening: short-short-short-long. That pattern comes back again and again.
• Vivaldi, “Spring” from The Four Seasons (published 1725). A set of four violin concertos. In the first movement of “Spring,” the violins imitate birdsong.
• Haydn, Symphony No. 94, “Surprise,” second movement. It starts quiet and gentle, then a sudden loud chord jumps out. Ask students if they flinched.
• Grieg, “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from Peer Gynt. It starts quietly in the low instruments and gets faster and louder all the way to the end.
• Saint-Saëns, “The Swan” from The Carnival of the Animals. A solo cello plays a slow, smooth melody over rippling piano.
• Holst, “Mars, the Bringer of War” from The Planets (high school). It is in 5/4 time, five beats per measure, which gives it an uneven, marching feel.

Exit ticket: “Which excerpt changed the most from beginning to end? Use the word tempo or dynamics in your answer.”

Lesson 2: Clap-back rhythm games

This is the lesson that gets students moving without leaving their seats. The sub needs to know only four symbols, and you can write them on the board before you leave.

• Quarter note = 1 beat. Say “ta” and clap once.
• Two eighth notes = 1 beat total. Say “ti-ti” and clap twice quickly.
• Half note = 2 beats. Say “ta-a” and clap once, then hold.
• Quarter rest = 1 beat of silence. Say nothing and open your hands.

How it runs: The sub writes a four-beat pattern on the board, such as “ta, ta, ti-ti, ta.” The class says it once, then claps it while counting “1, 2, 3, 4.” Rows take turns. Then student leaders write their own four-beat patterns and the class claps them back. A pattern only counts if it adds up to exactly four beats, which is the built-in check.

Rhythm math bell ringer (4/4 time, quarter note gets one beat):

1. How many beats does a whole note get?
2. Half note + quarter note + quarter note = how many beats?
3. How many eighth notes equal one half note?
4. A measure of 4/4 already has a half note and a quarter note. What single note finishes it?
5. In 3/4 time, how many beats are in each measure?

Exit ticket: “Write your own four-beat rhythm using at least one rest. Label how many beats each symbol gets.”

Lesson 3: Instrument families sort

Bell ringer: “List every instrument you can name in two minutes.” The sub calls time, and students circle the ones they’ve heard live.

How it runs: Write the four orchestra families on the board: strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion. Students fold a page into four boxes and sort this list. Then they write one sentence explaining how each family makes sound.

Violin, trumpet, flute, snare drum, cello, clarinet, tuba, xylophone, harp, trombone, oboe, timpani, French horn, saxophone, cymbals, bassoon.

Extension (open-ended): “Is a piano a string instrument or a percussion instrument? Defend your answer.” There’s no single right answer here. A piano has strings, but hammers strike them, and many orchestras simply list it as a keyboard instrument. Grade on the reasoning.

Exit ticket: “Why is the saxophone a woodwind even though it’s made of brass metal?”

Lesson 4: Composer research cards

This lesson works with or without devices. Leave one fact card per group (the facts below), and students build a trading card: name, dates, country, one famous work, one surprising fact, and a “why they matter” sentence.

• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), Germany. Baroque composer and organist. Famous work: the Brandenburg Concertos.
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), Austria. Toured Europe performing as a child and wrote over 600 works before dying at 35. Famous work: Eine kleine Nachtmusik.
• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), born in Germany, worked in Vienna. Kept composing as he lost his hearing. His Ninth Symphony premiered in 1824, when he was nearly deaf.
• Clara Schumann (1819–1896), Germany. One of the most famous concert pianists of her century and a composer of piano and chamber music.
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893), Russia. Wrote the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker and the 1812 Overture, which calls for cannon fire.
• Scott Joplin (about 1868–1917), United States. Called the “King of Ragtime.” Wrote “Maple Leaf Rag” (1899) and “The Entertainer” (1902). Awarded a special Pulitzer Prize after his death, in 1976.
• Florence Price (1887–1953), born in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1933 the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed her Symphony in E minor, making her the first Black woman to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra.

Exit ticket: “Which composer would you most want to interview? Write one question you’d ask them.”

Lesson 5: Music vocabulary day

Use this when you’ll be out more than one day. Students make a vocabulary chart (term, definition, example, sketch) and then use the words to review a piece from the listening journal.

Bell ringer, match the term:

1. Forte
2. Piano (as a dynamic)
3. Crescendo
4. Allegro
5. Adagio
6. Timbre

Exit ticket: “Describe ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ using three vocabulary words from today.”

Bell ringers and exit tickets for any music day

If your plans fall through or the period runs long, these open-ended prompts work for any grade and need no answer key:

• “What’s a sound you heard on the way to school today? Describe it using a music word.”
• “If your school had a theme song, what instruments would play it and why?”
• “Is silence part of music? Give one example.”
• “Pick a movie scene. What tempo and dynamics would its soundtrack need?”

For more ready prompts, the bell ringer questions page has a big list, and the exit ticket ideas page has formats you can drop into any of these lessons.

What to leave in the folder

• A seating chart and the names of two reliable students who know the routine.
• A note saying which closets and instruments are off-limits.
• The recording titles (and links, if you use a class page) for Lesson 1.
• The four rhythm symbols copied onto a half sheet for Lesson 2.
• Printed composer fact cards for Lesson 4.
• Extra copies of a bell ringer sheet so students record each day’s warm-up in one place.

Keep a copy of this whole set in your emergency folder. If you need help building one, the emergency sub plans guide walks through it. And if you want plans for the rest of the building, see our sub lesson plans roundup and the art sub lesson plans that use the same routine.

FAQ

Can a substitute with no music background really run these?

Yes. Nothing here requires reading sheet music, playing, or singing. The sub reads prompts, plays recordings, writes four rhythm symbols on the board, and uses the answer keys.

Should students use instruments when there’s a sub?

Usually not. Instruments are expensive, and a sub can’t know which students are trained to handle them. Clapping and tapping give the same rhythm practice with none of the risk.

What if there’s no working speaker?

Skip Lesson 1 and run Lessons 2, 3, or 4. They need only paper, pencils, and the board.

Keep the routine going every day

The bell ringer, activity, exit ticket routine works best when students already know it. You can find fresh daily bell ringers for grades 6–8 and grades 9–12 every school day, free, so your sub has a warm-up ready even when your plans run out.