I believe concerts should be engaging, entertaining, with the highest possible caliber of playing...even for beginners. I had my holiday concert a couple of days ago and we did one of the coolest things ever. I needed to fill an entire concert with just my beginners because my audiences get too large to fit when I try to combine all my students into one concert. All of their pieces were quite short, and I wanted to add some length (and some fun) to the program.
I found a play along video on YouTube for 'Let it Snow' and created very simple sheet music so my students could play along:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEr8XCf68P4
I used some money from my school budget to purchase mini flashlights - one for each of my students, and a whole bunch of snowflake holiday specs. If you've never experienced Christmas lights through a pair of holiday specs, you have to check it out! Super cool and fun. They turn every beam of light into a shape. Because we were performing 'Let it Snow,' I chose to purchase only the snowflake shape.
To perform the piece (students memorized it), all the lights were turned off in the auditorium. Students waved their flashlights around in the air and the audience wore their snazzy 3D holiday specs - which turned all those little flashlight beams into snowflakes. It was SO FUN and it looked AMAZING.
Here a short video of what it looked like when the flashlights were being waved around on stage (it looks WAY cooler through the glasses)
Here's a pic taken through the glasses when I had the audience turn on their phone lights and wave them around during a different piece in the program:
