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For teachers

Music lesson ideas with free tools for class

Swung’s pattern pages, genre loops, beat maker, metronome and tap tempo are free to use in class: they run in a current browser, on a projector or on students’ own devices, with nothing to install and no account. Below are lesson ideas that use them, from a ten-minute starter to a beat-making lesson. Swung has no teacher accounts, classes or student tracking; it is a set of public pages you can point students to.

Same chords, five genres

Put this on the projector and switch genres. The chords stay A minor, F, C and G; the drums, the bass and the tempo change. Every box can be tapped to change it.

124bpm
4 bars
Kick
Clap
Open hat
Bass
Chordspiano
  1. Bar 1Am7
  2. Bar 2Fmaj7
  3. Bar 3Cmaj7
  4. Bar 4G7

Each genre has its own page to take apart: house, lo-fi hip hop, trap, reggaeton, drum & bass, techno, phonk, dubstep, disco, synthwave, EDM.

Try Unit 1 before you set it

Unit 1 of the course is free with a Google sign-in: 14 short parts on the beat, about 60 minutes in all. Take it yourself and see what suits your class.

Pick up where you left off

Carry on with Unit 1; your next lesson is ready.

Start Lesson 1 free Continue learning

What’s free, and what needs an account

PageAccountUse it for
Pattern pages (28)NoneHear one named pattern, change it on the grid, play its variations. Each has an MP3 of its loop.
Genre pages (11)NoneTake a genre apart track by track with mute and solo, and read the loop in words.
Beat makerNone to build and share; Ask, the composer, needs a free Google sign-inBuild a beat from a genre loop with real drum machines, and share it as a link.
Metronome and tap tempoNoneA click at any tempo, or a genre’s own drums; tap a song’s tempo and see which genres live there.
Theory pagesNoneTempo, time signatures and common chord progressions in any key, each with something to hear.
Unit 1 of the courseA Google sign-in for each learner14 short parts on the beat, including a project and a listening round.
Units 2 to 9A paid plan for each learnerThe rest of the course. There are no class or school plans.

The lists on the pattern dictionary show the first few cards per instrument to visitors who aren’t signed in, but every pattern page is public. Link students straight to the page you want.

Accounts are Google sign-ins. Swung’s terms ask that users are at least 13, or the minimum age for online services where they live. Check your school’s rules before asking students to sign in; nothing in the lesson ideas below needs an account.

Lesson ideas

  1. Find the beat

    10 minutes, a starterOpen: Four on the floor, Backbeat

    1. Play four-on-the-floor and have the class tap or stamp on every kick.
    2. Switch to the backbeat: stamp on the kick, clap on the snare.
    3. Play a song you have chosen and ask which of the two it is closer to.

    Ask: Why does a kick on every beat make people want to dance?

  2. Same chords, five genres

    20 minutesOpen: The loop at the top of this page, Genre pages

    1. Play each genre in turn. Students list what changes: the tempo, the drums, the bass, the sounds.
    2. Agree on what stays the same: the four chords, A minor, F, C and G.
    3. Open one genre page and mute everything but the drums. Students describe the beat in words, then check against the page’s “loop in words”.

    Ask: If the chords never change, what makes trap sound different from house?

  3. Tempo detectives

    15 minutesOpen: Tap tempo, BPM and tempo

    1. Play two or three songs you have chosen. Students tap along on the tap tempo page and write down each BPM.
    2. Place each song on the tempo ladder on the BPM page and hear the same beat at that speed.
    3. Find two students whose numbers differ by exactly double or half, and talk about why.

    Ask: Why can trap at 140 BPM feel like 70?

  4. A beat for a purpose

    One lessonOpen: Beat maker

    1. Give each student or pair a purpose: a beat for a run, for focus, or for a late walk.
    2. They start from one of the five genre loops and change the tempo, the drums and the sounds to fit it.
    3. They copy the share link and send it through your usual class platform. Play a few to the class and let everyone guess the purpose.

    Ask: Which choice did the most to make the beat fit its purpose: tempo, drums or sound?

  5. Three, four or six

    15 minutesOpen: Time signatures

    1. Play 4/4, 3/4 and 6/8 on the same drum kit at the same tempo.
    2. Students count along and conduct each one.
    3. Play a waltz and a march you have chosen and ask which time signature each one uses.

    Ask: 3/4 and 6/8 both fit six eighth notes in a bar. Why do they feel different?

  6. Chords that come home

    20 minutesOpen: Chord progressions

    1. Play I–V–vi–IV in one key, then in another. Students hum the lowest note of each chord.
    2. Switch the style from pop to house to lo-fi hip hop and back: the chords stay, the feel changes.
    3. Compare it with vi–IV–I–V: same four chords, a different starting point.

    Ask: Which chord sounds like home, and how can you tell?

Practical notes

  • Sound waits for a tap. On the pattern, genre and theory pages, nothing plays or loads audio until someone presses play, so a room full of open laptops stays quiet.
  • Mute and solo on the genre pages isolate one part for the whole room: just the bass, or everything but the drums.
  • Links that open a loop are handy for slides: /playground#loop=house opens the house loop in the beat maker, and /metronome#bpm=124&genre=house sets the metronome to house at 124.
  • Phones work sideways for the beat maker, since sixteen steps need the width. Laptops and tablets are easier for a whole lesson.
  • Privacy: using the pages without signing in asks for no personal details. Swung counts visits with Google Analytics and its own statistics, and has no advertising cookies. The privacy policy has the details.
  • The music is original. Every loop is made with Swung’s own sounds; no recordings, samples or melodies of real songs are used.

Other free tools worth knowing

Chrome Music Lab, from Google, is a set of playful music experiments in the browser, such as Song Maker, with no sign-up. Its site says many teachers use it in class.

Ableton’s Learning Music is a free course in the browser, from beats to song structure, with no sign-up and in 19 languages. How it compares with Swung.

Sources

Facts about other products were checked on their own websites in October 2026. Prices and features change; check the product’s site before you decide.