---
title: "Building Student Excitement With a Big Reveal (and Music)"
url: "https://books.playgoventure.com/3/newsletter/189/building-student-excitement-with-a-big-reveal-and-music"
---

<img src = "https://books.playgoventure.com/u/1667265193954-baBDco.png" style="width: 85%; display: block; margin: auto;">

# Building Student Excitement With a Big Reveal (and Music)

Let's say you've designed a fun competition for your students.

When it comes time to reveal the leaderboard or final results, make a show of it.

It's fun to witness student emotions as they watch their results revealed using visuals. Emotions quickly swing from anticipation to anxiety to joy and then back to anxiety then back to joy and — you get the picture.

It's much like being at a horse race — a wide range of emotions over a few short minutes. Warning — You may not get the same effect when revealing the results of a quiz or exam 😊

I'll show you one example of a big reveal method in this video — and keep reading below to discover my favorite music to play.

<div align="center"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/632295839" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<div align="center"> <a href="https://player.vimeo.com/video/632295839" target="_blank"_><u>Watch Full Screen</u></a> </div>

The music playing in the video is _O Fortuna_ — one of my favorite musical pieces to use for dramatic effect when revealing the leaderboard results in a head-to-head multiplayer simulation. You may know _O Fortuna_ from the 1981 movie <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excalibur_(film)" target="_blank">Excalibur</a>.

<div align="center"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EJC-_j3SnXk?si=wBAmqVVwtPu5wjnm" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

My second favorite reveal music is _The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly_, from the classic spaghetti western by Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone. Check out this amazing live version by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra —

<div align="center"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/enuOArEfqGo?si=qNOTc1XyJVBRv_1z" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

Another interesting one is the James Bond theme, but it doesn't have a crescendo like O Fortuna. I do use it as my ringtone though 📳

Of course, there are many contemporary songs you can choose that can be just as fun — I use a lot of music in our <a href="https://business-xp.com/" target="_blank">businessXP</a> curriculum to energize students at key points in the curriculum.

> What's your favorite music for a big reveal?

<br> <hr style="margin: 0;"> <i> **Receive this newsletter by email** — <div style="text-align: center;"> <iframe src="https://mediaspark.formstack.com/forms/ts" title="Formstack Form" width="300" height="230"></iframe> </div> Join our **online community** where educators and trainers share ideas, resources, and discussions on experiential learning, games, and simulations — <a href="https://TeachingSuperhero.com" target="_blank"_><u>TeachingSuperhero.com</u></a> <br><br> I'm Mathew Georghiou and I write about how games are transforming education and learning. I also share my experience as an entrepreneur inventing products and designing educational resources used by millions around the world. More about me at <a href="https://Georghiou.com" target="_blank"_><u>Georghiou.com</u></a> </i> <hr style="margin: 0;">
