Linking sound with symbol
In November 2002 the Associated Board ran a seminar looking at the skills needed for Grade 5 Theory. The seminar, led by Ian Smith and Lis Fletcher, focussed on practical ways to teach thess skills. Here are just some of the ideas explored during the day.
Rhythm games
Children often find it difficult to understand how rhythm fits with a beat especially if rhythmic notation is taught mainly using pencil and paper. The best way for them to get to grips with the rhythm-beat relationship is by feeling it, preferably through the whole body. Rhythm games can help children make the link between beat and rhythm in a practical way. Here is our version of a game called Switch.
Version 1
- Begin by getting your pupils to keep a steady beat with their feet.
- You then add a rhythmic pattern (1) and your pupils join in – copying your pattern.
- After a few repetitions you say ‘switch’ and change to a new pattern (2). Your pupils follow you and switch to pattern 2.
- Continue the game introducing more new patterns as you go.
This game encourages pupils to listen to rhythmic patterns and feel how they fit with the beat.
Version 2
- Begin in the same way, setting up a beat and introducing pattern 1.
- You then move on to pattern 2 (without saying ‘switch’) but your pupils stay on pattern 1.
- You then say ‘switch’ at which point your pupils join you with pattern 2.
- Carry on in this way adding new rhythmic patterns.
This game encourages pupils to feel how two different rhythms fit together and with the beat.
Version 3
- Begin in the same way.
- You change to pattern 2 (without saying ‘switch’) but your pupils stay on pattern 1.
- You say ‘switch’ at which point you introduce a new pattern (3) and your pupils change to pattern 2 – you and your pupils are never doing the same pattern simultaneously.
- Say ‘switch’ again, you then introduce another new pattern (4) and your pupils move on to pattern 3 etc.
This game encourages an awareness of multiple rhythmic patterns and subdivision of the beat.
Flashcards
Write out short rhythmic patterns on pieces of card. Hold up each card in time with a beat (again kept by the feet) for your pupils to clap. (Write the rhythm on the back of the card as well so that you know whether they are getting it right!) Later on, include rhythms in compound time explaining that the beat they are now keeping with their feet is a dotted crotchet. This is a good way to introduce notation for rhythms in compound time. From an early stage, try to make your pupils understand what the two numbers in a time signature mean, especially the fact that the bottom number relates to the beat and won’t always be 4 for a crotchet.
You can also have several cards on display at once. Clap one of the rhythmic patterns yourself and ask pupils to identify the pattern. Then play some music featuring that rhythm and ask them to shout out when it appears.
Pitch
When teaching the concept of pitch for the first time begin with the absolute basics and remember that perceptions of high and low may differ depending on the instrument played. For pianists, low means to the left, while for cellists low means nearer the face and for violinists it means further away!
As a starting point, try the following:
- Sing three notes at different pitches and ask your pupils to write blobs on a page showing the relative highness and lowness of the pitches.
- Reverse the process – write high and low blobs on a page and ask them to sing notes in response to the position of the blobs.
- Try blobs on, above and below a single line – for singing three notes moving by step.
- And then blobs on, above and below three lines.
- Move on to five lines.
- Then ledger lines.
- Finally, introduce clefs showing how they accommodate different instruments and keep the notes more or less on the stave. You can also explain how two staves, eg treble and bass for piano, fit together at middle C with a ledger line.
All this may seem rather basic but these fundamentals need to be in place before you can teach what is required for Grade 5 Theory. It also pays to make sure that nothing has been misunderstood or missed out in the early stages of learning.
Scales
Work on scales can follow on from pitch work, once more using singing to link sound with symbol. Ask pupils to sing a major scale to numbers, 1 to 8, getting them to indicate where the semitones are with a hand signal. Once the tone/semitone relationship in a scale is understood it will be easier to transfer that knowledge into writing scales with notation. Working first with the voice, then an instrument and finally, pencil and paper, is a good way forward.
The process can be repeated for major, harmonic minor and melodic minor scales, with you constantly pointing out the different tone/semitone patterns found in each scale type. An understanding of intervals should then follow quite naturally. If pupils are in the habit of singing up and down scales using numbers they will find it easy to count out gaps between intervals. Once pupils have grasped the differences in the tone/semitone patterns between major and minor scales, it is only a short step to understanding the difference between major and minor thirds.
Transposition
All this work on pitch and scales will provide a solid foundation for transposition. Remember that this is merely changing the pitch of a melody without changing the intervals between the notes; then encourage your pupils to play melodies by ear in a variety of keys.
Key signatures and the cycle of fifths
This underpins all scale learning and, as pupils advance, harmony. We probably all have our favourite mnemonics to remember the cycle of fifths. Try these:
Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle for sharps and the reverse for flats.
Father Christmas Gets Dad An Electric Blanket - Blanket Explodes And Dad Gets Cold Feet
However you decide to teach this to your pupils, try to link it with the practical work on scales, intervals and transposition. This will ensure that the final piece of the jigsaw doesn’t get stored in a separate and unrelated part of their brains!
Chords
Teaching chords and harmony to pupils learning single-line instruments, especially if they are not learning the piano as a second study, can be difficult. Whatever the instrument you may find it helpful to begin with triads. If you have been working on scales in the ways described earlier, your pupils will be used to singing the degrees of the scale to numbers. Now ask them to sing the following, perhaps with you playing or singing along initially:
- 1 3 5 3 1
- 2 4 6 4 2
- 3 5 7 5 3
- 4 6 8 6 4
- 1 4 6 4 1
- 2 5 7 5 2
- 3 5 8 5 3
This exercise helps pupils to understand how different combinations of notes form different sounding triads. If you have a piano in your teaching room, you can also demonstrate how these notes sound together as chords.
For pupils of single-line instruments, ask them to transfer this exercise to their instruments. You can then get them to improvise with a group of notes over a very simple chord progression, which you play on the piano, or other instrument, as an accompaniment. For example, you could use the following chord progression:
I V II V I
Eventually your pupils will become familiar with the sounds and patterns of arpeggios and will begin to recognise which notes fit with which chords. From here you can introduce the concept of cadences and explain the standard chord progressions – pointing out where they occur in the pieces your pupils are learning.
A word about singing
Many of the ideas covered here rely on some singing from your pupils because this is often the best way to make the link between sound and symbol without an instrument getting in the way. However, you may find it difficult to get some of your pupils to sing and be tempted to assume that they can’t pitch a note. Although this is sometimes the case it is in fact very rare for someone to be completely tone deaf. The problem is normally that they lack confidence in their pitching ability or haven’t yet found their voice.
To overcome these problems try beginning any voice training with speech. Ask pupils to read a passage aloud – the pitch of their speaking voice will then give you an idea of their natural vocal pitch. While they continue to speak, begin to hum along with their speaking voice close into their ear and gradually get them to settle on one note. Then get them to follow your humming with their own voice.
Sliding games with the voice can also help, as there is no anxiety about finding the note immediately. Get pupils to slide up and down vocally and sing with them, gradually getting them to settle on one note again and then to follow you. Singing won’t be something that comes naturally to all pupils; some will need more help than others. They need to practise their vocal skills just as they need to practise their instruments.
Switch
Another version of Switch appears in the book Pompaleerie Jig by Diana Thomopson and Kate Baxter, now out of print.