Connecting Tissues between Theory Lessons and Music

As we approach the middle of the year, most music teachers hope that all of the students are on the same plane of theory knowledge or at least close. There will still be some stragglers and some over-achievers, but the hope is that the middle of the road holds the majority of the class. In my freshman high school choir classroom, we realized that there was a large gap in knowledge between how to read notes on the staff and connecting to key signatures and eventually their music. In order to close the gap, we held two lessons to support the connective tissue.

Lesson 1:

1. Warm-up – essential to start every day even if you are not singing! This gets students ready and focused for class .
2. Review what students (hopefully) already know.
   1. Skip EGBDF and FACE. Those are tools that can only be used to identify single notes on the staff, but not the most common scalar patterns.
   2. Use the Musical Alphabet. By teaching students ABCDEFG-ABCDEFG, they will soon begin to understand the logic in music, rather than trying to memorize strange patterns.
3. Practice reading notes on a staff.
   1. While this step seems ridiculous, practicing reading individual notes on the staff is like practicing reading letters prior to sentences.
   2. Use MusicTheory.net to practice reading notes on the staff!
4. Apply notes on the staff to the major scale
   1. Write out a C major scale
   2. Write out the notes names
   3. Connect it to solfege (and write it out!)
      1. Despite my utter hatred for writing out solfege, this kinetic step helps students further their understanding of the connections.
      2. If there is additional time, have students write out some of the solfege in their music, or in another example.

End of Day 1

Lesson 2

1. Warm-up – essential to start every day even if you are not singing! This gets students ready and focused for class .
2. Review Lesson 1 (note names on the staff) – perhaps with some practice on a white board or Smart Board.
3. Build a major scale in another key and compare it to C
   1. We used the Key of D because our goal was to connect it to Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus from The Messiah.
   2. Map out the whole and half steps
   3. Use accidentals within the scale (no key signature)
4. (Re)introduce key signatures
   1. Note that if all accidentals were in the music, the music would be even more confusing! (Do not mention functions, that’s way over their head!)
   2. Mention that accidentals are used so that the major scale sounds the same in every key (whole steps and half steps).
5. Finding Do
   1. Walk through sharps (last sharp is “ti”)
   2. Walk through flats (last flat is “fa” or second to last flat is “do”)
6. Practice the skill!
   1. Use MusicTheory.net to practice reading key signatures
   2. Start slow, limiting students to 3 sharps or flats, then add more.
7. Connect it to your music!
   1. Find what key each piece of your music is in!
   2. Watch for minor keys! We’re still only talking major

End of Lesson 2

These lessons can span anywhere from 2 to 5 days and the practice should be throughout the semester.

Here is a handy dandy “Cheat Sheet” that is a great handout for students: musictheorycheatsheet-level1