Basics of Music Notation

Summary

Mix and match activities to create a fun lesson on the basics of music notation. Integrate solfeg.io in teaching such concepts as the staff, clef, measures, notes and ledger lines.

🎲 What's included in these activities:

• Learning the definition and importance of music notation;
• Learning about staff;
• Learning about ledger lines;
• Learning about the G clef;
• Learning about measures and barlines
• Reflecting
• Ideas for homework & further lessons (Beyond the lesson)

💻 Materials:

• Solfeg.io web app best used with Chrome browser
• Projector or computer and access to Wi-Fi
• Piano, guitar or any other instrument with a wide melodic range (optional)
• Staff paper (optional)

Introduction to music notation

🕐 Time: 10 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Learn what music notation is and how it's used;
• Understand how the visual representation of music (notation) is linked to the sound;

🎶 Recommended Songs:

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🎲 Activity:

-Shortly talk about musical notation in general.

• What, in your opinion, is musical notation?

A way to write down music.

A set of symbols that represent sound.

• Why is musical notation needed?

For composers: to have their pieces performed by other musicians.

Before sound recording was possible, musical scores were the only way to distribute music. We wouldn't know much about music history if music was never notated!

To learn to play an instrument more efficiently.

• Select one of the suggested songs together with the class and open it. (All of them are in C major or A minor and don't feature notes on ledger lines.)
• Listen to an excerpt from the song, for example, from Verse 1 until the end of Chorus 2. Invite the students to sing or clap along if they want to!

Slide through the notes and lines

🕐 Time: 10 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Understand what staff and notes are;
• Understand the concept of 'high'/'low' in musical pitch;
• Express musical elements with body movements

🎶 Recommended Songs:

‍

🎲 Activity:

• Go to the very beginning of the song that your students have chosen.
• Make sure 'Notation' is selected under 'Tools' - 'Visuals'.
• Show the staff on the screen and explain what it is. (In Western notation a set of lines on, between, above and below which notes of music are written. - Grove Music Online)

How many lines are there in the staff? (A five-line staff has been the most widely used type since north French manuscripts of the early 13th century containing polyphony. - Grove Music Online)

• Show how the notes look like. They are the actual representation of the musical pitches, so the higher the note is, the higher it is placed on the staff.
• Explain what 'high' and 'low' is regarding the pitch. To help understand it better, do a short and fun task:

The class does a vocal glissando together - each student slides from the lowest pitch they can sing to the highest!

Add the body movement: students start with the low notes squatting down and then, with the pitch going upwards, gradually stand up and lift their arms.

Beyond the staff

🕐 Time: 15 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Practice drawing notes on the staff;
• Understand what ledger lines are;
• Express musical elements with body movements

🎶 Recommended Songs:

‍

🎲 Activity:

-Choose another one of the recommended songs from the list with your students and open it!

-Look at the staff - keeping in mind that notes can be written on, between, above and below the lines, ask students to count how many notes they can write on a staff! (11 - 6 between the staff lines and 5 on the staff lines)

-Demonstrate on an instrument you have available - there are much more than 11 notes!

• Do you have any ideas how the notes outside the range of the staff could be notated?

-Listen to a part of the chosen song with notes on ledger lines, for example, Chorus 1 of “Save Your Tears” by The Weeknd.

• Show students what the notes on ledger lines look like.

-Listen to the same excerpt once again and invite students to do movements along the song:

• They start in a standing position.
• Everytime the red line on the screen reaches a note on a ledger line below the staff, they should squat down.

They can remain squatting down only if there are two or more notes on a ledger line below the staff in a row.

Whenever there is a note on the five staff lines, they should stand up again!

• Everytime the red line on the screen reaches a note on a ledger line above the staff, they should lift their arms - and then lower them once the notes are back on the staff!

The very beginning - the clef

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Understand what clef is;
• Practice drawing the treble clef

🎶 Recommended Songs:

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🎲 Activity:

• Open the beginning of the song from the suggestions list your class likes the most.
• Show the clef and explain that it is a sign that indicates the pitch of one of its lines (and hence of the other lines).

There are several different clefs.

This particular one is called treble or G clef - see how it's curved around the 2nd line where the G note is located!

• Ask students to take their staff paper and practice drawing the treble clef! (optional)

Clap-line

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Understand different musical elements and building blocks, such as measures and bar-lines;
• Express musical elements with body movements;

🎶 Recommended Songs:

‍

🎲 Activity:

• Select another song from the Song Library, preferably, something in a quicker tempo. It could be 'Sunday Best' by Surfaces again or any other song students vote for!
• Show how the song is divided in units, each of them of the same duration. They are called measures.They are marked by the vertical lines drawn through the staff, called bar-lines.
• Invite students to listen to the song, follow the notation and clap (or do any other body percussion) every time the red line on the screen reaches a bar-line.

Discussion

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Consolidate the knowledge on the basics of music notation;
• Encourage creativity and develop an innovation mindset

🎲 Activity:

Have a short discussion on these topics:

• What new terms have you learned?
• If you invented musical notation, how would it look like?

Quiz

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Test students' knowledge of the basics of music notation;
• Recap the topics, as needed for each individual student.

🎲 Activity:

• Give the quiz “Basics of music notation” to students as an individual activity at the end of the lesson or as homework.