A Majorly Cute Scale Here's a DIY to create a scale you can proudly display at home. Have your child pose for 8 photos. In each photo, she'll sing ONE of the solfege and show the hand signs. Print out the photos. OPTION 1: Create a poster or chart with staff lines, and mount the cute photos going up, up, up. Hang the chart in your child's room so they can practice solfege anytime! Show me your charts- I want to see what you create :)
OPTION 2: Frame each photo in a cute frame and hang them in a vertical arrangement (have a tall, skinny wall space to fill?). Everyone who comes to your home will see your brilliant child showing off her solfege! Here's a site that can teach you to make fabulous ribbon-hung vertical frames. Show me what you make! I want to see some MAJORLY cute scales :)
In today's Do-It-Yourself projects, we'll show you how to make your own major scale in a key other than C. With 12 different keys on the piano, you have many ways to personalize your scale. Creating scales on every key is a skill we teach in the BRIDGE curriculum for Let's Play Music graduates, but you can have fun at home with this right now.
Gather Supplies You won't need a hot glue gun or chop saw for this part, but there are a few mental tools you might need. TOOL #1: EARS. You've been singing the major scale in Let's Play Music songs like The Red Balloon, so your ear is well trained to hear what a major scale sounds like going up and down. Even if we didn't give you any more theory lessons, you could go figure out the major scale just using your ear. You might be thinking, "I can't play the E-flat scale. Nobody has told me which notes to use. That sounds very advanced." Guess what!?- You already know enough to figure this out. Trust me!
Are you that excited? Go to the piano. Cover your child's eyes and have him blindly pick any ONE key. Open eyes. Play that note and sing "up up up up..." in a major scale as your fingers go up the keyboard. Any time it sounds wrong or off, try skipping to another key. You will need some white ones and some black ones. You won't play every key. You will be able to figure out what sounds like a major scale! You will be able to figure out which black keys you need. AMAZING! (keep reading if you don't want to feel like you're guessing.) TOOL #2: SOLFEGE. You've mastered the solfege names and hand-signs for each tone of the major scale. You are going to love applying them to your major scale. You may have already read the earlier articles all about solfege, in which we explained the MOVEABLE DO system. The scale starts on 'DO', but Do can be any key on the piano, white or black! When Do is C, we say "we are playing in the key of C." When Do is F, we say "we are playing in the key of F." You get the idea. ANY NOTE! Your scale is a major scale when you sing Do Re Mi while playing the notes up. And THEN you'll be able to play/ transpose any song into your scale by singing the solfege. Think about it: Three Blind Miceis mi-re-do. mi-re-do. sol-fa-fa-mi. sol-fa-fa-mi. Once you have your major scale you can play mi-re-do and sol-fa-fa-mi....and it will be the melody for Three Blind Mice, just a little higher or lower. Yes, transposing (playing in a new key) is that easy to wrap your brain around. Now you're motivated, so let me help you easily create that major scale. TOOL #3: SEMITONES. The major scale is really a system of relationships between pitches. Each pitch is identified by the wavelength that generates the sound. In the pentatonic scale article, I explain how cultures around the world build scales based on relationships between pitches of different wavelengths. In our Western music, we like to divide the range of wavelength into 12 equal divisions (semitones). That's why our pianos have 12 different notes. Playing a piano key and then the very next piano key is a semitone, the smallest unit you can change pitch in piano playing. Semitones are also called half steps in music theory circles. Moving by an increment that is 2 semitones large is called a tone or whole step. The following pattern of relationships that we have come to prefer and love is our major scale.
Whole-Whole-Half. Whole-Whole-Whole-Half.
The pattern is very pretty to look at when Do is C because we can play all the white keys. The piano was built to make it natural to play a major scale in the key of C. Looking for a mnemonic to help you remember this pattern? When it's super hot/sunnyt outside, you should wear white (not dark) clothes to help you feel cool, right? Imagine the silly man who insists on wearing dark clothes on hot days. You ask:
Why Won't He Wear White When Hot!?
Let's build a scale again! Go pick ANY key at the piano. Take steps using the pattern that defines a major scale: WWH, WWWH. As you go, your ear will let you know if things are going well or if you slip up!
My daughter chose to start on D as Do. We followed the pattern and learned that in the key of D, you'll need to use F sharp and C sharp!
Let's Play Music Bridge Check out how we teach the pattern of whole steps and half steps in the LPM Bridge program with songs and games. You'll love this!
Montessori Method Italian educator, Maria Montessori, understood the simplicity of solfege, major scales, and key changes. She also understood the natural and easy way children can learn to hear and internalize aural skills. In a well-equipped Montessori classroom, you might find beautiful tone bars like these. Unlike the piano, black and white bells are all the same size, making key changes easier than pie.
The paper strip has green gaps painted on it, to indicate the step pattern for a major scale. A child as young as 4 can spend hours creating new major scales. She slides the strip left and right to ANY note and looks to see which bells are steps 1-8 (or Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do). She pulls those bells slightly forward and plays the major scale. A scale in the key of C is shown above. Then she finds letter discs and labels the notes of the scale. Finally, she can choose a song card from the collection and play her favorite songs based on steps (1-8) or solfege. No matter what key she is in, she will be able to play her favorite songs.
The final beauty of this practice is that it is self-directed. A student can change key, label the scale, play a song, and repeat endlessly and correctly with very little adult interruption needed. Change Keys Now you know how to create a major scale anywhere...so you can transpose songs into other keys. Ready for some more fun? A RED CHORD (I) always has notes Do-Mi-Sol. A BLUE CHORD (IV) always has notes Do-Fa-La, YELLOW CHORD (V) always has notes Ti-Re-Sol. Now you can make chords using your new scale (in your new key). I challenge you to play all of your favorite Let's Play Music songs in the key of D, or A, or F#. Do you like the way these tunes sound in different keys!? My daughter decided to replay all of the Green and Yellow book songs in the key of D, just because it's fun to transpose. Practicing making chords in new keys is a little tricky because you have to remind yourself which notes are part of your scale and which are not. The good news is, your HAND ALREADY KNOWS how to make the primary chords. You only have to adjust a little bit to incorporate the "magic" black keys. The more you play this game, the more comfortable you become with automatically finding chords and melodies in new keys.
You probably have the basic gist of what a scale is. We sing some notes and they go up, up, up. But when I start talking about pentatonic and diatonic and chromatic scales in class, people start wondering, "what the heck are those and why do we care?" In this post, everyone (especially Sound Beginnings parents) can get excited about the pentatonic scale and improve their melody skills. A Scale With Every Note You may hear mention of the chromatic scale. (Chromatic means colorful.) This is a good one to start with because it means we play 12 semitone intervals, so 13 notes. Play every single piano key, black and white, and that's the chromatic scale. Voila!
C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C
On a piano, the 12 steps are evenly spaced, meaning the wavelength of the note changes by a consistent amount between each step. You've played an octave when you play a note that has a wavelength twice the length from the note you began on, a 2:1 ratio. The chromatic scale is the fundamental set of notes from which scales can be built. It's not really musical, because it doesn't have a tonic, a home note. We love finding "Do is Home" in Let's Play Music, and being able to identify the home, or key note, in music we listen to. Music naturally pulls back to Do, so let's look at some scales that have a tonic note and work for writing melodies. Scales Around the World
Thousands of years ago, peoples in different parts of the world discovered frequency ratios and pitch relationships. By selecting 5-8 tones with relationships they liked, scales were created and used to make melodies. Different cultures settled on varying scales, giving the music characteristic sounds. Note: Any of the following scales could be played in any key by creating the same pattern of skipping tones (with whole steps and half steps) to create the scale. The Diatonic Scale is our beloved Major ScaleDo-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do!Read more about it here. Western music since the Middle Ages on has been based on this scale. We spend most of our time in class learning about this scale. The steps go: whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. Remember that trick and you can build a major scale on any note.
C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C
Here are the notes/intervals that make an Indian whole-tone scale, just one of the many scales that could be used in Indian music. Notice how evenly spaced the tones are...all whole steps, all the time. Here is some piano music using a whole tone scale. Sounds dreamy!
C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C
And a Hungarian Gypsy scale. Listen to it here...sounds like you would expect.
C C# D D# EF F# G G# A A# B C
And an Arabic scale.... well, sort of. Arabic tone scales actually define wavelength intervals smaller than what we use (or have names for or piano keys for). When you're tuning your guitar and your note is a little too flat to be C but a little too sharp to be B, you're playing one of those Arabic notes that we usually pass over. Want to see how a guitar can make the microtones by adding extra frets? Pretty cool, and if you like getting sciencey with microtones, check out some computerized 53-microtone music.
C C# DD# E F F# G G# A A# B C
The Blues Scale comes in super handy during our 3rd year of Let's Play Music when we get to play some piano blues! Write a new melody for your blues using these notes. Get some help learning Blues Scales here.
C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C
Pentatonic Scale Everywhere
The pentatonic scale, created by the mathematician, Pythagoras, is rather special. He started with a home/tonic note and added a perfect 5th. The 5th is an interval between two notes whose wavelength have a ratio 3:2. Take the notes you have, repeat the process again and get 2 more notes, or 5 all together: the pentatonic scale. These notes have nice clean ratio-relationships, so they harmonize nicely together.
By the way, repeat the process to get 2 more notes and create the diatonic scale. If you want to get a little nerdy, let Donald Duck take you on a tour of Pythagorean society in this classic educational cartoon about math.
The result is a five-note scale with the intervals most commonly used for music worldwide. You can find this scale in every musical culture. There are loads of country, folk, jazz, and rock songs that contain just these 5 notes in the melody, but they are especially prevalent in children's songs.
C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C
Do Re Mi Sol La Do
Why so popular for children?? Because hearing and singing this small set of easily defined musical intervals is age-appropriate and prerequisite for more advanced melodies. Pentatonic hearing and singing is foundational for children. You'll notice in class we start by hearing, echoing, and singing the minor 3rd (sol-mi).
Once children are hearing and reproducing it, Echo Ed sings patterns that contain la. Then we add in do and re as ear-training progresses to more complex tunes. (Very last we add echoes with fa and ti...notes from the major scale)
Bobby McFerrin demonstrates how his audience has already internalized the pentatonic scale. Wherever he goes in the world, the audience 'gets' the pentatonic scale. The pentatonic scale is part of every musical culture!
Sing the Pentatonic Here's a collection of songs built on the pentatonic scale. Many more of your favorite children's tunes fit into this category, too. Notice that the pentatonic scale avoids half step intervals. It seems easier to train your vocal chords to jump to the intervals without having to consider the half steps that occur in the major scale. Pentatonic songs are great to teach to your child or any beginning singer. You'll recognize many from our Sound Beginnings classes (click links to hear these songs). There are thousands of pentatonic songs you would recognize, but here are a few:
I was recently on a 5-hour flight with my four-year-old, and we stayed busy the entire time. I had packed her Memory game and her Let's Play Music tone bells amid other toys and books. Together we invented "Memory Sounds," a way to play the Memory game using tone bells to strengthen both ear-training and memory. If you have a new set of tone bells and are looking for another fun way to put them to use, read on!
Sound Memory What you will need: A Memory game (check your local thrift shop- I got mine for $2), a set of Let's Play Music tone bells, and a curtain or binder or wall to hide the bells from the players/ listeners. Set Up You won't need all of the matching pairs from your Memory game. At most you will need 8 pairs. Set up a divider so your child can't see the bells. Lay your bells from left to right, high to low: this seems backwards to YOU, but your child facing you will hear low sounds on HER LEFT and high sounds on HER RIGHT. Next to each bell, choose two different pictures to represent that sound. Finally, put the matches from all of those pictures into a "draw box".
The first time we played this game, we were in tight quarters on a plane (photos below). I used a blanket draped between our seats as a barrier, and had the bells on my tray. Since it was our first time and I wanted her to get confident with the game, I only used three pairs. If your child struggles with hearing and matching sounds, just use a few pairs, and use tones that are NOT adjacent (not an interval of a second). I used Do, Mi and Sol.
One-Player Game The listener chooses two cards and holds them up so the musician can see them. The musician states the picture and then plays the corresponding bell. "Train...ding! Banana...ding!" If the two sounds match, the player makes a pair. If they don't match, she tries a different combination of pictures. Even when she hasn't made a match, she's practiced identifying if the sounds match! A valuable skill! This game is fun and challenging for ANY family member, even recent Let's Play Music graduates. I was impressed how quickly my 8-year-old LPM-grad made matches. (In the video below, we hadn't yet realized it's best to have the bells laid out high-left to low-right for the musician.)
Multi-Player Game Each player takes a turn picking two pictures and listening to the sounds, hoping for a match. Just like in regular Memory, players can gain advantage by paying attention to the combinations chosen by others. Major Scale Strategy It didn't take my kids long to come up with a helpful strategy! Each time you guess two cards and hear the tones, set the cards on the floor in a line, placing the cards approximately as far apart as the tones sounded, with the higher sound to the right. You'll visually be lining up the tones and helping them find mates. At the end of the game, all of your pairs will be arranged in a Major Scale! Remove the screen/ divider, and you'll be able to check that all of the matches were correct AND they are all in the correct order to make a major scale. I hope you'll have some family fun game time playing this game as the musician or the listener. Just for the record, the white noise on the airplane was so loud that the tinkle of our tone bells could hardly travel more than a few feet: no patrons were harassed in the making of this blog post. -Gina Weibel, M.S. Let's Play Music Parent
Your first-year student has been carefully listening to songs and determining if the tunes sound major or minor. Hearing and identifying major and minor sounds prepares her to play both types of music on the keyboard next year, transpose between major and minor keys, and write her own composition that may include a minor key! Her musicianship skills are blossoming!
I've Been to Harlem This fun folk song gives students a chance to hear the same tune sung major, then again minor for comparison. Did you know your tone bells give you a chance to explore major and minor at home further? As you'll remember from our posts on solfeg, DO could be on any note. With your bells, you can only make a complete major scale if DO is on C, but don't let that stop you from experimenting with assigning other bells to be Do. Since your student is learning how to skip, have her pull out the C bell, and take a skip, and another to create the Red chord in C Major: CEG or Do-Mi-Sol. Play this chord and hear that it sounds Major. Try again starting with the F bell, to create the Red chord in the key of F Major: FAC. It also sounds Major, and is another Do-Mi-Sol; this time Do was F. What if you start with D (DFA) or E (EGB)? This creates a Red chord in the key of D minor and E minor. Play it with your child and see if she can hear the difference. The minor triad is Do-Me-Sol, pronounced Doh-MAY-Soh. With each of those groupings of 3 notes, it was the MIDDLE note that determined that the chord was major or minor. Without the middle bell you can't assign major or minor. Here's a video of a 4-year-old student creating a few triads, and playing the song "I've Been to Harlem" in C Major and E minor. (You'll learn a lot more about triads in year 3). I don't recommend using your feet to hold mallets, nor drinking pickle juice for real.
How did that sound? Major scales sound brighter and cheerier than the sad (or sleepy or spooky or somber) minor scales. Nothing beats experience and exposure for helping you learn to recognize the difference between major and minor. If you want some more practice, here is a short little ear-training quiz with some major and minor chords. Who got more answers correct, you or your child!? Teacher Justine Turcott, in Rexburg, ID, shares a conversation between a first-year student and another 4 year-old as they made hot cocoa:
Jaymie: Did you put in enough powder? Bailey: Yeah. Jaymie: Well, are you sure? Does it taste Major or Minor? Bailey: What? Jaymie: Major is happy and Minor is sad. Does it taste Major?
Here at Let's Play Music, we love to give a multi-sensory approach to learning, and these students found a way to bring the sense of taste into the lesson, too!
The Cup Game The song, "I've Been to Harlem" is also commonly used to play tricky cup rhythm games like this or this. Part of the fun is having a complex rhythm different from the rhythm of the song lyrics. I wanted to share the fun of a cup rhythm game with my young family, so we came up with a much simpler routine. Before singing the song, help your child chant "Beetle, Butterfly, Clap- Pick, Pass" with a cup until she can remember the routine shown in the video below. The rhythm is beetle-butterfly-beetle-bug. Ask your child to keep thinking of that rhythm while you sing the song. Eventually she'll be able to sing along and keep the rhythm going, too. Here's one Blue Bugs class with Let's Play Music teacher, Robin Flores in Windsor, Colorado playing the cup passing game. You can try it at home, too!
All ages find this game irresistible and will be singing "I've Been to Harlem" and requesting more chances to play the cup game! They laugh when they make a mistake and feel exhilarated when it works out. I hope you find some time to extend your fun with "Harlem" and get more exposure to major and minor sounds this month. - Gina Weibel, M.S. Let's Play Music Teacher
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