VISUAL PITCH IDENTIFICATION GAMES: You won't get far without the basics

Oct 11th, 2011

Posted by Christine

Note reading is a fundamental part of music education – and mastering it is not an easy task for some students. Tonic Tutor’s visual pitch games cover several approaches.

Many method books use landmark notes (or guide notes), from which students can find all other notes. Lasers turns this concept into a timed game: the landmark notes at one side of the staff sprout horizontal lasers which advance upon a potentially unfortunate note at the other side of the staff, simultaneously helping the student to identify the note and imposing a time limit on the response. Since not all methods use the same landmarks, and since often the landmarks are not all introduced at the same time, the game settings give teachers the option of which landmarks to use (any combination of middle C, treble G, bass F, treble C, bass C, high C, and low C). Teachers can also decide how far from the landmarks the note may appear (up to four steps away – select zero steps if you only want the student to be tested on the landmark notes themselves). The "range restriction" option ensures that only notes between the selected landmarks will be chosen.

Note Bird is the standard note naming drill. It’s very flexible: teachers can choose the exact range of notes to be tested in each clef, and which clefs to use (treble, bass, treble and bass, alto, or tenor), as well as how quickly the note will travel across the staff before it falls off the other end. A new setting allows pre-reading students to get used to identifying line notes and space notes instead of letter names.

A game with a similar collection of settings is Note Snap, a “card game” in which students need to identify pairs of notes (in any clef or register) that have the same letter name.

Three of our multi-purpose games can also be used for identification of individual notes. In Stars, the player reads individual notes on the staff and plays them on the keyboard. Baseball is similar except that the player must identify an individual note within a chord or interval on the staff. In both games, add key signatures (up to four sharps and/or flats) for higher levels. In Boxing Glove, the student must “bop” notes as instructed.