How To Teach Melody In Your Elementary Music Room (Solfege 101!)

[@emmadowningcredits]

Thank you, thank you so much! I'm in my first year of teaching and I'm collecting as many resources as I can!

[@WhimsicallyMusical]

I'm so glad this was helpful for you!

[@passionformusic111]

What is your input on the concept of “tone deafness?” I’m in my 4th year teaching, it’s my second year in this district. In my previous district, the majority of my experience was virtual/on a cart. Long story short, this is the first year I am trying to work on melody. My students do not have much prior experience with melody. K has been doing a lot of high/low exploration. I am working with 1st-3rd on melody. To my pleasant surprise, I have been sequencing and scaffolding as you have described. One thing that I am noticing, we are still in the exploration phase, is that some students (specifically older students) struggle with distinguishing a change in pitch. For example, I do the 2 line staff and have students place magnets on it to show high and low. Some students struggle and when I try to provide further support I realize they don’t even hear a change. For one student I played sol/sol and they said they didn’t hear a change, and then I played sol/mi and they also said they didn’t hear a change. I am assuming it’s chalked up to exposure and experience. But aside from having a disability, such as deafness or being hard of hearing, have you had experience with students who struggle to even indicate a change in pitch?

[@WhimsicallyMusical]

Hey! So I have most definitely had students that cannot match pitch, or notice changes in pitch. Some cannot differentiate between head voice or chest voice. Sometimes I've been successful in helping them get to where they can meet pitch, but sometimes a student just does not make it happen, and the way I look at it, some people just are not naturally born singers. But what I've done before is make sure those students sit the closest to my piano, or guitar, or wherever I sit when we are learning songs/matching pitch. I also sit them next to students that always have correct pitch so they are hearing what they should be doing. Above that, I have not done too much else, because I just don't have the time to spend individually with the student unfortunately to help more. I know this answer is not ideal- and if I figure out more ideas, I will surely send them your way.

[@davidschordmusicacademy2413]

This is an intelligent and practical question. I've come to terms with the fact that there isn't much that can be done about tone deafness sometimes. However, I keep doing my best to carry such people along but my expectations for them are usually very minimal.

[@fumanpoo4725]

😊