Making Musical Notes

Winnona Park Elementary music teacher Cindy Clark noticed that many of her students were not connecting what they “do at piano lessons” with the music they were making at school. While rhythm and pitch can be taught without a visual reference, melody phrases cannot. Since there are no textbooks in music, she knew her third graders needed a way to see the notes they were hearing in order to develop their musical literacy. She decided that the durable, long-term solution was a musical notation white board. Ms. Clark now has weekly “mystery melody” challenges that the students have to figure out without the lyrics.