Estimated reading time 2 minutes
Table of Contents
Why Use Color Coded Note Head Extenders?
Have you ever had students who don’t hold their notes long enough? This remains a very common problem with all students, not just with ADD, LD, ASD, and special needs students. Read more to find out how color coded note head extenders can help your students to read rhythm better.
This article uses musical terms. For definitions, see the Glossary at the end of the post.
Spatial Notation and Note Head Extenders
How do we define note head extenders? Note head extenders get classed under a type of music notation called spatial notation.
All the measures in standard notation get a different amount of space on the page. The more notes a bar contains, the more space it tends to take up. This means that a measure with a whole note takes up less space than one with half notes. Likewise, a bar with half notes takes up less space than a bar with quarter notes, etc.
With spatial notation all of the measures have even spacing. Kurt Stone explains, “Spatial or proportional notation is a system in which durations are translated into horizontal distances of duration…” (137). Likewise, note head extenders graphically extend the note heads evenly.
Color coded note head extenders just take the note head extender concept and adds pigment. Since we are adding pigment to standard notation, the notation will not be evenly spaced. However, standard notation by itself lacks the graphic depiction of rhythm that the extended colored notes heads bring to the table.
Using them helps students to intuitively see how long the note should be held. Thus, making it easier for them to play the rhythm accurately.
How to Use Color Coded Note Head Extenders
Mobile users: for best results reading the music, tilt your screen 90o to the right.
Simply put, you create note head extenders by having the pigment extend to cover the spaces made by half and whole notes. If the student plays music at the eighth note level of rhythm, you would also use the shaded note head extenders on the quarter notes.
You can add color coded note head extenders to a preexisting score with crayons or colored pencils. If creating your own music for students to play, you can add the shading in programs such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Photo-Paint.
Conclusion
Color coded note head extenders are a powerful multisensory tool that helps students get the rhythm right, especially LD, autistic, and other special needs students.
Easy to implement and cost effective, add them to your bag of tricks.
© 2021 Geoffrey Keith
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Glossary
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Is There a Better Way to Learn Sight Singing?
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Do visual spatial thinkers and other neurodivergent musicians need to have sheet music tailored to how they learn?
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