Estimated reading time 5 minutes
Table of Contents
Introduction
Do you get confused by musical diagrams? Do you want to learn how to turbocharge the learning process? Look no further, I can help. Read more to learn about color coding musical diagrams.
In music lesson books, for all types of instruments, you’ll find images used to help students understand musical concepts. What exactly they look like will vary from instrument to instrument. However, these methods use numbers to label and explain a wide variety of concepts.
LD and ADD students can be prone to reversals and especially have problems, as a groups, decoding numerals. Special preparation for the diagrams is essential.
Even with ASD and other special needs students, color coding remains one of the most effective multisensory teaching strategies. In addition to color coding the musical diagrams, you need to make sure you label, or otherwise explain, what each set of numbers means.
Likewise, you need to make each part of the diagram clear. Don’t reply on implicit learning, where you hint at information expecting students to pick it up on their own.
Instead, practice explicit teaching, where you explain every concept plainly. Don’t assume that students will figure it out on their own – explain everything.
These strategies can be applied to a wide variety of charts across a vast array of instruments. However, this post will draw its examples from two of the most popular instruments today: piano and guitar.
This article uses musical terms. For definitions, see the Glossary at the end of the post.
How to Color Code Musical Diagrams: Color Coding Review
Before I show you how to color code musical diagrams, we need to review how to color code music. I recommend you start here:
- Playing the Piano with Color Coded Notes
- Playing Piano with Color Coded LH Notes
- How to Color Code Guitar Tab for LD Achievement
- How to Color Code Music Notes for LD & Special Needs Distance Learning
- How to Color Code Rhythm to Empower LD & Special Needs Students
- Color Coding Instruments for LD and Special Needs Student Success
- How to Color Code Music to Get LD Students to Perform Accurate Alternate Picking
For a discussion of the science behind color coded sheet music:
How to Color Code Musical Diagrams: Piano
Mobile users: for best results reading the music examples, tilt your screen 90o to the right.
This first image gives a good example of how to color code musical diagrams for piano. This type of music chart can be found in many piano method books. Notice that I added color to the piano keys, the staff, the clef, and the hand icons.
Here’s how you do it:
- Take colored pencils and color each key.
- Next, draw lines with the colored pencils to the matching notes on the staff.
- Then, color the notes on the staff.
Doing this helps to illustrate how the keys relate to the staff notes. The diagram already did a decent job of conveying the musical concepts, but the added color turbocharges the learning process.
Also, I like to color code the hand position title. I have colored this hand position title (High G Position) green. Since green represents the note G, this helps to reinforce the “G-ness” of the hand position. You’ll finish coloring the score by using your colored pencils on the clefs and hand icons.
We talked about how to add color to the clefs in:
Likewise, we discussed coloring the hand icons in:
In addition, I labeled the brace and also the note middle C. Then, I labeled the hand icons with the RH (right hand) and LH (left hand) symbols and added finger numbers to each hand icon. I added the finger numbers to the staff notes as well. This helps reinforce the fingering concepts.
Always remember that the features in each diagram needs to be explained clearly and simply to the student during the lessons.
How to Color Code Musical Diagrams: Guitar
The above examples show how to color code musical diagrams for guitar. Here we have the easy C and easy E minor chords, like what would show up in a method book for young beginners.
Guitar books use chord frames all the time. Chord frames can be thought of as a subset of tablature, i.e., notation that explains the instrument graphically.
Typically, chord frames use three sets of numbers for:
- fingers
- frets
- strings
Even typical learners sometimes get confused about which numbers means what. For LD students, the issues just become compounded.
Notice that I have labeled what each set of numbers does. I continue to do this until the students have shown they have mastered the concepts. For some students, this can take years.
Students with LD and ADD have issues with reversing images. With this in mind, I’ve labeled which string is the thinnest, and which string is the fattest. Many students will understand this better than labeling them as string #1 and string #6.
Like with the piano diagram, I have color coded the notes. For the fretted note, I colored over the dot. With the open strings, I traced along the length of each string with a colored pencil. The strings that the students don’t play, the ones that have an X over them, you’ll leave blank.
In addition, I have color coded the name of each chord. This becomes especially helpful when students comp chords, like in middle school jazz band.
Coloring the chord symbols in the score links the chords in the sheet music with the color coded chord frames. Color really speeds up the student’s reaction time while comping. The example below shows a rock comping pattern.
Concluding Thoughts on How to Color Code Musical Diagrams
Use the color coded music diagrams for as long as the student needs. When a student has mastered the concepts taught by the image, you can move on from the color coding.
In time, most students will no longer need the colored diagrams, even most special needs students.
© 2022 Geoffrey Keith
Join me for in-person or online lessons today!
Glossary
Once Sheet Music is All Digital, Why Not Always Colour-Code Notes?
“Once sheet music is all digital, why not always colour-code notes?” Since most sheet music can now come in digital format, will there be any good reason not to color code the notes all the time? I’ve long advocated using color coding for helping special needs students to learn music from sheet music. However, the opening suggestion (by a person on social media) goes one step further. It proposes making a permanent change to how people read sheet music. Click to find out the arguments for and against adopting universal color coded music notation. Estimated reading time 2 minutes.
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Singing Shape Note Solfege Flats
Have you gotten basic sight singing down, but want to expand beyond seven notes? Look no further. In this post you will sing both sharp and flat solfege notes with an emphasis on the flats. Read more to understand singing shape note solfege flats. Estimated reading time 3 minutes.
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Color Coded Eighth Note Clapping
Does reading eighth note rhythm notation give you fits? (Or do your students struggle with eighth notes?) Many musicians have trouble reading rhythm, especially ADD, ASD, LD, and special needs students. Read more to learn color coded eighth note clapping. Estimated reading time 3 minutes.
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What Is a Good Instrument for a Dyslexic Child to Learn?
Has your child been asking about music lessons? Have you worried about how it will go? Learning how to play an instrument will help build your child’s self-confidence and self-concept. But what types of instruments will work best with your child’s learning style? In today’s post, we’ll discuss what you should consider when selecting an instrument. Click to answer the question, “What is a good instrument for a dyslexic child to learn?” Estimated reading time 2 minutes.
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