Estimated reading time 4 minutes
Table of Contents
Introduction
Do your students get confused by space note D at the bottom of the treble staff? Or do they have a problem with space note B on the top of the bass staff? Read more to learn how to switch from color coded notes to special mnemonics, allowing students to graduate from the color coded music score.
- This article is part 3 of our 5-part series. Here are parts 1 and 2:
- How to Graduate from Color Coded Music Notes: showed how to use contour lines to read steps without colors.
- How to Graduate from the Color Coded Sheet Music: talked about transitioning from color coding to clef mnemonics.
- In this post (part III), we’ll discuss what I call edge notes. The edge notes consist of the outside space notes at the upper and lower edges of the staff – thus the name.
- Music teachers use clef mnemonics to teach the lines and spaces on the staff. However, students get no special mnemonics for the ledger lines or the edge notes. We will correct that oversight today for the edge notes.
- In addition, part 4 will discuss the ledger lines. Finally, part 5 will talk about using flash cards to teach ADD, LD, ASD, and special needs students.
This article uses musical terms. For definitions, see the Glossary at the end of the post.
How to Graduate from the Color Coded Music Score: Color Coding Review
Before I demonstrate how to graduate from the color coded music score, we need to revisit color coding as a multisensory teaching method. Start with these posts:
- Playing the Piano with Color Coded Notes
- Playing Piano with Color Coded LH Notes
- How to Color Code Music Notes for LD & Special Needs Distance Learning
- How to Color Code Rhythm to Empower LD & Special Needs Students
- Color Coded Quarter Note Clapping
- Color Coded Eighth Note Clapping
This next post discusses the science of color coded music:
How Long Does It Take to Graduate from the Color Coded Music Score?
It takes time to graduate from the color coded music score – how long depends on the instrument. Click here to learn more.
Graduating the from Color Coded Music Score: from Color to Mnemonic Phrases
Edge Notes
- Let’s describe edge notes in more detail. Edge notes occupy the spaces between the outside staff lines and the first ledger line above or below the staff. The ledger lines appear only when needed. If the ledger line is absent, the edge note will look like it clings to the bottom of the staff or sits on top of it.
- For example, the treble clef D (between middle C and the E on the bottom line of the staff) is an edge note. With middle C absent, the D hangs off the staff like a drop of liquid.
- This makes it look different from either the inner staff notes or the ledger line notes. That is why I gave edge notes their own category with their own mnemonics.
- In fact, the mnemonic phrases you’ll use have been derived from the appearance of the color coded edge notes. By this time, students graduating from the color coded music score will have worked with colored notes for years. The appearance of the colored notes has therefore been stored in the student’s long-term memory. Also, they will have learned the names of the notes associated with the colors.
- The mnemonic phrases use this sensory data, stored in episodic memory, to enable students to remember the names of the edge notes. Thus, the student can use the mnemonic to recognize the note even after the color has been removed.
The Mnemonic Phrases
- The example below shows the colored edge notes along with the mnemonic phrase you’ll use once the color has been removed.
- You can see that the G on top of the treble staff has been color coded green. Since the staff looks a little like a fence, we use the mnemonic, “An emerald sitting on a wall.” Likewise, the highest B on the bass staff has the color blue, so we use the mnemonic, “A blueberry sitting on a wall.”
- As I mentioned above, the D hangs below the treble staff. In addition, the student already knows that D has gray for the color coding. So, we’ll use the mnemonic phrase, “A little drop of water.” Finally, the F that hangs below the bass staff has been colored pink, so we use the phrase, “A little pink bead.”
- When students can recognize the edge notes without the colors, they’ll have successfully completed step three for graduating from the color coded music score.
Mobile users: for best results reading the music, tilt your screen 90o to the right.
Concluding Thoughts on Graduating from the Color Coded Music Score
- I said above, “…they’ll have successfully completed step three for graduating from the color coded music score…” However, you can work with contour lines, clef mnemonics, edge note mnemonic phrases, and ledger line mnemonics at the same time.
- The order for “graduating” often depends on the student and the content of the sheet music.
- Keep in mind, if a student struggles with an aspect of the graduation process, you can always reapply the colors. However, don’t give up on the process of graduating. It sometimes takes a while to complete.
- In the end, most students will graduate from the colors, even most autistic, LD, and special needs students.
© 2022 Geoffrey Keith
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Glossary
How to Teach Music to Neurodivergent Students
Are you a teacher with neurodiverse students? Do you need suggestions for how to best teach them? Neurodivergent and neurodiverse are non-medical terms that refer to people with non-traditional ways of thinking and learning (e.g., ADHD, ASD, dyslexia, etc.). It attempts to give dignity to individuals by looking at the whole person and avoids looking at them as a problem that needs to be fixed. Having said that, neurodiverse students will often need special teaching methods to have success in music. Keep reading “How to Teach Music to Neurodivergent Students” to learn more. Estimated reading time 4 minutes.
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Joy to the World – A Heavenly Song of Celebration
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What Precisely Is the Purpose of Solfege?
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Singing Rhythm Syllables in 3-4 Time
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