Lesson Plan for Music Teachers on Music Scales and Keys to Songs - River Beats Dance
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Lesson Plan for Music Teachers on Music Scales and Keys to Songs

Students wishing to learn the guitar or play the keyboard will need to get to grips with musical scales and understand the key to a song.

A firm understanding of the different types of musical scales will enable students learning the guitar, piano, or vocal training, to analyze how a song is constructed and even to write like essay writers, but their music. The most essential component of the melody is the key. The key dictates the pitch, flavor, and mood of the melody.

Types of Scales in Music

The teacher may firstly explain the fundamentals of scales and the following terminology:

Chromatic scale: This is all the notes that exist within the musical scale, including the flats and sharps. These are:

  1. A
  2. A sharp/B flat
  3. B
  4. C (there is no B sharp)
  5. C sharp/D flat
  6. D
  7. D sharp/ E flat
  8. E
  9. F (again, there is no E sharp)
  10. F sharp/G flat
  11. G
  12. G sharp/A flat

Students can see for themselves that there are twelve notes in all; seven naturals and five flats/sharps.

Simple Music Exercises

Each increment in pitch is known as a semitone. Two semitones equal a tone. Playing every key on a piano or plucking a string on every fret on a guitar will show students what the chromatic scale sounds like by raising the pitch by semitones. It can help teachers make music practice time more fun and efficient. A specific scale will not contain all the notes within the chromatic scale.

By playing the scale of C, beginning on C (the only scale without flats or sharps), C, D, E, F, G, A, and B, students can hear for themselves what a specific scale sounds like and note the difference between the chromatic scale and this specified scale. The teacher may provide further music activities by playing this scale and introducing a flat/sharp into the mix, and ask the students to identify the note that does not belong to the C scale. The teacher may repeat this activity by introducing a rouge note into other musical scales and asking students to identify the offending notes.

This music exercise will help students:

  • Develop listening skills within music
  • Develop an ear for pitch
  • Develop music appreciation
  • Understand how melodies are constructed

The idea for Music Lesson on Musical Scales

Any scale can be established by beginning on any note within the chromatic scale and counting up the scale in the following order:

2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1; or in other words, tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone.

Students may learn by following this pattern up the chromatic scale, beginning on any keynote, how to work out which notes belong to this key. Most keys will have a mixture of flats and sharps. The key of B for example contains a flattened F. In music notation, this is known as the key signature. This means that almost every scale to a given key contains its own set of flats and/or sharps.

Students may embark upon a music exercise where they may work out the notes contained within any scale. The scale of B, C, and F are good keys, to begin with.

Understanding Scales in Music

The lesson forms a firm foundation upon which music students may move onto more challenging music theories such as:

  • Minor and major triads within chords
  • Working out the major and minor scales
  • Understand how chords are constructed
  • Different types of scales that exist within music, such as the pentatonic scale and the blues scale
  • How to compose music
  • Transpose music from one key to another

The music teacher in the primary school may help students understand the different scales that exist in music by following a pattern over the chromatic scale. Music appreciation, diagnosis of music problems, and the ability to write music can be assisted by a firm understanding of different keys and how scales are constructed.

Activities for Music Lesson

A sound understanding of musical scales is vital to musical development. Learning the difference between the chromatic scale and a specified scale is a good start for students. The teacher may devise musical exercises where students may work out which notes belong to any key by following musical patterns and listening for any note that does not belong. Recognizing what a musical scale looks like in music notation by its key signature will enable students to play music on any scale and even write their songs.

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