Pitch Relations and Melodic Motion

• By age 4 children develop the ability to discriminate differences and similarities in pitch
• they might group pitches that are relatively similar together
• point to, group together, or use an instrument to help categorize pitches
• Use upward/downward and moving higher/moving lower to better explain the difference between pitches
• using high/low and up/down can be confusing since these terms do not audibly relate to pitch
• use vertical instruments, like a xylophone or keyboard, to help relate the visual terms to pitch

• Strategies to help young students with pitch and melodic motion
• have students walk upstairs when singing an ascending scale and downstairs when singing a descending scale
• have students stretch and raise their arms high in reaction to wide intervals and pitches
• physically step if the melody is stepwise motion and leap if the melody has large intervallic jumps
• have students listen to recordings, read/play/sing the melody, and then have them identify it