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From Groans to Grins: A Play-Based Approach to Teaching Music Literacy

per “hamburger style” then “hotdog style” and then Visual Literacy: “Name That Tune!” and “Who’s That
“hamburger style” again for eight squares. Add a final _____?”
“hotdog style” fold for sixteen squares. Once students Many teachers begin with a bell ringer or a simple
have their sixteen-square grid, limit students to choose task for students to do when they enter the classroom.
specific rhythmic elements that equal one beat. For ex- These can be used to refine musical skills or encourage
ample, students can only choose a quarter note, quar- social music making. When less advanced students dis-
ter rest, or paired eighth notes. It is important to be play difficulty visually tracking melodies in sheet music,
mindful to diversify the meters. This activity can also use “Name That Tune!” as a bell ringer to gauge their
be used for triple meters using combinations that equal processes for decoding musical notation. For this activ-
one beat in a compound meter (e.g., quarter-eighth, ity, the teacher displays the notation of a recognizable
dotted-quarter, eighth-quarter, eighth-eighth-eighth). tune, for example, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
The students then write one rhythmic element in each Students must figure out the tune by looking at the
box. To extend this activity, have students perform their notation without help from the teacher or any instru-
compositions for each other in class, then trade papers ments. Teachers can walk around the room to see what
and perform their friends’ rhythms. This is a great way approach students take to solve the riddle. Oftentimes,
to involve social interaction and movement while al- students intuit the contour of the melody until they
lowing students the chance to practice composing and recognize the song. Once I realized how my students
performing rhythms in a low-stakes environment. perceived the function of music notation, I could build
upon that knowledge.
If teachers want to isolate specific notational ele-
Playing in the Melodic Domain ments, they might use the game “Who’s that _____?”

Many of my students liked Anime and the show
Aural Literacy: Intervals and Audiation Pokémon. Before the commercial breaks in Pokémon, the
Teachers commonly use interval drills when building show displayed a silhouette of a Pokémon and had
literacy skills. When I started teaching, my approach to viewers guess “Who’s that Pokémon?” For this activi-
teaching intervals was by rote. Valerio et al. assert that ty, teachers can use this Pokémon background image
young musicians develop aural literacy by first accul- (or any popular background image) and replace the sil-
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turating themselves to a variety of sounds. For exam- houette with a musical element for students to identify.
ple, atonal music might be jarring to a newcomer until For example, a symbol from the International Phonetic
they spend more time listening to and gaining famil- Alphabet or a series of notated perfect fourths; ask stu-
iarity with the genre. Luckily, many elementary music dents “Who’s That Vowel?” or “Who’s That Interval?”
teachers skillfully acculturate their students to many Though students might think the activity is silly, they
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sounds. The Interval Song can be taught by rote to prac- will appreciate the effort to relate to their interests.
tice diatonic intervals. Then, teachers might practice
audiating different tonal patterns with their students. Synthesized Literacy: Musical Spelling Bee (full class)
Gordon coined the term audiation to describe a person’s If composing rhythms is an example of synthesized
ability to comprehend musical elements in their heads literacy, then composing tonal patterns develops this
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without verbalizing or physicalizing those elements. literacy as well. But familiarity with notating pitches
To practice this skill, teachers could show spatially ori- on a staff is a good skill to practice before composing
ented Curwen hand signs to their students and have melodies on sheet music. Teachers can use a collabora-
them repeat the patterns back. Consider limiting the tive game for students to practice notating music on the
pitches to support specific tonal goals. For instance, if a grand staff. The game “Musical Spelling Bee” requires
choir is singing a pentatonic folk song arrangement, the teachers to divide students into small groups. I usually
teacher might do some audiation exercises using only grouped students in fours. My classroom had a long
pentatonic tonal patterns. Eventually, students can lead whiteboard with staves running along their lengths. I
these drills and practice with each other. put different clefs (treble, bass, perhaps alto, but my

CHORAL JOURNAL October 2025 Volume 66 Number 3 11