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

students never needed to read the alto clef) on each students are frequently taught that they should restate
line and assign each team a section of the board. Stu- the question to provide an answer in a complete sen-
dents made a single-file line in their teams and lined up tence, so this syntactic form is likely familiar to them.
parallel to each other with the teacher at the front of Eventually, students will be able to have these conversa-
the lines. Using a list of words that can be spelled with tions in pairs where they can ask questions and answers
the musical alphabet (e.g., cabbage), the first student in before finding a new partner. Combining this activity
each group is given the same word to spell. Students with the notational experiences from “Musical Spelling
run to the whiteboard to notate the word on the staff. Bee” can help students toward notating these conversa-
When they finish, they run back to the next student in tions of the staff to create melodic compositions.
their team to give them their marker, like a relay baton.
The next student in the line gets the second word on
the list, and so on, until the game is finished. The first Playing in the Harmonic Domain
team to correctly transcribe all the words, WINS! Af-
ter this exercise, the students sing the various words on
solfège to practice connecting notation to sound, even Aural Literacy: Chord Drills
though these words are rarely idiomatic to sing. One Harmonic activities are inherently collaborative and
possible adaptation of this activity is singing tonal pat- cooperative because they require multiple pitches si-
terns instead of using words and have the students run multaneously. Teachers can use chord drills to develop
to the board and transcribe the patterns. This process an aural literacy of harmony. Similar to melodic drills,
of transcribing tonal patterns is better to demonstrate building an aural literacy of harmony benefits from a
melodic dictation and can allow tonal practice if the “sound before sight” approach. Jacob Collier is an ex-
teacher has the class sing the patterns. Once students cellent model for teachers to lead students through har-
understand some melodic formal structures, they can monic progressions. He surprised the audience during
assemble these tonal patterns into a melody. a concert at the 2023 American Choir Directors As-
sociation Conference when he entered the stage and
Synthesized Literacy: Melodic Conversations assigned sections of the audience various pitches in a
(individuals/small groups) chord. He would point at different sections and cue
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Once students have familiarity with notating pitches them to move up or down by semitone, giving the au-
on the staff and connecting them to sound in their in- dience the opportunity to experience harmony in real
ner ear, they can more intentionally begin composing time.
music. Introducing this process as a game builds com- These activities can be effective for tuning chords,
position from “sound before sight.” My undergraduate unifying vowels, and engaging creativity, especially
music education professor used to have my class have when students take the lead. Once students gain fa-
“rhythmic conversations” with each other to practice miliarity with chords, teachers might teach them func-
improvising rhythmic patterns. I adapted this activity tional harmonies by rote. For example, teaching them
to melodic patterns. For example, the teacher starts this that a I-chord in major is sung as “Do Mi Sol” and
activity singing a four-measure musical question that ends a IV-chord is “Fa La Do.” This can prep students for
on the fifth scale degree to the whole class. The stu- connecting aural literacy to visual literacy because they
dents all respond at the same time with a musical answer can understand how various solfège constitutes differ-
that ends on the tonic. This way students can exper- ent chords.
iment with improvising without feeling any pressure
from their peers or the teacher. Visual Literacy: Among Us
Teachers might suggest that a musical answer starts The game “Among Us” became popular with my
the same as the question but changes at the end to go students during 2020. In the game, players assume the
to the tonic. Students can sing these conversations on role of either a crew member or an imposter, leading
solfège or any other tonal system. In language classes, the players through a social deduction scenario where

12 CHORAL JOURNAL October 2025 Volume 66 Number 3