Elementary Music Education Pitch Warm-ups Kodaly Lesson Plan Music You Can Read Music Notes, Inc. Elementary Music Curriculum

Instructional Methods:

Objectives: Visual and Auditory recognition of pitch location using a movable tonic, focusing skills, master steady beat, hearing pitches in the minds ear, distinguishing pitch patterns, developing a team atmosphere, mastering pitch intervals, developing pitch ensembles, introduction and playing of pitched instruments, playing instrumental canons/rounds, transferring vocal reading to pitched instruments, developing the concepts of major tonalities, mastering the “home” pitch.

Materials: Overhead projector or computer projector, transparency of Pitch Warm-up, pointer, any melodically toned instrument.

Before you begin using the Pitch Warm-Ups, students should have an understanding of how notes move on the staff (steps and skips). This can be introduced using the Pitch Warm-ups and reinforced with a Relay Race - see “Relay Races.” Students should have been introduced to the singing voice (the expected sound) - see “Finding the Singing Voice” in the TEACHING INDEX at musicnotes.net

Suggested lesson progression:

Start with the Pitch Warm-up written in the same key as the song to be read.
Each step is repeated for mastery!

Read title of Pitch Warm-Up. - BEGIN WITH - “FINDING Do-Mi-So”
Explain by reading staves one through four the students should succeed in reading line #5 without the answers.
Warm up the student’s voices by having them imitate a siren going very high and low.
Students listen as the teacher hums an ascending glissando/scale stopping on a comfortable pitch for the beginning Do/One. Repeat!
Have students to repeat step #3 and stop on the same pitch. (this is the beginning Do)
Repeat step #5 and stop on the same pitch singing the syllable Do/One.
While pointing to the beginning of the first staff, repeat step #6 then sing the first line.
"What is different about line #2?” (we sing all the pitches as we go up the staff, but we hum some pitches as we go down the staff, “which pitches do we hum?”)
Demonstrate singing/humming the pitches on line #2.
While pointing, have students sing/hum the pitches on line #2. (teacher hums pitches with students, then students must be successful on their own)
"What is different about line #3?” (we hum some pitches go up the staff, but we think the pitches as we go down the staff) "Which pitches do we hum and which pitches do we think?”)
Explain how you can hear a pitch in the mind’s ear, by having the students close their eyes and hear their favorite song in their head, or their mind’s ear.
Demonstrate singing/humming/thinking the pitches on line #3.
While pointing, have students sing/hum/think and pitches on line #3. (teacher hums the omitted pitches with students, then students must be successful on their own)
"What is different about line #4?” (we think pitches going up the staff and think pitches going down the staff, “which pitches are we thinking?”)
Demonstrate singing/thinking the pitches on line #4.
While pointing, have students sing/think the pitches on line #4. (teacher hums the omitted pitches with students, then students must be successful on their own)
Ask the students: (depending if Do/One is a space or line)

“What pitches did we sing on staff #4?”
“Is Do/One a space or a line?”
“Where is Mi/Three, a space or a line?”
“Which space/line?” (the next space/line up from Do/One)
“Where is So/Five, as space or a line?”
“Which space/line?” (the next space/line up from Mi/Three)
“If Do/One in a space or line, where will Mi/Three be located, a space or a line? Which space or line?”
“If Mi/Three is a space or line, where will So/Five be located, a space or a line? Which space or line?”
“What is the pattern for finding Mi/Three and So/Five if Do/One is a space or line?” (SPACE-SPACE-SPACE) or (Line - Line - Line)
While pointing, ask students to call out the pitches for line #5.
Challenge the students to sing line #5.

ENRICHMENT - Have students play Pitch Warm-ups on instruments; Orff, tone bells, keyboards, piano, recorder, glockenspiels, etc., as a class or individually during center time.

As students become accustomed to the flow of the Pitch Warm-Ups, steps should be omitted to match the student’s abilities and eventually the Pitch Warm-Ups will be replaced by the Pitch Numbers or Pitch Syllables formats for the song being read during the class lesson.