How to Teach Musical Pitch

Perhaps you've sung "Happy Birthday" or the national anthem with a crowd before and cringed to hear someone singing off-key. Fortunately, you can use some simple techniques to teach musical pitch to children and adults and put an end to your suffering.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Play middle C on the keyboard or piano for your students. Most people can sing this pitch. Play middle C again while your students sing "do." They may have to sing higher or lower to match the pitch. Show the location of middle C on a musical staff by placing the matching flashcard on the piano.
2. Play D above middle C and let everyone listen to the sound. Sing "re" to match this pitch. Teach the flashcard for D. Now have the students sing "do, re" and "re, do."
3. Continue using this keyboard and flashcard teaching method for E, F, G, A, B and C, singing "do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do." This completes the C major scale from "do" to "do." Sing both up the scale and down the scale.
4. Mix up the flashcards and ask the students to put them in order, naming the notes from C to C.
5. Ask the students to listen while you play several pitches. They should sing the pitches from memory without the piano or keyboard accompaniment. Start with no more than three and then work your way up to six notes at a time as they gain confidence and increase their musical memory.
6. Play a pitch and ask the students to find the flashcard note that matches the pitch.
7. Select several flashcards representing pitches that are close together, such as "la, ti, do" or "do, mi, so" and play only the note on the first card. Ask the students to sing the pitch and find the next pitch on their own without help from the piano or keyboard. They must hear the pitches in their head to find the sound of the next note.

Tips & Warnings

• Teach musical pitch at a slow pace for younger students. Spend no more than 15 minutes per lesson teaching ages 10 and under. Spend about 30 minutes per lesson for students over 10.