Teaching about repeated notes, steps, skips, and leaps is fundamental to students learning to read music notation. The better they can recognize repeated notes, steps, skips, and leaps, the easier it will be to sightread music later and to understand the basics of melodic composition. Here are some of my favorite ways to teach about repeated notes, steps, skips, and leaps.
How to Teach About Repeated notes, Steps, Skips, and Leaps
1. Visual Aids:
Using visual aids is a great way to teach about the intervals. I like to play a game using five strands of yarn that represent the five lines of the music staff. I make the strings long enough for the entire class to line up in front of the huge staff. This could be done outside, unless you have a large music room. Then I proceed to shout out “step,” “skip,” or “leap” in any order along with the direction forward or backward. If the students step correctly, they get to stay in the game. If they don’t, they have to sit out.
Other easy ways for students to visualize the intervals are to do worksheets where students identify repeated notes, steps, skips, and leaps. To go into greater detail about intervals, you can use “Learn Music Through Coloring: Mammals: Music Theory” book, which teaches about intervals and other music theory concepts. There are also videos on YouTube that can help students practice identifying these intervals.
2. Ear Training:
Incorporating ear training into your music lesson makes it easier to learn songs, develop their musical ear, and teach certain topics in music like repeated notes, steps, skips, and leaps. Using Curwin hand signs adds a visual element for students. Sing an interval and then let students guess if you sang a repeated note, step, skip, or leap.
Play a game like Poison Rhythm, but using intervals. (Poison Rhythm is when you choose a rhythm that the class cannot repeat. Then you proceed to clap different rhythms. Just like the Simon Says game, if you clap the poison rhythm and the students clap it too, they are out of the game. The last one standing is the winner.) Pick step, skip, leap, or repeated note and let that be the poison interval. Play the game using solfege (do-re-mi…)
4. Contextual Listening:
Listen to music as a class and then analyze a portion of the melody. You can ask general questions like “How would you describe the melody? Were there a lot of leaps or steps?” You can also print out a portion of the sheet music and let students circle the skips or draw a line between the steps.
5. Compositional Exercises:
Give students an opportunity to write their own composition using repeated notes, steps, skips, and leaps. Set clear guidelines for students to compose to. Specify the number of steps for instance.
Conclusion
Learning about repeated notes, steps, skips, and leaps helps students more easily read music notation, understand the basics of melodic composition, and even be a jumping-off point for improvisation at more advanced levels. Teaching repeated notes, steps, skips, and leaps can be really fun. Get creative with the many possibilities drawing from all the resources in your classroom. You can use these ideas as a starting point and let me know in the comments what other activities your students love.