Developing an ear for music is an essential component of music mastery. It enables musicians to create music spontaneously, create melodic and harmonic lines that fit into the music, adjust intonation, transcribe a favorite tune, or even write down their own music composition. With the rise of YouTube, I see trends in music classes where students no longer feel like it’s necessary to read music at all. They would rather watch a video tutorial. And even lower than that on their priority list is ear training. For music teachers to successfully draw a connection from ear training to music making in the real world it takes a little finesse in lesson planning. This can be a daunting task for most of us. Showing modern students the relevance of solfège is an undertaking of its own. Here are some fun activities that may help you incorporate ear training in your elementary music classes.
Fun Ear Training Activities
- Use solfège to introduce new songs– Solfège can be a great learning tool for new music. Sing the chorus or a difficult passage in solfège using call and response teaching techniques to break it down for them. You can use Curwin hand signs to show the melody is moving up and down visually.
- Use bells to make a game of it– Remember those bells that are probably collecting dust in your cabinet? The ones with the letter names on them? Take a few out to represent the solfège pitches you are working on and let students take turns trying to ring the right bell for a simple melody.
- Warm up voices using solfège– Use solfège at the beginning of class to warm up voices and also practice using the syllables. Older grades can start singing 2-part harmonies. Sing a scale and take out certain notes to make it more fun.
- Sightread simple melodies– Put a simple melody on the board and have the class sightread it. You can write down the solfège under the notes for younger classes and then take away the solfège for the older classes.
- Solfège hopscotch– I love playing music games with my classes. Try a solfège hop scotch. Mark out a space for each pitch and let students jump and step correctly from pitch to pitch. You can use long strings or tape on the floor to get the whole class involved at once or take turns. This could also be a fun music center activity for smaller groups.
- Use visual aids– I love using Curwin hand signs to demonstrate a visual of the melody. Students will even begin using the signs themselves, internalizing this image of melodic movement in their own body. Another helpful thing to do is to post the solfège somewhere in the classroom where you can easily point to each pitch and students can refer back to the pitches as they sing.
- Use simile- Give students similes to help visualize the pitches like rainbow colors, hopping like a frog, or leaping like a deer over the other pitches. This allows students to understand the difference about how going from the different intervals will feel to them.
- Give opportunities for transcription– Don’t have a budget for printing or paper? Or just trying to create a better environment? Give students dry erase boards and markers and then sing or play a simple melody. Let older students try to write down the pitches they hear using solfège.
- Play improvisation games using solfège– Sit in a circle with your students and start by singing one solfège pitch “do.” Try going around the circle by adding a pitch to the melody with each person. When someone forgets the melody, start over until you can go around the whole circle.
There are many fun ways to incorporate ear training in your elementary music classes. Have fun and get creative. Let me know what works for you in the comments below.