Preparatory B (from 3 to 5). Lesson 33

Today in our Pedagogy class we are going to learn more about:

The Magical Number Seven

Please, remember the amount of maximum elements for your child's memory. Don't expand the number 7!

The best practice for this age is 5+/- 2

When we give your child to practice with more notes/cards, we are helping him to expand his memory with the help of music.

Today I am going to explain you about visual perception of the Grand Staff in accordance with this golden rule:

Let's take a closer look at the music score and apply this rule to lines and spaces:

          The ten thin lines of the grand staff are barely distinguishable to the unprepared eye. It is well known that a person can follow no more than seven homogeneous objects with his gaze. And seven, only if he’s really pushing it! But the spaces between the lines are also ‘lines’ in music notation. A child is expected to keep up with not ten, but as a minimum, twenty-two objects! He has to navigate an entire jungle of lines and spaces… and hardly has any reference points.

          To keep my beginners from getting lost in this maze, I have numbered each line in the treble and bass clefs with the digits 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The supplementary line for the middle Do got the number 0. Contrary to the traditional practice, the lines of the bass clef are numbered from top to bottom; this makes more sense.

          The music staff represents a thermometer, with the 0 in the middle. The music system is quite symmetrical, like a mirror, or a numerical scale. The second Do and the Do of the minor octave are located between lines 3 and 4. I tinted these spaces a light bluish-gray color, making both of these Dos additional places of reference.

Open your Gentle Piano program and press B on your computer keyboard. You will see that the space between 3rd and 4th lines will become blue. Press B again to remove it! Use this option to give your nd your toddler's eyes some break, when reading becomes a challenge.

This option works for all the visual modes from 1 to 6.

Thus, the grand staff has been visually separated into four sections. In each of them, there are only 5-6 lines and spaces; it is much easier to keep up with them now. With this image, the territory of the grand staff is simplified for familiarization! The intimidating ‘scary’ 10 lines and 12 spaces quickly become ordinary space.

          Only after all 22 note lines are familiarized can work begin on the supplementary lines. Until the skill of reading the ordinary lines is worked out, how can the student possibly read the additional ones?

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