Steps for Learning - Activity Two: Doe a Deer

The purpose of this activity is to establish how the movement of the notes up and down the staff correlates with sound and to establish a tonal center or the tonic of a key.

1. Use a black board or white board with the treble clef and staff written on it. An example of this can be found at http://www.blanksheetmusic.net/.

2. Play the song from "The Sound of Music" Doe a Deer and teach it to the students. You can find this song at Do Re Mi.

3. After learning the song by ear, use the staff on the board.  Draw a middle C note and establish that as rhe "DO" of the song.  Then put a D on the staff call it "RE" and sing the next stanza of the song.  Do this with each of the syllables and place the note on the staff as you go.  When the entire scale is written in notes on the staff, sing the scale together, and point to each note as you go.  

If the students seem confident, test their tonal memory by pointing to the pitches of a C major scale and have them sing them randomly.  Begin with simple patterns and go step-by-step. For example, you may ask them to sing from Do -Re - Do, or Do -Re - Mi- Do.  Begin and end on "Do" to reinforce the "home note" or tonic of the key.