I need a music teachers opinion on my husbands teaching method. Is he right?

Question

My husband and I disagree on teaching our kids to read music. He wants to make a treble staff and teach them that the lines and spaces are a, b, c, etc... I told him I thought that was wrong that he should teach them that a note on the line or space was a, b, c, etc.. Are we both right? I just don't want to teach a kid something wrong that will confuse them in their music lessons in the future. He is all mad at me for saying he was wrong in teaching them this so I want to know if I am wrong so I can go apologize. Yes that's right I'll say I'm sorry for being wrong! lol

Answer 1

Both of my children who are taught with privately and at school were taught using methods similar to your husbands they are 9 and 10 yrs.

Answer 2

A beginner cannot understand that much anyway.
There is plenty that you can do with only two pitches,
and there are lots of songs using only two pitches.
For an English-speaking child, the easiest two pitches are so and mi.
Those two pitches are used in many fixed utterances, such as "yoo hoo," "peekaboo," "hello," "good-by," and "foul ball."

Get some books by Lois Choksy.
In each of her books, there is an appendix which lists suggested folk songs in musical notation, and in order of difficulty.

Answer 3

Hi Anna

I think that both your husband's and your method of teaching note names is acceptable. I am a school Music teacher (K-12) and utilise a variety of methods to teach music literacy to my students. While teaching in the manner your husband suggests, namely indicating the name of each line and space, is fine, it might be easier for your children if you drew a note on each line or in each space (as you suggest). This way your children are actually learning that THE NOTE is A, B, C etc, rather than THE LINE is B, D, etc or THE SPACE is C, E, etc. I would probably use semibreves (whole notes) as the note, as having to simultaneously explain note names and the reason that stems go down for some notes and up for others might be a bit overwhelming!

I'm glad you are teaching your children to be musically literate!

Answer 4

Chill, do whatever you want, just make sure that they understand is thoroughly.