Teaching Pitch Notation–Reading Skills

Abstract

The teaching of music-reading skills has been cited as a neglected area of music education needing improvement. Music reading is the process of translating notation into sounds. Producing the notated sounds by singing, more specifically referred to as sight-singing, is especially demanding because it requires the individual to first mentally construct aural images of the sounds, an essential process that is challenging to teach and assess. This article describes a series of activities for teaching music-reading skills in general music or choir, focusing mainly on reading and singing pitch notation, though many of the ideas could also be used to teach rhythm reading. The activities are sequential, are easy to implement, and allow for the assessment of skill acquisition at various stages of development.