Session 2
(No PowerPoint file)
Umm, I pressed "No" on the "Save" button so I've deleted my whole work except I didn't do much of it, umm, I found out what sol feige means, and, sort of, and, yeah.
(There is no voice-over script as this child accidently deleted her work)
Solfege seems self-evident since "Do Re Mi" in The Sound of Music but it may prove to be one of those cases where the extent and sophistication of the system qualities of the concept are yet to be realised.
There are many complementary concepts that inform this topic such as:
- Intervals
- The major scale
- Accidentals
- Key signatures
- Diatonic harmony
- Modes
| Uses correct terminology | With assistance | Simplified terminology | Some correct terminology | Actual terminology |
Identifies relevant variables |
Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Identifies relationships between variables | Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Self-assessment. Does the student think that they understand their topic? | No | Not really | Basic understanding | Yes |
Today I learnt that, umm, solfege has to do with, umm, a major scale and whatever note you use it on, if you use the correct notes, that it'll sound the same as, umm, any C major scale.
Do re mi far so la tea do is included in sol feige. Pretty much all I know is that it is a major scale that sounds the same on any note of the piano as long as you use the right notes.
You always have to use a black key unless you are doing c major plus they all sound the same.
Maria wanted to change her topic during this session. I explained that this was an option but that her topic was a very interesting one. (This girl is a good singer, pianist and songwriter).
I showed her my Key signature animation to draw her attention to the major scale and the intervals therein.
Maria spent some of the session on the piano playing the major scale in different keys.
| Uses correct terminology | With assistance | Simplified terminology | Some correct terminology | Actual terminology |
Identifies relevant variables |
Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Identifies relationships between variables | Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Self-assessment. Does the student think that they understand their topic? | No | Not really | Basic understanding | Yes |
Do re mi far so la tea do is included in sol feige.
Pretty much all I know is that it is a major scale that sounds the same on any note of the piano as long as you use the right notes.You always have to use a black key unless you are doing c major plus they all sound the same.
An interval is the distant between one note and another, in other words, the distance between 2 notes.
Next week I will suggest an idea I've just had to arrange all 12 notes in a table in all 12 keys. The notes will be covered or obscured except for a horizontal slide rule with squares cut out according to the intervals of the major scale. Moving the slide will reveal the notes contained in each key.
It seems appropriate for me to make such suggestions but I will refrain from generating any imagery. I am interested in how each student constructs their representations at every stage of the process.
| Uses correct terminology | With assistance | Simplified terminology | Some correct terminology | Actual terminology |
Identifies relevant variables |
Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Identifies relationships between variables | Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Self-assessment. Does the student think that they understand their topic? | No | Not really | Basic understanding | Yes |
I've made a grid which shows all the notes on a scale including the sharps. And that will form an animation which you can see like little windows and I was talking about intervals but mostly focusing on the grid.
Although the voice-over script hasn't changed this week, Maria has embraced my suggestion of a grid with windows revealing the notes of the major scale.
Because the windows are fixed, Maria is starting to see that the intervals in the major scale are also fixed which gives this scale it's distinctive sound.
| Uses correct terminology | With assistance | Simplified terminology | Some correct terminology | Actual terminology |
Identifies relevant variables |
Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Identifies relationships between variables | Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Self-assessment. Does the student think that they understand their topic? | No | Not really | Basic understanding | Yes |
Today, me and Brendan came up with an idea that on an aeroplane you see windows and there's like shutters on the windows.
And people can imagine it as if on an aeroplane some shutters are shut and like two in a row are open and then some are shut again. And that's like the distance between two notes which is intervals. And it's just a way of putting that really.
The voice-over script still has to be changed to 3rd person so we'll look at this during her next session. The content of the voice-over script hasn't changed for a few weeks now.
The aeroplane window idea is very promising as the plane can literally fly "higher" or "lower" in terms of pitch as the rows in the corresponding table could be arranged from high to low (from top to bottom).
What's also interesting is that Maria isn't sure about the order of the 12 musical notes. I had explained that the grid would have to be 12 x 12 assuming that she would know how to fill it in. The following image is the current state of her graph. Notice that both of her rows miss out certain notes.
This provides clear feedback to me as to what she needs to work on next (i.e., the names and order of all 12 notes).
| Uses correct terminology | With assistance | Simplified terminology | Some correct terminology | Actual terminology |
Identifies relevant variables |
Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Identifies relationships between variables | Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Self-assessment. Does the student think that they understand their topic? | No | Not really | Basic understanding | Yes |
Today I finally figured out how the grid would work. That all the notes on a major scale and how they fit in together. And, like, all the names of them and, umm, how it works really.
And I've started doing the aeroplane thing with all the windows.
Maria has entered into a phase of rapid conceptual growth as the variables within her animation have become like puzzle pieces for her to assemble in order.
Maria's voice-over script hasn't changed since last week. I will ask her to update this during the next session to see if there are any additional insights to be gained from what she can articulate at this stage of her animation. The following screen shot is of her aeroplane:
I wonder if it might be better for the plane to be orientated so that it is ascending diagonally. This would require the grid to be reconfigured but the advantage is that the notes could be represented according to their ascending pitches.
| Uses correct terminology | With assistance | Simplified terminology | Some correct terminology | Actual terminology |
Identifies relevant variables |
Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Identifies relationships between variables | Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Self-assessment. Does the student think that they understand their topic? | No | Not really | Basic understanding | Yes |
Today I decided that umm, I think, it would be good if we, umm, decided to umm, shape the grid going diagonally so that it would look like, umm, the notes going up in the, umm, the scale, the major and minor scale. So I was working on that and, umm, yeah.
Maria's student reflection provided me with evidence about another misconception that she has about major and minor keys. She thinks that the black notes on a keyboard belong to minor keys. In the next session I'll explain that black and white notes have no relevance to major and minor keys. The intervals are the only variable which matters.
Maria's grid now consists of the notes in the correct order. The following image is the bottom row of her grid. The rest of the grid will be completed shortly.
Although Maria is going to have the grid angled diagonally, it is easier to construct it in the usual way and then manipulate the grid when it is grouped together as an image.
| Uses correct terminology | With assistance | Simplified terminology | Some correct terminology | Actual terminology |
Identifies relevant variables |
Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Identifies relationships between variables | Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Self-assessment. Does the student think that they understand their topic? | No | Not really | Basic understanding | Yes |
Today I was working on my grid. Basically I finished it. Also, umm, I’m just taking out, from my voice-over and everything, all the bits about, umm, black keys and piano and stuff so that this animation can apply to all music.
As Maria said in her student reflection, the grid is almost finished:
Maria's voice-over script hasn't changed this week although her reflection alluded to the changes she will make such as taking out references to black notes.
Another issue to be decided is whether the aeroplane should look like it is flying. This could be distracting.
| Uses correct terminology | With assistance | Simplified terminology | Some correct terminology | Actual terminology |
Identifies relevant variables |
Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Identifies relationships between variables | Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Self-assessment. Does the student think that they understand their topic? | No | Not really | Basic understanding | Yes |
Today I, I did another column into my grid and I completely finished it. So I started on my plane and we talked about how the clouds need to be in the sky because then it’ll just look at, umm, the plane will just look like it’s fake and it’s flying, like lamely, and umm, so, and I’m just choosing the windows, and, umm, everything for the plane.
Do re mi fa sol la ti do is included in solfege.
It is a major scale that sounds the same on any note of the piano as long as you use the right notes.You always have to use a black key unless you are doing c major plus they all sound the same.
An interval is the distant between one note and another, in other words, the distance between 2 notes.
Maria thought she had finished her grid but I've just noticed that it needs another 3 rows to complete the octave. She has enough notes written into the grid to explain sol feige but it seems appropriate to complete the grid to include a full octave on both axes.
Maria's focus on the grid has been at the expense of her voice-over script which still contains references to the "black notes" which she had decided to remove back in session 10.
I asked her whether she wanted to include clouds in the animation imagery. Of course, clouds have no relevance to sol feige but I explained that without clouds, or some other frame of reference, it is hard to perceive motion. This discussion alluded other animation issues such as composition and perspective.
| Uses correct terminology | With assistance | Simplified terminology | Some correct terminology | Actual terminology |
Identifies relevant variables |
Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Identifies relationships between variables | Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Self-assessment. Does the student think that they understand their topic? | No | Not really | Basic understanding | Yes |
Today, I just completely started my voice-over text again so I was typing it up. And we got rid of using the minor scales, we just completely got rid of that. We talked about the chromatic scales and everything about that.
I finished my grid because I realised it was three rows short and we added some more stuff in to my slide show. And, umm, from now on we’ll just be working on the planes.
Solfege is a way of using the major scale.
An interval is the distance between two notes.
The major scale is made up of whole tone an semitone intervals.
Chromatic means every. The chromatic scale has every note which is all 12 notes. Each note is the same distance apart just like the windows on this plane.
Imagine that these windows are musical notes in the chromatic note.
A semitone is from one note to the next. A whole tone is two semitones.
The major scale has only 8 notes.
It has the combination of whole tone, whole tone, semitone, whole tone, whole tone, whole tone, semitone.
This grid shows the letter names of all 12 notes in all 12 keys.
As this plane flies up and down you can see which notes belong to the scale.
Many of the scales seem complicated because of the sharps involved and yet they all sound the same.
Solfege makes this easier by using the sound "Do re mi fa sol la ti do" in any key.
The chromatic scale entered the dialogue during this session. When I heard Maria mentioning the minor scale again I asked her to delete these references and the reference to black notes as she had already noted that they could be removed. This provided the ground work for the chromatic scale as it turned out she did not know what it is.
Finalising the voice-over script makes this one of Maria's most productive sessions.
| Uses correct terminology | With assistance | Simplified terminology | Some correct terminology | Actual terminology |
Identifies relevant variables |
Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Identifies relationships between variables | Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Self-assessment. Does the student think that they understand their topic? | No | Not really | Basic understanding | Yes |
Today I finished my voice-over script and I made a couple of slides on the intervals ‘cause I talked about that. Yeah, so I basically finished my voice-over and recorded it…and changed the sky blue.
Solfege is a way of using the major scale.
An interval is the distance between two notes.
The major scale is made up of whole tone and semitone intervals.
Chromatic means every. The chromatic scale has every note which is all 12 notes. Each note is the same distance apart just like the windows on this plane.
Imagine that these windows are musical notes in the chromatic scale.
A semitone is from one note to the next. A whole tone is two semitones.
The major scale has only 8 notes.
It has the combination of whole tone, whole tone, semitone, whole tone, whole tone, whole tone, semitone.
This grid shows the letter names of all 12 notes in all 12 keys.
As this plane flies up and down you can see which notes belong to the scale.
Many of the major scales seem complicated because of the sharps involved and yet they all sound the same.
Solfege makes this easier by using the sounds "Do re mi fa sol la ti do" in any key.
This voice-over script is identical except for changing "sound" to "sounds" in the last sentence. Recording the voice-over script is a turning point as it determines the duration of the completed explanatory animation.
The sky turning to blue is a seemingly trivial issue but it signifies that we are down to the business end of the project where lasting decisions are made. Maria also decided that the grid of the note names in every key should be a banner which is flown from another plane to give it a reason to be up in the air.
| Uses correct terminology | With assistance | Simplified terminology | Some correct terminology | Actual terminology |
Identifies relevant variables |
Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Identifies relationships between variables | Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Self-assessment. Does the student think that they understand their topic? | No | Not really | Basic understanding | Yes |
Today I started actually making my, umm, windows for the plane. I also shortened the, umm, voice-over so that we can just jump straight into, umm, the chromatic, umm, all about the chromatic scale.
The chromatic scale has every note which is all 12 notes. Each note is the same distance apart just like the windows on this plane.
Imagine that these windows are musical notes in the chromatic scale.
A semitone is from one note to the next. A whole tone is two semitones.
The major scale has only 8 notes.
It has the combination of whole tone, whole tone, semitone, whole tone, whole tone, whole tone, semitone.
This grid shows the letter names of all 12 notes in all 12 keys.
As this plane flies up and down you can see which notes belong to the scale.
Many of the major scales seem complicated because of the sharps involved and yet they all sound the same.
Solfege makes this easier by using the sounds “Do re mi fa sol la ti do” in any key.
The windows form the backbone of this animation as they are visible most of the time whether the view is from inside or outside the plane. Now that they have been finalised the imagery is really coming together.
I had always assumed that there would also be imagery of the treble clef and notes on the stave but this may not be necessary. I'll ask Maria what she thinks of this during the next session.
Maria has progressed along the conceptual consolidation rubric for "Identifies relevant variables". Shortening the voice-over script by starting with the chromatic scale shows that Maria now sees solfege as a naming convention and not a recipe for the major scale.
| Uses correct terminology | With assistance | Simplified terminology | Some correct terminology | Actual terminology |
Identifies relevant variables |
Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Identifies relationships between variables | Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Self-assessment. Does the student think that they understand their topic? | No | Not really | Basic understanding | Yes |
Today I was just playing around with the, ah, video editing, just seeing, um, how it looks and what should be better and stuff. Then I generated my own sheet music which was just to add in some slides for the show. So basically I’m nearly near finishing.
Maria decided to introduce some sheet music so she notated the chromatic scale on the treble clef. This shows how the sharps are required without having to get into any explanations about reading the treble clef as that would be another topic. This imagery sets the viewer up for seeing the aeroplane windows where the stems are added while the voice-over script explicitly says to "imagine that these windows are musical notes in the chromatic scale".
I have moved Maria up again in the conceptual consolidation rubric for "Identifies relationships between variables" and also "Self-assessment" because she is now focused on the pedagogical side of her animation now that the actual content has been determined. Maria's reflection mentions "just seeing how it looks and what should be better" which means that she is able to look at her animation objectively in different ways to achieve the best outcome.
| Uses correct terminology | With assistance | Simplified terminology | Some correct terminology | Actual terminology |
Identifies relevant variables |
Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Identifies relationships between variables | Not apparent | With assistance | Basic understanding | Deep understanding |
| Self-assessment. Does the student think that they understand their topic? | No | Not really | Basic understanding | Yes |