Pitch bricks

It is so easy to overlook aural training yet it is so important to develop students’ musicianship.  Like most of the activities, this game is versatile to ramp up to as tricky as you need for the individual student.  Reading and understanding pitch can be incredibly tricky to grasp so this game will be minutes well spent and really good fun!

Instructions

  • Draw some ‘bricks’ with different note patterns in them. 
  • Analyse and discuss the patterns asking questions such as:
  • “How is this pattern different from this one?”
  • “Do the notes move in steps or skips?”
  • “Is that going up or down?”
  • “Are there any notes that are the same?”

Then play or sing one at a time and see if your student can identify which brick you are playing/singing.

Round 2! – Let your student play a brick and see if you can identify which one it was (make sure you face the other way though as you will see them staring at the brick they are playing!) They will love feeling like the teacher and yet it will be equally good training for them as round 1.

Benefits

  • Connecting what pitch and patterns look like to what they sound like
  • Reinforcing stave reading
  • Doing an aural training activity

Simplify

  • Use a smaller note range
  • Narrow the options “I’m going to play one of these two”
  • Use clear and obvious patterns
  • Play through together first
  • Use your other arm to gesture in the air the pattern of notes 

Develop

  • Use more complex patterns
  • Use a wider note range
  • Play them faster
  • Use patterns that are similar but slightly different
  • Instead of having them bricks drawn out, play them a pattern and see if they can draw it themselves

Additionally, encourage the student to have a go at singing it back.

Click on a button to download your free exercise

PR PITCH BRICKS - 1
PR PITCH BRICKS - 2
PR PITCH BRICKS - 3
PR PITCH BRICKS - 4
G1 PITCH BRICKS - 1
G1 PITCH BRICKS - 2
G1 PITCH BRICKS - 3
G1 PITCH BRICKS - 4
G2 PITCH BRICKS - 1
G2 PITCH BRICKS - 2