The Science of Wind Instruments! Training the Musical Ear

Funded Jul 30, 2019

We are so grateful for your contributions to this project! My students use the tuners on a daily basis. After a few lessons on the care and use of the new technology, they have truly excelled in the areas of pitch and intonation. During an introductory lesson, we used one of the tuners to demonstrate what a flat note, sharp note, and in tune note would both look and sound like. Having individual tuners on each music stand allowed the students to have a much closer view of this concept, and provided the opportunity for exploration individually.

While each grade level was very enthusiastic, our 8th grade classes were most excited about the new addition! Intonation is a concept that we begin teaching at the end of 6th grade, so while they had some knowledge of it and experienced the tuning process on a limited basis, they were thrilled to have the opportunity to do so on a daily and individual basis.

Next steps for this project include expanding the use of individual tuners down to our 7th grade and 6th grade classes. The 7th grade class will begin a unit on pitch tendencies very soon. With the use of the individual clip on tuners, they will now be able to explore some partner work and progress through the unit faster and more thoroughly. This is all because of you! We thank you for your generous donation and support of our classroom!”

With gratitude,

Ms. Johnson