Exploring pitch
Activity 3 - Exploration tasks
Task 1 - Tonic note
Listen to any short piece of music. Try humming one note that feels like the most important pitch or the grounding note for most of the piece. This pitch is most likely the tonic note, the first note of the scale on which the piece was built. Does the whole class end up singing the same note?
Task 2 - Pentatonic scale
On a keyboard or piano, play all the black notes in order from lowest to highest. Because there are 5 different note names, you will be playing a pentatonic scale.
Task 3 - Major and minor scale
Now play 8 white notes in order, starting from anywhere on the keyboard. This creates a mode. The most common modes used in popular western music are the Ionian mode (major scale) and Aeolian mode (natural minor scale). Other common modes are Dorian and Mixolydian.
This is one example of the Aeolian mode in notation:
Task 4 - Chromatic scale
On a guitar, pluck one string while pressing once in each fret in order. This creates a chromatic scale with evenly spaced gaps or intervals.
