Professional Documents
Culture Documents
I M Program
I M Program
I M Program
INITIAL MUSIC
PROGRAM
by Kathy Myers
CONTENTS
Introduction page 6
Rhythm page 20
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How To Use These Materials
MATERIALS NEEDED
You will need the following materials:
1. Illustrations for making Bit of Intelligence cards (included in the packet)
2. White poster board cards (11” x 11” is recommended. Pre-cut cards can
be purchased through the Gentle Revolution Press)
3. A black, felt-tipped, waterproof marker
4. Rubber cement
5. Clear Contact Paper or laminate (optional)
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TEACHING BIT OF INTELLIGENCE CARDS
Although this technical information is important, the most valuable
ingredient in your teaching program is within you. It is the affection and
respect with which you teach that will make your child love learning.
Your child’s intellectual diet should be broad. The more categories that
you teach, the wider view your child will have of the world.
1. Choose the first category that you would like to show to your child.
Create a set that contains approximately 5 cards. From the material
you have, you may be able to make 4 or more sets of 5 cards.
2. Position yourself and your child comfortably facing each other. Hold
the cards about 18” away from your child.
3. Begin by announcing joyously, “I have some Bits to show you!”
4. As quickly as possible, move the back card in the stack to the front,
saying the name of each as you go. By taking the back card and
moving it to the front you get a quick look at the name on the back of
the card you are about to present. As you put that card out front, tell
your child its name. With great enthusiasm, show these 5 cards as
quickly as possible, taking 5 to 10 seconds for 5 cards.
5. Show your child each set of 5 cards 3 times a day for up to 10 days.
Watch your child’s face to gauge how many times he needs to see
each set. As he sees the Bits consistently, he will begin to learn faster,
and 30 times (3 times a day for 10 days) may be too many.
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RECOMMENDED READING
To learn more about teaching your child, read:
• How Smart Is Your Baby?
by Glenn Doman and Janet Doman
• How To Teach Your Baby To Read
by Glenn Doman and Janet Doman
• How To Teach Your Baby Math
by Glenn Doman and Janet Doman
• How To Give Your Baby Encyclopedic Knowledge
by Glenn Doman, Janet Doman, and Susan Aisen
• How To Multiply Your Baby’s Intelligence
by Glenn Doman and Janet Doman
• How To Make Your Baby Physically Superb
by Glenn Doman, Douglas Doman, and Bruce Hagy
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INTRODUCTION
The most important music program for your baby is the Music Listening
Program.
In this booklet we will teach you how to teach perfect pitch and how to
then teach the notes, or symbols, to your child. Once your child has
mastered the notes, you can then teach rhythms. Some simple rhythms are
included in this booklet along with an explanation of how to teach them.
By teaching your child this simple pathway, you too will be able to learn
and start on your own road to mastering the language of music.
Good luck!
The Author
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THE MUSIC LISTENING PROGRAM
The Music Listening Program gives your child musical Bits of Intelligence
with frequency, intensity, and duration.
In making a zoological Bit of Intelligence, you would carefully cut out a
discrete, non-ambiguous picture of an animal.
In the same mode, you will create a musical Bit of Intelligence by selecting
a specific piece of music and then play it for your child at different times
throughout the day.
You can see how this is vastly different from the “Listening Program” that
most adults create for their own enjoyment. We adults usually tune into a
radio station randomly at our own whimsy, or play a tape or record or CD,
depending on our mood of the moment.
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3. Choose a piece that is short. This allows you to present the entire
piece of music to your child. Just as you would not only show a
corner of a piece of artwork, you present an entire piece of music to
your child. As your child becomes a more sophisticated musician, his
ability to enjoy a longer piece of music will eventually develop.
Examples of short pieces of music:
4. Play this composition for your child three times a day for one week.
Announce the passage by telling your child the name of the
composer and the name of the piece. If possible, show your child a
Bit of the composer.
5. Choose another piece and begin again from Step 1. This piece can
either be another by the same composer or you may want to try a
different composer or a different style of music.
(Remember, you can always return to that composer or that style at a
later time).
During each week of your Listening Program, you can include several
sessions of Programs of Intelligence about the composer and about the
specific composition. You can also make a homemade book about the
composer and his works.
Another way to augment your program would be to make a large musical
score of the notes in the passage and then sing or play them to your child—
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Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is a good one for this. If you are not
comfortable singing or playing them yourself, have a musical friend record
the passage. Whatever the selection, encourage your child to dance while
listening, or ask him what the music brings to mind.
GENERAL RULES
The younger your child, the shorter should be the musical composition you
select.
Gradually increase the lengths of the selections you choose.
Always stop before your child wants to stop.
This will ensure that your child will want more the next time.
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PERFECT PITCH
It is possible and in fact desirable to create perfect pitch in tiny kids. Perfect
pitch is the ability to differentiate between different pitches of sound and to
know the name of each pitch. This ability will create a fantastic basis for the
entire Music Program, especially Music Reading.
For an older baby or child, choose three notes on the xylophone and play
them five to ten times in one day. Each time you play a note, say its name—
“This is A,” “This is C sharp (#), “etc.
On the sixth day, replace one of the notes with a new note. Each day
thereafter substitute a new note for an old one until you have taught all of
the notes on the xylophone.
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NOTE READING
After teaching your child perfect pitch, you will be ready for note reading.
Note reading is the ability to “hear” the pitches while reading written
music. To create this ability you will need to make up a Bit showing the
musical notation for each note found on the xylophone. We have provided
these for you, ready to paste up. (See How To Use These Materials, page 3.)
The following is a diagram to correlate these Bits with the keys on the
xylophone.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"######$"################%"######&"####'"#################!"#####$"# #
# ## #######!""!!!!!"#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"$!!!!!!"%!!!!!"&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"'!!!!!"(# #
# # # # # # # # # # # #
(## (####
# # #########$ #########) ################& ###' ######* ##################$ ######) # #
( ( ( ( (
# # ########")!!!!!!!"*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#+!!!!!!#"!!!!!##!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#$!!!!!!#%# #
# # # # # # # # # # # #
# # # # # # # # # # # #
# # # # # # # # # # # #
# # #!#########$#########)#########%########&#######'#######*########!#########$########)# #
# # # # # # # # # # # #
# # "!!!!!!!!!#!!!!!!!!!!$!!!!!!!!!%!!!!!!!!&!!!!!!!!'!!!!!!!!(!!!!!!!!)!!!!!!!!!*!!!!!!!!"+!#
# # # # # # # # # # # # #
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MUSICAL NOTATION OF THE NOTES ON THE XYLOPHONE
(NUMBERS REFER TO MUSICAL NOTES ON DIAGRAM—SEE PRECEEDING PAGE)
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 10
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MUSICAL NOTATION OF THE NOTES ON THE XYLOPHONE
(Continued)
11 12
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! #! ! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! +,! ! ! ! ! ! !!!!!!!+-!! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
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MUSICAL NOTATION OF THE NOTES ON THE XYLOPHONE
(Continued)
15 16
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! #! ! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! !
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!+.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
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###############################+/######################################################################+0#
12 1+
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MUSICAL NOTATION OF THE NOTES ON THE XYLOPHONE
(Continued)
11###################################################################1,#
1-#
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TEACHING YOUR CHILD NOTE READING
1. Make up your Bits of the individual notes on the staff, labeling the back
of each one. For your own convenience in locating the notes on the
xylophone, you may label the back of the appropriate Bits “Low C,” “High
D,” etc., although you will not be teaching them as such.
2. Choose five of the Bits. To teach each one, show the Bit and play the
corresponding note on the xylophone. Do not pronounce the letter names
of the notes at this time. Teach these just as you would any set of Bits,
replacing an old one with a new one until all of the notes have been taught.
Remember, you already taught the names of the notes with perfect pitch.
You will use the names of the notes when you are composing music with
your child. The names of notes are used for communication between
musicians. To reiterate, teaching your child note reading means teaching
your child the sound of the notes.
3. Now teach your child these same Bits using only the letter name of each
note. Show each Bit and say, for example, “C”, “D”, “G”, “E flat”, etc. Do
not use the terms “Low C”, “High D”, etc. Children will readily intuit the
fact that one C is higher in pitch than the other C, which is what makes
them different from each other.
4. When your child is mature enough and has enough language and
manual ability to use this information, begin to give him opportunities to
retrieve the information as useful knowledge.
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EXAMPLES OF OPPORTUNITIES TO RETRIEVE MUSICAL KNOWLEDGE
1. Play musical note bingo with your child. Be sure to trade places, giving your
child the chance to be the caller.
2. Play musical note hopscotch, making a hopscotch board full of different
musical notes or musical terms.
3. Play a note on the xylophone and give your child two or three choices from
the written notes. Then let him play a note for you and see if you can
identify it.
4. Try the opposite: Play two different notes on the xylophone and decide
which matches a single Bit card.
5. Pick a note on the xylophone and have your child try to match the note with
his voice. Then you try it, too.
6. Create a card game using musical notation or rhythms, such as “Go Fish”.
a. Deal seven rhythm cards to each player.
b. The first player asks the player to his left, “Do you have a
c. If the second player has the card, he hands it over to the first player,
who makes a match and puts it in his pile.
d. If the second player does not have the match, he picks from the deck.
e. This goes on until there are no more cards left in the deck. The winner
is the player with the most rhythm matches.
This game can be adapted in any way you choose, since you are the creator
of the deck.
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RHYTHM
The next step in learning music is to understand rhythm.
The first thing your child should learn about rhythm is how to find the beat
in music. This is simple to do—you do it whenever you clap your hands
along with music being played.
Play some recordings of marches for your child and march to them. Find
some good old foot-stomping music and clap along with it. Dance along to
some waltzes. In short, play any kind of music on the radio, record player,
tape player, or CD player and dance to it—it’s all rhythm.
When you read music, each written note tells you the pitch of the note to be
played. The clef, along with the note’s location on the staff, defines the
pitch. The kind of note used (such as whole notes, half notes, etc.) along
with the time signature defines how long a note is held. The duration of the
note played is an important part of rhythm. The following are some of the
different kinds of notes and their names:
A half note is held half as long as a whole note. A quarter note is held one
quarter of the length of a whole note. An eighth note is held one eighth as
long as a whole note. (In practice, of course, the quarter note is the most
typical note you hear in music, and the other notes arrange themselves as
shorter or longer against this “yardstick”.)
For example, if you have a series of quarter notes, they each would get one
beat if the time signature were one with a 4 on the bottom. Samples of time
signatures are as follows:
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2 3 4 5
4 4 4 4
To demonstrate this rhythm to your child, the card is shown and you say,
Half notes get two beats when the time signature has a 4 written as the
bottom number, as explained above.
To demonstrate this rhythm as you show the card, you could say,
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Here are three whole notes:
“whole note four beats / whole note four beats / whole note four beats”
Again, each word needs to be spoken with exactly one beat. This gives a
whole note four beats altogether.
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TEACHING YOUR CHILD RHYTHM
1. Make up your Bits according to the descriptions on the next page. Label
the back of each as described.
2. Practice reading the Bits in rhythm.
3. Teach your child in the same way as you would teach a set of Bits—
show it and say its name. Teach each a few times a day, retiring each after
five days.
4. Make up your own rhythm cards using whole notes, half notes, and
quarter notes, gradually increasing the number of notes on each successive
card. For example, make up a set of rhythm cards having five notes on
each card, then make a set with six notes on each, and so forth.
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DESCRIPTION OF RHYTHM BITS
Half note
Half note
Half note
Half note
Quarter
Quarter
Quarter
Quarter
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FRONT OF BIT BACK OF BIT
Half note
Whole note four beats
Half note
Half note
Half note
Half note
Quarter
Quarter
Quarter
Quarter
Half note
Half note
Half note
Quarter
Quarter
Half note
Quarter
Half note
Half note
Quarter
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FRONT OF BIT BACK OF BIT
Quarter
Half note
Quarter
Half note
Half note
Whole note four beats
Quarter
Half note
Quarter
Half note
Whole note four beats
Half note
Half note
Half note
Quarter
Whole note four beats
Quarter
Half note
Whole note four beats
Half note
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MUSICAL TERMS
Children find musical terms fun and interesting. These terms are usually
Italian in origin (some below are French), giving you another opportunity
to expose your child to foreign languages. To help you get started with this
language, we have compiled a list of musical terms and their meanings.
Pronunciations are provided for words not originally English.
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con amore (con ah moor’ ay) with love
pizzicato (pee zee kah’ toh) plucking instruments that are normally
bowed
poco (poh’ koh) little by little; gradually
recital a concert
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scherzo (skare’ tsoh) a playful, joking piece
string quartet four string players: two violins, one viola, one cello
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MUSICAL SYMBOLS
Musical symbols are the written language of music. They are fun to learn
and invaluable to your child in developing an increased understanding of
music. More importantly, they give your child the ability to write his own
original music compositions. Here is a list with which to get started:
SYMBOL NAME
Whole Note
Half Note
Quarter Note
Eighth Note
Treble Clef
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SYMBOL NAME
Bass Clef
Music Staff
Bar Line
Repeat Signs
Fermata or Hold
Crescendo
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SYMBOL NAME
Decrescendo
p Piano
pp Pianissimo
f Forte
ff Fortissimo
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KEY TO ILLUSTRATIONS OF NOTES ON A MUSICAL STAFF
(also corresponds to notes on a small xylophone)
1. C 13. F Sharp
2. D 14. G Sharp
3. E 15. A Sharp
4. F 16. C Sharp
5. G 17. D Sharp
6. A 18. D Flat
7. B 19. E Flat
8. C 20. G Flat
9. D 21. A Flat
25. Musical
Staff
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