5 Hi........5 Hi!......................5 Da..............5 Da!
.......3 Lo,......................................3 di-di


It's most basic expression in the minor key, especially when a drone or minor harmony is employed, causes the weaker lower note to be strengthened in the mind through the basic 'primitive' minor cadance, 3-1. The lower note 'sticks' in the mind. Falling intervals express "structure", that is, they tend to be the skeleton of more fleshed-out embellished forms. The falling minor third for the child is a very comprehensible "minor structure":

3 Hi...3 Hi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Da...3 Da
. . . . . . . . . 1 Lo! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 di!


In major it is embellished with the 6th:

. . . . . . . . . 6 di
5 Da . . . . . . . . 5 Da
. . . . . . 3 di . . . . . . . . . 3 di!
. / . . . . . / . . . . . . / . . . . . /

Similarly, in minor, the 3-1 is embellished with the 4rth,

............4 di-di
3 Da...............3 Da................3 Da......3 Da
.................................1 di, ..............................1 di!

and is expanded below the resting note in natural minor. Notice that minor thirds surrounded by major seconds is a basic modal building principle:

3 Dah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Dah . . . . . . .
. . . . . . 1 du . . . . . . . . l du . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 du!
. . . . . . . . . . 7 Dah . . .


In natural minor we include the lower minor third, 7-5, discerned as a fairly strong pitch group in its own right:

3 Hi . . . 3 Hi . . . . 3 Hi . 3 Hi
. . . . 1 lo . . . . 1 lo . . . . . . . . . 1 lo!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Hi . . . 7 Hi . . . 7 Hi . 7 Hi
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 lo . . . 5 lo . . . . . . . . 5 lo


In major, 5-3, previously embellished by 6, is further expanded with 8:

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Hi . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Hi!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 lo
5 Hi . . 5 Hi, . . . . 5 Hi . 5 Hi . . . . . . . 5 Hi . . . . . . . . . . 5 Hi . 5 Hi
. . . 3 lo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 lo, . . . . . . . 3 lo


The "Pitch Honeycomb" of major seconds consistently alternating with minor thirds is explored briefly to prepare the ear. This pitch set is very flexible. Any of these pitches could prove to be the final note of a melody, depending on how they are selected and used:

D lo
major second
C Hai
minor third
A lo
major second
G Hai
minor third
E lo
major second
D Hai


The 'Expanded Pitch Honeycomb' is very briefly explored:

F Hai
minor third
D lo
major second
C Hai
minor third
A lo
major second
G Hai
minor third
E lo
major second
D Hai


The minor third and its progressive modal extensions that we have just described would be ideally introduced in early childhood through CD2, "Teaching Your Child" heard before lessons begin. The parent would play this CD from the toddler years, showing hand signs for the two-pitch melodies, singing the repeats and following the music in the child's presence, gradually playing the later portions of the recording more and more, and pointing under the notes for the child as much as the child's attention span is able to take.

Up to now we have avoided the major third, by avoiding the resting note 1 in major, which by so doing we have often suggested a modal or flexible framework melodically, as though it almost did not matter whether the harmony described the melody as minor or major as far as the melody's instinct was concerned.

Modality is more ancient, melodically intuitive, tribal, and basic to the 'singing ear' than tonality, which developed later with concerts for the 'listening ear' which developed around harmonic logic and expressed the structural nature and issues of larger developing social, economic, and political institutions.

I intuit that for the sake of the 'singing ear', modality should be included in early childhood listening and later singing, as though the child's maximum development might in some way echo the development of music history through the centuries.

Going back to discussing the basic cadence, the falling minor third, I must mention its differing qualities in major and minor. The 5-3 in major has some of the structural, cadential quality of the minor 3-1. But it leaves the ear somewhat dissatisfied, since although the falling minor third is indeed a natural cadence or "resting" melodically, very natural to the singing ear, the note rested on in major is not the tonic. In major the overtone series supplies the sense of the structure which the minor third, so harmonically resonant within it, lacks by itself. The 5-3, melodically conclusive yet harmonically still hovering above the tonic, finds further rest and conclusion as it descends to the tonic 1 from the 3 (5-3-1) or, it must somewhat repudiate the 3 as a "rest", possibly returning to the 5 and then resting or cadencing on 1(5-3-5-1). Even so, the 5-3-1 perhaps remains the structure behind even that sort of "solution", it would seem, as though both 5-1 and 5-3 were competing and both won on their own terms, with 5-3-1 being a sort of embellishment of 5-1. So then, I suggest that 5-3-1 over a tonic drone is the basic typical structure behind music in the major mode.

5-3-1 is a kind of compression of Schenker's 3-2-1 harmonized with bass I-V-I, but it is more basic, child-friendly, and singer-friendly. Children do well with the 5-3-1, which itself implies its fundamental quality.

Moving away from "intuitive" minor-implying modality which charactarized even the major mode in its upper portion, we move down toward the 1 cadentially and "rationally", expressing more explicitly the "logical" major tonal system. 5-3 is expanded to include the lower resting note, 1. This addition is so important, and constitues such a new premise from the prior modal-structure within-major of 8-6-5-3, that the 8 and 6 of the major are left out at first. Previously the child heard the 6-5-3 in major intuitively and sang it intuitively by rote, but as we begin to introduce the "rational" process of reading music, and as the major mode begins to bully the intuitive singerly modal structures out of the child's increasingly rational mind, we must concentrate the child's focus more on the essentials of "logical-tonal" major, in order to get the strongest long-term results for reading music and for singing in tune with a sensitive harmonic ear. 5-3-1 constitues the essential framework around which the singing ear must tune later added notes in major which embellish this basic structure. 5-3-1 over bass drone I is the essential falling structure in major, more basic than Schenker's 3-2-1 over I-V-I, at least as far as the singing ear is concerned.

The rest of the major scale is then added progressively, adding 6, making 6-5-3-1 (the "Children's scale") and occasionaly adding 8 by rote, making 8-6-5-3-1:

. . . . . . . . . . 8 Da
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 di-di
5 Da . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Da
. . . . 3 di-di . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 di-di
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Da!

When 2 is added, the 3-2-1 structure is given attention by itself at first. This is Schenker's fundamental structure, with the 2 being harmonized by the V in the bass:

3 Tee . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Tee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 tee
. . . . 2 two . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 two 2 two, . . . . 2 two
. . . . . . . . 1 one! . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 one! . . . . 1 one 1 one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 one!
I . . . V . . . I . . . . . . . I . . . . V . . . I . . . . . . . . . I . . . . . . . . . V . . . V . . . . I . . . V . . . . I

3 di-di . . . . . . . . . . . 3 di-di . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 di-di
. . . . . 2 Da . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Da . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Da 2 Da, . . . . . 2 Da
. . . . . . . . . 1 Da! . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Da! . . . . . 1 Da 1 Da . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Da!

Then 2 is incorporated gradually into the 5-3-1 as a passing tone:

5 Da
. . . . 3 di-di
. . . . . . . . . 2 Da 2 Da
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Da!

Then 7 is added as a further embellishment between the 8 and the 6:

. . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Da
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 di
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 di
5 Da. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Da
. . . . . 3 di-di. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 di-di
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Da!

4 is added last, introduced occasionally as a neighbor to the 3:

5 Da
. . . . . . . . . . 4Da
. . . . 3 di-di . . . . . 3 di-di
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Da . . 2 Da
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Da!

and occasionally as a diatonic modulation of pentatonic structures previously introduced:

..................................8 Da
..................................
......................................6 di-di
5 Da.............................................................5 Da
..............................................4 Da!
.....3 di-di............................................................3 di-di
....................................................................................2 Da........2 Da
...............1 Da! ..........................................................................................1 Da!

This pitch-adding progression from 5-3-1 to the full major scale would take place while learning to read music with stylized songs from kindergarten through the fifth grade. The most frequent key employed would be the key of F major, so that the child's singing range would eventually extend from the top line of the treble clef, the high F, down to middle C. Digressions in related major and minor keys would take place along the way as well.

Having completed a natural process of ear training for tuning the major scale through learning to read these stylized songs, the child would have the pitch sensitivity necessary to read "regular" music and to sing in tune, whether the child ever picked up a musical instrument or not. If the stylization of these songs seems to be a 'crutch', consider that instrumental study is often a 'crutch' of a different sort. Solfege is still another 'crutch'. Solfege and instrumental study do not always ensure a good tuning sense. Solfege verbalizes pitch perception, and instrumental study 'fingerizes', 'motorizes' and 'rhythmizes' it. Both solfege and instruments tend to preoccupy the 'left-brain'. For many, this leaves them with a poor right-brain pitch sense as an adult. Stylized songs, on the other hand, will train the ear progressively and organically, in a very intuitive right-brain fashion. There are many left brain 'handles' that codify what both the left and the right brain has percieved, of course, but these are rapidly understood, intuitively related, and concretely meaningful and appropriate for the progressive stages in the child's development.

The next step would be for the child to learn to read folk songs and traditional melodies. The next step after that, perhaps after the voice change, would be choral singing in parts, most ideally in the very tunable Rennaisance style, which is so pleasurable, perhaps in high school. Ocassionally, stylized songs can be repaired to in order to familiarize the older children and adults with different keys and clefs. I have written material for this purpose.

All of this sort of long-term cultural continuity seems difficult to achieve. Many of our ingrained cultural and educational habits seem to preclude it.

I have a problem with the short term approach so often used in children's choirs, community choirs, schools and churches. The choir director is pushed to get the children ready for some program coming up. Rote learning is employed exclusively. Note reading falls by the wayside. Advanced material is pushed on to the children, causing the delicate step by step learning process to be hampered. The politics of short term impressing and performing hinders the long term results of real education, and the result is mediocrity down the line. If children were taught vocal music reading and singing in tune, the result down the line would be a rebirth of our culture. Not only would there be musical excellence, even on an amatuer level, but also greater appreciation for quality and craftsmanship in all the many spheres of our shared cultural life.

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