played correspond to the top and bottom pitches of the chromatic scale. Next, play the
chromatic scale up and down and ask students what they notice about the movement from
pitch to pitch. Students should recognize that you are playing successive keys on the piano.
Use the chromatic-scale movement to illustrate the difference between whole steps and half
steps and sharps and flats.
2. Display on the board a major and minor scale with numbered scale steps, whole steps, and
half steps, and again a live piano keyboard (see the first lecture suggestion). As you move
up and down the C major and C minor scales on the keyboard, point out on the board the
corresponding succession of whole steps and half steps and the addition of flats. Ask the class
how these scales differ in sound. Next, have the class sing the opening phrase of Joy to the
World in C major and ask students which scale seems to fit the melody. Play the melody of Joy
to the World on the keyboard and have the class compare the melody with the scale. Play Joy
to the World again, substituting the minor-scale pitches of the melody (C, B-flat, A-flat, G, F,
E-flat, D, C) to illustrate further the difference in sound between major and minor.
3. Display on the board a major scale with numbered scale steps, whole steps, and half steps,
and again a live piano keyboard (see the first lecture suggestion). Highlight the tonic,
subdominant, and dominant pitches of the scale, explaining their melodic significance as
well as their tendency to be the roots of active (dominant or subdominant) or resting
chords. Play the first phrase of Joy to the World and indicate the scale steps (either on the
board or on the keyboard) as the melody progresses, highlighting the harmony on the
words “is come” as a resolution from dominant to tonic sonorities (beneath the melody
notes re and do). Playing the passage slowly so that students can focus their listening on
the resolution will help.