Finding Your Voice - Theory

Music is written on a staff.  A staff is a set of five parallel lines.  The staff is essentially a graph of pitches.  The circular part of the notes, or note heads, are placed on the staff to indicate how high or low each pitch in a song should be.

The notes may go up on the staff, showing that the pitches should get higher, as in Are You Sleeping.

The notes may go down on the staff, showing that the pitches should get lower, as in Mary Had a Little Lamb.

The notes may also stay the same, showing that the pitch should stay the same as well, as in Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

Try singing some music written on a staff.  What type of graph do the note heads create?  Do the notes go up? Go down? Stay the same?  Each song will be a combination of these types of motion and looking at the notes on the staff can give you an idea of the shape of the melody.