A Research on the Design and Use of Colored Notes for Children in Music Education

Abstract

One of the essential tools of music education is the notation system. The musical notation system has evolved and attained its present form over many years. Learning the music notation system at an early age is an important step for the future of music education. For music education to start early, it may be helpful to adapt to music writing with colors without knowing how to read and write. This research aims to present a notation teaching method via colors to help music education. Although there have been some previous studies on colors and music, this research offers an approach for both using colors and removing them to adapt to today’s notation system. It is an innovative study in this respect. After using the colors, it is aimed to avoid adaptation difficulties when switching to the prevalent notation system. The two stages were connected by first showing the notes with a diagram of colors and intervals and then coloring today’s notation. The last stage aims to provide adaptation by removing the colors in the second stage. With the design obtained, three children’s songs were applied in 3 steps and analyzed. Every stage of the research was carried out in the company of music education experts, and technical problems that may arise were tried to be prevented. As a result of the study, a teaching system has emerged that can facilitate the teaching of musical notation, especially for illiterate preschool children and educators who want to teach notation.