Melody: A melody is what you usually sing from a song. It's the main tune. 

Q: Do you recognize the melody of this song? 

Q: Do Re Mi is from the movie, the Sound of Music. Can you sing the song with the video?

From do to do', this is a major scale. When a song ends on do, which is also called the tonic, the song is in a major scale.  

Scale: It's the collection of notes that are used in a song, arranged in order from the lowest to the highest note. It's kind of like the alphabet for music: you learn the alphabet by learning in order from A to Z. For music, we normally start with note C, then, D, E, F, G. From G, we continue to A, and B. There is not note H in music. When you read a book, the author will use those same letters to form words, sentences, and paragraphs by using them in different order and repeating any letter as many times as she wants. Same as music, after notes A and B, we will start with C again.

In music, there are different types of scales that are used. Two very common ones are Major and Minor scales (below are some examples, show and explain some - train their ears).

• Major scale: Probably the scale that most songs you know are based on. Examples include Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Star Spangled Banner (National Anthem), Hawai‘i Pono‘i, Yankee Doodle, London Bridge is Falling Down, and Take Me Out To the Ball Game. 
• Minor Scale: Not as common, but a minor scale is a collection of notes often associated with darker sounds. Examples include the theme to Harry Potter, theme of Hawaii Five-O, Prince Ali from Disney's Aladdin, Für Elise. 
• Why some songs "sound" like major, some minor? Open discussion with the students (STANDARDS: RESPONDING).

Now let's listen to a song in a major scale but have only four notes. Do you recognize it? 

Note: From here, teachers may teach C as do, and notate Mary Had a Little Lamb on the staff. Introduce Form: phrases. (Pre-requisites: Teach staff, lines and spaces). 

• Explain solfege, C=do, D=re, E=mi, G=so, show them hand signs.
• How many phrases are here? (a b a' c)
• Now your teacher will play Mary had a little lamb on a piano/`ukulele, can you sing with the hand signs and solfege?
• Now your teacher will play Mary had a little lamb on a piano/`ukulele, can you use your fingers to show the four phrases?

Note to general music teachers who have Orff instruments, you may use the below pieces from Music for Children, Book I to practice do-re-mi-so, canon, and rhythms.

• Page 113, Rondo 32 (great piece to start improvisation).
• Page 91, Canon exercises (great exercises to start with canon - do-re-mi-so).
• Page 67, Rhythmic rondos (use this to practice rhythm with body percussion, really fun).