Major or Minor

Halloween is a fun time of year for learning about the subtle difference between major and minor! Students sing "Major sounds happy, do, re, mi, fa, so" and "Minor sounds sad, la, ti, do, re, mi". 

Using a piece of music like the first few notes of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg is also a great way to tell the difference. Sing the melody to "This is called a minor key, minor key, minor key". This piece is also a great example of a composer using tempo and dynamics to make the music sound more exciting. There is a slight accelerando (gradual speeding up) and an enormous crescendo (gradually getting louder) throughout the piece. 

Many students were familiar with the melody as it is used in movies (Trolls) and video games.