Music Machine

How to play this game

Children will have lots of fun making music and patterns on this music machine. It is designed to allow for free play to create musical sequences, but also to create and experiment with patterns of notes/letters/colours.

At the top of the screen you may choose one of three musical instruments: piano, trumpet or violin. There is a colourful musical scale with 8 notes (CDEFGABC) and one blank space (rest).

Notes can be dragged to anywhere on the playboard or clicked to move onto the next empty tile. The note will sound when placed.

The green arrows allow forward and backward replay of the musical pattern. When the backward arrow is clicked, the notes will play from the last tile on the playboard. It is therefore best to use the backwards tool with a full playboard.

The blue square button will stop the replay.

The orange arrows will play the musical pattern at double speed. To return to normal speed, click on a green arrow.

The 48-tile sequence will continue to play until the blue pause button is chosen. Clear the sequence by clicking on the red X. Once notes have been placed they cannot be removed, but can be replaced with others.

Sound can be turned off and on by clicking the music symbol in the upper right hand corner.

To exit, click on the small hand in the upper right corner of the screen.

Related Learning Outcomes

Outcome 4: Children are involved and confident learners

Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators

Developmental skills

Exploring patterns

Musical appreciation

Auditory discrimination

Visual and auditory matching

Cognitive development

Colour discrimination

Letter discrimination

Mouse control: single click and click and drag

Teaching tips

Learning with music is a wonderful way to foster children's imagination, creativity, listening skills and confidence. They will grow through experimentation and delight in their abilities.

This activity has been designed to let children have fun with musical notes and express their musical creativity in a colourful and easy to use way. Patterns and sequences can be a tricky concept to grasp. This activity assists by combining colours, letters and sounds.

It can also be played with the sound off to allow children to focus on the visual patterns. Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Place 3 (or more) notes on the playboard and ask children to repeat the pattern.
2. Fill the entire top line of the playboard and ask children to place the same note under each coloured tile. Ask them to name the colour and letter as they place each note.
3. Have fun playing the musical sequence that has been created. Play it in reverse or at double speed.
4. Try this group of notes to play a well-known song (which also has repeating sequences):
   
   CCGGAAG_FFEEDDC_GGFFEED_GGFFEED_CCGGAAG_FFEEDDC
5. Experiment to create other songs that are familiar to the children.

The word pattern can be defined as a theme of recurring events or objects that repeat in a predictable manner. With children, look for patterns in your immediate environment. They can be found everywhere. Create your own patterns with threading beads to make colourful necklaces. As the children become more proficient they will make the designs more complex.