A practical and multi-sensory aidtowards the

mastery of musical notation

Margaret Hubicki

Ever warm thanks to all my deeply valued friends and colleagues for theircontinuing encouragement and requests for Colour-Staff throughout a very greatnumber of years.

Also, a particular note of gratitude to Andrew Quartermain who has helped verygreatly in the editing of this edition.

Margaret Hubicki April 2005

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

2

3Margaret Hubicki was a Professor and Examiner at the Royal Academy of Music,London, and formerly on the staff of the Yehudi Menuhin School of Music whenit was based in London. She was also an examiner of the Froebel Foundation andthe Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.

Mrs Hubicki is a Committee member of the Council for Music in Hospitals andthe Music and Dyslexia Committee of the British Dyslexia Association. She hasalso contributed recently to the publication Music and Dyslexia (Whurr London2001). She was awarded the M.B.E. for services to music in 1987.

She created Colour-Staff, after a number of years of research, to meet the needs ofthose students whose technical ability to play an instrument far outstripped theirability to read the notation which would allow them to explore the literature fortheir particular instrument.

Colour-Staff has since been validated in many schools and other learningcentres. Teachers of both child and adult beginners have been highly enthusiasticabout the ability of Colour-Staff to help their students over the first difficult stepsto a greater appreciation and love of music.

ABOUT THE AUTHORMrs Margaret Hubicki M.B.E., F.R.A.M., F.R.S.A.

4One of my treasured possessions is a photograph of the very first day of theYehudi Menuhin School. I am seven years old, in my new school uniform, withthe buttons done up completely wrongly! Yehudi has his arm around me andMargaret - Peggy - Hubicki is looking on kindly, wearing the most splendid hat.It marks, for me, the beginning of a wonderful friendship with a quiteremarkable woman.

Peggy is a very gifted composer as well as teacher of harmony and music theory.I must have caused her enormous problems over my difficulties with the bass clef.Her incredible patience, love and commitment to this puzzle sowed the seeds forher thoughts on Colour-Staff.

Colour-Staff has become an invaluable teaching aid for those learning to readmusic and has highlighted the importance of a multi-sensory approach tolearning and teaching methods in general.

The ripple effect in life never ceases to amaze me. Much later on in my life,Yehudi Menuhin asked me to assist him on a project teaching violin to completebeginners, which subsequently became the BBC2 documentary called MenuhinsChildren. Peggys ideas and words of wisdom were always at the back of mymind, guiding me through this challenge.

Her approach to teaching made learning music fun and, in turn, benefited thechildren in their academic studies, whilst also increasing their general self-esteem. This programme has now developed into an educational project called AChance to Play and has enabled some of the children to overcome both mentaland physical disabilities.

I will forever be grateful for my friendship with Peggy which began on thatauspicious day all those years ago - captured on my treasured photograph.

Rosemary Furniss London 2004

FOREWORD

5Colour-Staff came into being through helping students in the Yehudi MenuhinSchool during its first year in London. One of them was a highly-gifted youngviolinist who read the treble clef with ease, but who was puzzled by the bass clef.The other was a young cellist who was perfectly at home with the bass clef, yetcompletely lost when trying to read the treble clef!

I wanted to find something which could help both these students to discover andunderstand the relationship between the two clefs. However, as there didntappear to be anything on the market, I followed the suggestion of a friend anddecided to create a device myself. I painted a baking tray in seven repeatingcolours to make an eleven-lined staff. Having been given some pieces ofmagnetic plastic, I made little moveable symbols and painted each one using thissame colour sequence and letter-named them. Through this material the violinistand cellist began to see for themselves how the treble and bass clefs belongedto one another, with Middle C floating in between forming the Great Staff.Following the success of this home-made device, I developed the material furtherand called it Colour-Staff.

What lay in the background of Colour-Staff however, had begun many, manyyears before. Aged about five years old, I was staying on holiday in mygrandfathers small cottage in Scotland. One night I was dozing in bed whensuddenly I heard something amazing. What was this and where was it comingfrom? I must find out at once! Breaking all rules, I leapt out of bed to explore.Quietly opening a door, I peeped in to find it was Grandpa playing the violin!What was astonishing was that, though I had often heard him playing before,and loved the sound he made, tonight, somehow, there seemed to be somethingdifferent, something added. Suddenly, I had become aware of the magic whichlies within the sound of music it seemed to glow like the radiance of colour ina crystal. I was left full of wonder and yearned to learn from this wonderfulexperience.

When we had returned to London, I begged to have lessons so that I could playour piano and read the music we had at home. I couldnt wait to begin. I thoughtthat all I had to do was to find out how the lovely pattern of black or white keyson the piano fitted the black or white notes on the printed page. Black or whitekeys and notes together surely would make the sound of music! I was eager,longing to learn everything seemed most exciting.

Sadly, it became clear very soon that things werent as simple as I had imagined.In itself, I found the uniform look of black or white on the keyboard and inprinted music didnt seem able to show me how to play: I simply couldnt see why

PREFACE

6not! Feeling lost, confused and shedding many frustrated tears, it was as if I werebanging my head against a brick wall, whilst trying to make sense out ofsomething which I simply could not understand.

Many years later, my teacher, who became a valued friend, told me that she hadspoken to my mother saying, This child is so stupid it is a waste of your moneyand my time in trying to teach her how to read music. However, lessons didcontinue. My mother was aware that, although I was beginning to see that therewere differences within the sameness appearances of black or white, I neededfurther help towards linking up the look, feel and sound of the various blackor white patterns on the keyboard with their written symbols representing themin print. Thankfully, her perseverence and experimentation gradually enabledme to overcome my difficulties with musical notation.

Eventually there came the unforgettable day when I found I could at last bothread music and play it on the piano! It felt rather like the magic I had sensedthat night when I heard my Grandfather playing his violin. Understanding hadindeed unlocked a door which opened out into another world.

Margaret Hubicki April 2005

7The first trials of Colour-Staff date back to the late 1970s. Amongst the manyusers of the first edition of Colour-Staff were the following:

I think the idea is excellent . . . fixing the symbols in the childsimagination as it does. It is useful to have clean staves which, like theblackboard, can be experimented with, and notes put on and taken off. Itis also an excellent way of imprinting the different clefs on the learnersmind.

The Lord Menuhin O.M., K.B.E.

The unique importance to the beginner in music of Margaret HubickisColour-Staff is apparent on the most casual acquaintance with it. Sobrilliant an idea, brilliantly carried out. It is not, however, only for themusical beginner but also seen, on closer examination, to be of equalsignificance in all stages of music right up to the higher professionalstandard. Mrs Hubickis invention fulfils a long felt need one which hasalways been neglected in the conventional training of music in thiscountry.

Clifford Curzon C.B.E., F.R.A.M.

Quite apart from the teaching aspect, the entertainment for the childrenis immediate and enormous.

Brian Chapple G.R.S.M., L.R.A.M.(Watford School of Music)

Original Colour-Staff sets have been in use in many schools and colleges over along period. Amongst the many differing teaching applications, from choruswork to the particular requirements for teaching musical notation to childrenwith special educational needs, the following comments are particularlyinteresting.

The use of Colour-Staff with special needs children has been as enlighteningas it has been constructive and helpful. I have been using this invaluableteaching aid with children who have moderate learning difficulties andbehaviour problems for over a year. Its flexibility and diversity has enabledstudents to experience a hands-on, vivid and truly exciting approach tomusic reading.

COMMENTS BY COLOUR-STAFF USERS

8The definition of colour on the boards and the way in which this introducesthem to the staff unlocks what would otherwise be a strange and complicatedlanguage for them. The physical aspects of the boards and stickers and theway in which these can then be applied to the keyboard (also through colourco-ordination) have proved to be immediately appealing to the children.

The actual process of recognition of notes from the staff can then beextended through use of keyboards to performance, instrumental andcreative skills. I have therefore combined the use of Colour-Staff withimprovisation and basic composition projects where they are learning toread, play and create at the same time.

The visual excitement and immediate clarity of Colour-Staff has been centralto my work in this area, and I cannot recommend its use strongly enough. Itis an exciting and extremely valuable teaching tool.

Andrew Quartermain M.A.(Cantab), P.G.D.G.S.M.D.Pianist, composer and teacher (Clarendon School Hampton)

9Introduction

Colour-Staff is a multi-sensory musical tool-kit designed to help people readmusical notation and to understand how such notation relates to playing aninstrument. It can be used in a number of teaching situations and for a varietyof different instruments, offering exciting opportunities for all age groups andabilities to explore and create music.

One of the most common frustrations for a beginner starting to learn to play aninstrument is the actual process of reading and understanding the written musicitself. Parents who are not musically trained often feel this frustration most in thepractice time between their childs individual lessons. They witness the barrierformed, because of the assortment of complicated notes and symbols, betweenthe enthusiastic student and their ability to express written music. Colour-Staffsvivid and adaptable techniques help the teacher, the student and the parent toovercome this barrier and share involvement in the learning process.

Colour-Staff provides the teacher with all the equipment needed for eitherclassroom or one-to-one teaching, the student with material for practice at homebetween lessons, and the parent with an understanding of the learning steps thattheir child is undergoing.

Colour-Staff uses the diagram of a keyboard which provides a valuablebackground for many aspects of musical theory and is helpful to all learnerswhether or not they play a keyboard instrument.

The use of a colour panel and colour symbols in the Colour-Staff kit enablekeyboard players to respond visually, aurally and through feel on the keyboardto patterns of notes in written music. In other words the young musician findstheir way into an understanding of musical notation kinaesthetically, or on amulti-sensory basis.

The use of colour, however, simply links the position of a sound on an instrumentto its written symbol on the page or for other identification purposes. It is

WHAT IS COLOUR-STAFF?

The Colour-Staff keyboard.

10

important to remember that this does not imply a relationship between anyparticular colour and any particular sound.

Throughout the centuries, visible colour has been used in musical notation. Forexample, in some early manuscripts, the note C was represented by a red line.Instrumentally, music for the harp still uses red for its C-string and black or darkblue for its F-string.

The colour sequence adopted by Colour-Staff today is that of natures rainbow.This wonderful spectrum is used simply because of its familiarity to students.(Astute users may note, however, a slight shift in the sequence of rainbow colours!This enables Colour-Staff to maintain the historical relationship in musicalnotation between the colour red and the note C.)

Colour-Staff provides a variety of differently shaped mobile symbols which are forplacing on the staff boards and dummy keyboards included. The very act ofputting these pieces in place is, in itself, a useful exercise for finger-work andsensory perception, as well as being part of the learning experience. The multi-sensory approach of Colour-Staff is based on seeing and feeling these shapes andpatterns and their relationships and repetitions.

Colour-Staff enables the student to acquire a strong link between the visual, auraland tactile shapes implicit in playing an instrument and the visual shapes andpattern of notes and symbols in written music. The student learns to match whatthe eyes see on a score with what the ears hear and the fingers feel as they play.

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A Guide for Teachers and Parents

Colour-Staff allows patterns of black lines or white spaces on the staff to beclearly observed and linked to each instrumental position. The fingers learn toplay what the eyes see without having to remember the name and order of eachnote. This system means that those who have a poor short term working memory no longer have to rely on intellectual memory processes. You play whatyou see.

Written music uses black, or black and white, symbols to represent what has tobe played the actual sound of all the individual notes and the relationshipthrough time between them. Sound or pitch is represented vertically by notesplaced on the lines or spaces of the staff, whilst time the different lengthrequired for each sound or rest (that is silence in time) is represented horizontallyalong the staff. When reading music, therefore, the eye has to move in twodirections up or down for pitch and left to right to follow time symbols.

A particular feature of Colour-Staff is the picture it reveals of the Great Staffseleven lines and spaces. This encompass the normal range of the humanvoice. The five highest lines and spaces, called the treble staff, represent hightreble sounds, the five lowest lines and spaces, the bass staff, represent low basssounds. The line representing Middle C floats in between. When used on its ownit is shown as a short black leger line.

As Colour-Staff is a multi-sensory tool, it would also be a good idea to encouragestudents to sing while placing colours and recognising notes. This adds a furthervaluable dimension to the learning experience. Students should also beencouraged to express their visual and aural reactions while working withColour-Staff.

The full Colour-Staff kit is described in the next few pages, followed by theprocess the teacher should take with students. Finally, a brief section on thevarious symbols used in musical notation is included to assist parents asnecessary.

THE COLOUR-STAFF KIT

12

2005 Margaret Hubicki

Single Staff Board.

A number of essential elements are used to make up a complete Colour-Staffkit. Different situations may require differing combinations of these elements.Thus, a music teacher working with a whole class may use additional boards,whereas a teacher working on a one-to-one basis may find the basic Staff Boardand keyboard sufficient.

2005 Margaret Hubicki

2005 Margaret Hubicki

Main Colour-Staff Boards

Basic Great Staff Board.The basic Great Staff Board shows inheavy type the arrangement of blacklines and white spaces used for printedtwo-stave music.

Great Staff Board with Middle C Line.This Great Staff Board shows in heavytype the arrangement of black lines andwhite spaces used for printed two-stavemusic, with a feint line in betweendepicting Middle C line.

Dummy Keyboards.Dummy keyboards are provided in sets ofthree to form nearly six octaves.

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Colour-Staff Panels

Colour-Staff Colour Sheets

2 x

1 x

1 x

2 x

2 x

1 x

1 x

2 x

2 x

1 x

1 x

2 x

1 x

2 x

B

C

D

E

F

G

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

6 x

6 x

6 x

6 x

6 x

6 x

6 x

A

In addition to the Colour Panel, a further sheet contains rectangles and squares:

SquaresRectangles

Step Three

Take the two wide and one narrow indigo rectangles marked A. Place them on theGreat Staff board next to the corresponding indigo strips of the Colour Panel.

Step Four

Point out to the student that the shape of the rectangle alternates between wideand narrow A notes an octave apart. Also, explain that the A on the middle lineof the Great Staff board is referred to as Middle A.

Step Five

To begin to translate colour into the notation of printed music, place a black ovalbeside each of the three added indigo rectangles.

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A

A

A

A

A

A

The rectangular sound-name A strips positioned on the Great Staff board.

Ovals added to the Great Staff board commencing the transition to printed musical notation.

Step Six

This step marks the transition into black and white notation on its own. Thestudent should work through the earlier steps using black ovals alone in thesame way that coloured symbols were used to show where A is found on boththe dummy keyboard and Great Staff board.

17

Step Seven

Teachers and parents may, at thispoint, encourage students to translatewhat they have learnt on the boardsto manuscript paper.

By drawing As on manuscript, andby finding an A on a piece of printedmusic, the student is starting tocomplete this cycle of the learningprocess.

(It is left to the discretion of theteacher whether or not to rule a faintMiddle C line on the studentsmanuscript paper.)

A

A

A

... and on the Great Staff board.

Black ovals replace indigo symbols on both the dummy keyboard...

Beginning to apply notation

Step Eight

To find which A sound on a keyboard (or on the dummy keyboard) belongs towhich A line or space of the staff, stand the Great Staff board on the music deskof the piano or electronic keyboard, centrally above the dummy keyboard, withthe same amount of the Staff Board extending on either side of the keyboardsmost central point.

Play Middle A which will, of course, sound on the keyboard but be silent on thedummy keyboard. Immediately above it, place the narrow indigo A rectangle onthe Middle A line of the staff board. This line will always belong to the soundof Middle A.

Next, play A below Middle A and immediately above this place a wide indigo Arectangle on the first space upon the staff board as shown below. This space willalways belong to the Sound of A below Middle A.

Finally, play A above Middle A and vertically above this place a wide indigorectangle on the third space down from the top. This space will always belong tothe Sound of A above Middle A.

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A

A

A AA

A*

* Middle A

*

Relating keyboard A sounds to space and line locations of A on the Great Staff board.

Step Nine

It is helpful for the student again to draw on to manuscript paper, this timeplacing the three positions for A.

By playing or singing the student can also now observe that, where two ormore notes are written above one another they form a single sound when playedtogether.

Similarly, the student will be able to see that, where notes are written one afterthe other, they are played one after the other, forming a progression of sounds.

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Stage Two - Sound-Names B C D E F and G

The student can now understand the relationships between keyboard positionsfor the sound-name A and its notation and locations on the Great Staff board. Itis therefore feasible to cover the full octave range of notes.

Step One

Each of the sound-names B C D E F G belongs, in sequence, to a white note of thekeyboard to the right of A. Take each note in sequence, using the same series ofsteps as for sound-name A (pages 19 to 23), for learning their respective keyboardand Great Staff positions. For each note, ensure that the student can name it, seeit with the eye, feel it in the finger, sing it and, finally, write it on manuscriptpaper.

When learning sound-name C, the students attention should be drawn to thefact that C on the line immediately above the Bass (lower) Staff and C on the lineimmediately below the Treble (higher) Staff is always one and the same. It isalways known as Middle C, belonging to the most central C on the keyboard. Thisimportant aspect of Colour-Staff is shown below, with the Middle C line equi-distant between bass and treble.

The interval between the treble and bass clefs can be clearly seen as a thin line.In printed music, this space is larger than on Colour-Staffs board which can bea source of great confusion even to practised musicians!

C

C

C CC

C*

* Middle C

*

20

Noting the relationship of Middle C to the Bass and Treble staffs.

21

Step Two

The student must work thoroughly upon one sound-name until the relativepositions on both keyboard and Great Staff are clearly pictured in mind and feltwith the fingers. Only then should the student learn a further sound-name.

As each sound-name is learnt, it is helpful to remind the student that the colourof the sound-name symbol repeats at every octave, although the same sizerectangle - that is, wide or narrow - repeats only every second octave.

Step Three

Whilst it is important to ensure complete familiarisation with each sound-namein sequence, the student can be encouraged to identify patterns which help torelate one sound-name to another.

For example, words can be selected from the letters A B C D E F or G. A typicalword might be ACE. As with single sound-names, the word ACE can appear threetimes on the Great Staff board, either as a set of three spaces at the bottom of theBass Staff and at the top of the Treble Staff, or as a set of three lines in the middleof the Great Staff.

The students growing familiarty with such relationships can be encouraged byplacing the approariate symbols on both the Staff board and the keyboard,followed by the student singing the sound-names and writing them in black onmanuscript paper.

C

C

E

A

A

E

C

E

A

Developing relationships between sound-names through use of word patterns.