Click dots on a grid and join them up. That is a line graph — and it is also a tune. Higher dot, higher note.
Graphs & functions
This is a line graph. Across the bottom is which note comes next; up the side is how high that note is. Move the dots, join them up, press play — and the graph turns into a tune.
Your line goes 2 steps up, 1 down and stays the same 4 times. That is exactly how you read any line graph — and exactly how a singer reads a melody.
From the NSM syllabus
◆“High, Low & Same Melodic Lines”
◆“Melodic Curves with 3 & 4 note exercises”
Two axes, one picture
Across is time — note 1, note 2, note 3. Up is pitch. Every dot is one reading, and joining the dots shows what happened in between. Same as a graph of the weather, or your height each birthday.
Steep means a big jump
A gentle slope is a small change; a steep one is a leap. Try “Zigzag” and then “Up the stairs” — you can hear the difference in steepness before you can explain it.
Flat is not nothing
A flat line means “same, same, same”. The graph is not empty and the music is not silent — the value simply is not changing. Press A flat line and listen.
For the classroom
Learning goals
◆Reading and plotting a line graph: the horizontal axis is an ordered sequence (time), the vertical axis is a measured quantity (pitch), and each point is one pair of readings.
◆Describing a graph in words — rising, falling, level, steep, gentle — and matching that description to something the class can hear.
◆Recognising that the same information exists in two forms: a picture (the curve) and a sound (the melody).
Try this
1.Play a preset with eyes closed and ask students to draw the shape in the air, then compare with the graph on screen.
2.Give a written description — 'starts low, climbs to the top, drops back halfway' — and have pairs build the line that matches, then play it.
3.Set the grid to 3 notes, then 4. Ask how many different shapes are possible with three dots if you only care about up, down and same.