👂 Listening Games
Big ears on! I play a sound, you tap one of three boxes. I read every question out loud.
- High or LowTwo notes. Is the second one higher or lower?
- Fast or SlowIs the music slow like a tortoise, or fast like a hare?
- Loud or SoftIs the music getting louder like an elephant, or softer like a mouse?
- How Does It Feel?Happy, sad or spooky? Listen to the chords.
- Same or DifferentThree little tunes. Two are the same. Which one is different?
- Name That InstrumentA tune plays. Which instrument is playing it?
- Instrument FamiliesStrings, keyboards, percussion or electronic: which family is playing?
- Guess the YearMusic changes over time. When was music like this new?
What the listening games teach
Listening is a skill, and it grows with practice. Each game plays a short sound made by Peabody’s band, right on this device, and asks one question with three big answers. A round is ten questions. Each game starts easy, and eight right the first time climbs a rung, where the sounds get closer together.
- High or Low (Pre-K to 2nd grade): Pitch: high notes and low notes, and how close two notes can be before they sound the same.
- Fast or Slow (Pre-K to 1st grade): Tempo: how fast the beat goes. The same tune can be slow, walking or fast.
- Loud or Soft (Pre-K to 1st grade): Dynamics: music can grow louder (a crescendo) or fade softer (a diminuendo), or stay the same.
- How Does It Feel? (Pre-K to 3rd grade): Major chords sound happy, minor chords sound sad, and some chords sound spooky, like in a scary film. It's the Chord Finder's rule, by ear.
- Same or Different (K to 3rd grade): Listening for patterns: when a tune repeats and when it changes, the start of musical form (A, A, B).
- Name That Instrument (K to 5th grade): Timbre: the same tune sounds different on a guitar, a piano or a drum, and every instrument has its own sound.
- Instrument Families (1st to 5th grade): Instruments come in families: strings you pluck or bow, keyboards you press, percussion you hit, and electronic sounds made by electricity.
- Guess the Year (3rd to 8th grade): Music has a history: every kind of music was new once, and you can hear when by its instruments and its beat.
For grown-ups: nothing is typed and nothing is sent. The rung a child reached is kept on this device. The sounds follow the sound switch and the music switch, and Peabody waits until it has finished reading before the band plays. The instruments are Peabody’s own synthesizer voices standing in for the real ones, so woodwinds and brass wait until real recordings join.