Day 17: Mystery Transcription Reveal

Tuesday, August 25th, 2026

Objectives

I can identify a melody by ear from a recording.
I can compare my transcription to the real thing and find where I was off.
I can write the C major scale in MuseScore.
I can use the notes of the C major scale to write a short melody.

Warmup: Last Guesses

Answers go up today. Before they do, you get one more pass at them.

Below are recordings of all nine melodies from the Mystery Transcription sheet, in the same order they appear on the page. Listen to as many as you want, in any order, as many times as you want.

Write a guess next to every number on your sheet — including the ones you never transcribed.

Nothing gets submitted today. The guess form is closed and these guesses are not graded. Prizes were already decided by the timestamps on last night’s submissions. This round is for you.

Headphones on, and keep your guesses to yourself until we go through them together.

Checkpoint: Warmup

I listened to the melodies I never transcribed, not just my own.
I wrote a guess next to every number on my sheet.

Work Session: Part 1 — The Reveal

We go through all nine together, one at a time. You hear it, you call out your guess, then the title goes up.

Prizes go to the fastest correct guess for each melody. The form timestamped every submission, so the winner is whoever got it in first — not whoever is loudest right now.

As each answer comes up, check it against your sheet:

Mark the ones you got.
For at least one you missed, go back to what you wrote and find the reason. It is almost always one of three things: a wrong octave, a rhythm that was close but not exact, or a wrong starting note that put the whole melody in the wrong place.

Knowing which one it was is the part that makes you better at this. “I just didn’t get it” is not a reason.

Checkpoint: The Reveal

I marked which of my guesses were right.
For at least one I missed, I can say exactly what went wrong.

Work Session: Part 2 — The C Major Scale

You are done reading other people’s music. From here on you write your own, and a scale is where every melody starts.

Follow along with Mr. Willingham. Do not run ahead — we are doing this one step at a time, together.

Set Up Your Score

Create New Score in MuseScore.
Instrument: Piano.
Key: C major. Time signature: 4/4. Measures: 4.
Save as LastName_CMajor.

Write the Scale

The C major scale is eight notes: C D E F G A B C. It starts on C, walks straight up to the next C, and uses no sharps and no flats — on a piano it is all white keys.

Enter it as quarter notes, then play it back. It should sound like the thing you have heard a thousand times without knowing its name. If it does not, one of your notes skipped a step.

Key Vocabulary

Scale: An ordered set of notes that a piece of music is built from, running from one note up to the same note again.
C Major Scale: The eight notes C D E F G A B C — no sharps, no flats.
Step: Moving from one note to the note right next to it in the scale. A melody that moves by step is easy to sing and easy to read.

Write Our First Melody

Now we write one together, on the board and on your screen at the same time.

Every note comes from the scale you just entered. That is the only rule. Stay inside C D E F G A B C and it will sound like it belongs together — which is exactly why we learned the scale first.

Mostly steps, with the occasional skip, is what a singable melody looks like. Nine leaps in a row is what a mistake looks like.

Checkpoint: Scale and Melody

My score is saved as LastName_CMajor.
The C major scale is entered and plays back correctly.
I kept up with the class melody and it is on my screen.

Closing

You read nine melodies you had never seen, and the ones you got right you got right from the page — not because somebody told you what they were. That is the skill this whole unit was building toward.

Tomorrow you get a second scale — A minor — and write a melody in it. Same notes, different home, completely different mood.

Closing Question

Think about this — you may be called on to share your answer out loud.

For the melody you recognized fastest, what tipped you off first: the pitches or the rhythm? Now think about one you missed. Would the other one have gotten you there?

Checkpoint: Closing

My sheet has a guess written next to every number.
My C major scale and the class melody are both in my score.
My score is saved as LastName_CMajor.

Standards

MSMTC8.CR.1 — Generate musical ideas for various purposes and contexts (writing a first melody from the notes of the C major scale in notation software).
MSMTC8.RE.2 — Analyze how the structure and context of varied musical works inform the response (using repetition and contour in a recorded melody to identify what it is).
MSMTC8.RE.4 — Support evaluations of musical works and performances based on analysis, interpretation, and established criteria (checking a transcription against the recording and diagnosing what went wrong).