Music notation in Zheng teaching: The conversion from numbered musical notation to staff notation

This project aims to investigate the conversion from numbered musical notation to staff notation in Zheng teaching, which focuses on difficulties of conversion, Solfeggio system and the effectiveness of a specially designed teaching material. The project can be subdivided into two stages. In stage 1, interviews with students and teachers, who have faced difficulties in learning or teaching about converting to staff notation. Stage 2 is the design of teaching material and questionnaire. It was triangulated by observation and literature review. 2 teachers and 5 students were invited to have an interview in stage 1, while 15 participants were invited to try the teaching material and do the online test and questionnaire. In this project, the solution of difficulties on two concepts (numbered musical notation and staff notation, movable-do system and fixed-do system) was suggested. Questionnaire provided positive feedback on teaching material. The findings of the project were analyzed with literature on difficulties solving (both notation system and solfeggio system) and special needs of different age groups. At the end, there were recommendations for further development and for other researchers.