PPBF – The First Notes: The Story of DO, RE, MI

One of my favorite activities when visiting my grandson is reading picture books with him. And when he naps or is at “school” (daycare), I borrow a few, including today’s Perfect Picture Book, to review. Enjoy!

Title: The First Notes: The Story of DO, RE, MI

Written By: Julie Andrews & Emma Walton Hamilton

Art By: Chiara Fedele

Publisher/Date: Little, Brown and Company/2022

Suitable for Ages: 4-8

Themes/Topics: music, history, origin story, STEAM

Opening:

A thousand years ago, in the small community of Pomposa, Italy, a boy named Guido was sent to a monastery to begin his schooling. In those days, a monastery was considered the best place to receive an education. The monks who lived and taught there were studious and wise.

Brief Synopsis: The story of the first musical notation system and the young monk who developed it.

Links to Resources:

• Read the rich and informative Back Matter including a note by Julie Andrews about the song “Do-Re-Mi”, a Glossary, a Historical Note, information about a day in the life of Benedictine monks during the 11^th century, and information about the Guidonian Hand;
• Think about a problem that you face and about ways you can solve it. Write down, or draw a chart, to show how you can solve your problem.

Why I Like this Book:

The notes of the scale are familiar to many of us, and even to many of our children. But did you ever wonder how, when, or where the musical scale was created?

Andrews and Walton Hamilton provide an answer in this fascinating biography of its creator, a monk named Guido who lived in 11^th century Italy, and his musical notation system.

Music lovers and lovers of The Sound of Music, in which the notation system was set to music in the popular song “Do-Re-Mi”, will enjoy discovering the back story of the musical scale. They may even find themselves singing along to that tune as the scale appears towards the end of the story – I certainly did!

The First Notes is more than the history of the musical notation system. It’s also a fascinating exploration of an invention: Guido identified a problem, the difficulty of teaching music without a written notation system, thought about it, observed that he was only singing six tones in any melody he sang, wrote those tones down as squares ascending a ladder, and named them for the first letters of words in a favorite hymn. Doing so enabled creators to write down melodies and musicians to read and sing music they had never heard. Because of the way Andrews and Walton Hamilton present Guido’s thought process and his invention, I think The First Notes is a fantastic resource to explore the creative process of invention with children.

A Note about Craft:

The First Notes is a biography of a monk who lived during the 11^th century when few records were kept, and the story of the musical notation system he developed. So how did Andrews and Walton Hamilton research and write this biography? In a Historical Note in the Back Matter, the pair lists the facts they could confirm and the sources for them. But other details in the story they filled in, based on the time period and place where Guido lived.

This Perfect Picture Book entry is being added to Susanna Hill’s Perfect Picture Book list. Check out the other great picture books featured there!