The use of computer hardware and software in the music classroom setting is becoming commonplace. For software to be effective at a primary school level, it must take into account the way that children use sound and the way that they notate those sounds. This paper describes part of a study which examined the way in which primary school children notated music to determine if this was adaptable to a software interface. The study involved 179 children and results suggest that the children appeared to have their own symbol system which (a) appears to be pitch based, (b) caters for loudness and duration of notes, and (c) does not appear to follow melodic contour. A pilot learner interface, based on this method of notation, is described.
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