<b>Scale Construction Difficulties in Senior High School Music: An Action Research Case in the Ghanaian Setting </b><b></b>

This classroom action research investigated the procedural difficulties experienced by Music students in constructing major scales and evaluated a structured instructional intervention designed to address these challenges within a senior high school music classroom in Ghana. The study involved twenty Form Two Music students at Adisadel College in the Central Region of Ghana who were purposively selected because they exhibited persistent difficulties in major scale construction. Data were collected using a diagnostic pre-test, unstructured interviews, and a post-intervention assessment following a five-week instructional programme. Quantitative data were analysed using frequencies and percentages. The diagnostic assessment revealed substantial procedural difficulties in constructing the F major and D major scales before the intervention. Following the instructional programme, most students successfully completed the procedural tasks included in the post-intervention assessment, including the application of accidentals, construction of major scales with and without key signatures, identification of natural semitone positions, and staff notation exercises. The findings suggest that the structured instructional approach effectively supported students’ procedural competence in the scale-construction tasks addressed during classroom instruction. Because the post-intervention assessment evaluated only the instructional content explicitly taught during the intervention, the findings are interpreted as evidence of successful acquisition of the targeted procedural skills rather than transfer of learning or broader conceptual understanding. Although limited to a single classroom, the study provides practical guidance for improving music theory instruction through structured, sequential, and keyboard-supported teaching approaches in senior high school music education.