The goal of this article is to contribute fragments of concrete understanding to the on-going search for meaning in ideas associated with the learning sciences (Sawyer, 2006b) by adding to the repertoire of domain specific studies pertaining to this relatively new field. The learning sciences are first characterized as a system of learning principles, fundamental laws about learning that tend to be embraced by theorists and practitioners of the learning sciences. These principles are then examined through the lens of a cognitive tool (Jonassen & Carr, 2000) for studying musical melody. This cognitive tool is a computational system consisting of Clay, a music knowledge representation language, and MxM, its infrastructural host. MxM and Clay are informally introduced and subsequently applied to problems associated with the representation and analysis of melodic structure. As the presentation unfolds, manifestations of the learning science principles are identified and discussed. (Contains 20 figures, 2 tables and 1 footnote.)