Students will recognize that American music is diverse as it relates to culture, history and style. Students
may also work with digital media to accompany their performance piece.

Students will learn ABA form through movement. This lesson is designed to fulfill Standard #6 of the National Standards for Music: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.

In this lesson, students explore the effect that a particular culture can have on popular music.

In this lesson, students explore the effect that a particular culture can have on popular music.

Students work in groups to learn and perform a piece on non-pitched percussion instruments and develop rhythm reading and ensemble skills.

Students will gain an understanding of meter by experiencing accented and unaccented beats. This free lesson plan is designed to fulfill Standard #5 of the National Standards for Music Education: Reading and notating music.

This lesson develops students' ability to hear subtle dynamic levels in orchestral music, and to recognize
sudden and gradual differences. They will use their collective perception to make relative aural judgments
about levels and changes. Data will be recorded on a bar graph marking real time and 6 dynamic levels
roughly equivalent to 6 primary markings of standard dynamics: pp to ff.

Students discover how music can create a visual image in one"™s mind as they listen to Beethoven"™s Sixth Symphony "“ Pastoral. As the image takes shape, the students create a visual representation of their image to include the aspects of nature which Beethoven included in this wonderful composition.

Students write a descriptive essay explaining their thoughts and feelings while listening to Beethoven"™s 5th Symphony, learning how to describe the musical elements that cause them to feel this way, and transpose these feelings into a watercolor art piece. The students will present their essay and art work orally, and act out their responses during a physical education exercise.

In this unit, students will learn that improvisation is an acquired skill which will improve with practice. Students will use the 12 bar blues format as a vehicle to gain fluency with improvisation, creating a melodic line in the 12 bar blues structure. The lesson will culminate with students recording and transcribing their 12 bar blues solo.

This lesson examines both the content and form of lyrics in blues songs. In addition to highlighting the basic musical form of a blues song, it also addresses the use of floating verses in blues music, both within the context of the original era in which the songs were sung and also in relation to how this practice is perceived today.

Students will exercise critical listening, singing, dancing, and playing instruments to traditional music of Bolivia. They will improvise rhythms, compose a song, and draw connections across a wide variety of disciplines.

In this lesson we explore one song Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode," released on Chess Records in 1958 and suggest several analytical frameworks in which one can deepen one's understanding of the song: using a listening template; using a timeline to understand a song's historical context; understanding Rock and Roll as a visual culture; understanding Rock and Roll as performance; understanding Rock and Roll as a literary form; and understanding the industry and technology of Rock and Roll. Of course, what we do with "Johnny B. Goode" can be done with any song. The objective is to understand a recording in the most complete way possible.

Using a selection of songs, statistics, television spots, archival films, and magazine advertisements, students investigate how the postwar resurgence of the U.S. automotive industry coincided with the rise of the teenager, the two intersecting in Rock and Roll culture.

In this lesson, students will explore the emergence of Sixties Soul music within the context of the Civil Rights movement of the early 1960s. Using Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions' iconic "People Get Ready" as a starting point, students will examine the connection between musical and political voices, and the ways in which popular song helped express the values of the movement and served as a galvanizing force for those involved.

This lesson focuses on McCarthyism, the Red Scare, and how artists were targeted by HUAC during the Cold War. Students will view several government-produced "educational" films and television interviews from the 1950s, and will participate in a group reading of HUAC's interrogations of Seeger and Hays, discussing how activist artists championed the civil liberties of American citizens.

Prior to the antiwar demonstrations on and around college campuses, the Civil Rights movement in particular had increased student activism. As American involvement in Vietnam deepened, many in that age group faced the disconcerting reality of conscription. Even before they shipped out, those who were drafted had begun to see the horrors of the war, most notably on television. The growing presence of television in nearly every American household thus exacerbated divisions over the conflict and helped fuel the antiwar movement. What Americans watched on television each night shaped their perceptions of the Vietnam War, which came to be known as the "living room war." For some young Americans, called on to fight but unable to vote until the age of 21, the situation was unacceptable.

In this lesson, students will investigate ways in which artists including George Harrison, Bob Geldof, and others drew on the experiences of the 1960s to harness the inherent power of musical performance to promote awareness and encourage activism. Students will look at the messages, methodologies, and historical contexts of both the Concert for Bangladesh and Live Aid and will refer to these events to develop a proposal for a benefit performance of their own.

This lesson considers New York City and the cross currents that run between the worlds of music-making and the arts in a broad sense, particularly the visual and literary arts

In this lesson, students explore the principles of synesthesia through drawing to music. By viewing and analyzing artwork based on multi sensory perception, students will become aware of the role of the senses in art, and how sensory stimulation such as listening to music can be used as a tool for inspiration. Guided by a handout outlining the basic elements and principles of art, students will engage in active discussions about how sensory perceptions can be interpreted through color, line, and form. They will then apply these reflections on their own artistic work.