Students will gain a basic knowledge of acoustics; the families of instruments in the orchestra; an instrument's pitch range; and how sound is produced by an instrument.
A lesson on the invention of the electric guitar, including how it works, how it is designed and the commercial success of this instrument.
Students will be introduced to Jewish folk music through singing, playing, and dancing a traditional arrangement of "Al Tiruni" and participating in guided discussions of Jewish history and cultural heritage.
Students will identify the musical form of the 12-bar blues and participate in a composition of a 12-bar blues song. Students will also discuss how the problems and conflicts of farming in the 1940's contributed and influenced blues music.
Students will use Mike Seeger's performance of "Josh Thomas' Roustabout" as a gateway to exploring vocal expression within a limited-tone sequence. Students will critically discuss the relationship between the voice and accompanying instruments, compose their own limited-tone songs, accompanying themselves on Orff Instruments, and improvise within a limited-tone sequence on recorders.
The four styles of music within the Mexican culture are the backdrop for this lesson which provides students an opportunity to create percussion instruments and recognize the difference while playing each style. Lucha Libre masks are also part of the culture and students gain a deeper understanding of it by creating their own masks
In this set of lessons, students will be able to describe scenarios that require musicians to use mathematics and algebraic reasoning in their work. Students will explain how to use algebraic concepts and reasoning to calculate beats per minute. In the Culminating Activity, students reflect upon and discuss their strategies and talk about the ways in which algebra can be applied in music and beyond.
Introduce students to the melodic rhythms of the tabla tarang, classical drumming from India, through music and movement. Learn to improvise the jati system of vocalizing rhythms.
In this collection of Unit Plans, teachers have access to lesson plans, assessments, activities, and grading rubrics to help teach in the middle school general music classroom. Lesson topics include "The Mbira, Opera, Exploring Rhythm & Culture through Percussion, Music in Africa, Music in the Movies, Music Theory & Notation, Blues & Jazz, and the Ocarina.
The purpose of this lesson is to develop an understanding of why skepticism is important in science by looking at actual scientific studies regarding the effect of playing Mozart’s music to infants. In this lesson students will explore what happens when the media and/or the public discover a scientific study and extrapolates the message into “truth†without the benefit of further study. This lesson will also demonstrate how public policy can be based on a faulty or unreplicated study. Students need become critical thinkers separate actual science advertising claims.
Students will understand that music communicates many things. Students will understand that music can be represented and expressed on paper through the use of line and color.
Music can help us learn about history! This lesson demonstrates to your students how music of the Baroque period reflects the importance of the institutions of State and Church, and the influence both had on the
work of each composer.
When did music develop? What role did music play in precivilization? This lesson asks students to interact with the music and art of the hunters and gathers, and determine what role it played in their culture.
With this research based webpage, students explore the benefits of music programs in schools. Students will discover that through research there have been findings that music lessons may boost the Intelligence Quotient (IQ). This website provides links to audio files, written transcript, and questions to engage students in discussion about the findings of the study and how to form and test the research as a group.
Students use music they already know and love to learn about the language and expression of music. Students will select an autobiographical piece of music that represents who they are, what is important to them, what they value, and how they would like to be perceived by others.
This lesson will introduce students to the music of composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky and prepare them for a field trip to see "The Nutcracker" ballet. Students will write a poem from the images they imagine or vizualize while listening to two selections from "The Nutcracker".
After learning about the life of composer Ludwig van Beethoven and listening to a variety of musical selections, students will create an Ode to Beethoven to express their appreciation and knowledge for his life and musical talent. In addition, the students learned about the artist Andy Warhol, and will use this knowledge to create an art piece of Beethoven in the style of Warhol.
Students investigate life on the Colombian Orinoco Plains through the exploration of Joropo Music. Activities include Spanish attentive listening, cultural enrichment, and musical interaction through singing, playing, and moving.
Students be introduced to the pentatonic scale through listening examples, identification of scale types, and class discussion of the geographical/cultural aspects of the scale. Students will also have a chance to experiment and find melodies using the notes of each of the pentatonic and major scale types.
In this activity, students will explore two different pieces of classical music, both written to convey a specific mood, image, or sensation. They will compare these to familiar music that has similar goals - like movie soundtracks.