Take students on a musical journey to learn “What Makes Music, Music?,” exploring fundamentals such as melody, rhythm, dynamics, tempo, and texture! This resource's link takes you to a very short form that gives you free access to the teacher guide/lesson plan books, student readings, videos, and presentation slides. The 8 lessons are:
- Introduction to the Orchestra & Musical Storytelling with Beethoven
- Form with Jessie Montgomery
- Dynamics with Mozart
- Rhythm with Joplin
- Texture with Anthony Kelley
- Tempo with Arturo Márquez (online concert)
- Melody with Terry Mizesko
- Finale with Carlos Simon (online concert)

Use video and music to discover the ancient Middle Eastern stringed instrument, the oud.
Discuss the history of the instrument and compare different styles of playing. Learn to identify
and repeat the different rhythms.

Students explore the music of the Pacific islands of Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga, including their instruments and cultural similarities. Practice musical notation by transcribing rhythmic and melodic contour. Identify the instruments used and their significance.

This exciting lesson explores the rich sounds of Western Samoa. Students will recreate the beautiful sounds of singable melodies with uncomplicated rhythm. The students will sing, dance, and drum in the traditional community style of Western Samoa.

This is a simplified version of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf taught in a developmental delay program for special needs students and English language learners. It is easily adapted to meet the needs of older children with the same educational needs. The purpose of the lesson is to provide the students with a variety of experiences performing and telling the story of the fable that Sergei Prokofiev has set to music, and to introduce the students to various instruments of the orchestra.

Students will listen to the sounds of instruments and classify instruments into four families. Students will recognize the instruments of the orchestra from sight and sound by utilizing the www.sfskids.org website. They will compare the sounds of different instruments and learn to classify them into four families. Students will make their own fabric square to be sewn into a quilt that will be displayed in the classroom.

Students will be introduced to syncopation through a wacky Thanksgiving song told from the perspective of the turkey. This lesson is designed to fulfill Standard #5 of the National Standards for Music: Reading and notating music.

Students will use the music of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade to inspire a strong introduction to a story. By assuming the role of Scheherazade, students will write an introduction and collaborative story about Sinbad the Sailor. They will then take a comparative look at their own creations and the original story by Rimsky-Korsakov.

Students will practice and perform a Reader's Theater entitled Salt, a Russian folktale. They will hear a story about the Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and listen to four of his compositions: Swan Lake, Serenade for Strings, Marche Slave, and 1812 Overture. Finally, in groups of five to eight students, they will choose a musical score from these pieces to accompany their section of the Reader's Theater.

Visitors to the website will learn about the musical instruments that have been traditionally used along the Silk Road. Included is a map of the region, a reading list, and fun facts. Teachers will find an Education Kit with a Teacher's Guide and a Sourcebook of lesson plans, activities, and background materials to use in teaching their students about the Silk Road. Students will learn about the geography, economics, and history of the Silk Roads. They will discover the religions of both the ancient and contemporary cultures of the area. They will also be able to create musical instruments.

Students will gain a keen understanding of the Musical Instrument Families. They will understand how instruments are played. Finally, their experience will bring an understanding of the culture and climate of the Symphony, as it becomes truly accessible to students of all socio/economic backgrounds.

This lesson will introduce students to Igor Stravinsky. Students will be engaged with Stravinsky"™s music and will interpret their feelings in the form of art and poetry.

This lesson integrates language arts with visual and performing arts. Students immerse themselves in the world of the Russian folktale, The Firebird, and then explore other avenues of appreciating the tale through listening and dancing to Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, as well as engaging in theater and visual arts activities.

Students will learn about Franz Joseph Haydn by reading a short biography. They also will be introduced to his Surprise Symphony through a fun-filled listening/activity lesson. This lesson is designed to fulfill Standard #6 of the National Standards for Music: listening to, analyzing, and describing music.

Students move and listen to Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, second movement Andante molto mosso, known as Scene by the Brook, as they imagine taking a journey with Beethoven along a path. They focus on the dynamics and tempo of the music and work to build their own personal image of what it might look like and feel like to take a walk with Beethoven beside a brook. As they listen to the entire Symphony No. 6, students will work in teams to create a visual representation of each movement using oil pastels. They will conclude by writing a paragraph which describes their picture.

This lesson plan encourages students to open their ears and minds to the possibilities of sounds, what constitutes music and what makes a musical instrument. Activities include examining personal definitions of music through discussion, reading and writing with a fun exercise creating water drums.

To accomplish goals, members of families must cooperate, just as members of the orchestra must cooperate to create beautiful music. Similarly, students in a classroom have similar constructs; everyone
must do their best for themselves as well as for the good of the whole. This lesson helps students understand that an orchestra, a family and a classroom must work together to accomplish great things.

Students will gain an understanding of ten instruments of the orchestra (trombone, trumpet, french horn, cello, violin, flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, harp). This lesson is designed to fulfill Standard #6 of the National Standards for Music: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.