Education Closet
West Side Shifts
Combine math, language arts, music, and dance with an activity focused on "America" from West Side Story. After listening to the song, learners compare the film to Romeo and Juliet, analyze the song's meter, design choreography, plan...
Concordia College Archives
History and Musical Aesthetics
What are the musical elements that characterize a school's fight song or its alma mater? Class members listen to examples of fight songs and alma maters from various schools, play a listening game, and then create a list of the...
North Carolina Standard Curriculum
Rhythm Counting
Understanding time signatures and rhythm counting are two very important parts of playing an instrument well. Here are three basic lessons rolled into one that prompt upper graders to play their instruments with care. They'll practice...
Curated OER
Identifying the Beat
Sixth graders listen to various songs. In this musical properties lesson, 6th graders work in groups to identify musical selections, practice tapping the beat, review time signatures, and identify the meter of different songs.
Curated OER
Song Writing
In this music worksheet, students identify specific tips for composing a song. They use strophic form where each verse has the same melody. Students also select a chord sequence and use cadences at the end of each phrase and modulations...
Curated OER
Rhythm Compositions
Fourth graders collaborate in small groups to create simple rhythmic patterns in different time signatures. Each group creates rhythms in a competitive "game" atmosphere and then constructs entire rhythmic groups for presentation to...
Curated OER
Let Freedom Sing: A Patriotic Program for Grades 1 - 6
Students explore the history, meaningful background, and significance of Patriotic songs in the eight lessons of this unit. Each of the different grade levels experience a different amount of lessons all culminating in a Patriotic Program.
Curated OER
Meter Readers Turned Composers
Students compose eight measures of music after they practice interpreting time/signature meter.
Curated OER
Get On Board This Train
Students examine and discuss the African American Spiritual in a choir setting. They also sing the spiritual "Get On Board This Train" while using terms and techniques studied in the lesson plan.
Curated OER
Lines & Spaces; Another Round
Fourth graders recall the letter names of the notes of the C-major scale and identify the names of the C-major scale. They identify the names of the lines and spaces on a music staff. They sing rounds.
Other
Alien Travel Guide: Elements of Music the Basics
Fine site created for Canadian schools devoted to basic elements of music, including pitch, acoustics, time signatures, keys, and rhythm.
Music Theory
Music thoery.net: Measures and Time Signatures
A fabulous resource for beginners! Gives examples and explanations of measures and time signatures. Simple illustrations and explanations make this animated site easy to follow.
BBC
Bbc: Music Theory
This resource presents a fun and interactive way to learn all about the elements of music. It offers links to information, definitions, assessments, and examples of melody, harmony and tonality, structure, tempo, metre and rhythm,...
Other
The Basics of Reading Music
This site is an overview of how to read music. The basics of notation such as note and rest values, the names of lines and spaces of both treble and bass clefs, etc. are covered. Includes downloadable audio files.
![Music Theory: Beaming [Pdf] Handout](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "Music Theory: Beaming [Pdf] Handout")
Toby Rush
Music Theory: Beaming [Pdf]
A music theory worksheet regarding beaming its relationship to time signatures. Requires Adobe Reader [PDF].
Open Curriculum
Open Curriculum: Time Signatures
To explain and understand the role of the time signature on a musical staff
Other
Music Theory First Aid for Struggling Students
This site provides music theory information on such topics as rhythm, intervals, scales, chords, etc. Also, there is a fine section which describes the basic concepts of form and structure.
Music Education
Learning to Read Music: Time Signatures
Beginning music students learn the definition of time signature and examples of time signatures in music.
Music Theory
Music theory.net
An online beginning music theory and ear training site. This site is for students to use at home to reinforce what they learn in class.
Other
Using Different Time Signatures to Create Interest
When composing, it can help to add interest to your music by using time signature changes. This article touches on how to use different time signatures to give the music a little push in a new direction.