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Fish Tunes
Students use their musical talent to create a song for the class fishtank. In a group, they compose two or three songs about their own tropical fish in which they can use any rhythm and musical instruments they choose. They perform...
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Accomplished Practice # 5
Students predict what music from different nations sound like by creating short musical pieces based on their assumptions. Students listen to music from different cultures and describe how their musical creations differed as well as how...
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Creating with "Found Sounds"
Students are placed in small groups for this project. Groups collect and use ordinary objects to create a "Stomp" like performance.
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Guitar Techniques - Lesson 2
Students discuss the different guitar techniques of David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Neil Young. They experience the guitar technique of "alternate tuning". They also discuss CSNY's 'Ohio' and Kent State.
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Bam, Chi, Chi, Bam
Students create a class poem based on the song, Bam, Chi, Chi, Bam. The class participates in a brief discussion of the music of Jamaica and the feelings conveyed by this music. After listening to the song, students create a poem to...
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A Shaker Hymn
Students listen to and note the differences between two pieces of music. Using each piece of music, they note the difference in instruments and the style. They practice playing the music in different pitches with the correct rhythms.
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Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
Students sing "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" with others in small groups and as an entire class. Using correct posture, correct rhythms, and accurate pitches, students play improvised melodies as accompaniment to the song. This instructional...
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Simple Gifts
Students examine the concepts of half notes, quarter notes, whole notes, and musical phrases by performing the Shaker song "Simple Gifts". Emphasis is placed on movement with music and meeting national standards for the arts.
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"Laideronette, Empress of the Pagoda" from"Mother Goose Suite" by Maurice Ravel
Students are introduced to the active teacher, composer and pianist Maurice Ravel and his masterpiece "Laideronette, Empress of the Pagoda", from Mother Goose Suite by Maurice Ravel. They utilize aural skills to notate the rhythm of the...
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Broccoli
Students sing a song and figure out the rhythm notation for pharases while describing the benefits of broccoli. They compose a four-measure pattern using the rhythms of these phrases. They play the rhythm patterns with the recording.
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Pavane pour une Infante Defunte
Students describe the music in terms related to basic elements such as melody, rhythm, harmony, dynamics, timbre, form, style, etc. They identify timbres heard in "Pavane" by movement and respond by movement to timbre.
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Marching Band Cadence
Students compose an original cadence. They compose a short segment (2 measures) of a cadence on staff paper. Papers are collected and entered into Sibelius program. They compose original cadences using the Sibelius program and...
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Exploring the CTK-671
Students demonstrate the operational aspects of the CTK-671 by selecting various tones, advanced tones, and rhythm patterns based on parameters set by the teacher.
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Ooooh, The Oud
Students listen to a performance of the instrument, oud. After watching a video, they discover how many parts of the world it is used in and locate the countries on a map. They compare and contrast the oud with other instruments from the...
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Hey, Cuz!
Third graders examine the relationships between rhythm and math, tone color and science, form and geography, melody and art, and harmony and social studies. Why, they are like cousins! Students, in groups, present projects demonstrating...
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Sounds You See, Hear, and Feel
Students explore and create sound wave vibrations using musical instruments and common objects. They compare/contrast and describe actions that cause sound wave vibrations that can be seen, heard, and felt.
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Polyrhthm
Fourth graders compose and perform polyrhythms in small groups using non-pitched percussion instruments. They enter the classroom with the recording of "The Rite of Spring" playing on the CD player. Students are asked to describe the...
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"Evening Bells"
Fourth graders sing "Evening Bells" while the repeat sign and double bar in the music notation. They listen and dance to a Viennese waltz. They locate the Danube River.
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All Access Spotlight: U2
Students explain the growth and development of a musical group and their work through discussion and analysis of two representative songs by U2 from their first and last albums.
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Repetitive Song Form
Eighth graders discover different concepts for identifying musical structure and song form. In this Music History lesson plan, 8th graders compare and contrast a Red Hot Chili Peppers song to an Andrea Bocelli's song.
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Jazz: Expression through Improvisation
Students watch a video on improvisation. They improvise original melodies over given chord progressions. They develop criteria to evaluate the merits of improvisational performances and apply the criteria in their personal listening and...
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Rehearsal and Sightreading Techniques
Eighth graders prepare the two pieces "American Celebration" and "Patriotic Bits and Pieces" for an upcoming performance. This lesson is a forty-five minute lesson geared towards a middle school advanced band (8th Grade). National and...
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This Land is Your Land - Travel Posters
Eleventh graders compile a list of places in the United States where they have either traveled or where their relatives or friends live. They collect travel posters, brochures, postcards, and maps from their region of the United States.
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Great Big House
Third graders sing and play the song "Great Big House" in the Orff style using soprano and alto glockenspiels, bass xylophones, bass marimbas, triangles, woodblocks, and the singing voice. The lesson includes step-by-step teacher...