SoundTree
When The Saints Go Marching In: A Lesson for Middle School Keyboard Lab Students
After listening to a variety of interpretations of "When the Saints Go Marching In," partners compose and then perform their own renditions of this classic before joining a full-class jam session.
Curated OER
19th & 20th Century Composers: Exoticism
VH1 Music Studio has put out another great lesson that incorporates analysis, compare/contrast, and musical terminology. Kids will listen to the song "Habanera" considering the use of specific instruments in evoking a sense of location....
Institut Obert de Catalunya
20th Century Music: Jazz
A 67-page packet provides instructors with a complete course in the history of Jazz. Lessons look at the roots of jazz in early 20th century African American communities in the southern United States and continues to the New Orleans...
Skoog Music
St. Patrick’s Day
Traditional Irish music can bring even the most stoic audience to tears. This St. Patrick's Day, explore the lilting flutes and mournful ballads of the Emerald Isle with a interactive and inspiring music lesson.
Google
Music Mixer
Here's an activity sure to be music to your ears. Pupils create a music composition using block-based computer coding. They add different sound rings, and then adjust the number and speed of sounds to create their composition pieces.
Johnny Mercer Foundation
Project-Based Songwriting
Project-based learning in a music theory class? Take note. Young songwriters compose, record, copyright, and promote their original songs. They even design their own CD cover.
Curated OER
Get Your Mojo Workin': Part 1 Writing Your Very Own Blues Tune!
Upper graders listen to the blues. They discuss blues scale, read a description of the blues, and work together to write an original piece. A lesson like this ties into American history and African-American musical contributions very...
Curated OER
Set a Poem to Music
Fun awaits both you and your class as you embark on a musical activity. After discussing different rhythmic meters they choose a poem to set to music. The poem must rhyme and be set to a melody in the key of C Major. Because the activity...
Curated OER
Kotekan: A Cooperative Music Activity
Young musicians explore the rhythms and sounds of Balinese gamelan music, then create their own. They listen to several examples of gamelan music, then use their instruments to mimic the rhythms they hear. After a warm up and practice,...
Curated OER
Creating an Original Opera
This may be a lot to ask of a high schooler, but then again, who knows? Pupils work in groups to explore, write, and then perform an original opera. They view versions of The Magic Flute and La Traviata, then compose a plot, characters,...
Curated OER
A Musical Composition Experience
Upper graders having skills in music performance will extend their abilities through creative musical composition. They'll use Finale 2000 to explore facets of music composition, they'll then compose a piece for their instrument in C, F,...
Curated OER
Music: Off the Wall & Onto the Stage - Composing
Kids explore Gullah music from Africa and then create original compositions based on what they've learned. They practice traditional melodies and rhythms then make some of their own, which they then perform for the class.
Curated OER
Using Garage Band to Enhance 2nd Grade Composition
Your second graders can become composers with a little help from the Garage Band software. You pre-select several drum, piano, and guitar loops for the groups to choose from, then they put them together following an ABA looping pattern....
Curated OER
Rhythm, Triads, Intervals
Let the class show what they know about rhythm, triads, and intervals with this quiz. They complete the rhythm on staff one and two, identify the intervals on staff three, and identify the triads on staff four. This is a well-thought-out...
Curated OER
Music Composition
Are your learners ready to compose their own music? If so, this instructional activity will help them do it. The sheet is broken into several staffs where they write the tune, riff, and chords. They can put them together to create a...
Curated OER
Composing Music
Students compose music with musical instruments, and write the proper notation for the songs they have created.
Curated OER
Pictures at an Exhibition
Learners discuss how the musical composition was created. They listen to "Pictures at an Exhibition." Students discuss how the Promenade in the beginning of the opus is based on Mussorgsky walking through the exhibit of paintings....
Curated OER
Graphic Scores
You can write some music scores using images rather than musical notation. Kids learn how they can become musical composers by using graphics or images in place of musical notation. An interesting slide-show, but a more interesting...
Curated OER
High School Lesson Plan
Students compose and arrange music within specific guidelines. They # identify and explain compositional devices and techniques used in a musical work. They compare and contrast the use of those techniques between different compositions.
Curated OER
Connections
Fifth graders create a musical composition, a drawing, or a 3D structure to show how math connects to other subjects. In this math and other subjects lesson plan, 5th graders present their presentations to the class and explain the...
Curated OER
Create a Composition
Students select an instrument and create a musical composition. In this musical composition lesson, students invent an original piece of music that is 16 measures long. Students hum and record their pieces.
Curated OER
Composing Your Own Melody
Get the songwriters in your class started early with an engaging music composition activity. After experimenting with an existing melody, class members improvise in a given range of notes and create their own melodies.
Curated OER
Form and Theme in the Traditional Mexican Corrido
Students examine the traditional Mexican musical form of corridos. In this cross curricular history and music lesson, students analyze the lyrics of popular corridos and the corridos' importance in Mexican culture. Students will compose...
Curated OER
What is a Concerto? Who is Alban Berg?
In this music history instructional activity, 1st graders learn about the concerto as a form of instrumental composition by reading an informative paragraph. Students then read a biography of composer Alban Berg and answer 10 questions....