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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,...
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General Music: Grades 4 & 5
The story behind the Star Spangled Banner sets off this singing and music lesson. Emergent singers study facts about Francis Scott Key and his famous song, they then discuss and practice singing the first verse paying close attention to...
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Ensemble Performance
Students sing or play music in order to complete a self-critique that performance. Working in ensemble groups, students practice and play a piece of music. Ensemble performances are recorded and each member's performance is critiqued...
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Studying The American Musical Theatre
Students discover the group dynamics necessary to produce an American musical in this six day lesson. Themes and characterization techniques are explored during collaborative small group research projects.
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Musical Imagery
Students experience musical imagery. They link this musical concept to literary imagery to gain an understanding of the use of imagery in both genres. After listening to a varriety of sounds, students will compose and perform a melody.
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Chinese Percussion Music
Students investigate Chinese percussion instruments and ensemble performances. They play compositions with Chinese percussion instruments such as small gongs, large gongs and drums.
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Protest Songs
Students analyze and perform an American social protest song. They describe its historical setting, consider the effectiveness of the music and recognize that popular music is a reflection of American culture.
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Act 3: New York Introduction 1924-1925, Louis Armstrong
Students listen to and examine jazz recordings and listen for features (breaks and obbligato) that are typical of jazz music. In groups, they make up a short blues song of their own.
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Hispanic Rhythmic Patterns and Drums
Students imitate rhythmic patterns created by the teacher or taken from the drum performance of "Oshossi." They study and perform some of the layered and interlocking rhythms of the drum ensembles of Brazil, Haiti, Cuba, Suriname, and...
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Learning to Play Together
Students listen to and discuss American music genres, specifically ragtime, bebop/bop, and swing, and experiment with improvisation on traditional tunes and rhythms.
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Improvise a Short Story through Jazz
Students evaluate jazz music and a jazz music performance. They collaborate and create an improvised group short story. They improvise a musical piece on found objects.
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My Way
Students culminate a humanities project by improvising music to accompany a video of a particular era in US history.
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Theatre: Exploratory Techniques
Using various exploratory techniques, young actors work as an ensemble company to devise, perform and evaluate a piece of theatre for assessment. This outline provides an objective and a list of games and activities that stimulate skills...
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Family of Musicians
Learners view a video about street musicians/singers and then perform in a small ensemble, recognizing that there is no real star of an ensemble.
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Soundtrack to War
Students discuss the important role of music in lives of soldiers stationed in Iraq. They identify and demonstrate skills in creating compositions with limited resources, similar in concept to the soldiers viewed in the documentary.
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Haiku
Middle schoolers explore the Japanese literature, music and art. Pupils discuss the culture of Japan. While listening to Japanese music, they write and illustrate a Haiku. Students are given the opportunity to create origami.
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Hard Rock - Lesson 1
Students perform any part of a four-part keyboard ensemble with musical sensibility in a "hard rock" style. They improvise a melody over student accompaniment.
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Composing From a Thread
Students listen to music composed in the 20th century and discuss varying interpretations. They play a contemporary piece of music and explore techniques available to a modern composer.
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The Percussion Family
Second graders complete a unit to learn about the percussion family and African and Latin drumming. In this percussion lesson, 2nd graders complete 9 lessons to learn about the percussion family. Students learn to use shakers and sticks,...
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Gotta Dance!
Students explore how dance can invoke the significance of experiences in their everyday lives. They work in small dance troupes to create their own dance pieces reflecting themes and experiences relevant to their lives.
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A Wing and a Prayer
Fourth graders improvise missing harmony accompaniment for a soloist performing "The Star Spangled Banner." Groups select several familiar melodies that they can produce while individual students take turns improvising a new harmony part.
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Japanese Noh Masks
Students examine Japanese theatre and create their own face masks which display certain emotions, props, costumes and perform in improvisational theatrical games.