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Call and Response Singing
Learners investigate call and response singing. In this fine arts and U.S. history instructional activity, students listen to several call and response songs that were sung by African-American slaves during the period before the Civil...
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Experimental Music
Students test people's response to different kinds of music. In this music lesson plan, students associate different cords with different feelings or moods. They then observe a video that describes different feelings related to different...
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What Is Cool?
Learners compare versions of the song, "So What," recorded by Miles Davis and Marcus Miller. They explore the Ken Burns Website to discover more about Davis and journal their thoughts about him and his music.
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Classroom Builder
Students explore music theory by discussing a classic song. In this musical notation lesson, students listen to the song "My Favorite Things" and discuss and share their personal tastes with the class. Students practice writing notes on...
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Dizzy Gillespie
Students compare and contrast two songs by Dizzy Gillespie and identify elements of bebop. They construct a Web page about Gillespie and his music.
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GUITARS AS SCULPTURE
Students discuss guitars, pointing out different parts of the guitar, compare/contrast guitars from different times, imagine they are designers hired to build a new age guitar, create many preliminary sketches, choose one, and begin...
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Not Your Grandma's Music: A Lesson in Music History
Students experience and discuss the different musical periods such as Baroque, Classical and Romantic. In this music lesson, students discover musical theory and apply it to the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods. Students will...
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Dance: Personal Soundtracks
Students create a musical autobiography. In this fine arts lesson, students explore the emotions that music can express by listening to and discussing a variety of music. Students construct a personal timeline and a collection of music...
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Anecdotes from Artifacts: Hearing When Clay Sings
Students discover artifacts of the American Indians. They also bring in their own artifact for viewing.
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MUSICAL MYSTERIES
Students explore the concept of steady beat and develop listening skills.
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Celebrations of the Pacific Rim
Students research a celebration belonging to a Pacific Rim culture. They prepare a written and oral report with their findings and present such information as how the celebration has changed over time, its origins and the significance of...
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Writing Lyrics
Pupils examine the themes and structure of a bluegrass song and identify the common themes in bluegrass music. They practice songwriting by rewriting the lyrics of "Oh! Susanna" as a bluegrass tune.
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Musical Instruments - Strings
Students explore various string instruments in this multi-week music lesson for the upper-elementary grades. Emphasis is placed on group violin lessons, listening to and identifying string instruments, and researching non-European...
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Summertime - Miles Davis
Students examine the George Gershwin opera, "Porgy and Bess." The rhythms to some of the musical pieces are mimicked and identified as belonging to the music of jazz.
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Questions for Traditional Musicians
In this classroom applications and fieldwork basics worksheet, students utilize the 15 interview questions listed once they locate someone in their community who plays traditional music. An oral release is included.
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Meet Louis Prima!
Learners discover the difference in major and minor tonality after a brief introduction to Louis Prima. They discuss swing dancing and Louis Prima's role in the "Jungle Book" as the character King Louis. Students listen to the song...
National First Ladies' Library
Ragtime: The First "American" Music?
Learners investigate the concept of ragtime music and the times associated with it in American history. They conduct research using a variety of resources and listen to a sample before writing down some of the results of the information...
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Global Music Lesson Plans: Britten and Japan – Japan and the UK
Students explore the links between Japanese and British culture. For this Japanese music lesson, students listen to their instructor present a lecture regarding Gagaku music and then perform "Te Lucis Ante Terminum" with Japanese...
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Historic Heroes
Students recognize traits of heroes as depicted in music, art and literature. In this cross curricular lesson, students evaluate and analyze various works fo art from different cultures that depict heroes.
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Fish Tunes
Young scholars 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...
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Elements of Music
Students identify three of the essential elements of music: rhythm, melody and harmony. They discover a simple song which will illustrate these three elements separately and bring them together in a final form. They analyze and critique...
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Lesson Connections
Second graders relate music to history and culture. Also, they listen to songs and identify some characteristics of the music in their own terms. Also listened to is "Chinese Instruments Montage," and then compare what they heard with...