What skills/tools do I need to express a musical idea?
How do I apply these tools when improvising?
What is a quality performance?
How do I know I have communicated successfully?
What was good about my performance? What could be better?
What ideas or strategies haven’t I thought of?
Essential Questions:
What skills/tools do I need to express a musical idea?
How do I apply these tools when improvising?
What is a quality performance?
How do I know I have communicated successfully?
What was good about my performance? What could be better?
What ideas or strategies haven’t I thought of?
Major Concepts:
All music has rhythm. Rhythm is the most basic element of all music and life. Rhythm is how we get from one note to another. In order to stay together as a group or to play anything with other people you need to be able to keep a steady beat just like our heartbeat. Being able to keep a steady beat can help you in the rest of your life such as sports, manual labor in a team, timing with machinery, etc.
Major Content:
Working as a class we perform drumming pieces which have up to 7 parts. Students have to keep the rhythm going in their own part. We also split up into smaller groups (of approximately four) where each student has their own part that they need to perform. The group also creates their own rhythms to perform for the rest of the class and for video or audio.
Unit Assessments:
Students will perform one given piece and one group-composed piece in small groups and will assess themselves.
Major Texts:
Will Schmid Drumming Rhythms
Essential Questions:
What skills/tools do I need to express a musical idea?
How do I apply these tools when improvising?
What is a quality performance?
How do I know I have communicated successfully?
What was good about my performance? What could be better?
What ideas or strategies haven’t I thought of?
Major Concepts:
The piano is a versatile instrument that gives you the ability to hear what a large group of instruments playing together will sound like. All professional musicians learn to play piano as a tool to help their music. Piano is a visual for the music notation system. This is another tool for expressing yourself and a visual to learn the music notation system which allows you to read Western music anywhere.
Major Content:
All students will learn the key names, notes on the staff, and the twelve-bar blues scale. Students will learn to improvise to the twelve-bar blues, keeping to the beat and making up a tune with the notes given.
Unit Assessments:
All students will perform the twelve-bar blues on the keyboard for a videotaping and in front of their peers.
Essential Questions:
What skills/tools do I need to express a musical idea?
How do I apply these tools when improvising?
What is a quality performance?
How do I know I have communicated successfully?
What was good about my performance? What could be better?
What ideas or strategies haven’t I thought of?
Major Concepts:
Guitar is a great instrument to accompany yourself singing or simply play music on. It is popular because you can carry it with you. This is another option to explore in expressing yourself. You need to keep a beat in the strumming and be able to move your fingers. Practice makes perfect.
Major Content:
Students will learn chords G, em, C, am, & D7 and strum those chords as we sing some popular songs. We will also play the twelve-bar blues either strumming or with the melody.
Unit Assessments:
Students will play the 5 chords with a steady strum.
Essential Questions:
What skills/tools do I need to express a musical idea?
How do I apply these tools when improvising?
What is a quality performance?
How do I know I have communicated successfully?
What was good about my performance? What could be better?
What ideas or strategies haven’t I thought of?
Major Concepts:
Learning to sing is a skill. It is very different from talking and when used properly you can feel confident and good about your voice. You will always have your voice with you and to be able to use it and feel confident that it is a wonderful way to express yourself.
Major Content:
Students will sing once a week and learn the basics of singing through warm-ups and singing with their peers.
Unit Assessments:
Students will be be assessed in their final performance (if they choose to sing for that performance).
Students will choose what instrument they will study for the last two weeks. They may work in groups and they will practice two songs they will perform for the class at the end of the course. We have a final class "recital" where students will perform what they have chosen and practiced.