General Music.Welcome! I’m glad to have this opportunity to tell you a little bit about our music program, as well as the policies and procedures in my classroom:
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21st Century LearningStudents can access online tutorials, including my YouTube channel, as well as guitar resources and excellent musical performances on my Google Classroom. Students can collaborate with peers in the Google Classroom as well through a supervised blog. Click here to view the Google Classroom and explore the online resources and supplemental assignments. You will need to enter the code vzmt58 to gain access to the classroom if you haven't already enrolled.
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My Classroom ExpectationsStudents in my General Music Classes are expected to be Responsible, Respectful, and Ready to Learn. In this way, we create a classroom environment that is free from distraction, where students can feel safe -- both physically and emotionally -- to try their best and learn about the music and their own creativity.
Consequences are assigned to students who are not meeting the classroom expectations in a way that impedes the learning of themselves or others in the classroom. These consequences begin with a verbal reminder of the expectations, followed by a verbal warning that the expectations are not being met, and finally a request to see me after class. Individual consequences are managed on a case by case basis. |
What We Learn in Music Class
In fourth grade, students learn more about how to read melody and rhythm. They work a lot with tone color, two-part harmony, and small-scale form. Fourth grade is also the time when children have the opportunity to expand their musical horizons by joining the band and chorus.
In fifth grade, our students work with more large-scale forms (symphonies, rondo form, concertos, etc.) and sight-reading. Children start to read music written in pentatonic (5 tone) scales more independently; they begin to work with the specific function of each note in the scale. They also learn macrobeats and microbeats, which are the fundamentals of meter and time signature. Fifth graders even learn how to conduct these meters, as well as play the piano. In fifth grade, we also touch on a little music history and appreciation: We have a lesson on bagpipes, Bach and the organ, and we even learn a musical dice game designed by Mozart.
In sixth grade, students learn to play the guitar. We use the guitar to help students grasp the basic concepts of music theory: how harmony can support melodies, how to compose a melody, and how to play along with their own singing. Students learn how to improvise, but they also learn how to read and write their music correctly, how to play solo and in a group, and different types of musical notation (Solfége, traditional notation with different clefs, “faking”, and tablature). We do a unit on music in movies and TV, where students learn all about how music is added to motion pictures and how to apply their knowledge and write a mini soundtrack for a short movie, and we do a unit on the Blues, when students learn about influential Blues players and how to play the Blues themselves.
In fifth grade, our students work with more large-scale forms (symphonies, rondo form, concertos, etc.) and sight-reading. Children start to read music written in pentatonic (5 tone) scales more independently; they begin to work with the specific function of each note in the scale. They also learn macrobeats and microbeats, which are the fundamentals of meter and time signature. Fifth graders even learn how to conduct these meters, as well as play the piano. In fifth grade, we also touch on a little music history and appreciation: We have a lesson on bagpipes, Bach and the organ, and we even learn a musical dice game designed by Mozart.
In sixth grade, students learn to play the guitar. We use the guitar to help students grasp the basic concepts of music theory: how harmony can support melodies, how to compose a melody, and how to play along with their own singing. Students learn how to improvise, but they also learn how to read and write their music correctly, how to play solo and in a group, and different types of musical notation (Solfége, traditional notation with different clefs, “faking”, and tablature). We do a unit on music in movies and TV, where students learn all about how music is added to motion pictures and how to apply their knowledge and write a mini soundtrack for a short movie, and we do a unit on the Blues, when students learn about influential Blues players and how to play the Blues themselves.
Links for Learning More!
Strumming
E minor
D ninth chord in the first inversion (D 6/9)
G Major
A dominant seventh chord (A7)
D Major
How to Tune your Guitar
Alberti Bass
Quaver's Marvelous World of Music
NAfME (The national association for music education)
VH1
E minor
D ninth chord in the first inversion (D 6/9)
G Major
A dominant seventh chord (A7)
D Major
How to Tune your Guitar
Alberti Bass
Quaver's Marvelous World of Music
NAfME (The national association for music education)
VH1