Grade 8
General Music
A
"Review classroom guidelines and Expectations"
Hand out Syllabus:
Investigate the characteristics and purposes of each of the arts to communicate ideas, feelings, and meaning. (e.g., the differences among musical instruments, the differences in techniques used to perform singing, pantomime, etc.)
"Chimes of Dunkirk" an introduction/movement song! Doe see doe!
1. Piano, Forte / Major, Minor, Harmonic minor, Chromatic, Blues Scale'
2. Band and Chorus (president and librarian votes).
3. Begin Music Journals
4. "Your Life Story" - This is a fun, get-acquainted activity.
5. Website introduction (musical sites!)
B
"Plans for Success"
Recognize musical symbols.
Pre-test: Introductions of Bass clef, Treble clef, Alto clef, Tenor Clef and meter (time signature) Simple and Compound time notation. Music mapping lesson.
1. Pre-test: Ear-training (tonalities, Intervals)
Introductions of the instrument families (brass, woodwind, percussion, and strings).
3. Punk thru Hip Hop music eras.
4. What instrument do I want to play?
5. First Act - Borg, or Instrument rental. What works best for me?
6. Audio Engineering and Commercial music composition.
C
"The Mathematics of Music"
1. Meter = Pulse: 4/4 (common time), 3/4 (waltz), 2/4(march) 12/8 and 6/8 groupings. Rhythmic dictation.
2. Music journal (6 examples-classical, musicals, hip-hop, Dixie-land, Grunge, and Elevator music), analyze for genre, instrumentation. Listening/Analyzing/Describing.
3. Burt Bacharach and Cole Porter are 20th Century composers and their contributions to American music.
Begin (Kodaly method): Introduction of hand signals. Introduce minor relative, Dorian, and Mixo-lydian modes
Singing, Do-Sol tempo 90 to 120, (following conducting, group co-operation).
D
"Review of first months lessons"
Rhythmic and tonal imitation and improvisation on neutral syllables. (Call and Response)
1. Rap, Beat-box (split the group, beat-box and add instant motif using three notes and the pentatonic scale).
2. Repeat above lesson using Body percussion. (Review of first months learning).
The lesson reviewed by use of your listening skills. In addition, the students can assess themselves and their group and others. Teacher will guide a class discussion about how the experience could be different or better.
Introduction of District III Music Festival- Opportunities.
E
"Tonality"
- In tune and Out of tune, what does it mean?
The basic Harmonic series of musical instruments.
Evaluate written reviews of visual and performing works of music. Demonstrate an understanding of the difference between a personal opinion and an educated judgment, and the meaning of various works. Understand that the success of musical, theatrical, and dance groups depends on collaboration.
1. Music reviews for Jazz Waltz, Reggae, and Latin (see Chorus Lit.), compare to journal.
2. Dean Martin The great American singer!
3. Lydia scale and its relationship to "Gilligans Island". Rocking back and forth on the Dominant relationship.
F
"The System"
New South American approach to music in schools. Students begin with real instruments in 1st grade!
"Bells Pachelbel Theme" - Perform and/or listen to a number of pieces on a given theme and create a variation. Recruit student participation! "Taco Salad"
1. "The Suzuki Method" Suzuki calls this the "mother tongue approach". A child learns to speak simply by listening and then imitating and then, later in life, the child learns to interpret symbols as a written form of that language. Compare these concepts to musical notation and the long tradition of European musical training. Singing: Vocal Development, intonation, expression, part singing, and diction.
2. Create a Round using the Major triad. Creation of new variations. (Rhythmic)
3. Continue music journal (new music terminology and form annalists).
G
"Conducting and musical patterns"
Show video "Conducting" Clips relating to styles: waltz, march, simple and compound time signatures. Discuss the Drum Majors role!
1. Vocal warm-ups with fun texts and syllables. Rounds with vocals/percussion instruments. "The 12 Days of Maine"
2. Relate and reinforce musical terminology.
3. Body percussion: you are going to use different parts of their body to make music and pretend to be an orchestra.
4. Odd meters 3/8, 5/4 and their uses in Jazz and Alternative Rock.
5. Motown is a record label that founded by Berry Gordy, Jr including Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and many more!
Classic Motown Timeline
THE AMBITIONS OF ONE MAN, THE DREAMS OF A GENERATION, THE SOUL OF A NATION ...
H
"Investigate how the elements, principles, and structures of the arts are manipulated by communication media to persuade and to influence."
1. Recognize how advertisers use design, spatial relationships, gender, movement, and sound to sell products.
2. Explain why an individual chooses to buy a particular CD.
3. Investigate how Christmas uses Thematic material sell the holiday!
I
"Review History of Music - Handouts"
Work in groups of three or four to extend their ideas into longer pieces of music with several layers of sounds.
1. Construct a Note Flight project to reflect a mood, idea, or reaction. (Collage of music) linked in an orderly fashion.
2. Quiz, and retakes…
3. Review of first 2 months lessons:
Answer Question? Why are the problem-solving skills like: reflection, self-evaluation, revising, and refinement all parts of the creation and development of musical works.
4. Begin production of Graduation Video for 8th grade class!
J
"Begin music composition" Hand Written!
Motif, Rhythmic content, Sequence and elaboration.
Explain rules for use of laptops with Garage Band, and Muse Score.
1. Explore and review Melody - Pitch direction, and Tonality.
2. Weak and strong beats. (row your boat!)
K
"The Art of Dance"
L
"Review and Justify"
"Personal aesthetic criteria for commenting on works of"- visual and performing art, texts, and events. Analyze, interpret, and evaluate subtle and complex meaning in visual and/or performing arts intended to persuade and influence (as in electronic media, theater, commercial, and political advertising).
Create visual and/or performing artwork to influence, persuade, and explain how the design accomplishes its purpose.
1. Garage Band project (Create background for a Commercial) with parental involvement. Why do we buy certain body grooming products at home?
2. Demonstrate an understanding of how we make personal aesthetic choices in daily decisions.
M
Review Zoltan Kodaly Relation to "Close Encounters of the Third kind".
Read and analyze a written review of an exhibit, play, concert, or dance performance.
Read local area newspaper for review! (Continue - Create commercial using movement, sound, and visual art).
1. Respond correctly to show "AB" and "ABA" Rondo, Sonata, Symphony
N
"Prepare for School recitals"
(Solo, ensembles, band, and chorus.) Review of audience and performance etiquette. "What is expected of me?
1. Explain likes and dislikes of a work of art, music, dance, drama. Describe the qualities of works of art, music, dance, and drama in relation to the senses of sight, hearing, movement, and feeling.
O
"Written/Analytical"
1. Write and analyze a written review of an exhibit, play, concert, or dance performance. Review progress .
2. Continue - Note Flight project (Create background for commercial) Performance Review continued..
3. Concert preparation.
P
"Student Review"
1. Explain how the arts originate from human experience and are a communal experience, and encourage kinship with others.
2. Use the elements and principles of musical form to explore a variety of styles and songs.
3. Discriminate among the qualities and characteristics of music media, techniques, and processes for the purposes of selecting appropriate media to communicate artistic ideas.
Q
Concert Weeks !
"Secular music during the holidays, and its cultural implications".
Use a variety of resources, materials, and techniques to design and execute art works. Investigate the work of a professional who has an arts component within his/her work environment.
1. Demonstrate an understanding of how achievement in music can support achievement in other disciplines. Review fourth month of learning.
R
"Complete Note Flight projects"
Begin Video production (TV commercial using musical qualities learned this year i.e. forte, piano, vivace, staccato, silence, monophonic, polyphonic, signature sound/motif, and style usage.)
Improvising melodies, variations and accompaniments. Composing and arranging music within specific guidelines. Integrate English lesson.
Sing, play, move to, and identify music with or without a steady beat.
1. Wipe-out Drum signature lick = waves (A SONG THAT HELPS YOU MOVE LIKE A WAVE)
2. Tom and Jerry (signature sounds we grew up with). Chromatic = Stairs.
S
"Music's relationship to Grammar"
Review Garage Band project (Completion).
Introduce Musical Report (1 page, typed, about a musical influence).
Lesson collaboration with English (Citing works, and understanding plagiarism).
1. Musical descriptions to explain : Differentiate between a "verse" and a "refrain" in a song. Poem relationships to music.
2. Sing with a group, on pitch and together, following a conductor. Reviews solfeggi and Kodaly (do thru do, utilizing all musical terminology learned).
T
"Instruction for music as a career"
1. Opportunities and price ranges. Military Music, Audio Engineering, Sound reinforcement, and performance.
2. Solfeggi review : Solfeggi or Solfeggio, is a method of assigning a syllable to every pitch / degree of a scale. Instead of singing the actual names of the notes in the scale (e.g. c d e f g a b) we use the syllables instead (Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do). Advanced classes learn chromatic scale.
U
"Listening exercise"
1. Ear Training (Major, and minor scales, on different instruments).
Musical Genera Bingo. Smart Board for Music? Ideas and examples.
Grades 6-8 (Review progress of Report: Plagiarism).
V
Improvisation different musical styles.
1. Motif recognition.
2. Signature sound.
3. Relate achievement in the arts in comparison to achievement in other disciplines i.e. sports).
4. Interpret or perform simple visual and performance pieces from different cultures and/or times.
W
"District Music Festivals (Teacher review)"
1. The Blues chord progression beginner and its Dominant nature!
2."The Beatles"
a. Musical creators then and now..
X
"Music is a language"
Phonics of music and their meanings.
Practice rhythms for composition / review quiz for upper grades.
Adjust schedule for MEA testing
1. Align curriculum with Math teachers suggesting Sequencing numbers.
Intro to composition in 7 steps. Completion of Reports
2. Artistic critique Sheet for Video projects:
3. Review Ragtime as a whole.
Y
"Review of Meter (Composition April 1-4)"
1. Completion of Video and Critiques.
2. Blues sounds *Quiz*
3. Music and its relationship to appropriate usage at different age groups!
a. Boom Whackers "Lets go Marching" 2/4 meter - teamwork "Poor Clifford Skeleton"
Z
"Review of Pitch (Composition April 1-4)"
1. Video project (TV commercial min.) Class viewing!
2. Music Journals - Sub Genres
3. Test -Audio- Music journals covering dynamics, tempo, etc.. in addition, including new terms of signature sound, surrealism, and other techniques to design and execute art works.
4. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" Real meaning verse projected meanings.
A-1
"Maine State Learning Results Visual and Performing Arts"
What does this mean to me?
Intro to German Baroque composer Pachelbel's famous, canon (8 notes)
American pop and its classical roots. Harmonic structure in relation to form. classical / contemporary rock forms.
B-1
"Full Recording of Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev Pictures of instruments (see vocabulary)"
1. Review Tests, Music journal review,
2. Video review (Teacher)
3. How to read basic and advanced rhythms. Stem or distance reading.
C-1
"Continue composition"
(chord structures basic I IV V I)
1. Music journal: review styles, tonalities, meter, and instrumentation.
Down beat and pick up note in music performance. (ball pass game on the floor).
Swing/Bossa/Dirge and other stylistic figures.
D-1
1. Create Gregorian chants.
2. Recognize selected major periods of the visual arts and performing arts and identify major artists and their work. (Relate activity to different kinds of music used in New Orleans. Cuban dance and Mexican dance compare/contrast musical relationships.
E-1
"March Music and its place in American History"
"John Sousa, Henry Filmore, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus"
Parades to Concerts - big audience pleasers.
Short Audio test (review)
F-1
"Testing over yearly subjects."
Practice for Variety Show (performance indicators)
1. Goal setting for learning musical instruments.
2. Mozart Say's (game to review music and performance).
G-1
"Contemporary Music and its relation to Elvis"
Basis for Rock and Roll rhythmic structure
1. Rock legends of the stage 50's to 80's
2. Basic rhythmic patterns Tango & Hip Hop rhythms. (Using rhythm sticks)
H-1
"Compare music and the symbolism between "Indiana Jones" and "Star Wars"
Continue Genre/Style review.
Theme: Qualities
1. repetition
2. special effects.
3. call and response.
4. short motif..
Bluegrass, Metal, Children's music, and Glee.
Begin Concert preparation.
I-1
"Concert preparation"
1. Review of Concert etiquette, and performance qualities. Audience participation for inside to outside.
Ear training review:
Scales:
Intervals:
Chords:
Progressions:
2. Rhythm i.e.. Ragtime verse Swing.
J-1
"Why is music important to me!"
Jobs for the future of music:
Gaming - sound tracks - performance - educational
price ranges.
1. Guitar Hero benefits and drawbacks. Technology in the musical classroom.
Physical / reality-electronic switches.
2. Music software: Finale, Scorch, Cakewalk, Pro-tools, and Full Sail School...
3. Discussion about "Gifted and Talented" Nominate students for GT program.
K-1
"Concert preparation"
Concert week Friday special guest ...
1. Observation High school chorus and band.
2. Discussions of district festivals - participation for next year!
L-1
1. "Musical Diversity" End of year fun (playing of instruments) goals!
2. Review of yearly progress.
M-1
Review of yearly progress/Preparation for next year (goal setting) - (summer activities)
". . .I always try to teach by example and not force my ideas on a young musician. One of the reasons we're here is to be a part of this process of exchange."
Dizzy Gillespie
