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Unit 1: Rhythm
In this unit, students will explore various ways that rhythm can be expressed through body percussion, unpitched instruments, spoken word and songs. Students will be introduced to meters in 2, 3 and 4. Students will be encouraged to find and identify rhythmic patterns in spoken language. Students will create their own rhythmic compositions by arranging rhythm pattern cards and notating syllables and accents in word combinations.
Unit 2: Melody
In this unit, students will explore melodic elements of music. Students will be able to identify melodic contours and phrasing. Students will be introduced to simple musical forms, such as verse-refrain, AB, ABA, Rondo. At the culmination of this unit, students will be able to identify and discuss form through listening. In small groups, students will create a simple musical composition in a form of their choice incorporating body percussion, spoken word, unpitched percussion, barred instruments and/or song.
Unit 3: Harmony
In this unit, students will be introduced to the pentatonic scale, a universal five-note scale with no melodic or harmonic tension. Students will explore the use of this scale through improvisation on barred instruments. Children’s literature will serve as a basis for students to experiment with various tonal centers and discuss the mood, feelings each create. Lastly, students will learn about musical textures.
Unit 4: Instruments
In this unit, students will explore the instrument families of the orchestra and will create their own versions of the instruments. This unit explores the connection between size and materials used to create a musical instrument, and the pitches and tones the instrument makes. Students will utilize steps of the Scientific Method, to test their hypotheses about instruments in each orchestral family.
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