Making Lesson planning less of a chore for you and more fun for students
Saturday, March 20th, 2010One very important thing that every teacher is taught is that you always need to be prepared for every lesson you teach. Of course, that is if you want to end the day in a stress free fashion! A lesson plan doesn’t have to be complex, and teachers who have been in the game a [...]
A great listening idea for learning about Beethoven
Saturday, March 20th, 2010Ludwig Van Beethoven has to be one of the most unusual and interesting characters to ever compose music. Here is a listening activity to help introduce him into the music classroom, which you can include in your next music lesson plan: “Für Elise” Bagatelle in A minor Listen to the beginning of “Fur Elise” and [...]
A fun listening idea for Mozart’s music
Friday, March 19th, 2010The Fun Music Company has a whole series of lesson plans available about composers, from the Baroque through to the 20th Century. Here is a great listening activity for Music by Mozart:
Students learning tuned percussion in the classroom?
Friday, March 19th, 2010To help students understand how timpani can be tuned, demonstrate the effect of membrane tension on pitch. With a coffee can drum (see lessons on Untuned Percussion), you can often vary the tension of the skin by simply pressing or pulling at the edges of the skin, while another student hits the drum in steady [...]
The Organ, Harpsichord and Celesta – the piano’s cousins in the music class
Friday, March 19th, 2010The piano has several less known cousins which are important for us to introduce into the music classroom: the celesta, harpsichord and organ. Discuss with students the similarities and differences among keyboard instruments. The keyboard instruments are related to each other in that they are controlled by a similarly laid-out key mechanism. Technically, however, they [...]
Listening Plans for the music of Beethoven
Friday, March 19th, 2010Here is an essential list of listening for music lesson plans about Beethoven. “Für Elise” Bagatelle in A minor Listen to the beginning of “Fur Elise” and sing together the well-known opening melody (the first nine notes). Now play the whole piece, this time counting how many times melody appears. You could work individually or [...]
Help your students learn about Baroque Music
Thursday, March 18th, 2010Students will love being exposed to a variety of composers, and there is none more important than J.S. Bach for learning about the Baroque Era. This is just an excerpt of the materials found in our Great composers series of printable music lesson plans. Design a Facebook profile for J.S. Bach. You’ll want to include [...]
Classroom Games – Note Races
Thursday, March 18th, 2010One of the most fun activities my students love is playing “Note Races.” What you do is go outside to the parking lot (one with no or very little traffic) or any area that is paved or cement. Then, I have a few students draw five manuscript lines about 6-8 feet long with about 2-3 feet [...]
Lesson ideas to teach students about Tuned Percussion Instruments.
Thursday, March 18th, 2010To help students understand how timpani can be tuned, demonstrate the effect of membrane tension on pitch. With a coffee can drum (see lessons on Untuned Percussion), pull on the edges of the drumhead to put varying degrees of tension on it, while a student plays a steady drumbeat on it. If the students have [...]
The most famous Deaf Musician in the classroom
Thursday, March 18th, 2010Ludwig Van Beethoven has to be one of the most unusual and interesting characters to ever compose music. Here are a few ideas to help introduce him into your music lesson plans: Write a short children’s story about the life of Beethoven. Include the most important parts of Beethoven’s life that younger children may be [...]
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