Harmony Improvisation Teacher Resources

Hone those musical ears to identify consonance and dissonance in music being played live or on a recording. Learners will work through four activities where they will listen to consonant and dissonant notes being played first by the...

Assumptions and misconceptions are two things that underlie stereotypes. Introduce youngsters to the concept of stereotyping with a role-play activity. They pretend they are employees at a restaurant who have accused a person of...

Students explore the music concepts of ryhthm, melody, form, and harmony in a three-lesson unit. They listen to the Viennese Music Clock and demonstrate moving to the beat, create improvised melodies, and play percussion accompaniment.

Fourth graders improvise missing harmony accompaniment for a soloist performing "The Star Spangled Banner." Groups select several familiar melodies that they can produce while individual students take turns improvising a new harmony part.

After listening to a variety of interpretations of "When the Saints Go Marching In," partners compose and then perform their own renditions of this classic before joining a full-class jam session.

Traditional Irish music can bring even the most stoic audience to tears. This St. Patrick's Day, explore the lilting flutes and mournful ballads of the Emerald Isle with a interactive and inspiring music lesson.

Music is a universal pleasure, but writing about it can be a little trickier. An informative handout discusses common types of music writing assignments that one might encounter in a college-level course. Individuals read about musical...

In small groups and then as a class, young musicians compare and contrast two pieces from the musical film Chicago. They pair up to look at the elements that make each piece similar and define the elements or arrangements that make...

In this music history worksheet, students will read 4 paragraphs about the history of Blues. Then students will answer six questions using complete sentences.

Students examine female artists who perform in the genres of rhythm & blues, jazz, soul, and hip-hop/rap. They compose lyrics and melody in one of these genres.

Students write, adapt, and compose a song related to the West Virginia State Museum.  In this music activity, students create a composition for a work of  visual art. Students incorporate major and minor melodies.

In this blues music instructional activity, students read a brief description of this genre of music and then respond to 6 short answer questions regarding the information presented in this instructional activity.

Students identify musical characteristics of baroque, jazz, and psychedelic music. They arrange traditional music into the style of baroque, jazz, and psychedelic music.

Students study early New Orleans Jazz music and recognize Louis Armstrong as an early jazz artist. They recognize the elements and roots of Jazz.

Students practice and perform the song "B is for Banana" using their knowledge of basic rhythms in 4/4 and student-created rhythm accompaniment based on speech. This excellent lesson is provided by the MENC (National Association for...

Students examine the reasons and controversy regarding Sam Cooke's transition from gospel to pop.

Students review chord progression while listening to tracks of music. They write melodies to fit a given chord progression. They sing their melodies and analyze how it compares to the original melody.

Students study the career of Chick Corea, whose work has spanned myriad styles in the past thirty years. They explore the double meaning of "Children's Music" and are introduced to the piano

Third graders sing and play the song "Great Big House" in the Orff style using soprano and alto glockenspiels, bass xylophones, bass marimbas, triangles, woodblocks, and the singing voice. The lesson includes step-by-step teacher...

Students study Kwanzaa. In this art lesson, students compare Kwanzaa with the American holdiay known as Thanksgiving. Students decorate seven cards with the seven lessons of Kwanzaa written on them.

This resource presents a fun and interactive way to learn all about the elements of music. It offers links to information, definitions, assessments, and examples of melody, harmony and tonality, structure, tempo, metre and rhythm,...

This site contains numerous tips and suggestions dealing with many facets of playing the vibraphone and marimba. Although much of the information is jazz oriented, some is general enough that it could easily be applied to xylophone and...