Students listen to and discuss American music genres, specifically ragtime, bebop/bop, and swing, and experiment with improvisation on traditional tunes and rhythms.

Students practice and perform 8 and 16 beat rhythmic patterns in 4/4 using the song "Salad Sisters" as a basis in this elementary-level General Music activity. An amazing activity for teaching cooperative music composition techniques and...

Students watch "The Greatest TV Moments: Sesame Street Music A to Z" and improvise melodic and rhythmic embellishments for the song "O What A Beautiful Morning" or "Rubber Duckie."

Second graders complete a unit to learn about the percussion family and African and Latin drumming. In this percussion lesson, 2nd graders complete 9 lessons to learn about the percussion family. Students learn to use shakers and sticks,...

Learners access a website to examine how to follow a pattern. They find their own heartbeats and tap along with the beat. They access a second website to design a class composition before showing how they keep the beat. They use...

Students perform "Fifty States in Rhyme" with correct posture, correct rhythms, and accurate pitches. They also identify and perform such musical terms as tone color, tempo, dynamics, phrases, and accents. Emphasis is placed on the...

Students chant "Mabel, Mabel, Set the Table" in beats grouped in 4's using a percussive pattern. They repeat using 3's. Students sing a song in 4's and in 3's. they move to recorded music to practice threes. Students create Orff...

First graders practice the song "Tinker, Tailor" using percussion instruments, Orff instruments, and their voices in this Music lesson for the 1st grade. The lesson is intended for use within an Orff unit of study and includes...

Students sing a song performing rhythms accurately with a steady beat, pitches accurately with excellent intonation, and a clear, focused tone in this music lesson for the high school Choir class. The lesson includes grading rubric.

Students work with a family member in placing all of the music notes on a staff board. They try to match the rhythm on the rhythm board and show their completed song to the teacher.

Students listen to Haydn's "Surprise" and use the score to create themes and variations with other rhythms. They create poems using Haydn's rhythm in the symphony and research his life. They also use "body percussion" to play parts of...

Students explore power and the symbols of power in West African music. They discuss the music of West Africa and compare it to African American music of today. In addition, they investigate musical instruments of Africa, identify the...

Students are introduced to several forms of indigenous European music. Students become familiar with instruments, musical and forms and styles from Spain, Sardinia, Austria and Switzerland. Students recreate selected rhythms and styles.

Young scholars explore non-locomotor movements and instrument improvisation creating accompaniments to the song "Vitamin A" in this elementary-level General Music lesson. The lesson nutrition messages links and student challenges for...

Students keep a steady beat by body movement exercises, improvise, identify a beat/no beat sequence and sing a nursery rhyme from Portugal in this Kindergarten General Music lesson. The use of simple rhythmic instruments is required.

Students explore the musical concepts of rhythm, melody, expression, and tone color in a three-lesson unit about the William Tell Overture. They identify dynamics and tempo and play a vocal tone color singing game.

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 perform African chants. In this geography skills instructional activity, students read about African chants and watch videos about them prior to performing them in groups with appropriate rhythm and cadence.

Students are placed in small groups for this project. Groups collect and use ordinary objects to create a "Stomp" like performance.

Students create a class poem based on the song, Bam, Chi, Chi, Bam. The class participates in a brief discussion of the music of Jamaica and the feelings conveyed by this music. After listening to the song, students create a poem to...

Learners explore musical dynamics.  In this music lesson, students define musical terms that relate to dynamics.  Learners sing "Little Bunny Foo-Foo" and apply the written dynamics to their singing voices. Students use...

Students sing "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" with others in small groups and as an entire class. Using correct posture, correct rhythms, and accurate pitches, students play improvised melodies as accompaniment to the song. This lesson emphasizes...

Students compose an original cadence. They compose a short segment (2 measures) of a cadence on staff paper. Papers are collected and entered into Sibelius program. They compose original cadences using the Sibelius program and...

Students sing a song and figure out the rhythm notation for pharases while describing the benefits of broccoli. They compose a four-measure pattern using the rhythms of these phrases. They play the rhythm patterns with the recording.