+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Visual Aural Impressions

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students view a piece of impressionist art, listen to a piece of jazz music and then write a piece about the picture in the style of beat poets. They compare their writing and look for differences in their perceptions.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Musical Phrase Completion

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Students get to encounter simple musical notations, basic keyboarding and improvisation. Students exercise on creative thinking skills. Students create their own musical notes.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Responses To Twentieth Century Music: A High School Art Curriculum

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students explore their own responses to sound by hearing the music as a regular part of the class structure. They develop an awareness that certain art evokes certain sounds and moods and develop an intuitive responses to the music.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Improvise a Short Story through Jazz

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students evaluate jazz music and a jazz music performance. They collaborate and create an improvised group short story. They improvise a musical piece on found objects.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Say It Loud!: A Celebration Of Black Music In America Music In America

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students study early New Orleans Jazz music and recognize Louis Armstrong as an early jazz artist. They recognize the elements and roots of Jazz.
+
Unit Plan
General Motors Corporation

Jazz

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Over the history of the world, music has been at the heart of some of the greatest social and political movements. Scholars discover their musical roots as they dive into the sounds and emotions of renowned jazz players. They see how...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Sondheim: Voice of Cultural Change

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Young scholars explore Stephen Sondheim's contributions to musical theatre in the context of the dramatic cultural shift that occurred in American life in the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Students improvise then compose and notate melodies with appropriate accompaniments that are inspired by events that transpired during their summer vacations. Requires a networked keyboard lab.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Night on Bald Mountain

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students use appropriate terms to reflect a working knowledge of the musical elements. Then they use terminology from music and other arts to analyze and compare the structures of musical and other artistic and literary works. Students...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Music Education, Playing the Blues

For Teachers Pre-K - 6th
This lesson enables students to gain a broader awareness of the basic blues scale and the harmonic structure of the standard blues progression. Students will be given introductory exercises on blues improvisation and will also...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Global Music Patterns- Islamic Art

For Teachers 7th - 11th
Students compose music using Islamic patterns. In this cultural arts lesson, students examine Islamic art and analyze the patterns. Students incorporate various Islamic patterns into a musical composition.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Jazz: Expression through Improvisation

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students watch a video on improvisation. They improvise original melodies over given chord progressions. They develop criteria to evaluate the merits of improvisational performances and apply the criteria in their personal listening and...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rock and Roll with Music and Movement

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders improvise music and dance to express their analysis of types of rocks. They discuss the three classes of rocks, list describing words, and create a short musical piece and dance to symbolize the rock they are dancing.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Say It Loud!: A Celebration Of Black Music In America - Episode 3: Can I Get A Witness

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students identify many genres of music that influenced gospel and study examples of gospel music. They explain that gospel music is sacred and is usually performed with sincerity, dignity, and passion with vocal improvisation.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Indian Ragas

For Teachers 5th - 9th
Learners explore Indian ragas and learn the differences between an Indian raga and the Western scale. They sing the familiar song "America," first in the Western major scale and then in two Indian ragas (bhairavi and purvi) on a neutral...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Songs of Fela Kuti – Nigeria

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students explore the music of Fela Kuti. In this music lesson, students listen to the fusion protest music of Fela Kuti of Nigeria. Students reflect on Kuti's music and message.
+
Lesson Plan
SoundTree

When The Saints Go Marching In: A Lesson for Middle School Keyboard Lab Students

For Teachers 6th - 8th
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.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Jazz Forms and Improvisation

For Teachers 10th - Higher Ed
Students listen to an original recording of Louis Armstrong and discuss instrumentation. They identify an AABA song form as they listen. They list similarities between the following: traditional meets modern and small group vs. big band.
+
Worksheet
Curated OER

Composing Your Own Melody

For Students 5th - 8th
Get the songwriters in your class started early with an engaging music composition activity. After experimenting with an existing melody, class members improvise in a given range of notes and create their own melodies.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

My Way

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students culminate a humanities project by improvising music to accompany a video of a particular era in US history.
+
Lesson Plan
SoundTree

Teaching Jazz Structure with 2-track Stereo Digital Audio Software

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Melody, solo, melody. After a discussion of the structure of a jazz tune and of improvisation as it relates to jazz, young musicians listen to a jazz CD and then, using 2-track stereo digital audio software, place and label markers in an...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Up From the Streets: Hip Hop as a Recognized Art

For Teachers 6th - 11th
Students discuss the historical roots of Hip-Hop to the present as an example of an art form that arose from the street into popular culture. Emphasis is placed on in-class discussion and written reflections in this introductory lesson.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Jazz In America - Lesson Plan 8

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders explore the current jazz scene and how it reflects American culture. They listen to jazz recordings of current artists and speculate on which direction jazz is likely heading.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Digable Planets, K.B.'s Alley When Jazz Meets Hip-Hop

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students explore the musical style of jazz and identify its elements while listening to hip-hop recordings. They select two styles of music and fuse them together in this lesson plan.