Lydia Baranoski

Instructor: Lydia Baranoski

Unit: Chord Structure and Melody and Harmony in Pop Music

Grade Level: 4th grade general music

 

Unit Goals:

• Students preform in class the song “Try Everything” by Shakira, with singing the melody and playing the Harmony part on Orff styled instruments

• Students can explain the basics of what a chord is and how it pertains to pop music

• Students can identify the melody of a song versus the harmony of a song

• Students understand what it means to play within an ensemble and how their own individual part can fit into the bigger picture.

 

Student Objectives:

• Students will be able to sing the song “Try Everything”, by Shakira, by demonstrating accurate pitches and rhythms after being taught the song by rote.      

• Students will be able to show concept of steady beat, rhythm, chord changes and reading by playing xylophone, boom whackers, and auxiliary percussion with each chord change                 

• Students will be able to demonstrate concepts of basic ensemble playing by counting rests and keeping a steady beat to play their part when it is their time to play

• Students will be able to show concept of steady beat by keeping the melody part in time with the harmony part

 

Week One:

• Students listen to the song “Try Everything”

• Students discuss what they heard in the recording of the song, what instruments where heard, what were the lyrics saying

• Students lean the melody of the song by method of call and response singing with lyrics projected on board

• Teacher explains to students what chords are

• Students sit in groups and tap out steady beat of song with certain groups tapping when certain chords appear in song

 

Week Two:

• Students review singing the melody of the song and the concept of chords

• Students are assigned to instruments, xylophones, boom whackers, and aux percussion

• Teacher goes over proper playing technique with students on each instrument

• Students read notes presented on board that correspond with each chord and find it on the xylophones

• Students play their instruments in correspondence to the music on the board

 

Week Three:

• Students start on instruments and play through chord changes following music on projector

• Students spend time switching instruments and trying new parts

• Teacher takes volunteers of students that want to try singing the melody over the harmony part

• Students put together melody part with singing and harmony part with playing and preform the song as a whole

 

Assessment Tools

• Students will be assessed through direct assessment techniques of the teacher asking students questions based on what the student has learned in this lesson, previous lessons, or experiences

• Students will be assessed by asking each student to write down three new things they learned about in this lesson

 

National Standards addressed in this unit

MU:Pr4.2.4a Demonstrate understanding of the structure and the elements of music (such as rhythm, pitch, and form) in music selected for performance.

MU:Pr4.2.4b When analyzing selected music, read and perform using iconic and/or standard notation.

MU:Pr6.1.4a Perform music, alone or with others, with expression and technical accuracy, and appropriate interpretation

 

Pa National Standards for Arts and Humanities addressed in this unit

9.1. Production, Performance and Exhibition of Dance, Music, Theatre and Visual Arts

A. Know and use the elements and principles of each art form to create works in the arts and humanities.

Music: • pitch • form • genre • harmony • rhythm • texture

B. Recognize, know, use and demonstrate a variety of appropriate arts elements and principles to produce, review and revise original works in the arts.

Music: • sing • play an instrument • read and notate music