I begin by asking if anyone can think of a two-beat song. If not I suggest ‘Row, row, row your boat’ (Or age appropriate if they are older)then I get the group to clap down on their knees for the down beat and click for the upbeat. Ask if they notice the difference in dynamics.
The piano has several less known cousins which are important for us to introduce into the music classroom: the celesta, harpsichord and organ. Show and talk about the different aspects and characteristics of the keyboard instruments. The keyboard instruments are related to each other in that they are controlled by a similarly laid-out key mechanism.
This is a version of the “Celebrity Heads” game. Three students stand out the front of the class, wearing different labels on their heads (which can be pre-determined by the class), either musical terms, names of instruments, musical notes/symbols (depending on the current focus) or a combination of all. The students take turns in guessing
If you’ve been a teacher of young children's classes you’ll know one very important thing: you always need have a lesson plan. That is, if you want to end the day in a positive frame of mind! A lesson plan doesn’t have to be complex, and teachers who have been in the game a while
Creating music lesson plans about percussion instruments is easy with a few ideas detailed below. To help students understand how timpani can be tuned, demonstrate the effect of membrane tension on pitch. With a simple home made drum, pull on the edges of the drumhead to put varying degrees of tension on it, while a
Remember old fashioned piano lessons? Where you had to go to Mrs Jones’s house and sit up straight on the stool, and play the right notes or you’d get a swift ruler tap on the back of the knuckles? Well thankfully times have changed, and (we hope) that piano teachers no longer plan to teach
In this article you’ll find a few ideas for creating Music Lesson plans all about untuned percussion instruments. You could have the students make their own drums. Students can make their own drums if you have enough materials, otherwise you could do it as a class project. You’ll simply need a large empty can, some
Lesson plans are an indispensable tool for music teachers. They are very important to the success of both one lesson and the teachers career in general. There is nothing like the old saying “If you don’t prepare, then prepare to fail”. However, once you are a little more experienced then preparing lesson plans becomes a
Here are a few teaching ideas to get your students inspired about the life of Beethoven – one of the most interesting characters to ever put pen to manuscript. Watch the excerpt from the movie Mr. Holland's Opus where he tries to communicate the idea of music to his deaf son through lights and color.
This is an excerpt from our Printable Music Lesson Plans series on great composers. These are just a couple of the ideas found in the Lesson Plans. In Salzburg, Austria, Mozart's childhood house has been turned into a museum. Have the students draw a design for the front cover of the brochure for this museum,