Carnival of the Animals Carnival of the Animals is a short 14-movement suite by French composer Camille Saint-Saens. It was composed in 1886 and, when it was written, audiences would have found it to be pretty funny- it is full of musical jokes that listeners would have instantly recognized. Each movement is about a character, […]
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Music Mind Maps Write the name of the piece and the composer in the center of the worksheet. In the first branch out of circles (the purple circles) write down specific program elements that the music is trying to portray. To use Vivaldi’s Winter from The Four Seasons as an example, you might choose to
Program Music Deep Dive During this activity, you’ll dive deeper into Vivaldi’s Winter from The Four Seasons. Read the poem this piece is based on. I. Allegro non molto–Frozen and trembling in the icy snow,In the severe blast of the horrible wind,As we run, we constantly stamp our feet,And our teeth chatter in the cold.II.
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What is Program Music? Program Music is music that is intended to describe a scene or tell a story. Program music is often inspired by a piece of art, a poem, or a story that a composer has heard but can also be inspired by people and places a composer encounters in real life. Listen
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Music and Moods Listen to the music in the playlist below. As students listen, have them draw a smiley face or write down an emotion that they think the music portrays. This works great if each student has a small white board to use. Have them hold up their white boards to share their words
Music Listening Worksheet Have students complete this worksheet as they listen to a piece of music. It will help them engage in both how the music makes them feel as well as with what is happening in the music, building the bridge between musical devices and the moods they can create.
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Melody Maker Create a melody as a class with nothing but a white board (or chalkboard) and your imagination. One by one, students can choose which note should come next in the melody. It is easiest to just stick with quarter notes. Once you have filled up the number of bars of music you chose
Major and Minor Music Use the playlist below as the base for this simple major/minor listening activity. As you listen to the music, have students indicate whether the music is in a major or minor key. They can do this by: Giving a thumbs up (major) or down (minor) Drawing a smiley or sad face
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Good News Bad News Play this fun game to get young ears more familiar to the sounds of major and minor chords and how they relate to the different moods they often portray. Students will create their own (short) stories that correspond with the chords they’re hearing. When the students hear a major chord, they
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Animal Tempos Vocabulary Let’s focus on just four main tempo dynamic markings: andante, moderato, allegro, and presto. Here is a helpful way to imagine four different tempos as animal speeds. Activity Step One: Try acting each animal move while you listen to these four pieces in this playlist: Feel how each animal has a different
Singing scales – Introduction to Major and Minor Most pieces of simple music use one scale throughout the whole piece. A scale is a pattern of notes organized in order of pitch (low to high or high to low). In Western music, scales usually contain 8 notes. Sing a major scale together (or sing along
Dynamics Performance Game Use the two dynamics charts below during this activity (click on them to make them full screen) to help your students learn different dynamic terms. For this activity, students can use percussion instruments, their voices, body percussion sounds (like patting their legs with their hands), etc. Ask students to start making sound
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