Learn Music With Teacher Debbie: Third Grade General Music Class, Part 1

This is a fun and interactive music class for a small group of learners who are eight to nine years old.  Through actions, pictures, singing, movements, listening, and games, we will have a great time learning.  We can improve and gain knowledge in lots of fun ways when we sing, clap, and hear great music.  Okay, let's get technical!

In this course, learners will gain musical knowledge and skills through participation.  Your learner can learn songs that increase their knowledge base and prepare them for learning about history, folktales, stories, and other kinds of reading in the future.  Students will experience instruments in a dynamic setting and will be exposed to music to form a knowledge base and to develop their critical thinking and formation of opinions.  Exposure to enduring, iconic pieces of music is crucial to all learners in order to develop a knowledge base.  Learners will express opinions about what they hear.  Students will be prompted to use composers' names, information, and correct terms.  In each class, we will talk as we wait for everyone to log into our class.  Each week, we will begin by singing.  We will warm up by viewing and singing the C scale using solfege syllables, or "do-re-mi."  

In week one, we will immediately begin learning a new song, skipping the song review.  In weeks two through eight, we will review the songs we learned in previous classes by singing them.  We will learn a new song or part of a new song each week.  Learners will learn the words, see pictures, hear appropriate background information on the song, and ask questions to clarify their meaning.  Learners will practice echo singing to learn the melodies.  Learners will learn to sing unaccompanied by instruments in all classes.  While we sing the songs, we will practice musical skills like steady beat, accented beats, the downbeat, and gradual changes to volume and tempo.  Students will clap steady beats, rhythms, and the downbeat.  In each class, we will also recognize high and low pitches, short and long sounds, fast and slow tempo, and loud and soft volume.  In every class, learners will also learn to move responsively to music by marching, walking, hopping, and swaying.  Beginning in class two, students will learn about singing harmony by singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" in rounds.  In class three, we will learn about gradual changes in speed or volume. Beginning in class four, students will try different vocal placements to create different timbres.  In class five, students will begin to learn about using phrasing when singing.  They will learn what a verse and a refrain are by singing them.  In classes six through eight, students will practice the concepts they learned in previous classes with the new songs they learn.  This ends the weekly singing portion of the class.

The second section of each class will complete the listening component of music education.  Each week, students will learn about composers as listening selections are introduced.  Learners will listen to music, learn to recognize the elements of music they have learned, and learn about the instruments they hear.  Learners will hear all or almost all of each of these songs by the end of the course.  In week one, students will listen to the trumpet finale of the "William Tell Overture" by Gioacchino Rossini to learn about the trumpet, its tone color (timbre), and the orchestra's brass section.  In week two, students will listen to selections from the "Horn Concertos" by Mozart to learn about the French horn, its tone color (timbre), and the orchestra's brass section.  In weeks three through five, students will listen to a few minutes of "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" by Claude Debussy to learn about the flute, its tone color (timbre), and the orchestra's brass section.  In week six, students will listen to the opening of "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin to learn about the clarinet, its tone color (timbre), and the orchestra's brass section.  In weeks seven and eight, students will listen to Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man;" “Hoedown” from "Rodeo," and “Simple Gifts”
from "Appalachian Spring."  In weekly discussions, students will be guided to apply what they learned in previous classes using correct terminology.  They will express their opinions of the music in class discussion, either during the class or at the end of class.  The timing of the discussion will depend on the music selection for the day and the learners present in class.  As time permits in each class, the end of this section of class will involve games or learning activities about the families of instruments in the orchestra.

During the last section of each class, learners will learn about musical notation.  We will learn about the staff, bar lines, measures, and the treble clef in week one.  In week two, we will review week one's learning and learn about double bar lines, repeat signs, and time signatures.  In week three, we will review all of the previous learning and we will discuss the relationship between the scale, solfege syllables, and key signatures.  In week four, we will review the previous classes' information and learn about quarter notes.  In week five, we will review and then learn the names of lines and spaces in the treble clef, as well as the duration of a half note.  In week six, we will review and then learn whole notes and eighth notes as well as the musical terms for loud, very loud, soft, and very soft.

This class is very fun and friendly.  The literacy goals are to introduce these songs, to pronounce the vocabulary words correctly, to make their meaning clear, and to look at the rhyme schemes and poetic structures of the songs.  This integrates music learning with literacy goals and reinforces literacy in core classes.  We will talk and ask questions between songs and when we are learning the words.  My philosophy of music teaching includes the idea that all learning should be practiced physically, discussed by learners, and be fun to do in order to reinforce learning.  At the end of each class, learners will say goodbye to each other.  Class experiences can be shared in the Outschool Online Learning Community on Facebook under the topic, "Show and Tell."

This eight week course covers half of what a third-grader should practice weekly in order to fully learn the musical skills and gain the knowledge base they need before fourth grade.  The other half of the course will be offered during the spring semester.  Extra practice and reinforcement will be offered in other topic-based classes after the eight-week course.  Please follow me to see other seasonal and one-time classes that use what students learn in this class as they are listed.  I hope your learner can join our class!  See you soon!