Watching Great Performances’ Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival Chicago launches an investigation into and discussion of how the electric guitar and guitarists have changed the sound of the blues over time. An engaging way to...

Captivate your class by having them find the value of their names, different zoo animals, musical instruments, etc.,with a mental math lesson. Using the coding formula listed, children learn to fluently estimate and calculate...

Really? Rapping The Odyssey? Really. A discussion of the oral tradition of story telling and its links to Epic poetry sets the stage for a series of activities that encourage improvisation to integrate music into other classrooms....

Students investigate early African civilizations. They create Kufi hats, musical instruments, pottery and African masks, sing songs, play African studenT games, and participate in a feast and tour of a museum where their artwork is...

Students explore various string instruments in this multi-week music instructional activity for the upper-elementary grades. Emphasis is placed on group violin lessons, listening to and identifying string instruments, and researching...

Students assemble and examine typical European orchestral woodwind instruments, determine how the instruments change pitch, identify common orchestral woodwind instruments by sound, and research a non-Euro-centric woodwind instrument in...

Learners list the four main families of musical instruments, name one instrument from each musical family, name three ways music is used in everyday life.

Students differentiate between metallic and non-metallic sounds. In this music lesson plan, students listen to the audio clip of "March" and march in time with the music. Students identify the metallic sounds in the music piece. Students...

Use the special Tennessee State Quarter as a learning tool. During this lesson, discuss why the Tennessee Quarter has musical instruments on it. You can also utilize a worksheet embedded in the plan to help your class compose a song that...

Play a music game with your budding musicians! They pick various sound cards out of a bag and make those sounds in different ways. 

Students examine gospel music including the lyrics and instrumentation. They explain the meaning of the lyrics and how they are related to the cultural values associated with the music. They differentiate between gospel and spiritual music.

Learners select an instrument and create a musical composition. In this musical composition instructional activity, students invent an original piece of music that is 16 measures long. Learners hum and record their pieces.

In this music learning exercise, students use their workbook to answer short answer questions about music and instruments. Students complete 4 questions total to get their merit badge.

Learners research the Incan civilization. In this Incan civilization lesson, students study the geography of the Andes mountains and play an Andean siku. Learners discuss how the sounds of nature influenced their musical piece.

What better way to teach pentatonic scales than to have them playing while you define them? This slide-show includes simple yet correct descriptions of five note scales in C, G, and F major as well as examples for learners to hear. 

Students listen and respond to various forms of Caribbean music. In this music and culture lesson, students clap rhythms and respond to a sung call. Lyrics are analyzed for language blends and repetition. Music and culture from Puerto...

Students explore the links between Japanese and British culture. In this Japanese music lesson, students listen to their instructor present a lecture regarding Gagaku music and then perform "Te Lucis Ante Terminum" with Japanese...

In this music and war learning exercise, 9th graders read about the instruments and the types of music the are popular during times of war. They read about the Big Band era that took place during World War II before answering 5...

Students explore the music from Burundi, Zimbabwe, and Pygmy cultures. They listen to and discuss music from the African cultures, analyze the musical elements, write a song, and perform music.

Students closely examine chamber music as it has changed from the Middle Ages to today. They work in small groups to research the composers, instruments and typical presentation in 5 time periods. They write biographies and share their...

Students are introduced to classical music. They listen to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. They interview each other in regards to their feelings about the music and the paintings they produced while listening to the piece.

Students experience musical imagery. They link this musical concept to literary imagery to gain an understanding of the use of imagery in both genres. After listening to a varriety of sounds, students will compose and perform a melody.

Students make a wind vane, anemometer, wind spiral, and wind streamer to calculate wind movement. In this wind lesson plan, students test each of their wind instruments, and graph the results of the wind speed in different locations.

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.