This plan introduces rhythm guitar chart reading using open and barre chords. Students will review how to read basic chord charts in order to accompany songs and perform with ensembles.

This lesson will introduce students to proper posture, rest position, and playing position for their instrument. Students will demonstrate understanding of these concepts and their ability to teach them to others.

This plan will introduce students to 12-Bar Blues progressions that include Slow Change, Quick Change, and Turnaround options. Students will use the Blues Scale to improvise over the 12-Bar blues progressions.

Students will use creativity, critical thinking skills, and collaboration to develop and produce podcasts that inform and educate listeners on various musical topics.

This plan will provide students with the resources to clean, restring, and tune a classical guitar. Students will also learn about different string types and which kinds of knots are used to string guitars.  

Students will demonstrate understanding of rhythmic symbols and their values (whole, half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes/rests). Students will create note trees to make connections between musical rhythms and mathematics. Students will apply their knowledge of rhythm to express their musical ideas and engage more deeply with music.

Students will experiment with and compose rhythmic grooves to use with their warm-up exercises. Using an online tool, students will create their own backing tracks to put the “fun” back in fundamentals!

This plan will introduce the foundational skills and methods to develop successful sight-reading through guided practice. These methods provide students with the awareness and confidence to become capable and independent at the sight-reading process.

This plan combines rote learning with a simplified, one-line tab staff to introduce tablature. Elements of passive learning are included (major and minor scales, triads, common rhythmic figures, etc.) that can be referenced later when pedagogically appropriate. The plan is meant to eventually function as a flexible warm-up that can be expanded according to the ambitions of the instructor.

Students will be introduced to diatonic chords for major and minor keys, learn about primary chord progressions and circle of fifth progressions, and apply their understanding in the creation of new music. Visual references are provided to aid student understanding.

This plan will provide the instructor with an outline and resources to direct students through the formation of a student virtual performance portfolio. Students will use their virtual performance portfolio to collect both individual and ensemble performing artifacts throughout the year to evaluate and critique performances, formulate and justify personal responses to music, and monitor individual practice and progress toward goals.

This plan will provide the teacher and student with the resources to engage in kind and constructive feedback. Students will use music terminology to evaluate, define, and provide feedback to peer performances.

In this plan, students will use the melody from the jazz standard “St. James Infirmary” as a springboard to improvisation. The students will utilize a call and response technique to learn the melody. Then students will learn several ways they can utilize the content within the melody of a song to improvise.

Students will explore copyright and intellectual property standards as they relate to music, music technology, and digital citizenship. Students will explore copyright law, investigate the trends of copyright throughout history, and collaborate to propose their own “Copyright Act” for the future.

This lesson guides students through the beginning stages of articulation. Focus is limited to producing clear, focused tone, and clean legato articulation.

This plan guides teachers in exercising audiation techniques to develop aural skills for young musicians. These skills can be continually developed in warm-ups and literature in call-and-response style instruction.

In this webinar, we will explore ways that teachers and students can use digital tools in the secondary music classroom for creation and investigation. Topics addressed will include project ideas, integration of audio creation tools into the class structure and environment, and practical issues to consider when choosing hardware and software for these projects.

This resource demonstrates the 2020 Music Standards of Learning for elementary and middle school instrumental music in a chart format that shows the progression of the standards levels: Elementary, MS Beginning, MS Intermediate and MS Advanced.

This resource demonstrates the 2020 Music Standards of Learning for high school instrumental music in a chart format that shows the progression of the standards levels: beginning, intermediate, advanced and artist.