Music touches our souls and opens our hearts and minds to God. This course will teach how music works, and will focus on creating and performing music. Students will use singing and hands-on, interactive techniques to learn to play, read, compose, transcribe, and transpose music.
Students will be exposed to Western notation (notes on staff), Eastern notation (Byzantine neumes), and scale-degree handsigns (Kodaly-Curwen). They will experiment with melody, harmony, and ison (Church harmony). Students will analyze how pitch and rhythm are used to achieve desired effects in composing, and write their own, original songs.
What to Expect:
- Music-learning should be fun and encouraging, so the class will be taught with a lively emphasis on games, hands-on activities, and group interaction.
- Classes are taught workshop-style, and will last between 40-45 minutes, in order to give the students plenty of time to explore activities, play music, and share ideas.
- Homework will be due once or twice a week, requiring on average 15-20 minutes per assignment, and will consist of practicing short songs and making videos of them, handwriting with pencil on worksheets, and occasionally playing online learning games.
Prerequisite: No previous experience needed, but choir experience or prior music lessons would be helpful.
Follow-Up: After completing this course, students will be prepared for the Level 2 course, Music Horizons. Students entering middle school will also be ready for the Music Composition and Music Literacy courses.
Required Text/Materials:
- Musical instrument to purchase: Ennbom Desk Bells
- Free account to sign up for: Noteflight.com (personal account, not student account)
- WIDE Landscape Pad or Landscape Notebook, college-ruled: available on Amazon, RainbowResource.com, and OfficeDepot.com. On Amazon, check the 2-pack cost, because it may be less than the single pad cost.
- 4 non-breakable cups (plastic or aluminum)
- Curriculum will be provided by the teacher.
Only enrolled students can view materials.
