Greensboro
Montessori School:
Liberal Arts
Music/Performance & Production News
Our students are hard at work in the
studio and on stage.
Middle School Performance & Production
Jonathan McLean, Instructor
The Performing Arts curriculum seeks to develop the student’s ability to create, translate, produce,
maintain and further an original idea/s through the performing arts. Different media is explored laterally while we answer the essential questions in depth. We start with original bands for the Origins Year, move on to an original Rock Opera during the Survival Year and complete the cycle with films in the Possibilities Year. Classes begin with practical life tasks like painting and construction. Then the practical life tasks are combined with the basics of any media for that year’s theme such as script/song writing. These basics are covered concurrently with a review of the media’s twentieth century history.
The essential questions we will seek to answer are:
• Origins Year
• How do you create an original idea?
• How do you translate your original idea?
• How do you produce your original idea?
• How do complete/finalize your original idea and move on to the next?
• Survival Year
• How do you maintain an original idea?
• How do you maintain the translation of your original idea?
• How do you maintain the production of your original idea?
• How do you create a foundation of maintaining original ideas?
• Possibilities Year
• How do you exploit originality or an original idea/s?
• How do push the translation of your original idea/s even further?
• How do expand the production of your original idea/s?
• How do exploit the possibilities of any maintained foundation/thread of original ideas?
Specific standards related to this course are available for viewing. Please ask the classroom teacher
for a copy.
 Primary, Lower
Elementary & Upper Elementary Music
Jonathan Henderson, Instructor
Worlds of Music, Worlds of Possibility
Objective:
Develop Appreciation for music and Inspire desire to learn more
Goals:
Understand music as a window on culture
Understand that music is a language anyone can learn
Become aware that music exists everywhere we look
What I want them to Know…
(By Middle School):
-That music exists everywhere – that each style is as important as any other because it represents a culture and a perspective
-That anyone can play music and derive joy from it – it’s just a matter of intention
-How to read and write simple musical patterns
-That music is something that can bring people together across boarders of cultural difference
-The value of Practice and working towards performance
-How to improvise with confidence
-That music can be a vehicle for understanding other’s perspectives
-That music can help ease restlessness and frustration
-That music can be used to tell stories, histories
-That music is simply another language that anyone can learn
Principles:
Respect for teacher, for each other, and for cultures and music being presented
Organization:
-Lessons will be built upon each week
-Units will be arranged geographically, exploring different music every week and a different country or region in each unit.
-Each unit will relate to a different component of music that will build upon the one studied in the previous unit.
-At the end of each units students will receive a flag sticker in their personal “Worlds of Music, Worlds of Possibility Passport”, as a marker and a reminder of each country studied. There will be room for them to describe some of what they learned in that unit.
-Each class will begin with a listening exercise, including a chance to describe different sounds and music using age appropriate vocabulary. The county being studied will be located by a student and identified on the class map (Listening Map).
-Class will often include age-appropriate lessons in the basic elements of music.
-An emphasis will also be placed on performance, and practice. We will have a few performances throughout the year and all playing in class will work towards future performance.
-To the end of music appreciation, various guests will visit class to demonstrate styles, and talk about their own experience with music.
Schedule:
9/5 – 10/2
Unit 1: W. Africa, Rhythm
-Call and Response
-Introduce “AGO – AMEH” method of centering class
-Drumming
-Roots of American music: rock n’ roll, jazz, blues
-Improvisation
-Begin notating and reading simple rhythms
-Music of the Natural World (include S. African post office worker recording)
-Guest Musician: Will Ridenour (Kora player and W. African drummer)
Unit Performance goal:
Being able to perform a drumming song on hand drums
9/25 – 10/23
Unit 2: North America, Melody
-The development and significance of:
-Spirituals
-Peace Like a River, This Little Light, ect.
-Blues
-John Henry
-Jazz
-Rock ‘n Roll
-Popular Music
-Singing common American songs
-Begin notating and reading simple melodies
-Introduction of important figures in American Music
-Modern instrument identification
-Guest Musician: Gary Konce (singer of opera and African American spirituals)
Unit Performance goal:
Being able to sing and perform a historic American song (including a verse from
John Henry)
10/23 – 11/6
Unit 3: India, Improvisation
-Goals of improvisation
-Practice improvisation of drums, orf instruments
-Exploration of Indian instruments
-The practice of learning fundamentals (strictness of India method)
-Guest Musician: Noah Sager, Andy Savoy with accompanists (jazz improvisers)
Unit Performance goal:
Being able to perform modal improvisation on orf instruments
11/6 – 12/4
Unit 4: Europe, Harmony
-Classical music, development of harmony
-Important composers
-Introduce Solfeg
-Age appropriate lessons in combining pitch and rhythm
-Singing rounds to explore harmony
Unit Performance goal:
Being able to sing and perform a song (a round for some)
Performance 1: Friday, November 17…
12/4 – 12/19
Unit 5: Middle East, Expression
-Exploration of Middle Eastern instruments
-Exercise in floating style of singing, vocal expression
-Drumming exercises in odd meters (5/4, 7/8)
-Discussion of intuitive rhythm as leaned rather than innate
1/4 – 2/12
Unit 6: Brazil, Application/ Performance
-Samba, Samba, Samba
-Working towards performance
-Different ways is music used in different cultures
-Carnival
-Guest Musicians: Cakalak Thunder (community samba band)
2/12 – 3/12
Unit 7: Native America, Ritual
-Explore Native American rhythms
-View ritual films
-Guest Musician: Ed Whitfield (instrument builder and flute player)
3/12 – 4/10
Unit 8: Indonesia, Timbre
-Recognizing and describing different sounds
-Environmental music walk
-Simulate Gamelan performance on orf instruments
4/10 – 4/23
Unit 9: Mediterranean music, Learning
-Talk about different was of leaning and teaching
-Talk about and attempt to play odd-metered music
-Guest Musician: Cronis (Greek bouzouki player)
4/23 – 5/14
Unit 10: Cuba, Invention
-Discuss the process of creating music
-Learning about influences
-Talk about virtuosity
5/14 – 6/7
Unit 11: Latin America, Heritage
-Music as culture preservation
-Our own musical heritage
Primary Movement (incorporated into Music Curriculum):
Goals:
-Build range and capacity to move in a variety of ways
-Perform basic locomotor skills
-Perform simple movements in response to simple oral instructions
-Create movements that reflect a variety of personal experiences
-Respond to a variety of stimuli (sounds, words, song, props, ect.) with original movements
-Give examples of relationships between everyday movement and dance movement
-Consider dance as universal, a shared experience among cultures
-Explore the joy of movement, of self-expression
-Explore the relationship between tonal qualities and ways of moving/ shaping the body
-Explore the connections between storytelling, dance and music
Organization:
-Movement will be integrated into each lesson for Primary students. Often this will involve moving to the music being explored in the current unit. We will also do interactive movement exercises in class as well body music exercises that combine the creation of music with building fine and gross motor skills. From time to time movement will be the primary focus of class and we will not concentrate as much on the Worlds of Music, Worlds of Possibility curriculum.
State Standards and General Lesson Goals:
*When planning individual lesson teacher will refer to the criteria below to design age appropriate exercises within the context of the music curriculum laid out above.
Curriculum Plans: Primary
Practical Music Goals
(informed by State of California Visual and Performing Arts Content Standards and Strands):
-Understanding of basic elements of music: high/ low, fast/ slow, loud/ soft, beat
-Singing age appropriate songs from memory, echoing unfamiliar phrases
-Playing instruments and moving through space such that an awareness of rhythm and dynamics is demonstrated
-Demonstrate an awareness of uses of music in daily life
-Talk about why artists create music, dance, theater ect.
Lesson Goals (music):
-Beginning to work on basic motor skills involved with playing
-Exposure to various world music styles
-Exploring the joy of musical expression
-Understanding of global context of music
-Learning that music can be fun and rewarding using basic improvisation technique
-Learning to work towards performance
-Learning to gauge merit of music, development of individual taste
Practical Movement Goals:
(informed by State of California Visual and Performing Arts Content Standards and Strands):
-Build range and capacity to move in a variety of ways
-Perform basic locomotor skills
-Perform simple movements in response to simple oral instructions
-Create movements that reflect a variety of personal experiences
-Respond to a variety of stimuli (sounds, words, song, props, ect.) with original movements
-Name and perform folk/ traditional dances from various cultures
-Give examples of relationships between everyday movement and dance movement
Lesson Goals:
-Understand innate qualities of movement
-Consider dance as universal, a shared experience among cultures
-Explore the joy of movement, of self-expression
-Explore the relationship between tonal qualities and ways of moving/ shaping the body
-Consider the connections between storytelling, dance and music
Curriculum Plans: Lower El Music
Practical Music Goals:
(informed by State of California Visual and Performing Arts Content Standards and Strands):
-Read and write simple musical patterns of pitch and rhythm
-Identify instruments both visually and aurally
-Understand verse/ refrain form
-Introduce Solfege and perform short melodies with it
-Sing songs from memory and play accompaniments on instruments
-Understand and experiment with improvisation on a wide range of instruments
-Discuss use of music in celebrations of culture around the world
-Sing and play simple singing games from various cultures
-Use individual vocabulary to describe sound
-Create movement that demonstrates focused listening
-Describe how ideas or moods are communicated through music
-Describe how the performance of songs and dance improves through practice
-Communicate how musical elements imply certain moods
Lesson Goals:
-Refining motor/ performance skills
-Understanding of global context of music
-Understanding basic history of American music, genres
-Learning skills of improvisation
-Understanding various applications of music
-Understanding of various world music styles
-Learning to use music for self-expression, emotional release
-Learning value of practice and working towards performance
-Learning to gauge merit of music, development of individual taste
-Identify melodic contours (rising, falling)
-Simple notation
-Exploring environmental music
Curriculum Plans: Upper El Music
Practical Music Goals:
(informed by the NC Standard Course of Study):
-Demonstrating appropriate expressive and technical vocal and instrumental practices
-Demonstrating pitch and rhythmic accuracy
-Reading and notating rhythmic and melodic patterns
-Identifying traditional symbols and terms and using appropriate terminology
-Improvising, composing, and arranging music
-Listening to, analyzing, and evaluating music
-Developing understanding of music in relation to history, culture, and other content areas
-Showing respect for the efforts of others
Lesson Goals:
-Understanding of various world music styles
-Working towards more complex performance
-Involvement with playing several instruments in many styles
-Understanding of American musical genres
-Exposure to music technology/ equipment
-Consideration of what constitutes music
-Knowledge of some historical figures in music
-Consideration of applications of music in American culture
-Deeper understand of music as a broader cultural phenomenon
-Exploration of environmental music
-Ability to identify various instruments by timbre
Sticker Flags to be used with passport:
Rolls:
US
African American
Cuba
India
Egypt
Chile
Nigeria
Jamaica
Sheets:
Guinea
Greece
Germany
United Kingdom
Brazil
Iraq
Indonesia
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