Resources for teaching elements/parts of music?

[momto2Cs]

I am looking for resources to introduce/explain to my kids (ages 11 and 9) to musical terms/parts/elements of music, such as pitch, melody, tone, rhythm, etc.

 

Does anyone have any recommendations? Thanks!

[SarahW]

These are two things I've dumped into an ongoing list of possible resources for music theory. I've just glanced at them - sorry if they turn out to be not very good:

 

http://www.gmajormusictheory.org/Fundamentals/workbooks.html and http://www.childrensmusicworkshop.com/musictheory/index.html

[Hunter]

Both editions of What Your Grader _ Needs to Know, superficially cover these topics. Are you looking to introduce and expand, or just make the students aware that these terms exist?

[momto2Cs]

Both editions of What Your Grader _ Needs to Know, superficially cover these topics. Are you looking to introduce and expand, or just make the students aware that these terms exist?

 

 

Introduce and expand. I was actually inspired by the What Your Grader _ Needs to Know books!

 

I did find this: Marsalis on Music. There is a book AND dvd!

[Kfamily]

This site has some nice free printables for composers, music theory, etc.

 

This section has some printables for learning notes and rhythm.

 

http://www.makingmus...it_notename.htm

 

 

There are lessons here:

 

http://www.makingmus..._zone_index.htm

[Hunter]

I don't think NtK is going to be enough for you then.

 

That's as far as I want to go with those topics. Students who want more of that will need to self-educate or find someone else. There are SO many things to study and limited time. I get exhausted. The ORIGINAL NtK series has been my safety net the past few months. I just sigh and say to myself, "It's good enough. It's okay. Go cook and play and rest. Life is short."

 

Good luck finding more. Over the decades I've seen a few music unit studies floating around. You might want to try googling for "music unit studies". Have you looked in a World Book Encyclopedia set? WB has often been a great resource for me. WB is the set that is most geared towards K-12 school topics. New Book of Knowledge often has the best child hobby articles. The huge 1 volume Columbia Encyclopedia is a unique book gives the best definition style articles of just about any topic you can think of.

[momto2Cs]

This site has some nice free printables for composers, music theory, etc. This section has some printables for learning notes and rhythm. http://www.makingmus...it_notename.htm There are lessons here: http://www.makingmus...ex.htm</strong>

 

These lessons look great - thanks!

 

I don't think NtK is going to be enough for you then. That's as far as I want to go with those topics. Students who want more of that will need to self-educate or find someone else. There are SO many things to study and limited time. I get exhausted. The ORIGINAL NtK series has been my safety net the past few months. I just sigh and say to myself, "It's good enough. It's okay. Go cook and play and rest. Life is short." Good luck finding more. Over the decades I've seen a few music unit studies floating around. You might want to try googling for "music unit studies". Have you looked in a World Book Encyclopedia set? WB has often been a great resource for me. WB is the set that is most geared towards K-12 school topics. New Book of Knowledge often has the best child hobby articles. The huge 1 volume Columbia Encyclopedia is a unique book gives the best definition style articles of just about any topic you can think of.

 

I too have the original NtK series - I'm going to get it out and look over it tonight. Maybe there is enough there for what I want/need. Thanks!

[mytwomonkeys]

i have "what your 2nd grader needs to know" (somewhere??). is it in there? should i hunt for it? we are all learning to play the recorder & music theory would obviously benefit us greatly.

[Hunter]

i have "what your 2nd grader needs to know" (somewhere??). is it in there? should i hunt for it? we are all learning to play the recorder & music theory would obviously benefit us greatly.

 

NtK is not designed to teach a student to play an instrument. Its focus appears--at least to my barely educated self--to be an attempt to make a student culturally literate about music. NtK is an attempt to make sure that a student doesn't get the deer in headlights look about any of the most basic things our current society deems essential to be an active participant. It also introduces a student to things that they might decide to follow up on.

 

If I or a student finds something interesting in NtK, we use Google, my encyclopedia collection, library DVDs and books, youtube, Netflix( in the past when I had wifi), and whatever we think of to dig a little deeper. There are those things like playing an instrument, though, that will need a dedicated curriculum and someone other than me to teach it.

 

I'm really getting comfortable about not needing to be EVERYTHING to EVERYONE. I'm carving out what I am good at teaching, and then leaving students to self-educate and look for other tutors and teachers. I used to think I owed it to my students to be more multicultural. I've pulled back from that. The Principle Approach calls the teacher a "living textbook". I don't need to be EVERY textbook. There are other textbooks in this world, living and nonliving. I'm just ONE textbook and for better or worse I've adopted NtK (the original series) as my bones. I'm good at teaching this series, as long as I don't start stressing.

 

When it comes to music, I'll go so far as to borrow a Satchmo DVD to supplement the lesson in Jazz, but that's as far as I go. Going further with the music is not MY job in this lifetime. There are so many things that are just not my job to teach. I need to focus on what I'm good at as an INDIVIDUAL, with the resources I currently HAVE. When I fail to stick to MY job, then I start failing altogether.

[Roadrunner]

I find this to be the best reference book for music.

It has everything.

 

edited to fix the link