Explore and build foundational musical skills with Spotlight on Music from McGraw-Hill. This course offers a variety of learning activities that include singing, dancing, virtual instruments, listening maps, authentic sound recordings and playing the recorder. The course is organized into nine units. Students learn about these musical elements: duration, pitch, design, tone color, expressive qualities and cultural context. Students explore beat, meter, rhythm, melody, harmony, tonality, texture, form, tone color, dynamics, tempo, articulation, style, and music background.

Course Outline

Unit 1

· Beat/Meter – beat and rhythm in 3/4, beat and rhythm in 2/4

· Rhythm – dotted half notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes, ostinatos

· Melody – C major scale

· Harmony – four-part harmony, chord symbols, chords, intervals, root, third, fifth, chord sequence

· Tonality – C major scale

· Texture – drumbeats accompanying a march, beat divisions in two and three, steel drums

· Form/Structure – canon, verse and refrain

· Tone Color – string orchestra, voice range, cambiata, steel drums

· Tempo – slow tempos

· Articulation – rhythm patterns in percussion

· Style/Background – English canon, American march, American popular song, Caribbean music, nature sounds, program music

Unit 2

· Beat/Meter – beat and rhythm patterns in 4/4

· Rhythm – eighth notes, quarter notes, half notes

· Dynamics – ff, f, p

· Articulation – walking-bass line

· Style/Background – Gospel music, jazz, Brazilian traditional rhythms, Brazilian samba

Unit 3

· Beat/Meter – beat and rhythm patterns in 4/4, beat and rhythm patterns in 12/8, compound meter, simple meter

· Rhythm – eighth notes, quarter notes, eighth rests, quarter rests, dotted quarter notes, dotted quarter rests

· Melody – use notation to follow melodies, play three main melodies of a canon

· Harmony – identify harmony when two or more notes sound together, play chords for a bluegrass song

· Texture – rhythmic speaking of the lyrics of a song

· Form/Structure - AABAAB

· Tone Color – identify how music conveys celebration

· Style/Background – traditional Japanese percussion instruments, novelty song, jazz, bluegrass music, songs from a Broadway musical

Unit 4

· Beat/Meter – 4/4, chords and rhythm patterns

· Rhythm – eighth notes, dotted eighth notes, sixteenth notes, quarter notes, dotted eighth notes, sixteenth notes, quarter rests

· Melody – melodies played on Asian and Western instruments

· Form/Structure – modified ternary, ABA, theme and variations

· Tone Color – voice solo with instrumental backing, membranophones and idiophones

· Style/Background – Chinese traditional song, Jamaican traditional song, Adenkum music

Unit 5

· Beat/Meter – 4/4, rhythm accompaniment, 2/4, 3/4

· Rhythm – eighth notes, quarter notes, half notes, quarter rests, half rests, whole rests

· Melody – read notation in different directions and with different key signatures

· Harmony – identify the tonic key and the dominant key, chords along with a piano arrangement, play a chord pattern

· Tonality – use major and minor keys to add excitement

· Texture – music meant to mimic nature

· Form/Structure – seamless transition between symphonic movements, ABA, ternary, AB, binary

· Tone Color – first use of trombones in a symphonic work

· Dynamics – p, f, sf

· Style/Background – music of the Romantic period, music of the Classical period, melodies and rhythms associated with popular music in Mexico, music of the Renaissance period

Unit 6

· Beat/Meter – 4/4, finger snaps in 4/4, 4/4 rhythm patterns

· Rhythm – triplet motives in 4/4, sixteenth notes, dotted eighth notes, eighth notes, quarter notes, quarter rests, half rests, whole rests

· Melody – use notation to play a melody

· Texture – music meant to suggest sounds in nature

· Form/Structure – symphonic movements

· Tone Color – use of instrumentation to vary tone color

· Style/Background – movie music, TV show themes, radio music and music of The Beatles, blending of Russian traditional music and contemporary American music, contemporary American classical music

Unit 7

· Beat/Meter – conducting patterns, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4

· Rhythm – eighth notes, quarter notes, whole notes, chords

· Melody – melody as the main musical idea, piano playing

· Harmony – chords, sharps, flats

· Tonality – major and minor scales, major and minor chords

· Texture – strings, brass, timpani

· Form/Structure – ABA coda, theme and variations

· Tone Color – use of instrumentation to vary tone color

· Dynamics – decrescendo

· Tempo – changes in tempo to convey emotion or mood

· Style/Background – movie music, music of the Baroque period, Adenkum music, music of the Classical period

Unit 8

· Beat/Meter – 4/4, rhythm patterns

· Rhythm – eighth notes, quarter notes, dotted quarter notes, half notes, whole notes, quarter rests, half rests

· Tonality – major keys, minor keys

· Dynamics – loud/soft

· Tempo – rubato, fast/slow

· Style/Background – songs from Broadway musicals, American popular songs

Unit 9

· Beat/Meter – 4/4, conducting in 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4

· Rhythm – eighth notes, quarter notes, quarter rests, use rhythm notation to write a piece of music

· Melody – use melody notation to write a piece of music

· Tonality – overtones, open intervals, dissonance

· Style/Background – jingles, music of the Classical period, Classical music written by contemporary composers