First Grade Music

First grade will start the year with a review of the musical opposites loud/soft, fast/slow and high/low. They will listen for musical opposites in "The Royal March of the Lions," "Tortoises," and "Personages with the Long Ears" from Camille Saint-Saens' "Carnival of the Animals."

 

Students will also work on melodic patterns with two-note melodies. Melodies we will study will include the following patterns:

During the second quarter of the year, students will begin working on rhythmic patterns. Once the difference between beat and rhythm are established, students will begin to decode how many sounds happen on each beat of known songs and rhymes.

 

First graders will also study the purpose of different kinds of music. Music for holidays, celebrations, patriotic events and music for dancing, sleeping and marching will all be explored. Students are encouraged to share different experiences they have had with music in their own lives. 

Rhythmic work from the second quarter will continue into the third quarter where music notation will be introduced. Quarter notes ("ta") and eighth note pairs ("titi") are the first rhythm symbols that are practiced. 

 

Students will also begin refining performance skills for their March 5th performance at the Bayfield High School Performing Arts Center.

After spring break, students will add the idea of silence to the rhythmic concepts they have studied. Once the notation for quarter notes, eighth note pairs and quarter rests are practiced, students will work on how music is organized into groups of strong and weak beats.

 

Alongside this study of rhythm, students will listen for similarities and differences in various genres of music.