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Learning about orchestral music has never been this much fun! In honor of the World Series, ARTSEDGE explores the "connection" between baseball and music.
Our celebration centers around Perfect Pitch, a major interactive designed for students in grades 5-8. This multimedia exploration introduces students to the most enduring all-stars of the orchestra: the instruments.
Perfect Pitch includes music clips and important "stats" about the "players"—from bassoons to xylophones—that have brought orchestral music to audiences since the Baroque era. They can mix and match instrument sounds to create a winning orchestral team, then test their orchestra know-how with an interactive quiz.
To help your students play like power-hitters, two lessons— How Romantic! Parallels in Music and History and Playing in the Orchestral Team— have been developed to guide you in using the interactive in the classroom and extending the learning across the curriculum. In this spotlight, we have also collected our other orchestra-themed lessons that you might find useful as your kids start to play with orchestral themes.
Have a ball!
Lessons:
Harmonic Composition, An Essay
This lesson introduces students to jazz or the blues by reading and writing about a jazz or blues musician.
Reviewing Good Playing Habits
In this lesson, orchestra students contrast good playing position with poor habits that they may have developed over summer.
Rhythm, Math, Rhythm
This lesson explores the relationship between rhythm and math.
String Instruments and Pitch
Students will create their own string instruments, and explore how pitch is altered.
Brass Instruments and Pitch
Students will create their own "brass" instruments, and make predictions about how pitch changes based on the distance air travels in the instrument.
Woodwind Instruments and Pitch
Students will make predictions and explore how pitch changes based on the length of the air pipe.
Percussion Instruments and Pitch
Students will make predictions and explore how pitch changes based on the materials used in instrument construction
Haunting Music
Explore the "dark side" of classical music through famous works by Berlioz and Saint-Saëns.
Playing in the Orchestral Team
Students will learn about musical instruments in an orchestra by exploring the Perfect Pitch interactive. Students will compare and contrast aspects of baseball and orchestras. They will write a creative story from the perspective of a musical instrument that would convince a composer to choose the instrument for the "orchestral team."
How Romantic! Parallels in Music and History
Students will explore the ways music reflects contemporary society by focusing on popular music of the 19th and early 20th centuries—orchestral music of the Romantic era. After students conduct research online about musical instruments, they will create an advertisement about a musical instrument and its connection to history.
Look·Listen·Learn:
Perfect Pitch
Batter up! This multimedia exploration introduces students to the most enduring all-stars of the orchestra: the instruments.
Meet the Artist:
Emil de Cou, on Conducting a Musical Career
The conductor, featured in Xploring Xtremes and Pictures for Your Ears, talks about his path to music and conducting.
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