Grade 7-8

Week 1

  1. History
  • Stripped down song; times tables challenge
  • Why Music and Math
  • Life of Pythagoras
  1. Music Literacy
  • Terms (see glossary)
  • Specifically start with 3 fundamentals
  1. Pitch
  2. Rhythm
  3. Tempo
  4. Math fundamentals
  • Using music themed math problems to test basic arithmetic, ratios/fractions/percentages

Week 2

  1. Rhythm
  • Values of beats (thirty-second, sixteenth, eighth, quarter, dotted quarter, half, dotted half, whole note)
  • Values of rests (eighth, quarter, half, whole rest)
  1. Exercises
  • Counting beats out loud
  • Clapping beats
  • Adding and subtracting beats
  • Multiplication (e.g. If I have 4 half notes how many beats?)
  • Most of this work should include fractions (e.g. How many eighth notes make up 2 whole notes plus a quarter?)

(Potential) Use combinations (e.g. How many ways can I use quarters and eighths to make a four beat pattern?)

Week 3

  1. Pitch
  • Where does pitch come from? Wavelengths and frequencies, which we measure in terms of Hz
  • 12 different pitches (C, C#/D♭, D, D#/E♭, E, F, F#/G♭, G, G#/A♭, A, A#/B♭, B
  • Each step between two adjacent notes is a “half-step”, while two steps is a “whole-step” (image of piano will be helpful here visually)
  • There are 7 notes in a scale (8 including the top note again)
  • Introduction of musical staff (stick with treble clef for simplicity’s sake)
  1. Exercises
  • Basic intervals between notes (e.g. How many steps between E and G♭?)
  • Intervals (minor 2nd, major 2nd, minor 3rd, major 3rd, perfect 4th, tritone, perfect 5th, minor 6th, major 6th, minor 7th, major 7th)
  • Inversions

Week 4

  1. Time Signatures
  • What is a time signature? It’s how many beats go in a measure.
  • Teach 4/4 and 3/4, 2/4, 6/8, 9/8 time signatures
  • How you can fill a measure with notes and rests as long as they add up to the top number of the time signature
  1. Exercises
  • Give a measure with some notes and rests and have the kid fill in the last or last few spaces that fit the time signature
  • Listen to songs and have the kids hear and feel the time signature
    • Star Spangled Banner

Week 5

  1. Musical Scales
  • What creates a scale? A regularized sequence of intervals between notes, starting on a specific note (also see scale defn)
  • Major Scale (whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half), or alternatively (M2, M2, m2, M2, M2, M2, m2)
  • Minor Scale
  1. Natural (M2, m2, M2, M2, m2, M2, M2)
  2. Harmonic (M2, m2, M2, M2, m2, m3, m2)
  3. Melodic (up: M2, m2, M2, M2, M2, M2, m2), (down: same as natural minor)
  4. Exercises
  • Formulate all eight note scales for any note, using the templates given above

Week 6

  1. Fibonacci Numbers
  • What are they? 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, etc.
  • Music has been created simply using Fibonacci numbers
  • There are 13 different musical pitches, and on a piano 8 are white, 5 are black (all fibonnaci numbers)
  • Also 8 notes in a scale