The morning rehearsals will be during the last week of April and first three weeks of May.  Formal times and days will be on the sheet going home.

Concert attire is a white button down dress shirt and black pants.  If a problem arises with getting attire or if you have any questions, please contact me at elemarier@wbridgewater.com and I will try to accommodate to requests.

The students are working hard and are progressing even faster than they did for our winter holiday concert so I’m sure you will be just as impressed if not more than last time.

Notating and Reading Music (needed for writing music into computer)
Composing rhythms (needed for writing music into computer)
Defining and Describing Music (styles and characteristics)
Music Sequencing/Composition on computer (Finale Print Music, Cakewalk Sequencer, MIDI)
Sound systems in music (PA, performance and recording)
Music Theory

Please note that these concepts will be covered in many different ways during the semester.

Up to this point we have covered:

Reading and notating notes on the Treble and Bass clef
How to create a melody (using the C major scale)
Creating and identifying Chords (in the C major scale)
Chord Inversions and Voice Leading
Intervals

 Future lessons starting this Thursday, March 5, 2008 include:

Advanced Intervals (major, minor, half steps, whole steps)
Note reading on piano
Different types of chords and key signatures (Major, minor, diminished, augmented chords - how they relate to keys and how to write in other keys)
Self-Created composing
MIDI - What it is and how you can use it (Cakewalk software usage)
Recording music on a computer
Sound systems
Final project presentation (using music theory in a composition while outlining goals and decisions in outline form) - later to be recorded and burned in the form  of a cdrom
Preparing a class portfolio of work done while in music technology class

As I informed students, this is my first time teaching music tech so while I outlined topics here, I will teach them in a sequential order to meet all these topics which have been outlined.  Thus, I am putting together a standard approach to teaching these concepts as I teach them.

I. Music Reading (Students will be expected to learn how to read notes by looking at them along with music symbols (dynamics, expressions, tempo, etc…))
II. Music Technique (Students will learn proper fingering and playing technique on their instrument)
III. Music Performance (Songs will be based on overall band students’ progress as a whole)

Grading is done by a rubric in class in the following categories
1. Having your instrument
2. Having your book and band music
3. Participation (Practicing and focusing during class)
4. Performance (general peformance and praciting (passing in your practice log which is graded here))

Students are expected to practice AT LEAST 3 days a week for 30 minutes per day. Students will have practice logs that need to be filled out and turned in each week showing their practice time.

By the end of 5th grade, students should be able to get completely through Book 1 or near the end of and start Book 2 sometime during the beginning of their 6th grade year.
By the end of 4th grade, students should be able to get through half of Book 1.

I.  Reading on all 6 strings of the guitar (E A D G B e) in open position (the open string and first 3 frets on guitar)
II. Chord Reading (All beginning chord fingerings for the following chords: A major, A minor, C major, D major, D minor, E major, E minor, G major)
III. Gerneral Performance Songs (Songs that are played in unison, 2 part, 3 part, and up to 4 part harmonized melodies, Guitar Chord Strumming)

 Students should be practicing at least 3 days a week for 30 minutes each day practiced. It is also in the course curriculum that each student should have an acoustic guitar.  Acoustic guitars are needed so students can hear themselves without use of an amplifier.

I.  Multicultural Music (African and Asian music - characteristics, culture, concepts)
II. General Music Concepts (Rhythms, Syncopation, Pentatonic Scale, Tone Color, Composing Melodies)
III. Define a Musical (Grade 7 = Fiddler on the Roof Grade 8 = The Music Man) - discuss music concepts and define history, culture, and concepts of a musical
IV. Music History (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern classical music history (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Stravinsky)

These are the general subjects that will be covered this year in General Music Class.