APPENDIX Q
Item:
Curriculum Course Guide – Beginning Guitar
Dept.: Instruction Background/Historical Context: Holly Shelter Middle School has established a reputation for maintaining a very successful performing arts department within its five years of existence. The Orchestra program alone has grown from 30 total enrolled students to over 130 since the school’s opening in 2010. One particular challenge the performing arts department has faced is the inability to educate beginning music students in the eighth grade. A beginning guitar class has been suggested from members of the arts team and from the students themselves. Several instruments have been donated to the school to make this idea as a way to serve this part of the population. Recommendation: The Administration and the performing arts department of Holly Shelter Middle School recommends the addition of Beginning Guitar to our middle school curriculum offerings for the 2015 – 2016 school year. Rationale for Recommendation: Beginning instrumental music classes are only available to sixth grade, and in some cases seventh grade, students at Holly Shelter. Beginning instruction in the instrumental arts has not been possible for eighth grade students up to this point. The Beginning Guitar class would make music education, which is now considered a core subject, available for eighth grade students. Class sizes are also increasing at Holly Shelter Middle School. The addition of another music elective would give students more variety to choose from and cut down on the elective department’s class sizes as a whole. Supporting Documentation: Brief Course Description, Standard Course of Study and Syllabus Board Action:
_____ Recommendation Accepted _____ Recommendation Rejected _____ Tabled for Further Study _____ Other
Beginning Guitar Description Holly Shelter Middle School Beginning Guitar (No prerequisite) Beginning Guitar course is a step‐by‐step, user friendly, interactive approach that is fun, yet challenging. Students perform music immediately. The Beginning Guitar course is designed to accommodate each student’s aptitude with different options within a unified set of goals. It includes reading standard notation, intro to chords and solo pieces using finger style and classical techniques (plucking with the fingers instead of a pick). The style of the music ranges from classical to pop. Materials The method book “Hal Leonard Guitar Method Book 1, Second Edition, By Will Schmid and Greg Koch” can be purchased at Music and Arts, Finkelstein’s, or an online music supplier. Goals 1. To introduce foundational music skills of reading, rhythm, chord strumming and picking styles. 2. To develop confidence playing simple solos and group pieces. 3. To provide performance and listening opportunities from both aural and standard notation traditions. Beginning Guitar is meant for those that have: 1. Never had any formal training on the guitar reading standard notation 2. Only played with a pick and have had no finger style or classical technique 3. Not played the guitar at all 4. Had no experience on any instrument 5. Had training on other instruments, but not guitar
North Carolina Essential Standards Eighth Grade Music Musical Literacy 8.ML.1: Apply the elements of music and musical techniques in order to sing and play music with accuracy and expression 8.ML.1.1: Use characteristic tone and consistent pitch when performing music alone and collaboratively, in small and large ensembles, using a variety of music. 8.ML.1.2: Integrate the fundamental techniques (such as posture, playing position, breath control, fingerings, and bow/stick control) necessary to sing and/or play an instrument. 8.ML.1.3: Interpret expressive elements, including dynamics, timbre, blending, accents, attacks, releases, phrasing, and interpretation, while singing and/or playing a varied repertoire of music with technical accuracy. 8.ML.2: Interpret the sound and symbol systems of music. 8.ML.2.1: Interpret standard musical notation for whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, and dotted note and rest durations in 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/8, 3/8, and all breve meter signatures. 8.ML.2.2: Interpret, through instrument and/or voice, standard notation symbols in two different clefs, using extended staves. 8.ML.2.3: Use standard symbols for pitch, rhythm, dynamics, tempo, articulation, and expression to notate musical ideas. 8.ML.3: Create music using a variety of sound and notational sources. 8.ML.3.1: Produce simple rhythmic and melodic improvisations on pentatonic or blues scales, pentatonic melodies, and/or melodies in major keys. 8.ML.3.2: Construct short pieces within specified guidelines (e.g., a particular style, form, instrumentation, compositional technique), using a variety of traditional and non‐traditional sound, notational, and 21st century technological sources. Musical Response 8.MR.1: Understand the interacting elements to respond to music and music performances. 8.MR.1.1: Interpret the gestures of a conductor when singing or playing an instrument. 8.MR.1.2: Identify principles of meter, rhythm, tonality, intervals, chords, and harmonic progressions using appropriate music terminology in analyses of music. 8.MR.1.2: Evaluate performances, compositions, and musical ideas using a specified set of criteria (such as tone quality, intonation, blend/balance, technique, musical effect, interpretation, and diction).
Contextual Relevancy 8.CR.1: Understand global, interdisciplinary, and 21st century connections with music 8.CR.1.1: Understand the role of music in North Carolina and the United States in relation to history and geography. 8.CR.1.2: Understand the relationships between music and concepts from other areas. 8.CR.1.3: Understand laws regarding the proper access, use, and protection of music.
Beginning Guitar Beginning Guitar (One Semester) Week 1 – Introduction to Guitar class, identify parts of instrument Week 2 –Begin study of simple rhythms and pitches, begin learning standard notation, tuning practices Week 3 –First two strings ‐ Hal Leonard method book Week 4 – Standard notation and aural learning Week 5 – Next two strings ‐ Hal Leonard method book Week 6 – Standard notation and aural learning Week 7 – Final two strings ‐ Hal Leonard method book Week 8 – Standard notation and aural learning Week 9 – Traditional finger plucking versus using a pick Week 10 – Beginning of chord construction/performance instruction Week 11 – Reading chords and standard notation using sheet music and TABs Week 12 – Choosing solo pieces and group pieces for private/classroom study Week 13 – Solo pieces and group pieces Week 14 –Solo pieces and group pieces Week 15 – Presentation of solo pieces and group pieces during winter concert Week 16 –Learning various genres of music on guitar using aural training