Music Appreciation Mr. JONES

Music Appreciation Syllabus Course Description Grading Materials Course Expectations

WHAT IS MUSIC? What is music to you? Webster’s Dictionary: 1. The art of organizing tones to produce a coherent sequence of sounds intended to elicit an aesthetic response in a listener 2. Vocal or instrumental sounds having some degree of rhythm, melody, and harmony. 3. Any aesthetically pleasing or harmonious sound or combination of sounds Organized sound in time What is music to you?

WHAT IS MUSIC, cont… Universal Styles (Genres) Music Music is universal. Everywhere in the world uses music. Think of America and our national anthem. We have a song to represent us at the Olympics or football games. What about Germany, Canada, or England? These countries have their own music and use it represent them as well. Sometimes different styles of music can be specific to an identifiable outcome of a particular music community that shares a tradition, principles, standards, and music preferences Ex: Country music in rural areas, popular boy bands in young teenagers, jazz in New Orleans, Christmas music during the holidays, etc. I listen to almost everything; what do you listen to? We will be listening to different genres of music but mostly classical because that is where all music today comes from. Of course, you cannot hear classical music in all music now, but it has had an impact in popular music culture. “Music refers to specific kinds of musical products, such as compositions, improvisations, pieces, songs, and so forth.” Ex: Symphony No. 5 by Beethoven Happy, Pharrell Williams Play it Again, Luke Bryan I Got Rhythm, Ella Fitzgerald

Listening Quiz Part #1: Composer and Composition Part #2: Ensemble Part #3: Describe sounds, emotion, thoughts, texture (dark, light, bright, etc), etc. In this class we will be learning about, discussing, and listening to music with these three visual variations on the word music. We are going to open and respectful to all ranges and varieties of music and hopefully better understand.

Assignment: Bring in and present your favorite piece of music to class Presentation must include the following Who is the artist/band/composer? What is the name of the piece? What genre of music is this piece? (i.e. country, pop, jazz, classical, opera, hip hop, etc.) Background information—history of the piece, background of the artist, why the artist wrote it, etc Why do you like this piece? What is special about it? What meaning, emotional or otherwise, does it hold for you? *Material must be clean/school appropriate, if it is not school appropriate your grade will suffer *You may use any mP3, iPod, smartphone, cd, YouTube, Spotify, etc…If it’s from a YouTube video please make sure the video works in the building before hand Audience member: Write in your listening journal what your hear and think of each piece. Did you enjoy it? Have you heard this piece before? What did like/not like about this piece? To further understand each other, our preferences in music, and to create openness over the next week we will be spending the first part of class presenting. Each of you will bring in a piece of music. It is very important that all of you respect “otherness,” which is to say that everyone’s music and musical cultures are of equal value and should be respected accordingly. This assignment will help guide our discussions for the following unit Who does not have access to a computer? Get assignment from me.