Teacher Resource Page

Thank you for visiting our teacher resource page for Composing Women.

Listen and enjoy the selections each day, then choose from the activities below that are best suited for your level and area. The suggested activities below align with the National Core Arts Standards to Create, Perform, Respond, and Connect.

More information about the National Art Standards can be found here:

https://www.nationalartsstandards.org

If you want to share with TSPR what your students thought or created around Composing Women you can do so here: https://forms.gle/1fEdHRS285rK8VCQ8

Responding and Connecting activities - Writing and/or discussion prompts

Why do we need music?
What images do you think of when you listen to this music?
What is the mood of this music? How do you know?
Does the music sound like the title?
What kind of music would you compose to tell your story or how you are feeling?
How would you feel if everyone loved your music, but thought someone else wrote it and gave them the credit and profit?
What would you do if you composed a great piece but your brother stole it and said he wrote it?
What would Taylor Swift do to get her music heard in 1850?
Who is your favorite composer from the women studied this month? Why?
How can you get groups to play your music in the 1800s? Today?
Do you prefer solo piano music or groups of instruments playing? Why?
Do you enjoy vocal or instrumental music? Why?
What kind of music would you compose for the piano?
1. For string instruments?
2. For brass instruments?
3. For woodwind instruments?
4. For a percussion ensemble?
How can you make music written for the piano played by a group of instruments?
How did people in the 1600s listen to music?
Which musical instrument do you think requires the most skill? What makes the instrument more difficult to learn compared to other instruments?
Which musical instrument do you think is the easiest to learn? Why?
If you could go back in time to interview this composer, what questions would you ask?
How would you describe the music you listen to when talking with this composer?
What is the earliest song you can remember hearing? Where did you hear it, and how did it make you feel?
How does composing music about a historical or significant event help us and our emotions?
Discuss how music can be used to create awareness of social issues and how music can be used as a tool to affect social change.
Write about a song that instantly makes you happy every time you hear it. Explain why the song lifts your mood.
Describe a song that makes you sad. Why does it make you feel this way?
How are composers and songwriters like poets?
In your opinion, why do the musical tastes of younger people and older people typically differ so wildly?
Describe a time in your life when music played an important supporting role.

Creating activities

Move your body across the room while listening to this piece. Is it heavy or light? Quick or slow? Straight or curvy?
How would you dance to this piece if you were wearing your best clothes?
After listening to the piece, write down some rhythms you heard. Using those rhythms, add notes to create a new melody.
Make a small group arrangement of the main melody of a piece and perform it for an event.
Listen to one of the pieces and create a drawing that reflects the music. Be able to describe how your drawing reflects the music.
Using Soundtrap or some other program, sample a melody or rhythm from one of the pieces then loop it and layer it to create a new electronic arrangement based on the original piece.

Performing activities

Perform the melody with your voice or your instrument.
Perform the melody on barred classroom instruments and add an ostinato.
Perform music written during, or representing, this time period in your ensemble.
Rehearse and record a group performing a piece or melody from this list and evaluate the quality of the performance. Did it reflect the title? How did it compare to the original?
Learn one of the melodies you heard by ear on your instrument.