7th Grade Music Composition Activities

I know what you're all thinking, but if you can't beat them, join them?

Gen Alpha's slang, which you've probably heard from your older kids is sweeping the nation uncontrollably, but why not turn it into a decipher and decode lesson?

In Rizz Rhythms, students will see their Gen-Alpha slang on the powerpoint slides and will have to decipher the rhythm using triplets, eighth note pairs, and quarter notes. The rhythm will be shown on the animation on the next slide.

• You can either have the students notate it out on whiteboards...

• make rhythm cards or tiles

• have them write it on the board

• make it a race between A team vs B team to spell it out

• or however you can imagine

Although this may be cringe, you're sure to be a sigma after this one ;) 20 rhythm for all your kids -- BUSSIN!

In "Walk it Out, introduce your kids to some great music from indigenous instruments from Africa! Using your classroom Djembe or Tubanos, learn the music by rote by taking it one rehearsal section at a time (with rehearsal markings [A], [B], [C],). This is terrific practice with your older students who want to work on alternating hands with some syncopated rhythms

The notation on the first space F is a bass (middle of the drum) and the notation on the third space C is a tone (four fingers near the rim of the drum, pitched a bit higher). There are a few measures with a clap that's indicated on a top line F

At the end, wrap it up and put on a show! Want to layer it?

• Have tambourines or shakers play on specified beats (try 2 and 4)
• Have shakers play 16th notes all the way throughout or in specific sections
• Have half the class play 1st and 3rd measures, the other half play 2nd and 4th measures
• Do it in a round! :)

Use this in class, a concert, a parent showcase, admin, faculty and staff, whatever you wish!

(Remember the repeat in the beginning :D)

Have a terrific time with this one :)

Not ready for instruments but want to involve your students in some body percussion (while still assessing their reading and performing skills?). Try out "Poison Percussion" the ever-popular Poison Pattern game for body percussion!

This takes students through 63 slides and 3 levels of body percussion (clap, snap, stomp, and pat) sight reading.

Students will play a variety of rhythms as the teacher scrolls through the slides. Each slide contains one rhythm they will play and after advancing to the next slide, you can elect to give them a 4 beat or 2 beat prep to read the next rhythm, whichever works for you. The less prep they have, the better because...

There will be one rhythm (the poison rhythm, poison pattern, or OOPS! rhythm as we'll call it) that students DO NOT play! If they do, they're out of the game.

Students learn the rhythm before the round is played. Be careful or you will be ELIMINATED!

You can play this in teams, As vs Bs, however you wish!

There are 5 background grooves that go from 80 bpm to 120 bpm to challenge your kids as they go through the levels. There are 4 beat rhythms with quarter, eighth note pairs, and quarter note rests

Have a great time with this!

A game that will keep your students entertained, engaged, and competitively charged with identifying chord quality, here's One "Minor" Imposter inspired by "Among Us"!

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IN ONE MINOR IMPOSTER, YOU WILL LISTEN TO 2, 3, 4 EVEN 5 CREWMATES PLAY MAJOR CHORDS ONE BY ONE. ONE OF THE MAJOR CHORDS IS ACTUALLY NOT THE MAJOR CHORD PERFORMED!

YOUR TASK IS TO DECIDE WHICH CREWMATE IS THE IMPOSTER BY SELECTING THE CREWMATE WHO PLAYED THE MINOR CHORD INSTEAD OF THE MAJOR CHORD

HERE WILL BE ONLY ONE CREWMATE WHO IS THE IMPOSTER

____________________________

In each example is a piano/guitar/harpsichord mix with different background percussion tempos to keep the kids engaged. Each crewmate, lined up on the powerpoint (1, 2, 3, etc) will be representative of the musical example played.

Included in this resource are

• Mp3 examples embedded in each question (15 questions)
• A printout where you can replicate and cut out cards (if you want the students to place on the floor or hold up to show which one was the imposter)
• 3 levels of rhythms with 3 crewmates (2 major crewmates, 1 minor imposter), 4 crewmates (3 major crewmates, 1 minor imposter), and 5 crewmates (4 major crewmates, 1 imposter)

Have a terrific time with this while your kids study chord quality!

The follow-up to "Rhythm Wind Up and PITCH!"
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This one will get the kids on their edge of their seats!

You will need 1 thing for this particular game:

• A sticky suction cup ball (or maybe a soft squishy ball)

The students will see a melody at the bottom of their screen and memorize the melodic direction or say it back in their head (just make sure the melodic is not sung out loud). They will then hear a musical example of an endless loop of melodic figures separated by 4 beats each in between rhythms. (Teacher will click the speaker icon to play)

Take a listen...

....

....

One of the melodic figures will be the melody that is on the screen. AS SOON AS THEY HEAR THAT MELODY, they throw their suction cup ball at the target. The first kid who gets it correct is the winner (and make sure you advance the slide to make the target turn green) :)

Obviously, we cannot play this as a class because of

1. The amount of suction cup balls tossed at the screen would be insane

2. Team A v Team B would be a bit more competitive and only two balls would be launched at once

If you don't have a whiteboard/projection screen, you can alternatively have the students raise their hand when they hear it and choose the kid who has their hand up the fastest.

Have a great time with this fast paced game!

Understanding notation duration and how they fit mathematically into bars of music is one of the fundamental learning goals of upper elementary students!

With Measure Up! Students will see a measure of music… but… it is incomplete! They will then Choose the correct notation from one of the boxes to complete the measure. Students can use the powerpoint in design mode to click and drag it, draw a path for their specific box to the open box, or write it in!

Can also be used for Distance Learning as well!

15 examples with quarter notes and rests, half notes and rests, whole notes and rests, eighth notes and rests, 4 sixteenth notes and 2/4, 3/4, 5/4, 4/4, and a bonus 6/8 example at the end!

The ultimate Boys vs Girls competition! If you're working on notes of the treble clef staff, this is a fun way for kids to competitively spell them out. First, we made a boys side (on the left of the screen) and girls side on the (on the right). A word will appear and the students have 10 seconds to spell the word out (there is a timer attached to the powerpoint and it will count down as soon as the slide appears). This games works best on a whiteboard that has magnetic backing as I print out notes and have the kids race as fast as they can to put them on. After the kids lock in their answer, the next slide reveals the notes. For notes that have F's and E's, the answer key has both top line, top space notes -- those F's and E's both count! :) Some are easy (CAB, DAB, DAD), some get a little tricky (BECCA, CABBAGE, DECADE) and so on. Towards the end they repeat, and feel free to edit and make your own! Have fun with this and if you have any questions, let me know!

If you're working on meter in your classroom, here's an engaging lesson that'll test your students' math skills! In Sign of the Times, we do a brief introduction of meter (from there on called" Time Signature"). After the introduction, we talk about how measures (musical sentences) are formed and how composers have the freedom to write different beat patterns in music. The lesson in PDF format (also included is the video along with an editable powerpoint file) continues with illustrations of 4 types of time signatures, and gets into the game format -- a measure with combinations of quarter, eighths, whole, and half notes will appear in the staff and students will have to guess the time signature. On the next slide, the answer will appear. I like to do this boys vs. girls -- they have to use their quick thinking to add up the beats! Some are easy to moderate, but as we progress it gets a little harder! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment... that's the sign of the times!

Working on identifying genres with some of your older students? This one will be a breeze with **GenreMania!

**Students will be given a short example of a genre of music, which is a category of a musical composition. Genres are in different eras, different styles, and different sounds!

Select the genre from a multiple-choice list of which you think is the genre that best describes the piece that you’re listening to. Some are easy, some get a little more difficult.

The answer will illuminate on the following screen after the example is played. There are 15 musical examples students will be able to listen to. You can run this as a class, individually, or even assign it as a Distance Learning option!

Have a great time with this and let us know how it goes in the comments :)

Down, Set, HUT!

In Bar Line Blitz, student will see a meter with several beats of music – except the bar lines are missing to separate the measures from each other!

They will will see 2 or more line placeholders (small grey lines) in between notes. One of the placeholders is where the bar line should go… but which one is it?

Identify where the bar line should be placed and the correct area will illuminate
green if it is accurate!

Play team vs team, A vs B, or individually... and enhance it by playing some fun football music in the background (search NFL themes or college football fight songs on YouTube) ;)

There are 4 levels (4 quarters if you wish) of varying difficulties. The last quarter, they students will need to identify where it should be placed without any small grey lined hashmarks

Have a great time with this one!

Looking to get back into the swing of things or begin with simple percussion techniques? Try out some of our BODY Percussion in the VARIETYPack, 7 full resources full of warmups, techniques, and songs as well!

Included are

• Body Jam 16 - Sight Reading Body Percussion with multi layered sections great for splitting A, B, C, and D groups
• Body Percussion Warmups - multiple slides of warmups to get your kids started off right
• ABC, The Jackson Five (Body Percussion Arrangement)
• Believer, Imagine Dragons (Body Percussion Arrangement)
• Dynamite, BTS (Body Percussion Arrangement)
• Uptown Funk, Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars (Body Percussion Arrangement)
• Thunder, Imagine Dragons (Body Percussion Arrangement)

Mastering the “Call and Response” technique just got a bit more automonous! Sit back and let the music be freely created with “Call it the Response” for Orff Instruments!

In this lesson, student swill hear a “Call” which is the first part of a musical phrase. They will then play a “response” which completes the short musical phrase. Their response may be a certain number of beats or maybe a certain rhythm (could be same or different than the call)

There are 8 different exercises for your kids to give their response on Orff Instruments (or even auxiliary percussion instruments or boomwhackers, the possibilities are endless!).

Each exercise has a percussive backing track with the "Call" built in (played by marimba and xylophone, so you as the teacher aren't responsible for making it up yourself!) and varies in tempo from 100bpm to 110bpm and covers V7, Pentatonic, IV chords, and bourdon notes.

Get creative with “Call it the Response!”

Chord quality galore! Help your kids understand to identify Major and Minor chords in "Major Problem, Minor Adjustment"!

Students will hear 3 to 4 chords back-to-back and have to select the chord (represented by a box from left to right) they think is "minor" or "major" as indicated by the slide

Advance the slide to discover the answer!

There are 8 questions and answers in this series

Working on melodic direction with some of your upper level students in elementary? Lock your eyes and ears onto Melodious Masterpiece, an activity which engages the kids to think, listen, and use their knowledge to determine the direction of melody!

A melody, the main tune of the piece will be played on each example (10 examples included, ranging from 3 note melodies to 8 note melodies) along with 4 corresponding trapezoids. Students will have to select which trap best represents the melody being played and the answer will illuminate green on the following slide

Students do not need to know lines or spaces of the staff or even note names -- their previous understanding just rests with melodic direction (up and down!)

Can be great as a class activity, boys vs girls, or even assigned as distance learning!

This is a terrific tool to work on meter either face to face or as a lesson in Distance Learning! Students will learn and review about Time Signatures before listening to short examples of a piece of music in either 3/4, 4/4 or 6/8 time.

Students will then have to select the appropriate meter for the example being heard. You can play this student vs student, side vs side, individually, or even as a distance learning assignment!

12 musical examples (from Mozart to Aerosmith) are included with this lesson -- some examples may even surprise you :)

Have a great time with this!

In Stick it to the Rhythm, we used popsicle sticks to identify quarter and eighth note notation in our classrooms. What happened if we didn't give the kids a blank slate and they had to use eyes, ears, and minds? In this follow-up, "Stick it to the Rhythm Part II", students are instructed to put a number of sticks on the floor (6 to 12 'quarter notes') and will listen to a musical example made up of quarter and eighth notes. They are then to interpret that example and use the last sticks and place them where they think they heard the eighth notes... In essence, they are taking the quarter notes at the end of the phrase and making them into eighth notes by beaming the quarter notes together -- this will really get your kids thinking! There are 10 examples (all with an 8 beat count off to establish tempo) and the examples range from easy to difficult with the mp3 embedding into the file. Have a great time and let me know what you think in the comments :) As always, any questions or concerns, you know where to find me!

Was that Presto or Largo? Staccato or Tenuto? Forte or Piano? Use "Who am I" to reinforce the music terminology you've been working on in your class! After a brief review, 6 musical examples will be played with all examples ascribing to either Presto or Largo, Staccato or Tenuto, and Forte or Piano. Students can do this in a variety of ways: -- On whiteboards and dry erase markers -- Through collaborative grouping or partner activity (using pre-cut cards as an idea -- On a SMARTboard or brightlink -- As a race (maybe boys vs girls, side A vs side B) After the example is played, you can advance the slide in the powerpoint to reveal the answer! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the Q&A or email me at jasonlitt@gmail.com!

Working on aural theory with your kids? With "Rhythm Mixup" students shuffle up notecards with quarter notes, 2-beamed eighth notes, half notes, and quarter rests to reflect the musical example being played! We start off the first lesson (level 1) with a brief overview of rhythm from Quaver's Marvelous World of Music, and then head right into rhythm mixup. Students will lay out their notation cards (you can either print these out or have the students draw them on a whiteboard, etc), and then a musical example will be played. Students will have to put the notes in the order that they hear the music example -- hence, the "mixup"! Level 2, goes into quarter rests and the students will have to place it appropriately (hint: it's never at the beginning or end of the phrase!) :) Students identify rhythms upon hearing them and use their aural skills to dictate where each rhythm is placed. Make sure to play these several times, especially for the younger ones so they can check their work! Designed in Powerpoint 2007, all animations and transitions should work on machines that support it. A file is included for instructions on how to install fonts. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me. Have fun!

In "DRUMITY", introduce your kids to some great music from indigenous instruments from Africa! Using your classroom Djembe or Tubanos, learn the music by rote by taking it one rehearsal section at a time (with rehearsal markings [A], [B], [C], and so forth). This is terrific practice with your older students who want to work on alternating hands and triplets

The notation on the first space F is a bass (middle of the drum) and the notation on the third space C is a tone (four fingers near the rim of the drum, pitched a bit higher)

At the end, wrap it up and put on a show! Want to layer it?

• Have shakers play 16th notes all the way throughout or in specific sections
• Have half the class play 1st and 3rd measures, the other half play 2nd and 4th measures
• Do it in a round! :)

Use this in class, a concert, a parent showcase, admin, faculty and staff, whatever you wish!

Have a terrific time with this one :)

***75% OFF FOR ONE WEEK ONLY!***

9.9.22 to 9.18.22!

Inspired from the MyRhythm App, here's a fun game you can play with some of your older kids to help reinforce rhythms, independence, steady beat, and more!
In Rhythm Latitudes, students will see two rectangles stacked on top of each other. In each rectangle (now known as a beat), there are two circles inside (denoted as eighth notes).
Top Rectangle

· If the first circle is illuminated green on the top rectangle, the students will play using their LEFT HAND either an instrument (maybe a tambourine, drum, rhythm stick, whatever you wish) or their hand to pat their lap
· If two circles are illuminated green on the top rectangle, the students will play using their LEFT HAND either an instrument (maybe a tambourine, drum, rhythm stick, whatever you wish) or their hand to pat their lap like two eighth notes

Bottom Rectangle

· If the first circle is illuminated green on the bottom rectangle, the students will play using their RIGHT HAND either an instrument (maybe a tambourine, drum, rhythm stick, whatever you wish) or their hand to pat their lap
· If two circles are illuminated green on the bottom rectangle, the students will play using their RIGHT HAND either an instrument (maybe a tambourine, drum, rhythm stick, whatever you wish) or their hand to pat their lap like two eighth notes

You will receive 4 levels of mastery with this (4 beats, 6 beats, offbeats, and rests) and accompanying mp3 groove background tracks (or you can play it with some of your favorite pop music).
Procedure:

· Teach the first pages of Left Hand rhythms on top, Right Hand rhythms on bottom
· Review included practice rhythms
· Then count off the kids and go!
· If they master it, move onto the next slide until completed (or until time runs out)