Teacher's Guide for ODYSSEY^TM Music: Why do we Love it?

Format:
      Article / Page
      Summary
      Skills

"Why We Love Music," pg. 6

• Music engages brain and body. Muscles mimic rhythms, and the brain's regions that process emotion and pleasure become active. A sidebar (pg. 9) traces the history of recording music. A second sidebar (pg. 10) reveals how great music's emotional impact can be.
• Inductive Reasoning, Drawing Conclusions

"How Old Is Music?" pg. 11

• Music began with the Neanderthals - or perhaps even earlier! Scientists believe that humans are born with the capacity to respond emotionally and intellectually to music. Learning music offers unrelated benefits such as improved mathematical reasoning and expanded vocabulary.
• Deductive Reasoning, Making Inferences

"Melody and Harmony: Inspiration . . . and Math," pg. 14

• Musical composition begins with musical phrasing and continues with mathematical analysis of the melody. Throw in repetition and some consonant harmonies, and that tune may just become a hit!
• Process Analysis, Applications

"Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Read All About It!" (Activity), pg. 18

• Sound is the vibration of moving air molecules. Vibrations arriving at the outer ear are funneled to its inner structures, where they stimulate nerve impulses that the brain interprets as sound. This activity shows how vibration produces sound. A companion article ("Music to Your Ears . . . or Hearing Loss," pg. 20) describes the causes and symptoms of hearing loss and suggests strategies for prevention.
• Cause/Effect, Following Directions

"The Rhythms of Rap," pg. 22

• The underlying beat or pulse of rap, organized into a metric pattern, moves the music and adds power to the message. A mix of sampling and syncopation enriches rap's appeal. A sidebar (pg. 25) explores how meters, modes, and musical instruments differ among human cultures.
• Process Analysis, Vocabulary

"Molly, Music, and Math" (Brain Strain), pg. 26

• Discover which mathematical pattern governs each sequence of notes.
• Following Directions, Sequence Recognition

"Rx: Music," pg. 27

• Although they don't yet understand why or how, scientists know that music helps humans recover from trauma and disease.
• Vocabulary, Cause/Effect

"People to Discover: An Interview with Music Therapist Cathy Knoll," pg. 30

• Ms. Knoll describes the training required to become a music therapist and reveals what happens during a therapy session. In schools, music therapy may form part of a student's Individual Education Plan (IEP).
• Deductive Reasoning, Applications

"Musical Movie Magic," pg. 32

• The score brings life to a movie. The composer and director create music to complement the plot and to elicit an emotional response from the audience. A sidebar (pg. 34) explains how music and sound effects blend seamlessly to enhance the impact of a film.
• Vocabulary, Process Analysis

"Timbre Doesn't Rhyme With Timber," pg. 37

• Every kind of musical instrument produces a unique pattern of overtones, giving that instrument its recognizable timbre. Two accompanying activities challenge readers to identify different timbres and reproduce patterns, and a sidebar (pg. 39) explains how clutter improves acoustics.
• Vocabulary, Cause/Effect

"What Kind of Music Do You Love?" (Activity), pg. 40

• Developing a survey requires a clear hypothesis, a method for collecting and analyzing data, and strategies for interpreting and presenting results. Design and conduct a school music survey. Send your findings to ODYSSEY^TM.
• Following Directions, Scientific Process

"What's Up? (Planet Watch and Backyard Observations)," pg. 42

• What's up is the sky chart for March 15. The morning planet this month is Mercury, while evening skies feature Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
• Observation, Following Directions

"You Can Do Astronomy: Those Changing Seasons!" (Activity), pg. 44

• Monitor how the position of the Earth changes - relative to the sun - to discover what causes the seasons.
• Observation, Following Directions

1. List as many reasons as you can to explain why people like music.
2. How is music art? How is it science? List responses in two columns on the board. Add to the lists as you read the magazine.

Pg. 14 - "Melody and Harmony: Inspiration . . . and Math"

• Talk It Over:
  1. What's mathematical about music? Make a list of ways in which numbers are used in music - from eighth-notes to intervals. Add to the list after reading the article.
  2. What characteristics of music make you feel love, fear, anger, sorrow, surprise, or joy? What tools and strategies do composers and performers use to elicit such emotional reactions from their listeners?
• Connections:
  1. Mathematics: Use a mathematical formula to create a harmony line for a melody. Identify the key notes in the melody and plan harmony using a consistent fifth, fourth, or major third. Then, try other combinations to see which are pleasing and which aren't.
  2. Visual Arts: Melodies should have some mathematical unity or pattern in order to sound complete. Draw a graph with the "sol-fa" scale along the vertical axis. Draw a bell-shaped curve on the graph and plan a melody to fit the curve. Try an inverted bell-shaped curve. Draw the melodies from popular songs onto the graph to identify the "shape" of the music.
  3. History: Go on-line to research the history of stringed, brass, or woodwind instruments. Draw a time line marking notable inventions or innovations. Illustrate your time line with pictures or drawings.
• Student Assessment:
  1. In a letter to a friend, explain the mathematical basis of a simple song. (Your teacher may suggest one or provide a line of musical notation.) Describe the mathematics of the melody line and the principles underlying a possible harmony. Use the "sol-fa" scale in your explanation.
  2. Can computers compose music as well as (or better than) people? Choose a side in this debate and compile evidence to support your position. Anticipate and counter the arguments of your opponent as you present your reasoning in a persuasive speech.

pg. 22 - "The Rhythms of Rap"

• Talk It Over:
  1. What everyday sounds are rhythmical? Make a list of the rhythms from everyday life and discuss how they affect you. (Don't forget the first rhythm you ever heard: the beat of your mother's heart.) Do natural rhythms prepare us to appreciate the rhythms of music?
  2. People usually have strong feelings about rap music. What characteristics of this musical style cause strongly positive or strongly negative reactions in different people? Is there a connection between those feelings and the rhythms of rap?
• Connections:
  1. Mathematics: When lyrics are added to syncopated rhythms, certain words receive "double emphasis" (coming at a point where both rhythms are stressed). Find the pattern that predicts the points of double emphasis when 4/4 time is played simultaneously with 3/4 time (both with stress on the first beat). Draw rhythm lines on the board using the formula, noting the double points. Use those points for rhyming words and fill in the other beats so that the rhyming words make sense. Try reading the lines while some class members clap the first rhythm and others clap the second.
  2. Language Arts: Rap makes use of "rhyme clusters" - bursts of frequent rhymes buried within the lyrics. Select a two-syllable rhyme ("vision" and "collision," for example) and see how many words you can find with that same two-syllable rhyme. (A rhyming dictionary from the library will help.) Try writing rap lyrics, clustering several words from your list in. Got a good one? Perform it!
  3. History: The "talking blues" style of music evolved along with the labor unions during America's Dust Bowl era. Find examples of spoken protest songs from that era in the compositions of such folk artists as Chris Bouchillon, Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seeger. Find recordings or MP3 files of talking blues selections. Compare their rhythm, melody, and lyrics with today's rap music. Identify and discuss similarities.
• Student Assessment:
  1. Write a "how-to" manual for writing and performing rap music. Teach the reader of your manual how to create the rhythms and rhymes of rap.
  2. Review "The Rhythms of Rap" (pg. 22) and "The Beats of Different Drummers" (pg. 24). List important terms and their definitions. Create a crossword puzzle using at least ten words from your list. Trade puzzles with other class members and solve.

"If prehistoric music . . ."

Large-Group Presentation: Break the class into four groups. Ask each group to research a particular kind of animal "music" or sound (e.g., marine mammals, songbirds, domestic animals, or primates). Record, find recordings, or download files of animal sounds if possible. Present sounds and research findings to the class.

"Began in a cave . . ."

Small-Group Activity: Break the class into teams of two or three students. Challenge each team to design and build a musical instrument that has some means of controlling pitch. In a presentation to the class, explain how your instrument produces sound and changes pitch.

"Can today's acoustic surfer . . ."

Community Connection: Invite a hearing specialist to speak to the class about preventable hearing loss. As an alternative, take a tour of a local sound recording studio. Musicians who record their own music are often at work, even in the smallest communities.

"Ride a sound wave?"

Whole-Class Project: Write and publish a music newspaper. Put up-to-date reports about music technology in the News section. The Features section can include a crossword puzzle, a CD review, and a profile of a famous composer from history. The Sports section is the place for commentary on professional and college team theme songs or famous athletes who have sung professionally. Draw music-related cartoons, and don't forget the op-ed ("opposite editorial") page. It's the place for disagreements about the merits of modern trends in music.

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Updated: 11/7/09 08:54 pm
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