Grade 9 - Structure (Elements of Melody)

This sub-organizer contains the following sections:
Prescribed Learning Outcomes
Suggested Instructional Strategies
Suggested Assessment Strategies
Recommended Learning Resources

PRESCRIBED LEARNING OUTCOMES

It is expected that students will create, listen to, and perform music, demonstrating understanding of expressive and physical properties of melody.

It is expected that students will:

demonstrate an ability to enhance tuning by altering pitch
apply understanding of melodic direction and contour to expressive phrasing
analyse patterns used in melody
identify and represent melodies in various clefs and keys
use appropriate music terminology to describe a range of melodic patterns

To view the prescribed learning outcomes for Structure (Elements of Melody) in other grades click on an icon below.

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

Students listen to a music example and use movement to demonstrate melodic direction and contour, showing beginnings and ends of phrases. In groups, students select a recorded piece of music and create visual representations of the melodic direction and contour. The groups present their representations to the class.
Teacher demonstrates arpeggios and sequences. Students then identify examples of each in their repertoire and other known music. Students create a short sequence and apply it to a scale. In groups, students perform arpeggios, each performing a different note from the arpeggio.
Given a reference tone (e.g., from a tuner) and an out-of-tune tone, students identify the pitch of the sample relative to the reference tone (i.e., higher or lower), and indicate or demonstrate how to alter the pitch to correct it.
Teacher presents examples of scales with an explanation of their structures (e.g., blues scale). Students write and perform examples of scales starting on a given note. Students write simple melodies that use a limited range of pitches (e.g., first five pitches of a major scale), then transpose their melodies to another key. Students transcribe a melody from treble clef to bass clef or vice versa.
Collect examples of soundtracks from movies and television. Compare melodic characteristics for suspense, humour, romance, and so on. Students create and perform melodic sequences to accompany a chosen television program or movie segment, or as background for a story, play, or poem to be read aloud.

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

Give students a short melody to transcribe. Look for evidence that they understand how to transcribe melodic lines from one clef to another. Note whether students put the notes in the correct places and if they use the different clefs correctly.
Have students present melodic compositions from their portfolios as evidence of their learning. Use this opportunity to find out if students purposefully used tonal centre(s) when writing in a specific style. Have them identify what mood they intended to convey and what choices they made to ensure the mood was achieved.
Have students listen to audiotapes of their ensembles performing. Ask them to listen for melody agreement with the original melody and to make suggestions for improvement. Observe students as they give feedback to others to see the extent to which they can identify areas that require improvement and can suggest strategies and solutions for fixing problem areas.
Ask students to perform their melodic compositions for the class. Ask others in the class if they recognize any patterns or sequences in the melodies (e.g., arpeggios, scales, intervals).
In a testing situation, ask students to draw two sound waves in tune with each other and two sound waves not in tune with each other. Review their work to determine if they understand the physical properties of sound and how to represent this idea visually.