Target Audience:

This lesson is intended for an 8th grade general music class.

Objective:
Students will be able to identify 4/4 meter by listening to examples and creating
their own examples using quarter notes, half notes, eighth notes, and the
corresponding rests.
Standards:
National Standards- Students will be listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
Students will compose music within specified guidelines. Students will notate their
compositions.
New York State Standards- Students will actively engage in the processes that
constitute creation and performance in the arts.
Prerequisite Knowledge:
Students should have a general knowledge of notation (quarter notes, half notes,
eighth notes, etc.) Students can clap these different notations in alternating patterns.
Do Now:
Students will be instructed to listen to The Monster by Eminem ft. Rihanna and
figure out what the pulse is. They will have to tap, clap, or ta the pulse. I will model
by clapping and accenting the first beat of every four. The question posed will be,
How many beats are you hearing that are being accented?
Mini-lesson:
1. We will review the Do Now as a class. The answer for the Do Now question is
4. The students will then be asked why do they think there are 4 beats? How
do they know? The students will know it is in four because it feels
symmetrical and it is satisfying.
2. The teacher will explain that most pop songs are written in 4 and have
students listen for the consistent beat. Teacher will replay The Monster and
clap and accent the first of every four beats. The students will be encouraged
to clap along and also accent the first of every four beats.
3. The teacher will then draw up a measure and explain that the top 4 means
how many beats are in a measure and that the bottom 4 means that the
quarter note keeps the pulse.
4. The teacher will then have students calculate what is missing from an
unfinished measure of 4/4 time to help assess the students and to clarify any
other questions they may have.
5. Teacher will then ask a student to recall what the top and bottom numbers of
4/4 time means.
6. The teacher will then play Need You Now by Lady Antebellum and have the
students clap their hands to the beat while counting 1-2-3-4 so that students
can internalize a 4/4 pulse.

7. The teacher will then ask students to compare the two songs in terms of their
pulses. What is similar and what is different?
8. The teacher will have the students break up into groups and explain that one
to three people in the group HAVE to pulse the quarter note. The students
will create four measures in 4/4 using half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes
and the corresponding rests. It can be fast or slow but it must stay constant.
9. The teacher will then ask different students what the task is.
10. The teacher will then model with one of the groups what the task entails.
11. Students will answer questions in their groups. The questions will be:
a) How do you know this is in 4/4?
b) Is your pulse fast or slow?
Group Work:
1. Students will collaborate in groups with about 5-6 students in each group to
compose four measures in 4/4 time.
2. Teacher will walk around the classroom to see if students need help
assigning who will keep the pulse.
3. The teacher will float from group to group using the posed questions to help
students synthesize the information they received with the activity they have
to do.
4. In each group, each of the students will have to write out the questions and
the answers so that they all have a copy of the work they did that day.
Group Share:
1. Groups will share their compositions with the class.
2. Other groups will be encouraged to answer if the pulse was slow or fast, how
do they know it is in 4/4. Students may also have to perform their pieces a
little slower or faster for contrast.
3. Answers will be written on the board so that students can copy answers in
their notebooks.
Lesson Assessment:
Teacher will have students recall what 4/4 means. They will also be asked if the
pulse changes because the beat is moving slower or faster. The teacher will then
write incomplete examples of 4/4 measures and have students fill them out for
homework.
Differentiation:
The lesson features a few different differentiated instruction points. The aural
component is where students listen to the music to look for a specific pattern. The
visual component is the idea of 4/4 being written on the board with complete
measures and incomplete measures. For the Do Now students are encouraged to
tap, clap, ta, which is a kinesthetic exercise. Their group work focused mostly on the
kinesthetic idea because they are all engaging in music making.
Final Summary:

The lesson will end with the teacher asking a student to rearticulate what 4/4
means, how it feels (steady/unsteady).
Homework Assignment:
Students will compose four measures in 4/4 meter using quarter notes, half notes,
eighth notes, and the corresponding rests.
Materials:
-CD player/ Connection to speakers
-iPod