Beat of the Beach

A Music Class Focused on Body Percussion

Sam Peterson
 Course Description
This is a course for eighth-grade students with an interest in popular music. Prior musical
experience is not required; through this course, students will be given the opportunity to learn
more about the music they love in a rhythmic context. With an emphasis on body percussion,
students will learn the basics of music theory and aural skills along with enough music history to
understand how popular music was developed into what we listen to today.
The culmination of this course is an end-of-year concert consisting of accompanied and
unaccompanied step routines. Students will choose where they begin their body percussion
journey. After learning rudimentary music notation, students will vote on the music they work on
in class. Class activities or tests will be based on accompanying a song with a Step routine.
Students will later devise their own Step routines, without music, for performance in the
end-of-year concert.
The goal of the class is to encourage students to be more active in their music listening
and music making. By the end of the year, students should be able to notice various aspects of
their favorite popular music that they had not noticed before. This course may encourage
students to pursue a path of music as they enter high school.

Rationale
In recent years, music classrooms have begun presenting pieces from different times
and cultures to students; however, one source that often lacks exploration is popular music–the
music students listen to every day. I have never been in a classroom where a teacher asks
students what they listen to on a regular basis, much less one that bases the repertoire for the
class on those answers. There is a need for students to felt seen in the music classroom. They
need to know that the music they listen to is indeed “real music” while also being exposed to
new genres. In Sharon Davis and Deborah Blair’s 2011 article titled “Popular Music in American
Teacher Education: A Glimpse into a Secondary Methods Course,” the authors make the point
that since popular music is so important in our personal lives outside of school, it is necessary to
include it in the music education of youths (p. 137).
Through this course, students will explore the music they regularly listen to in a rhythmic
context through body percussion. When students have a choice in the repertoire for their
classes, they are a) much more involved in the curriculum process than in their other classes
and b) more likely to engage with the class material. Since “popular music” is such a broad
genre, and students will be suggesting repertoire for each potential unit/performance, each year
of students will have a different experience.
This course’s primary impact on students would be allowing them to view their everyday
music listening as music learning. With a broader appreciation for music, and just a little bit of
theoretical knowledge, students will see popular music in a new light. In a “Music Meaning
Survey” conducted by Virginia Davis, students gave their opinion on music and music education
programs. Davis concluded that there is no single benefit from music education; there are
several benefits represented in four categories: vocational, academic, belongingness, and
agency (2009, p. 75). By providing students with an accessible means of learning musical
concepts, we open a door to a wide range of opportunities.
 Expected Student Impact
The primary intent behind this course is that students form community bonds with their
peers through music making. Students will have a creative outlet to make art with their friends in
a perhaps unfamiliar way.
This course is based on standards developed by the National Association for Music
Educations (NAfME) in 2014. Main focal points will be:
● MU: Cr1.1.8a - Generate rhythmic, melodic and harmonic phrases and harmonic
accompaniments within expanded forms (including introductions, transitions, and codas)
that convey expressive intent.
● MU: Cr2.1.8b - Use standard and/or iconic notation and/or audio/ video recording to
document personal rhythmic phrases, melodic phrases, and harmonic sequences.
● MU: Pr4.1.8a - Apply personally developed criteria for selecting music of contrasting
styles for a program with a specific purpose and/or context, and explain expressive
qualities, technical challenges, and reasons for choices.
● MU: Pr4.2.8a - Compare the structure of contrasting pieces of music selected for
performance, explaining how the elements of music are used in each.
● MU: Re8.1.7a - Support personal interpretation of contrasting programs of music and
explain how creators’ or performers’ apply the elements of music and expressive
qualities, within genres, cultures, and historical periods to convey expressive intent.

Expected Community Impact

Outside of the end-of-year concert, students will be encouraged to fundraise.
Fundraising events will be decided by the teacher and students on a case by case basis,
ranging from selling candy bars to extra-curricular gigs for the public.
As this course is meant to be a student-centered experience, the community outreach
will likely be limited to in-school performances at pep rallies or sports games in the early years
of the course. As student and community interest increase, one end-of-year concert may turn
into two end-of-semester concerts, and fundraising may become more focused on community
performances.
Music making has a broad impact on a student, and these students will enter high school
and the world with newfound skills and mindsets.

Course Scope and Sequence

Through this course, the students will be able to meet the following learning objectives:
● The student can identify the meter of standard popular music pieces.
● The student can distinguish between duple and triple meter.
● The student can identify and replicate simple rhythmic motives.
● The student can maintain steady rhythmic patterns.
● The student can use their body to imitate simple beats from popular music
pieces.
Besides the end-of-year concert, students will be assessed in various ways in the
classroom, providing opportunities for each student to succeed. There will be brief written
exams, group and solo projects, and a project that students get to create on their own at the end
of the first semester. They will choose what to present and how to present it; the goal behind
this project in particular is for students to prove they are learning however they feel comfortable
presenting.
Students will progress in their learning by quarter, but there will be several instances of
winding forward and back throughout the year in order to both keep the students’ interest and
maintain their developing musical knowledge. The course will gradually become more student
driven, with the personal-choice project acting as a “jumping off” point for the new class
dynamic. The organization of the year is as follows:

● Quarter 1: Students will learn about music history and how modern genres developed.
For the purposes of this course, most of the music history content will be centered
around the twentieth century and the 2000s. Students will also learn rudimentary music
theory and aural skills with an emphasis on rhythm. Expectations will be set regarding
the end-of-year concert, with simple exercises being taught in class.
○ The assessments in this quarter will be more traditional: two small written tests,
simple homework assignments, and assigned listenings. Any aural skills practice
or work will be based on current popular music.
● Quarter 2: With foundational knowledge in music theory and aural skills, students will
begin making their own rhythms as class exercise. The instructor will continue to teach
music history, theory, and aural skills, but will begin a more “call and response”
approach. Students will begin improvising rhythms in response to listenings or
demonstrations. Step routines will start getting organized for the final concert.
○ The assessments in this quarter will begin being more student-oriented: group
assignments, a few more written tests to finish up the music theory and history
foundations, and, of course, the personal-choice project. These will continue to
be based on current popular music.
● Quarter 3: This quarter will be about encouraging each student to be strong in their
musical abilities. Students will vote on the songs for the teacher to base the lessons on,
and the instructor will facilitate conversations and activities to propel students forward in
their music learning, making, and consuming. Together, they will begin planning out the
end-of-year concert in more detail.
○ The assessments in this quarter are more student-oriented, consisting mostly of
group assignments and solo presentations. The students will become more
confident in their abilities as both a class unit and individuals.
● Quarter 4: This quarter is devoted to the end-of-year concert. Classes will be spent
practicing and memorizing routines and rhythm patterns. Students will relate what they
work on in this quarter to what they learned in Quarters 1 and 2.
○ The assessment in this quarter is the concert. Students will take time to reflect
afterward, thinking back on what they have learned and how they can use it in
their future.
 Budget
A benefit of this course is that there are no required expenses outside of what is in the
typical music classroom. Optional expenses include:
● ~ $50 for 16 pairs of rhythm sticks to be used in Quarters 1 and 2
● ~ $200 for Boomwhacker Full Spectrum Set
○ These could be used in the final concert if there is interest among the students

Works Cited
Davis, S. G., & Blair, D. V. (2011). Popular Music in American teacher education: A glimpse into
a secondary methods course. International Journal of Music Education, 29(2), 124–140.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0255761410396962

Davis, V. W. (2009). The Meaning of Music Education to Middle School General Music Students.
Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 179, 61–77.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40319330