This document outlines a quarter-long course on melodic composition. It will introduce melodies and their elements over the first few weeks, explore question and answer phrases and song forms, and have students identify forms aurally. Students will work on a solo composition project over weeks 6 through 8 before presenting in week 9. Each class will include a student melody share and the first homework assigns students to write four short melodies.

1. 1. New Seats
2. The Most
Important
Question
3. Quarter
Overview
4. Melody
Discussion
5. Hearing
Melodies
6. Homework
Start

2. 
By the end of today’s class, you will know
what a melody is!

Benchmarks: 6.1.1.3.1, 6.2.1.3.1, 6.2.1.3.1

3. Week 1: Intro to Melodic Composition
 Week 2: Generating Melodies
 Week 3: Question/Answer Phrases
 Week 4: Song Forms
 Week 5: Aurally Identifying Form
 Week 6: Solo Composition Work
 Week 7: Solo Composition Work
 Week 8: Solo Composition Work
 Week 9: Solo Composition Presentations


4. During each class, there will be a melody
share.
 Be prepared to have your music played
for the class at least once this quarter!


5. Melody: A linear succession of musical
tones that the listener perceives as a
single entity.
 Synonyms: Tune; voice; line
 Melodies are made up of two elements:

› Pitch (high vs low)
› Rhythm (short vs long)

6. 
As we listen, write down three keywords
for each one. These could be
instruments you hear, moods of the
music, images they make you think of,
and the like.

7. 
Your homework is to write four eight
measure melodies using quarter and half
notes. There are no instructions beyond
that, so get creative!