Musical Form

Fifth graders just completed a unit about form in music.  They learned that the form of a song is determined by the sections that are the same or similar, and the sections that are different.  We used two songs that the students are familiar with: "Can't Stop the Feeling" by Justin Timberlake and "I'm on Top of the World" by Imagine Dragons.

Students listened to the songs and used shapes to show where they heard similar and different sections.

Then, we added rhythms to the form.  Each shape was assigned a different rhythm.  We were able to play our rhythm patterns along with the songs on rhythm sticks, which really helped us to feel the different sections.  This was also a great way to practice the rhythms we learned in fourth grade!