OVERVIEW

Students will learn:• Meter is the organization of beats, usually into measures of 2, 3,

and 4 beats.• Meters of 2 can be joined to create a meter of 4.• Meters of 2 and 3 create distinctively different effects upon music.• Meter determines the pattern conductors use to lead an orchestra.

LESSON OBJECTIVES

Unit 1 Music Theory

Episode 2

Meter

1

© Quaver’s Marvelous World of Music • 2-1

VocabularyMeterMeter of 2Meter of 3 Meter of 4 Strong beatWeak beatMarchWaltz

Meter determines how many beats are in a measure. To reinforce meters of 2, 3, and 4, Quaver and his assistants engage in a se-ries of bubble-popping, bucket-walking, and pretzel-snapping experiments. Along the way, he marches with a color guard, visits a dance studio, crowd-surfs at a rock concert, and observes a conductor at work. The house band performs a song featuring both meters of 2 and 3 as Quaver counts the beats.

Organizing the beat

Unit 1 Music Theory

1 Organizing bubble-beats Meter is the way beats are organized. 6

2 Review of strong and weak beats

The first beat in a measure is called the strong beat. The beats that follow are called the weak beats.

6

3 Bucket-walking, pretzel-snap-ping and balloon-popping

Beats are usually organized in meters of 2, 3, and 4. Each meter gives music a different feel.

6

4 Phone box adventures to count meters

Different types of music use different meters: a march is typically set to a meter of 2; a waltz requires a meter of 3; and most rock music is written in a meter of 4.

7

5 Song: Can You Feel the Meter? This song utilizes both meters of 2 and 3. 6

MUSIC STANDARDS IN LESSON

Complete details at QuaverMusic.com

Music StandardWhat they teach

2-2 • QuaverMusic.com

2LESSON INTRO Introducing the episode

1: Singing alone and with others*5: Reading and notating music6: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music7: Evaluating music and music performance

Invite students to chant a rhyme that has a predictable beat such as Yankee Doodle while they clap along. Ask them if there are any claps that feel louder than the others. Count 1-2, 1-2 while students chant it a second time. Explain that in Yankee Doodle, the beats are organized into groups of 2, meaning every other beat is a louder clap.

Then tell them you will talk in beats organized into groups of 3, meaning after every loud clap there are two quieter claps.Example: I-will-now, talk-to-you, u-sing-some, beats-in-a, me-ter-of th-re-e.

In this episode Quaver defines meter – how beats are organized into groups.

Key Scenes

* concepts included in the Teacher Guide, but not in the DVD

Meter Dancing Purpose: Combining movement with meter

Instruct students to work out rhythmic movements or dances while listening to the following tracks. Techno Two (Track 1) is in a meter of 2, and Alpine Waltz (Track 2) is in a meter of 3.

Play the Strong BeatPurpose: Playing a beat in a meter

Using hands as drums or homemade drums have students establish strong and weak beats by making the first beat louder than the following beats. Play the strong beat along with the rhymes and songs in varying meters. Play the strong beats on the head of the drum and then add weak beats on the rim to establish every beat, then add variations. This is a wonderful precursor to playing more complicated rhythms on the drums.

Stick PassPurpose: Coordination, teamwork, and meter

Instruct students to sit in a circle on the floor. Give each student a beater (for example, a drumstick or pencil) to hold in his/her right hand. With the beater, students will perform the following actions:

Tap - Tap the floor in front of you with the stickPass - Pass the stick to the person to your rightGrab - Take the stick from the person on your left

The Speeding Turtles (Track 3) is in a meter of 4 and requires this pattern: tap-tap-pass-grab.For The Whizzy Waltz (Track 4) which is in a meter of 3, the pattern is: tap-pass-grab.

Playing each track several times may be required for students to accomplish the meter motions fluidly.

Note: Try dividing your students into partners, allowing them to create new patterns with their beaters.

Tracks 3 & 4

2-3

Discussion Points 3PLAY EPISODE

Meter

Tracks 1 & 2

• Which is the word that describes how beats are organized in a measure? meter• Which meters were explored in this episode? 2, 3, and 4• Which meter works well for a march? meter of 2• Which meter works well for a waltz? meter of 3

MaterialsNeeded- Hand drums or homemade drums- Drumsticks - Pencils- Bouncy balls

4CLASS ACTIVITIES

VIDEO REPLAY ConductingPurpose: Show how conductors use meter

Using the conductor footage from the epi-sode as a tutorial, teach students to conduct with pencils serving as batons. Demonstrate the down-up pattern for conducting in 2’s.

Tracks 8, 9 & 10

2-4 • QuaverMusic.com

5WEB ACTIVITIES

Bounce The BeatPurpose: Beat and meter relationships

Each student is given a bouncy ball. The teacher leads the class in bounce catch patterns of 2’s, 3’s, and 4’s. Students should perform tasks by using both hands, right hand, left hand, and alternating hands. Start with 4’s in a bounce-catch-wait-wait pattern using Country Patterns (Track 5), then 3’s in a bounce-catch-wait pattern Elephant Walk (Track 6), and lastly 2’s in bounce-catch-bounce-catch Fife and Drum (Track 7). Teacher can rein-force the beat by playing a drum along with the tracks.

Tracks 5, 6 & 7

EarIQStudents can train their musical ear by listening to music composed in a variety of meters and gaining points for deciding what meter is being used.

Time VenuesHave students travel back in time to see Bach playing a minuet in a meter of 3. Encourage them to tap their feet and fingers to the beat of Bach’s mu-sic.

Listen to Bizet’s Carmen, March of the Toreador (Track 8) and have them conduct to the music. Then teach the down-out-up (triangle) pattern for 3’s using Daisy, Daisy (Track 9). For 4 beats, the pattern is down-in-out-up. It’s fun conducting to Handel’s Messiah, Hallelujah (Track 10). Demonstrate dynamics by conducting larger pat-terns for louder passages and smaller patterns for softer passages.

IWB 1

Play activities on your INTERACTIVE White Board

IWB

Unit 1 Music Theory

Meter

Be a Meter ReaderPlay the following tracks and ask students to find the steady beat. Have them hold up two, three, or four fingers depending on the meter of the piece.

Track 11 Daddy’s Girl - meter of 3Track 12 Spanish Gold - meter of 2Track 13 Parachute - meter of 4Track 14 Western Skies - meter of 4

7ASSESSMENT

Tracks 11, 12, 13 & 14

2-5

Crazy MetersPurpose: Clapping in different meters

To evaluate students’ understanding of meters, ask them to complete this worksheet and return it at the next session. The worksheet requires them to draw measure lines, color the strong beats, and clap the meter, being careful to clap louder on the strong beat. Encourage students to ask their parents to clap the crazy meters with them.

Beat Out The MeterPurpose: Finding the meter in everyday life

Assign students to practice walking in a meter of 2 by stepping with one foot louder than the other. Ask them to walk in a meter of 3 by using an umbrella, cane, or similar object for the strong beat and their two feet as the weak beats. For a meter of 4, challenge students to come up with their own unique way of practicing the meter.

Encourage them to listen to all the rhythms in the world around them and give a report of sounds that are organized into meters. Examples might include windshield wipers or a train going along the tracks.

6 HOMEWORK

PRINTWORKSHEET

PRINTWORKSHEET

PRINTWORKSHEET

Worksheet # 1

Make sure to give students a preparatory measure (2, 3, or 4 beats) before starting a rhythmic activity.

Additional session activities

2-6 • QuaverMusic.com

HistoryDuring the Baroque period (1600-1750), people created dances to go with the music. Today, as we dress up to go to the theater, people of the Baroque era would attend dances in fancy ball gowns and suits.

Each Baroque dance was part of a suite of dances. Each dance within the suite was written in a specific meter, which made each dance different. A minuet was in a slow meter of 3, whereas a gavotte was in moderate meter of 2. Handel provides examples of both. Have students listen care-fully to Handel’s Minuet from Berenice (Track 15) and Gigues I and II from Water Music (Track 16), and pat along to the beat. Then have students find partners and come up with dance moves to each meter.

Language ArtsRead short poems and determine if the words seem to have a feeling of 2 beats (strong, weak) or 3 beats (strong, weak, weak). Like music, poetry is often written in meter.

Here’s an example of a strong/weak meter:Peas porridge hot.Peas porridge cold.Peas porridge in-the potNine days o-ld.

MathIn a meter of 4, there are 4 beats in a measure with the strong beat being the first. If you have 32 measures of music in a meter of 4…

How many strong beats will there be? (32)How many beats in total will you have? (32 x 4 = 128)How many weak beats will there be? (32 x 3 = 96)

Tracks 15 & 16

CROSS-CURRICULUM ACTIVITIES8Unit 1 Music Theory

2-7

9DIGGING DEEPER

Other Meters Purpose: Introduces a more complex meter of 2

A 6/8 meter is 6 beats split into two groups of 3. Play Tamoshanter (Track 17) and have students try to count and clap along to this more complicated meter. Note: The two groups of 3 are very fast.

Meter Chant Purpose: Simple composition and lyric writing

By teaching students to write lyrics with a meter in mind, their words will more natu-rally fit to music. While listening to Lonesome Cowboy (Track 18), direct students to chant these lyrics written in a meter of 3:Look at myDance steps theyAre rea-llyCo-o-l

Now try Robot Love (Track 19) which is composed in a meter of 4 with these words:Can you catch meAn-y- one,If you can thenCome on RUN!

Using the worksheet provided, students can write lyrics in meters of 3 and 4, fitting those to the tracks.

PRINTWORKSHEET

PRINTWORKSHEET

PRINTWORKSHEET

Worksheet # 2

Track 17

Tracks 18 & 19 IWB 2

Meter

2-8 • QuaverMusic.com

TEACHER NOTES

Drum

FeaturedInstruments

Keyboard

Unit 1 Music Theory