The coffee was brewing in the “A” cafeteria at Northwood Elementary School when family members gathered to hear sixth grade students play guitar and sing. Music teacher Kim Rudd arranged the “coffeehouse” style performance so that students in Jenny Ames’, Laura Mayer’s and Jen Roberts’ classes could show off their new skills.
“I wanted to give the kids a performance opportunity with their guitars so that they had a real-world application for the skills that they learned,” said Rudd.
The ‘Building Chords’ unit is one of three Middle Years Programme units that sixth graders experience during their year in music class. They learn how to use scale degrees to create chordal patterns, and also learn how chords relate to each other in music, all under the inquiry concept of ‘structure.’ Chords are practiced on barred instruments, then transferred to the guitar strings.
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