How To Create Music Lesson Plans

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How To Create Music Lesson Plans


Wether you are an elementary school general music educator, or you teach private lessons in your home, or you teach group classes in a studio, you're going to need some structure for your class. It is extremely important to set goals of what you want your students to learn and accomplish and the first step for this is creating a scope and sequence. 
If you are an elementary school music teacher you may already have one provided by your district, you will still want to edit it (if allowed) and make sure it makes sense for you. If you are teaching in a music studio or even in home lessons, I highly recommend you start here. I know they are not super fun, but they are super helpful to keep you on track! So let's get started!
Number 1: Create a list of your prioritized skills and concepts that you want all of your students to learn in each grade/age group/skill level. Of course you will want them to learn more if possible but start with the very most essential skills first. Put some thought into how each grade/level will progress and blend together, for example you don't want to teach sixteenth notes before they have a basic understanding of quarter, half and eighth notes. 
Number 2: Narrow down your lists for each grade/level. This will probable be the hardest part of creating your sequence. Don't get caught up trying to accomplish everything! This can easily turn your year into chaos with you trying to cover a new topic every week and your students not being able to actually retain the information. Focus on the basics - Start with Beat/Rhythm, move to Melody/Pitch, then Dynamics/Tempo, and finally Harmony/Form. 
Number 3: Fine tune and add the details! 

  1. Figure out what your beginning and end points goals are for each of your skills/concepts. In the case of elementary school teachers for example, make sure you find out what the middle school music teachers expect so that by the time your students finish 5th grade they have covered all of the topics required.
  2. Make sure your skills and concepts are arranged into a logical sequence and assign the skills and concepts to a particular grade level/age group/ or skill level.
  3. Once you've arranged them, this is simply a matter of spreading out the skills and concepts over the year.
  4. To accomplish each skill and concept, now clearly define how students should be able to respond to, perform, and create music with each of those skills and concepts.

Important note: don't confuse material with skills/concepts!
If you're asking yourself why you haven't put anything in about world music, composers, xylophones..... stay tuned for more detailed posts about ideas for material, those are going to come in later!

Your sequence is simply to help keep you on track with what your goals are for your students, you can now choose your material to help you accomplish each of your goals!
Your sequence doesn't have to be anything fancy, if you work in a school district that has provided you with a rubric already you may want to still create a simple sequence that you can keep handy on your desk to keep you on track. Here is a basic example of all you would need:

Skills / Concepts
K

1

2

3

4

5


Application of Skills / Concepts

Respond
Perform
Create
K



1



2



3



4



5



Good luck and happy planning! 

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