Identifying Major, Minor, Dominant 7, and Augmented 6 Chords

March 2006

Grade 11

Objecive- Students will be able to decipher major, minor, dominant 7, and augmented chords by hearing and by seeing the chords and will also be able to build them.

Purpose- Students will know and identify major, minor, dominant 7, and augmented chords in works of music and in their own composing.

Materials needed- Computer, Aurelia ear training and Practica Musica, keyboard, headphones, and CD player

Anticipatory Set- Students will listen to works of music on the CD player, which will have each chord in its songs. They will listen to the four songs twice, each using one of the chords or keys predominantly, and will tell me what they think is different in each song.

Procedure-

1) Students will listen to the different chords I play for them on the keyboard (after listening to recordings of works of music), hearing the differences in the sound of each chord.

2) Students will then be asked, after hearing the chords, to identify which chord is which, just by listening to each one separately.

3) Students will then go to the computers and work on either Practica Musica or Aurelia ear training and listen to the different chords and see how they are built

4) Students will build each chord and play the chords on their keyboards

Check for Student understanding- Students will be asked to build each chord and identify each chord on the computer by taking the assessments provided by Practica Musica. The teacher will walk around the classroom to observe the studentsπ actions and listen in on each assessment.

Closure- Students will be asked which chords they prefer to listening to the most and if they hear each chords in their favorite songs.

Extensions- Students will compose songs, using major, minor, dominant, or augmented 6 chords, and find four works of music that use the different chords or keys in the songs.