Instrument families in Coop Hs ideas?

[mom2tbcnm]

I usually post on the K-8 board, but I have a older kid issue this time.
I am teaching about instrument families for 3 weeks in our coop. I have figured out lesson ideas for all the younger grades, but I am stuck for the jr/hs class. My topic is instrument families. Does anyone have any great ideas for adjusting a unit for hs level students? The oldest is 15 yo and there are only 5 of them. I think kids by this age know about different instruments already, so I need something they could do with the info. Reports maybe? I don't know, please help me find some ideas,
Thanks
Katty

[Jane in NC]

Here is an interesting link on an alternate system of categorizing instruments:

http://cnx.org/content/m11896/latest/

You could combine this with some work on physics or on the biology of the human ear. The links on the right hand side of this page will help you.

Cheers,
Jane

[Laura K (NC)]

I taught music history to high schoolers in a co-op and we only did one day of instrument families. I brought in as many instruments as I could. Maybe you could ask as many people as you know to lend you their instruments for a day and let the kids look at them and their various parts. Better yet would be to have someone come who could demonstrate different instruments. If you are teaching this over several weeks, maybe you could borrow a bunch of woodwinds and then have the kids listen to a concerto featuring an oboe or flute or something. Same with the brass instruments. The Ohio State University marching band is only brass and percussion instruments, so you could talk about why that is (you might even have one of them write the band director to find out). For percussion... that would be fun to show them the gamut of percussion instruments. I'd take them on a field trip to a bigger music store like Guitar Center where there are lots of different percussion instruments, and tell the store you're coming so they can have someone there tell your students how each is played, and give them the opportunity to play them for themselves. Then let the kids listen to a percussion ensemble... if you live near a college with a music department, student percussion ensembles are often free to the public, and probably would happen a little later in the semester.

If you have a community band or a college band nearby, ask the band director if he could come to talk. You have a smallish co-op, but maybe you could do something in conjunction with other homeschoolers. If you can't, you can always just listen to recordings