Irish Music Unit Music Assessment

Feeling the Tempo (Tempo)

Materials Needed

Various audio recordings

Instructions

1. Review the definitions of allegro (fast) and adagio (slow).

2. Repeat the word “allegro” very quickly with the students.

3. Repeat the word “adagio” very slowly (e.g. “ah-daah-joe, ah-daah-joe”) with students.

4. Have students create one or two expressive movements to demonstrate allegro and adagio. Guide them in performing and changing their movements as they listen to various audio recordings.

5. Discuss how these two tempos feel different.

How did you move to the allegro tempo?

How does the allegro tempo make you feel?

How did you move to the adagio tempo?

How does the adagio tempo make you feel?

6. Ask students to share any songs they know, or that you have sung together, which have an allegro or adagio tempo.

7. Choose a song with a moderate tempo that the students know well and try singing it at an exaggeratedly fast tempo and exaggeratedly slow tempo.

How did the different tempos make the song feel different?

Assessment Rubric

 

Go to Unit 6: Zydeco Music with Jeffery