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Welcome
to “The Star-Spangled Banner” We’re glad you’re joining in getting America singing and playing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The music lessons and resources here offer a number of ideas and strategies for teaching students of all ages how to sing and play the national anthem of the United States and other patriotic songs. MENC: The National Association for Music Education developed these lessons using materials written by veteran music teachers and music-curriculum authors to parallel the nine National Standards for Music Education. Using the materials on this Web site, you can guide your students through a creative exploration of patriotic songs and their role in the culture of freedom and democracy. These lessons are geared for general music, chorus, and instrumental classes. In lesson 1, the overarching lesson is to teach students to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner;” your students can expand their vocabulary, discover entertaining ways to learn the lyrics, and learn about the origins and history of the song. For more advanced students, one lesson asks them to identify the form of our national anthem while another explores the use of tonic chords. High school band and orchestra students can take a short piano composition of the national anthem and arrange it for a group of four to six instruments of their choice. Choral students are asked to create a medley of patriotic songs. The general music lesson explores the history of three songs heard in the halls of The White House almost since it opened in 1800. Of course, you can use the lessons exactly as they are, or adapt them for your students and your teaching style. Perhaps they’ll give you a jumping-off point for your own ideas. You may want to refer to your basal textbook for teaching the national anthem and other patriotic songs. Or you might want to see if your students can identify musical phrases of the national anthem found in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, in Edwards’ “Cool, Cool Considerate Men” from 1776, or in MacDermot, Rado, and Ragni’s “Hair” from the musical of the same name. However you choose to teach, MENC’s goal in this section of our Web site is to provide you with easy-to-implement lesson ideas that underscore the importance of the national anthem and patriotic music. We hope you’ll find this material exciting and helpful, whether you teach choral, instrumental, or general music. Good luck, and have fun!
The National Anthem Project Teachers’
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