Unit Plan 12 (Grade 4 Music): Simple Harmony & Accompaniment

Focus: Create simple accompaniment patterns to support melodies and explore how harmony changes musical meaning.

Grade Level: 4

Subject Area: Music (General Music)

Total Unit Duration: 1 required session + up to 2 optional sessions, 50–60 minutes each

I. Introduction

Students explore simple harmony and accompaniment by adding patterns under or around familiar melodies. Using voices, barred instruments, and classroom percussion, they learn how drones, borduns, and repeated chord patterns can support a tune and change its mood. Students also notice how choosing major or minor and different patterns (blocked vs. broken) affects the overall sound and style.

Essential Questions

• How does harmony change the way a melody sounds and feels?
• What kinds of accompaniment patterns can support a song and make it more interesting?
• How can I use simple harmony patterns to match the purpose or context of the music (story, dance, celebration)?

II. Objectives and Standards

Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:

• Identify and describe harmony and accompaniment in classroom listening examples.
• Create and perform simple accompaniment patterns (drones, borduns, repeated chords) that fit a given melody.
• Improvise short harmonic ideas (two-note or chord patterns) that match a specific mood, style, or story context.
• Explain how their accompaniment choices (patterns, major/minor, tempo) support the purpose and feeling of the music.

Standards Alignment — Grade 4 Music (NAfME-Aligned)

• MU:Cr1.1.4a — Improvise rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic ideas and explain how they connect to a specific purpose and context (such as social or cultural).
  • Example: Creating an improvised accompaniment for a story scene and explaining how tempo and harmony set the mood.
• MU:Cr1.1.4b — Generate musical ideas (such as rhythms, melodies, and simple accompaniment patterns) within related tonalities (such as major and minor) and meters.
  • Example: Writing a melody in minor mode to sound mysterious and in triple meter.

Success Criteria — Student Language

• I can create and play a simple accompaniment pattern that matches a given melody.
• I can explain how my accompaniment shows a certain mood (happy, calm, mysterious) or fits a story or scene.
• I can use major or minor and simple chord patterns to change how the music feels.
• I can work with my group so our melody and accompaniment fit together and stay in the same beat and key.