Seventh- and eighth-grade choir and band students at Albert Lea’s Southwest Middle School will present a concert at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 23, in the Southwest Middle School gym. This “Music in Our Schools Month” concert theme will feature and celebrate several different music styles for the audience to enjoy. Included will be swing jazz, folk, movie/musical, Latino-rhythm, and pop selections.

In addition to learning music to perform in the upcoming concert, choir students have spent class time analyzing and writing positive feedback on others’ performances. Eighth-grade choir listened to and gave positive feedback to a live performance by an eighth grade girls’ ensemble of four who prepared the pop song “100 Years.” Seventh- and eighth-grade students also viewed and evaluated honors choir performances on video. These activities of performance and written analysis/feedback fulfilled Minnesota music standards in the areas of perform/present and respond/critique.

Earlier, seventh-grade choir students completed a unit in music vocabulary, studying 17 music terms and symbols to aid in future music reading and, generally, to expand vocabulary. Students were given many different strategies to learn the words, symbols, and meanings, as well as how they are used in performance of music. A pre- and post-test showed students their progress in understanding.