Page 5 Lesson Plan Exercises 20 24 Score Pages 64 74 Goal Students will progress in developing comprehensive musicianship through a standards-based curriculum, including singing, performing, reading and notating, listening and analyzing, evaluating, interdisciplinary relationships, and historical and cultural relationships. Objectives for Student Learning Accurately perform tempo, rhythms, pitches, dynamics, articulations, and Rudiments with correct posture, embouchure, hand position, fingerings/slide positions, sticking, intonation, and a characteristic tone quality. Flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, and tenor saxophone: Play new note Concert D with the correct fingering, posture, hand position, intonation, and a characteristic tone quality. Identify and perform dotted quarter notes. Identify, define, and perform Largo. Identify, define, and perform D.C. al Fine. Percussion: Identify, define, and perform laissez vibrer. Share information about Antonín Dvořák. Locate the Czech Republic on a world map and share information about the country. Accurately complete the melody of My Country, Tis of Thee/God Save the Queen by ear. Procedure (Activities) Warm-up Use 14. Warm-up: Chop Builder as a daily warm-up in addition to any long tones, scales, or GREAT WARM-UPS (beginning on student page 42, score page 507). Have students use a full sound and steady air stream, making sure all players are slurring. Have brass players perform the warm-up on their mouthpieces while woodwind players and percussionists perform on their instruments. 20. Wavelengths Introduction of Concert D [flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, and tenor saxophone] 1) Have those with the new note Concert D inspect the first two measures of music and consult the fingering chart at the top of the page. 2) Sizzle this exercise while using the correct fingerings, slide positions, or air sticking. Be sure students are sizzling at a forte dynamic and only breathing during the quarter rest of measure 4. Also check that the flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, and tenor saxophone are finding the correct fingering for Concert D. Be sure this exercise is performed at Allegro. The tendency may be for students to perform this too slowly.
2 3) Perform this exercise on instruments. Be sure that the tempo is not too slow to allow students to complete the four-measure phrase before breathing. Check that the trombone section is using a du articulation and fast slide movement on slurs and that the snare drums are using proper Nine Stroke Roll technique. 4) Explore the science of sound: The science of sound is fascinating. Sound travels through the air from its source to your ear as a wave called a sound wave. Imagine that you tie one end of a long rope to a tree trunk. With the other end in your hand, you walk away from the tree, stretching the rope tight. If you were to then to rapidly move the end up and down, you would have an idea of what a sound wave looks like and how it moves. A wavelength is the distance between two corresponding positions in the wave s cycle, such as between two troughs or peaks (see diagram in the Interactive Practice Studio/Interactive Teacher Studio). The longer the wavelength is, the lower the sound will be; the shorter it is, the higher the sound will be. The highest notes humans can hear have a wavelength almost as short as your thumbnail. The lowest notes we can hear have wavelengths up to 50 feet long that s half the length of a professional basketball court! Because they cannot travel through a vacuum (an area that has no particles, such as air particles), sound waves cannot travel through outer space! Written by Mark C. Samples, American musicologist 21. Dotted Quarters Introduction of dotted quarter note 1) Review the definition of dot (adds half the value of the note). 2) Using a half note as an example, create a dotted half note. (You may wish to consult Book 1 student page 17, score page 179, for a visual aid.) 3) Next, explain the rhythmic value of a dotted quarter note in ƒ, ƒ, and ƒ. Breaking up the dotted quarter into three eighth notes will help students conceptualize its value. 4) This exercise is designed to teach the dotted quarter note using skills already attained by the student eighth notes and ties. Have students clap the clapping line together to establish the basic pulse. 5) Students must learn to (sub)divide each beat in order to play the dotted quarter note/eighth note rhythm accurately. Make sure they feel the pulse of three eighth notes in each dotted quarter. 6) Next, have half the band clap while the other half plays. Switch groups. 7) Perform this exercise with a metronome or with the recorded accompaniment.
3 22. Largo from Symphony No. 9 Introduction of Largo and D.C. al Fine; introduction of laissez vibrer and interpretation [percussion] 1) Project this exercise using an interactive whiteboard or standard projector while introducing the concept of D.C. al Fine. It is recommended to use a page from the student Interactive Practice Studio (IPS) rather than the score. 2) Define da capo (literally the head ) and fine (literally end ). 3) Apply these definitions to the musical instruction Da Capo al Fine. The definition can be found at the top of student page 5 (score page 68). 4) Point out the double bar line at the end of the exercise and the final bar line at the end of the first line of music. Ask students to raise their hands to explain why there is a final bar line in the middle of the piece. 5) Have students place their index fingers in measure one. Trace the road map by dragging your finger on the projected music as students drag their fingers on the printed page. 6) Clap the rhythm of the exercise. 7) Select a student in the percussion section to read the definition of laissez vibrer from the top of the page. Have the percussionists locate the use of this new symbol within the exercise. In addition, have the percussionists identify contrasting places in the music where they may wish to choke the cymbal. 8) Sing the exercise on too or using solfège syllables while using the correct fingerings, slide positions, or air sticking. 9) Play the exercise with the recorded accompaniment. 10) Have students complete the Antonín Dvořák Worksheet available in the Tradition of Excellence Interactive Teacher Studio (ITS). 11) Antonín Dvořák was from the Czech Republic. Identify the Czech Republic on a world map and have students follow along with the map located on page 47 of their books. Ask students to share information that they may know about the Czech Republic, such as climate, geography, history, cuisine, art, and culture. 12) Help students explore the relationships between music and Czech culture and geography by using the Czech Republic Worksheet. Distribute the pages to students as homework, or review by displaying them in class. 13) Use Excellence in Theory Book 1 and/or Book 2, pages 50 51 for a preliminary study of the Romantic Period. 14) Select a student to read the history fact and discuss. 15) Using the IPS/ITS, explore the history of the song: Czech composer Antonín Dvořák s Ninth Symphony, From the New World, premiered on December 16, 1893, at Carnegie Hall in New York City. It was the 123rd anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven s birth. Though common knowledge has it that the melodies in Dvořák s Ninth Symphony were inspired by his time in the United States, this melody was actually written before he saw the mountains and prairies of North America firsthand. He wrote it shortly after his arrival in New York City. In fact, this melody was inspired by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow s The Song of Hiawatha, a popular poem published in 1855.
4 This famous melody, from the Largo movement of Dvorák s symphony, is first introduced in a solo for the English horn. The English horn looks like a bigger version of an oboe and is also played with a double reed. Written by Mark C. Samples, American musicologist 23. Skill Builder Test 1) As this line is designed for assessment, it is suggested that students learn how to perform this exercise on their own. 2) Assign this exercise for a performance evaluation. 24. Excellence in Ear Training 1) As a class, sing the melody to the first phrase of My Country, Tis of Thee or God Save the Queen. Lyrics My Country, Tis of Thee My county, tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing. God Save the Queen God save our gracious Queen, Long live our noble Queen, God save the Queen. 2) Using only their ear (and their instrument), have students figure out the melody for this phrase. Students should complete the melody using correct notation and rhythmic values in the space provided in their books. Evaluation (Assessment) Use 23. Skill Builder as an evaluation tool to assess the skills learned on student page 5. Consult Teaching Band with Excellence (pages 53 62) for recommended assessment styles and rubrics for this performance evaluation. These evaluation tools are also readily available in the ITS. Tradition of Excellence is available on SmartMusic for computer-based assessment. Have students conduct a self-evaluation. A Test Reflection form is available on this exercise in the IPS. After completing student pages 2 5, assess student comprehension using the quiz from score page 74. The quiz and answer key can also be found in the ITS.
5 Enrichment Studies Instrument Identification Take time each day to listen to the recorded accompaniments correlated with page 5. Have students identify the instrument(s) playing the student melody. Also ask which instruments they can hear in the accompaniment. Dotted Quarter Note Reinforcement Duplicate and distribute or project on an interactive white board the Duet for Hand Clappers and Knee Slappers. Have students write in the counting above the notes. Practice counting and clapping the line separately before performing it as a duet. Divide the band into smaller groups to better hear individual students.
6 Dictation: Echoes Using the keys of Concert Bb, Eb, and F major, perform one-measure demonstrations for students to echo. Begin first with quarter/half notes. Next, add eighth notes, and finally dotted quarter notes. Pass out a piece of manuscript paper. Select examples at your discretion for students to notate. Keep the echoes only one measure in length, and do several in one key before moving to another key. Switching keys with each echo is not recommended.