Introduction to Musical theatre: Musical Theatre Foundations I Session Design by: Kimberly Lamping and Molly Cameron Revised by: Kimberly Lamping LEARNING OBJECTIVES Content Standards Utah Music Standard L1. MC.R.2. o Identify and discuss how musical elements are embedded within a musical work to express possible meanings, and consider how the use of musical elements helps predict the composer s possible intent. Utah Theatre Foundations I Standard L1. T.P.5. o Use voice to communicate meaning through volume, pitch, tone, rate of speed, and vocal clarity. Utah Theatre Foundations I Standard L1. T.P.6: o Use imagination to inform artistic choices. Enduring Understandings Students will understand that music and lyrics can enhance a theatrical performance by conveying emotions and thoughts that words alone cannot express. Students will understand that musical theatre requires actors to employ a combination of dance, proper vocal technique, and acting in order to create an effective musical theatre performance. Key Knowledge Students will know that musical elements consist of: pitch, timbre, texture, volume, duration and form. Students will know the four steps of a proper musical theatre warm-up are: engaging proper breathing, stretching the body to remove tension, standing in proper alignment to achieve appropriate posture, and vocal exercises to warm-up the voice. Skills Students will be able to breathe properly, as indicated in the lesson below, while performing in musical theatre. Students will be able to exhibit the correct singing posture free from tension. Students will be able to identify the major musical elements in music, which include: pitch, timbre, texture, volume, duration and form. ASSESSMENT Performance tasks Students participate in a discussion about rehearsal warm-ups in which they demonstrate their knowledge of the four steps to a proper warm-up. Students take turns leading rehearsal warm-ups over the course of a semester to demonstrate their knowledge of the four steps to a proper warm-up. Students participate in a discussion about musical elements, annotate a piece of sheet music and compare their observations in a class discussion in order to demonstrate their ability to identify and knowledge that a music consists of the following elements: pitch, timbre, texture, volume, duration, and form. Students perform a musical phrase in small groups on day 1, rehearse a musical phrase in small groups and try new ideas to make new choices in preparation for their final performance, and
perform their polished musical phrase as a final project on day 10 while the facilitator fills out a rubric, in order to demonstrate their abilities to breathe properly, use the correct singing posture, use the voice to communicate meaning through volume, pitch, tone, rate of speed, and vocal clarity, and use imagination to inform artistic choices. Students fill out rubrics for each peers rehearsal performance and explain how the music in those scenes enhanced, and communicated ideas in their peers performances in order to demonstrate their understanding that music and lyrics can enhance a theatrical performance by conveying emotions and thoughts that words alone cannot express. Students learn a musical phrase, are taught choreography for the musical phrase, are given lines they must memorize during day 4, and perform these scenes in small groups in order to demonstrate they understand that musical theatre requires actors to employ a combination of dance, proper vocal technique, and acting in order to create an effective musical theatre performance. Students create their own dances for Tale as old as Time in which they must include elements of dance, singing, and spoken lines, share their dances with their peers, and later write a journal entry in which they reflect on the elements of effective musical theatre in order to understand that musical theatre requires actors to employ a combination of dance, proper vocal technique, and acting in order to create an effective musical theatre performance. Students listen to various pieces of music without lyrics, pick one they identify with or like, and predict the composer s meaning based off the musical elements they observe; students use that same piece of music, research the composer and song, and compare their findings with their original prediction in a reflective essay in order to demonstrate they can identify and discuss how musical elements are embedded within a musical work to express possible meanings, and consider how the use of musical elements helps predict the composer s possible intent. MATERIALS NEEDED Teacher Materials 4-5 different pieces of music (can be found online). Sheet music of Tale as Old as Time from Beauty and the Beast (see attached) for each student. Student Materials Paper Pen or pencil to write with LEARNING PLAN Framing / Hook: 1. Students listen to 4-5 different pieces of music that evoke different emotions. a. Emotions can include, but are not limited to: i. Happy (I used Jacques Offenbach s Galop Infernal, found at: https://youtu.be/f4btfat6kl4). ii. Sad (I used Chopin s Prelude in e minor, found at: https://youtu.be/ef- 4Bv5Ng0w). iii. Scared (I used Jonny Greenwood s There will be Blood, found at: https://youtu.be/rgr4idxoo2y). iv. Excited (I used Tchaikovsky s Chinese dance from the Nutcracker, found at: https://youtu.be/5yocpvl4pno). b. Students move around the room, moving differently with each new song according to the emotions in the music.
c. After each song ask: i. How does this song make you feel? ii. What emotions do you feel? iii. Did the music affect you in ways that only words might not have been able to? iv. In what ways did the music affect you in ways words cannot? v. What parts of the music made you feel that way? vi. How did you use your body and movement to convey the emotion? Why did you make those choices? Process: 2. Students are lead through a demonstration of proper musical theatre performance warm-up by the facilitator. a. Explain that a proper warm-up for musical theatre consists of the following four elements: i. Engaging proper breathing. ii. Stretching the body to remove tension. iii. Standing in proper alignment to achieve appropriate posture. iv. Vocal exercises to warm-up the voice. b. Students are lead through the following warm up exercises. i. Engaging in proper breathing. 1. Students place their hands on their lower abdomen to make sure air is coming from their diaphragm. Make sure their stomachs are moving instead of their shoulders and chest. 2. Students will do the following breathing exercises: a. Squat and hold hands in front of body. b. While in this position say: r-e-t-e p-i-k-a twice, hitting each consonant sharply, engaging the diaphragm. c. Next say (sounds like a snake): s-s-s-s twice, hitting each of the S sounds sharply, engaging the diaphragm. d. Next say: sh-sh-sh-sh twice, hitting each sh sound sharply, engaging the diaphragm. ii. Stretching the body to remove tension. 1. Students will lift each arm above their head with a bent elbow to stretch the deltoids. 2. Students will cross each arm across their chest, using the other arm to pull it close to stretch the shoulders. 3. Students will hold one foot at a time, with a bent knee, from the back to stretch the thighs. 4. Students will hold their shins, while standing, as close and high to their chest as possible to stretch the hips. 5. Students will take a wide stance, reach one arm at a time over their head, and reach from one side to another to stretch the obliques. a. Students are told that the obliques are the muscles located on the side of your torso. iii. Standing in proper alignment to achieve appropriate posture.
1. Students will do neck rolls, stretching the neck to both sides, up, down, and looking from left to right. 2. Students will bend at the waist to the floor, allowing the neck to relax and then roll slowly back up, aligning each vertebra until standing straight again. iv. Vocal exercises to warm-up the voice. 1. Students will say various tongue twisters such as: a. Red leather yellow leather b. You know you need unique New York c. One black beetle bled only black blood but the other black beetle bled blue d. Chester cheetah chews a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese 2. Students will do lip buzzes to various exercises including: a. Scales b. Slides of range 3. Students will sing several Major scales that cover 3 octave ranges. a. Starting at middle C and going up 3 octaves to high C. b. Starting at middle C and going down 3 octaves to low C. c. Scales may be done using the sound la, me-mo-memo, yaw-yaw-yaw, ney-ney, or any other preferred sounds. d. If you do not have a piano use the following Youtube clips: https://youtu.be/fcxmdul8 U, https://youtu.be/f7gytq1hxgg. c. Students engage in a discussion about the elements that make up a proper musical theatre warm-up to make sure they remember the following four elements from above. i. Engaging proper breathing. ii. Stretching the body to remove tension, iii. Standing in proper alignment to achieve appropriate posture iv. Vocal exercises to warm-up the voice. d. Students are assigned into groups to lead a proper warm-up each day. 3. Musical Elements a. Students are told that musical elements are made up of: pitch, timbre, texture, volume, duration, and form. i. Explain that pitch is how high or how low a note is. ii. Explain that timbre is the tone quality of a musical note, sound, or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments, string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments.
1. Show the following video clips to give an example of pitch and timbre: https://youtu.be/_0tuphfi5zs and https://youtu.be/stsa_swgm44 iii. Explain that texture is often described in regard to the density, or thickness, and range, or width, between lowest and highest pitches. For example: a thick texture may have many different instruments of low pitches and higher pitches. iv. Explain that volume is how loud of soft a musical note is played or sung. v. Explain that duration is how long or short a musical note is played or sung. vi. Explain that form refers to the overall structure or plan of a piece of music, and describes the layout of a composition which may be divided into sections. 1. Show the following video clip to give an example of texture, duration, volume, and form: https://youtu.be/fj9ruzimczq b. Students receive sheet music to Tale as Old as Time from Beauty and the Beast. c. Students use annotate the sheet music, pointing out noticeable musical elements within the piece. i. For example, they might circle particularly high or low notes, or if the whole piece is in a higher range, they may note that. d. Students then discuss what they marked in the music as a class. e. The facilitator will then ask: i. What about that element stood out to you? ii. What indicated the musical element? iii. How do you think these musical elements help express meaning within the music? f. Students practice singing a musical phrase from the given music in small groups. i. While students are singing, the facilitator will fill out the attached rubric for a formative assessment of the students breathing techniques and posture. Reflection: 4. Students will watch a video clip of Tale as Old as time from Beauty and the Beast. a. We used this clip: i. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esroyjrfjoc b. Students watch the video and simultaneously answer the following questions on a blank piece of paper: i. Was proper posture being used by the actors? How could you tell? ii. Were the actors breathing correctly? How could you tell? When did they breathe? iii. How did the performer highlight those musical elements? Did he/she do so in a way that aligned with the composer s intent for the song? iv. In what ways did the actors stay in character while singing?
c. Students engage in a discussion based off the video they watched and are asked the following questions: i. How did the music enhance the performance? ii. How did the music evoke thoughts and emotions that words alone might have not achieved? How was this possible? Day 2: Music and Emotions Assign students their final project: to sing and act in a scene from a musical in groups of 2-4 on the last day of this unit. Students will choose the scene outside of class and it must be brought in for approval. Emphasize that you can help them pick a scene if needed. Have the first group demonstrate their rehearsal warm-up. Today will focus on how music can communicate different emotions and thoughts and analyzing how it does so. Students will listen to 3-4 given pieces of music and fill out a worksheet in in which they carefully listen to each song and write down emotions that the songs create. Pose questions such as: what made certain emotions and feelings stir up? What was it about the music that created these feelings? As a homework assignment, Students listen to various pieces of music without lyrics and pick one they identify with or like and predict the composer s meaning based off the musical elements they observe; students use that same piece of music and research the composer and the song and compare their findings with their original prediction in a reflective essay. Day 3: Demonstrating Clear Voice Have another group lead the warm-up. Today the facilitator will teach what it means to demonstrate a clear voice when communicating in performance. Teach things such as tone, pitch, and diction. Students will participate in warm-up activities such as tongue twisters, and vocal warm-ups that lead them to use different combinations of these aspects both while singing and speaking. As a group, students practice Tale as old as Time again and practice implementing tone, pitch and diction while being side coached. Day 4: Dancing Have another group lead the warm-up. Students will be introduced to basic dance. This will involve learning about plies, chaises, leg kicks, and ball-changes. Students learn a musical phrase in a song that the teacher chooses, choreography, and lines they must act. Students perform them in small groups. They will also watch some clips of musicals in which the dance enhanced the overall performance. Discuss with students how dance, music, song, and speech all combine to make an effective musical theatre piece. Day 5: Creating their own dance. Have another group lead the warm-up. Students will learn a few more difficult dance steps such as piroettes and jumps, or routines led by the facilitator. They will then use the steps they have learned over the past few days in order to create their own small dance phrases. Each group will then present their dance to the class and be given feedback on what they did well and areas they can improve. Students then write a journal entry in which they reflect on elements of musical theatre and how they combine to create effective musical theatre. Remind students that they may want to choreograph something in their final scene.
Day 6: Dressing the Stage Have another group lead the warm-up. Today the facilitator will teach about acting when not singing. Focusing on things like ensemble acting, or dressing the stage, acting during the transitions, and of course staying in character while singing and speaking. Students will choose a musical and create a character from the ensemble. Students must give themselves a name, background, and actions that they may realistically do while onstage. Day 7: Character analysis Have another group lead the warm-up. Students will delve more deeply into character analysis and staying in character at all times during a performance. They will each be given another brief character description. Students create a name and background for the new character. They will then be grouped with other students to participate in an improvisational scene where they must come up with the actions for their character and remain in character during the whole scene. Day 8: Rehearsal Have another group lead the warm-up. Allow a full class period for students to choreograph and rehearse their scenes. If needed the facilitator will help choose scenes. While the groups are rehearsing the facilitator will walk around the room observing and offering help if needed. The facilitator will fill out a formative rubric to give to each group to improve their performance for rehearsing the next day. Day 9: Rehearsal Have the final group lead the warm-up. Students are to treat this rehearsal as a dress rehearsal. Students are to fill out a rubric that assesses vocal technique (pitch, tone, volume, rate of speed, and vocal clarity), unique artistic choices, and the level of which the music and lyrics enhanced the theatrical performance by conveying emotions and thoughts that words alone cannot express). Students will all receive peer feedback and rehearse any changes for their final performance as they see fit. Day 10: Final performance Students will present their scenes to the class. As they are watching, have students fill out a peer review rubric on elements such as staying in character, demonstrating proper posture and breathing, communicating emotions and feelings through the music, were they memorized, etc. The teacher fills out a rubric that focuses on using the voice to communicate meaning through volume, pitch, tone, rate of speed, and vocal clarity, and the students use of imagination to inform artistic choices. There will then be a group discussion in which students identify the scenes that used a combination of dance, vocal technique, and acting to better enhance their script. Students will also describe the emotions and thoughts the music communicates and analyze how it does so.
Musical theatre formative rubric for the teacher Name of student: Breath support: Did the student breathe from the diaphragm? Did the student maintain breath support during long notes? Did the student take breaths during a rest? Posture: Was the body relaxed? Were the feet slightly apart? Were they standing up straight? Was the neck free from tension? Were shoulders relaxed? Comments: