Standard 2: The teacher of PK-12 music has skills in creating, arranging, and improvising.

 

Artifact #1: The piece titled My Favorite Things was an arrangement I did for my Instrumentation & Arranging class. This was a final project we had to create and instead of the song being in 3/4 time like it is supposed to be, I have arranged it to where it is in 4/4 time with different instrumentation which fits this standard. Within in the composition the composer (myself) has written in some improvisatory percussion parts in the beginning to open up the style of the piece. The drumset part has written above “Latin” so the percussionist will need to improvise a latin jazz pattern. The music in PDF below is in appropriate ranges which also fits this standard.

 

 

my-favorite-things-pdf

 

 

Artifact #2: With this lesson plan created in 511 for an elementary class, the students will have an opportunity to improvise on harmonic chord progressions which fit the applied standard above. The teacher also has in the lesson students create melodies and improvised passages based on the style of the piece. This lesson plan has made me into a better teacher because I have learned about the types of improvisation skills the students have which can then help myself out on lesson planning for the future. This lesson planning has prepared me to give students variety of activities in the classroom that are for the appropriate developmental stages.

 

Lesson Plan for the Elementary Music Class

 

Teacher Name: Brett Butler

Lesson Objective: Given a musical context and a melody, students will improvise the harmonic progression of Simple Song on secondary instruments with fewer than 3 mistakes in chord tones and utilize at least three types of non-harmonic tones.

Standards Being Addressed:

MU:Cr1.1.E.8a Compose and improvise ideas for melodies and rhythmic passages based on characteristic(s) of music or text(s) studied in rehearsal.

 

MU:Pr6.1.E.5b Demonstrate an awareness of the context of the music through prepared and improvised performances.

 

MU:Pr6.1.E.5b Demonstrate an understanding of the context of the music through prepared and improvised performances.

 

 

Materials of Instruction: Secondary instruments for modeling, GarageBand Track Loop with metronome, Bass line transcription from MuseScore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lesson Sequence (lessons may have more or less activities as appropriate):

 

Entry Activity/Transition: Play along track on GarageBand

 

Activity #1 Objective:

  1. Breathing exercises in for 4 out for 4. Out for 8, out for 12.

(Make sure we are breathing down from the diaphragm. With

  1. Breathing exercise, use mouthpieces on G for 4, E for 8, C for 12. With met
  2. Match 3 note tonal patterns Do, Mi, Sol on actual instrument.
  3. (Teacher) Sing bass line for students by rote.
  4. Perform sing bass line (everyone)
  5. Perform bass line on instruments, listen for ensemble balance.
  6. Introduce Do Chord “C” have class pick a note in the I chord, while singing. 4 beats change pattern of chord each beat.
  7. Introduce Sol chord “G” have class pick a note in the V chord, while singing. 4 beats change pattern of chord each beat.
  8. Sing chord changes arhythmically with instruments.
  9. It is now time to improvise chords to Hot Cross Buns. Singing! (one note per chord)
  10. Add a passing tone playing along to the melody. Sing it! (T shows example) (students then experiment with creativity)
  11. Add a neighbor tone on your instruments. Sing it! (T plays example) (students experiment).
  12. Add any other non-harmonic tones to your instrument (T plays examples) (students then experiment)
  13. Continue with same process on instruments, ask students what an escape tone or appoggiatura is! If they know have them play an example! Then have them add it in to the song.
  14. Teacher plays melody on secondary instrument. Everyone else improvises on chord changes.
  15. Teacher alone just plays melody on instrument so everyone can hear it clearly.
  16. Everyone play melody all together to recap and review how the melody goes along.
  17. Half the group plays bass line, half the group improvises on chord progression.
  18. Switch the roles, other group plays bass line and other group now improvises.
  19. All play melody together, teacher plays bass line.
  20. Talk with students about your thoughts on improvisation.

 

 

 

 

Assessment: Did the students all experience improvisation through playing music? Was everyone in the group involved? Did they understand the Do to Sol relationship aurally? How was my pacing through the 10-minute lesson plan?

 

Transition/Closure: Next time we will add more rhythmic improvisation ideas and call and response!