Middle+School+Band+--+Introducing+Morton+Gould's+Birthday+March

This lesson was developed and influenced by Karl Orff's Schulwerk approach ... namely, introducing new material by its most salient parts. This method, often integrated into general music teaching, was my experiment of incorporation of schulwerk-thinking into the middle school ensemble setting; in this case, 7th grade band. Essentially, the goal is to help the musician "discover" the music instead of just reading it down. The piece I was introducing for the first time, //Mini Suite// by Morton Gould, is a standard in the repertoire. I anticipated some of the concepts I would work on in general, but I wanted the students to be able to 1) hear the large intervals they were playing in the theme and B) prepare them to hit those intervals consistently and C) prepare the percussion for some rudiments that are consistently present throughout //Mini Suite//.


 * ** Teacher Name: ** || Jeremy Cardamone || ** Date: ** || April 28th, 2014 ||


 * ** Subject/Grade: ** || 7th Grade Band ||


 * ** Concepts/Skills/Values: ** || Theme by Rote a la Orff, Intervals ||


 * National Standards (check all that apply): **
 * X || ** 1. Sing ** || X || ** 2. Play ** ||  || ** 3. Improvise ** ||   || ** 4. Compose/Arr. ** || X || ** 5. Read/Notate ** ||
 * X || ** 6. Listen ** ||  || ** 7. Evaluate ** ||   || ** 8. Related Arts ** ||   || ** 9. History/Culture ** ||   ||   ||


 * ** Behavioral **
 * Learning **
 * Objectives: ** || The student will learn the theme to "Birthday March" all by rote. The percussion will administer proper stickings throughout the introduction and statement of the theme. Low brass will demonstrate short and long articulations in context. ||


 * Type of Assessment (check all that apply): **
 * || ** Diagnostic ** || X || ** Formative ** ||  || ** Summative ** ||   || ** Formal ** || X || ** Informal ** ||


 * ** Assessment: ** || Listening and giving feedback ||


 * ** Materials: ** || Score to //Mini-Suite//, baton, pencil, keyboard for reference pitch, white board, markers ||

Start - 10:00 10:00 ===== =====  13:00    14:00    17:30    19:00    20:00    21:00   || ** Activity ** Sing tonic, subdominant, and dominant arpeggios spanning the entire first octave of a B-flat major tonality. "Do-Mi-Sol" then "Mi-Sol-Do" and reverse order: "Do-Sol-Mi" then "Sol-Mi-Do" Sing one at a time, and have the band play each in response Sing tetrachord "Do-Re-Mi-Fa" and then "Sol-La-Ti-Do" Sing one at a time, and have the band play each in response Sing "Re-Do-Ti" as three eighth notes. Band plays. Sing as a dotted quarter note, eighth, quarter rhythm. Band responds. Sing "Ti-La-Sol-Fa"' band responds. Do Twice. Slowly transform rhythm of tetrachord into rhythm found in the theme of Birthday March Sing "Mi-Do"; band responds. Sing "Re-Ti"; band responds. Repeat. Have the band sing the resting tone. - Sing the antecedent of the theme of Birthday March in similar style to above, breaking down each measure and teaching it call-and-response. Repeat for the consequent of the theme.
 * ** Sequence & Duration of Activities **** : ** || ** Time in Min **
 * Readiness Exercises **

Sing the entire theme together, band responds. Do twice.

Begin in m. 1 of Birthday March. Assist snare with flams (should stick it R L R). Have them play natural sticking throughout.

Work with trumpets in the opening theme, anticipating they will struggle with leaps (specifically, arpeggios and sixths).

Play measures 13-24 twice. Help the low brass with their articulations.

Play m. 1-24.

Closing comments / Review sections as needed. ||

Hey Jeremy, this is Hendrik. I like the pacing of the sequence of activities. It makes a lot of sense that some activities will take longer than others to do in general. the Readiness Exercise is a little tricky for me to follow. There's a lot of rote-iness going on, and that's not bad, but it can be a gamble on how long it will take the band to play what you just sang correctly, enough times to move on, and still remember the first part when it's all over. It's not a question of "if" they'll be able to do it, given enough time, you should be able to accomplish a ton of stuff. This lesson could work super well across a span of a few days, or maybe just two days. I would spend just one day doing the rote stuff, then another getting into it and having rehearsal fun. I've always felt crammed with my lesson plans because I wanted to accomplish something that takes a lot of steps, but it works a lot better if you space it out. I know in the practicum and student teaching situation, a multi-day lesson plan wouldn't be ideal, but for when/if you finally harness the reigns of your own band program, perhaps this lesson could prove to be super great.

Hi Jeremy, I like your lesson plan, but my initial reaction is that is seems too long. Am I wrong, or is this to last an entire class period? If so, I would cut it down to about 20 minutes. One suggestion I have is to have the band sing the patterns to echo back to you before you have them echo you by playing their instruments. This would also be a way that you could involve the percussionists a bit sooner in the lesson. Later, they could also play the theme on keyboard instruments. This way the percussion could be involved the entire time, not just at the end of the lesson. That being said, I'm not sure I would go into the flam's with the percussion or the articulations with the low brass during this lesson. Thanks, Sherri