Freshman_Concert_Band

This lesson plan was created for a high school concert band comprised completely of freshmen. We had been having trouble, generally, with keeping out tempo consistent, which was primarily due to the students playing too loud and being unable to listen to the instruments around them. I created this lesson to focus on both of listening and dynamics.

Paul, I really like this lesson plan. Coincidentally, I am have this same problem with the same song, so I can really see how this applies. I like the idea of establishing the pulse, but I wonder if in further iterations it would also be helpful to have one student (established ahead of time) with their eyes open changing notes at your cue, with the rest of the band following suit when they hear the change. This way the students would have to be continuously listening for the change. This takes the pulse out of the equation, which is an important part of the lesson, so this would just be an alternate way to teach. - Jake D.