Wind+Ensemble+Listening

The purpose of this lesson is to utilize listening skills to find elements of a professional performance to be transferred at the high school level. Students will listen to excerpts of a recording of “Hymn to a Blue Hour” by John Mackey and follow along in individual parts, listening for tone, balance, and blend. At the conclusion of each excerpt, students will discuss as a class what they heard. Once elements of performance are identified, students will describe how the sound was achieved by individual instruments and by the ensemble as a whole. Finally, students will use the strategies described to play the excerpt, discussing the degree of success they experienced once concluding.

Subject:
 * High School Wind Ensemble

Primary Focus/Learning Target:
 * Tone, balance, blend

Length:
 * 25 minutes

National Standards:
 * Performing
 * Interpret
 * Rehearse, Evaluate, and Refine
 * Responding
 * Interpret

Behavioral Learning Objective: Provided with music and a recording for John Mackey’s “Hymn to a Blue Hour”, students will listen and emulate tone, balance, and blend demonstrated by the professional players.

Types of Assessment:
 * Informal Formative and Formal Formative
 * Assessment will be taken informally as needed. If an error occurs during the process, the teacher will pause, address the error, give instructions to correct the error, and work until the error is corrected.
 * Assessment will also be taken formally through written work. Students will write down their thoughts on the professional recordings, how they will achieve the sound, and how well they thought they achieved after playing. This paper will be collected at the end of class.

Materials: Classroom space, chairs, stands, instruments, white board, marker, music for John Mackey’s “Hymn to a Blue Hour”, recording by UNGC Wind Ensemble, pencil, sheet of paper.

Lesson:


 * # Greet the class. (1 minute)
 * 1) Inform students that the objective of today’s lesson will be to copy the tone, balance, and blend of the UNGC Wind Ensemble’s recording of “Hymn to a Blue Hour”. (1 minute)
 * 2) Beginning at letter J, or 4:39 in the recording, listen to letters J-K, or 4:39-5:18, as a class, having students follow along in their music, listening for tone, balance, and blend. (1 minute)
 * 3) Once the chunk is complete, ask students to raise a hand and give a description of the recording. (What was the balance like? What was going on specifically with your instrument? How did the sections blend?) Students will then write down their observations. (1 minute)
 * 4) Now have students give methods to achieve the aspects of playing they heard in the recording. (Use a deeper breath. Firm the embouchure here. Aim the air “this way”.)
 * 5) Prompt the students to describe HOW the performers achieved the sound they did.
 * 6) If students are unable to describe, the teacher will provide instruction on how to achieve the sound. (Deep breath, embouchure placement, air speed, dynamic attention, etc.) (1 minute)
 * 7) After verbal descriptions are given, have students play letters J-K. Once the passage, the teacher will give feedback. After, listen to the recording again and have students check the accuracy of the emulation. Students will then write down a reflection on the playing of the ensemble. (2 minutes)
 * 8) Repeat steps 3-7 for the next chunks. For the second chunk, start at L, or 5:19 and go to M, or 5:59. Next, start at N, or 6:00 and go to O, or 6:45. (10 minutes)
 * 9) Once the process is complete, listen to the music from J-O, giving students an opportunity to hear the transitions between the sections. (3 minutes)
 * 10) Finally, have students play from J to O, focusing on tone, balance, and blend. Students will then hand in their papers with written feedback and observations. (3 minutes) ||