Images+of+Ireland--Communicating+Style

This lesson was designed for a seventh grade band using Brian Balmages' "Images of Ireland" as a platform for discussing style. The focus is for the students to begin learning how to describe what they hear and then apply what they are hearing to their own playing in order to create the desired mood and style. It is a simple exercise, but I think it is an effective way to walk the students through the rather abstract process.
 * Communicating Style**


 * National Standards applied**: Play, Read/Notate, Listen, History/Culture

Students will be able to describe the style of the middle section of "Images of Ireland" and begin to apply that knowledge when playing measures 60-109.
 * Behavioral Learning Objectives:**


 * Sequence:**
 * 1) Warm up on F major.
 * 2) Review source of music (Irish folk tunes). Play clip of //Star of the County Down.//
 * 3) Discussion. //What is the song about? How would you describe the music?// (dance-like qualities—a waltz, sad, lonely, etc) //What made it sound like that?// (instrumentation, tempo, long held notes, minor chords, etc.)
 * 4) Play mm. 60-88. //Do you recognize the melody from the song? Who had it?//
 * 5) Discuss style. //Now, how would you describe what we played?// (smooth, sad, calm, etc) //Was it the same style as the recording?// //What kinds of things did we do differently from the opening fanfare from yesterday?// (articulations, dynamics, tempo) **Write a word (in pencil!) at measure 60 that will remind you of the style.** Ask for volunteers to share what they wrote.
 * 6) Start at 72, play to 109, reinforcing the stylistic traits.
 * 7) If time, go back and review beginning, emphasizing stylistic changes at measures 29 and 60.

Students are able to describe the style of mm. 60-109 and choose a word to remind them of what they must do differently. Students are able to play form beginning to m. 109 with obvious changes of style at 29 and 60.
 * Assessment:**

This lesson went smoothly and the students had a lot of fun coming up with their own words to describe the style. Some even created entire stories surrounding the piece and informed me that this middle section was "where the king dies." For the recording, I could not find exactly what I wanted (there are dozens of versions of the song), so I actually recorded my own version so that I could control and emphasize all the stylistic elements I wanted to discuss.
 * Notes:**

This is a rather lengthy process to simply describe the style of one section of a piece, but for a beginning band I feel it was a good introduction and raised the students' awareness of stylistic concerns as opposed to just notes and rhythms. 