Freshman+and+Sophomore+Band+lesson

I taught this lesson to our Symphonic Band. We were working on the piece "Provenance" by Robert W. Smith for the concert. This lesson turned out to be a great success for me. I found that starting from the end and backing up when the concept of that section was taught was quite effective. This showed to me that you can hold the students accountable in class for something that is being taught/learned less than five or ten minutes beforehand. The students really responded to this lesson and seemed to enjoy learning about the piece.

__Teacher Name__: Jill Witkowski __Date__: January 30, 2009 __Grade__: High School Band __Concepts/Skills/Values__: Dynamics, articulation, balance __National Standards__: Play, Read/Notate, Listen, Evaluate __Behavioral Learning__: Provided with music, instrument, and instruction, students will be able to play the music with correct rhythms and pitches, thinking of their role in the band with each other. __Materials__: Provenance by Robert W. Smith __Sequence of Activities and Assessment__: 1. Students will be asked to start at measure 182 and play to the end. 2. Students will then be asked to back up to measure 174 and play until measure 182. 3. Students will be asked to back up further to measure 168 and play until measure 174. 4. Students will be asked to run the whole section worked on from measure 168 to the end.
 * A focus will be dynamics: Starts off FF and crescendoing in measures 186 and 187, dropping (sfp) in measures 188 and 189, crescendoing again for the last impact of the piece at FFF.
 * While some hold their note through, some have moving lines. These should sound at the same level of intensity.
 * Ascending: Alto Sax, Tenor Sax, Horns, Mallets
 * Descending: Bass Clarinet, Bassoon, Tuba
 * Students will play the section put together.
 * Two ideas going on here: tradeoff and bell tones.
 * Tradeoff starts with Clarinets; rehearse their part. The second part of the tradeoff is Flutes, Oboe, Alto Sax, and Tenor Sax; rehearse their part.
 * Bell tones start with Tuba, Baritone, Bassoon, and Bass Clarinet, making the second bell tone are the Horns and Trombones, and the third bell tone is the Trumpets. Go through each "bell tone", just asking for the attack (and not the hold through). Then, have them all do it together and see who can do it the best (make a little contest out of it).
 * Put the two parts together.
 * Brass will be worked with first on their clean and clear attacks/accents on the notes. Dynamics will also be looked at.
 * Explain the trills: they start in the Flutes and end in the Bass Clarinets and Bassoons for a reason. It purposefully gets lower to get softer, but the students should not play softer than what the marking is in the music.
 * Suspended cymbals hold the band together...carries us into measure 174.
 * Run the section from measure 168 to measure 174.

__Teacher Effectiveness Reminders__: Big Breath, Lots of Air!, Remind students to listen to each other to help keep themselves in tune.

Jill, this looks like a really great lesson; I learn all of my music by starting at the end and working backwards. This just may not have been included in your lesson plan, but I would make sure to ask a lot of questions throughout. Ask the students who hold notes about how the moving lines are playing or if they can even hear them. During the tradeoff, see if they know who they part goes to/comes from. Ask who is holding the group together in measure 174. Each section has a different concept and asking them to explain it will help them retain it, and reinforce that accountability you were talking about. - Rachel Pischnotte

//I agree that working backwards can be an incredibly helpful and effective rehearsal technique. I also appreciate that you've gone into the rehearsal with specific places in mind that you want to work on, rather than simply playing through the piece and reacting to problems that pop up. However, I'm not sure I completely understand the structure of your lesson. Your focus concepts are listed as "Dynamics, articulation, and balance," while your behavioral learning objective refers only to getting correct rhythms and pitches, and also to the idea that students should be "thinking of their role in the band with each other." What is your planned method of assessment for the latter? Part of the idea of having a "behavioral learning objective" is that the students will perform some sort of action that will allow you to assess whether they have achieved your goals. What will the students do to demonstrate that they are "thinking of their role in the band with each other?" I also don't see where you are addressing the problems with "notes and rhythms" in your lesson activities. Is this really a focus of the lesson, or is it more of an expectation you bring into each rehearsal no matter what you're working on? Perhaps this is what you are aiming for where it says, "Clarinets: rehearse their part." But what exactly are you trying to rehearse? Is there a specific objective in mind, how will you know when you've accomplished it? I think that you are trying to attack a lot of different concepts for a single lesson. You may find that you'll have more success if you choose to focus specifically on dynamics for one rehearsal, or specifically on balance, or some other element, because then students can have less to think about and can zero in on that one particular concept. Finally, I think you also might have more success in the long run if you try to teach the concept, rather than the piece. Right now, it seems to me like your lesson is more focused on getting the piece taught then getting the general concept of dynamics taught. Sometimes, by removing the piece and teaching dynamics separately, the students will learn how to apply the concept not just in the piece you're working on, but in all of the other pieces you're working on. I also think that by teaching them the broader concept of dynamics, rather than simply how it fits into the piece at hand, your students will start developing an understanding of music to the point where they don't necessarily need you to constantly tell them how to do everything. "The Creative Director: Alternative Rehearsal Techniques," by Edward Lisk is a fantastic textbook with lots of ideas and activities about how to approach these general concepts outside of a particular piece. It has been an enormous help to me this semester, and I highly recommend it!

Paul K

Hi Jill. I can see what you’re aiming for with this lesson and agree with what Paul says, but the unknown factor for our understanding is the level of proficiency of which your ensemble has with this music. I think that your lesson would be great as a method of reviewing material that has already been prepared. Just let us know where the group is in the process of preparation. On Paul’s note, I’ve also found that focusing on one concept through rehearsal can help tremendously. I often throw too many new things at the group and, in a sense, fry their brains. I do like working backwards, though. It’s a great way of getting the group to think differently!

Chris W.//