Finding+Meaning+in+a+Piece

Finding Meaning in a Piece

This lesson is a continuation of the previous class. The students listened to "Air for Band" by Frank Erickson and wrote down anything that the piece made them feel Target Age: Middle School Band

Concept: Combining storytelling and listening to influence feelings about a piece

National Standards: Playing, Listening, Evaluating, Related Arts

Behavioral Learning Objectives: Students will create a story based on what they hear in "Air for Band" to help them understand the piece better and motivate them to perform the piece well.

Sequence of Activities: 1. (Warm-up can be at the beginning of the lesson or after the story writing activity) 2. Have students take out the papers on which they their comments about the piece 3. Brainstorm some ideas on the board with the class about the setting and characters (if any) 4. Play from the beginning to A and then take only 2 ideas from the class on the plot so far. Write them on the board. Ask the students what in the music makes us see this particular scene. Write this on the board next to the plot ideas. Have a show of hands on which plot idea to pick and go with the most popular. 5. Do the same thing with each section of the piece. Make sure that the students take note of the obvious climaxes, key changes, etc. 6. After constructing the story, play through the piece stopping at each letter to summarize the plot. There will probably not be time for a full runthrough, but this will give the students a feel for their story (however absurd it may turnout..) and how it fits in with the piece.

Assessment: Students have been individually assessed on a playing quiz certain passage of the music (specific to their part). Next week, quiz the students in the same spot and assess their improvement since last time. One of the objectives of the lesson was to motivate the students to perform it well and this is what we are measuring. Tips for Delivery: This sort of lesson can easily cause the group to get out of hand. Make sure that the students know at the beginning of the lesson that if they can't handle it behaviorally, we won't continue with it. Remind the students that what we came up with is just one idea of what the piece is. Encourage them to come up with their own story and possibly share it with the class. ontent of your new page here.

Zak, this lesson could be a group project or lesson and then more students would be able to contribute ideas; they could discuss their characters and plots and then use a spokesperson to present their story to the class. Also, the students might have more ownership over the story because they know that it includes their ideas, and will in turn, play better. -Rachel Pischnotte

I love how you are taking the time to discuss the meaning of the piece with the students -- it allows them to be creative and really delve into it -- great job. One suggestion is to find out why the composer wrote the piece. I would present the composer's reasons after the students discussed theirs. I would also find the composer's other works that are similar to the one that they are playing and discuss why he wrote those particular ones. You could also discuss specific emotions throughout the piece and maybe have students bring in visual representations of the piece -- such as a photograph, painting, picture, etc. Great lesson -- very creative! Jessica Rajewich