LESSON PLAN

General Information:
Teacher: Mr. Vooys Grade 5/6 Music Lesson 11 Feb 27, 2017/ 47 min

GLOs
Through the elementary music program, students will develop:
-enjoyment of music
-awareness and appreciation of a variety of music, including music of the many
cultures represented in Canada
-insights into music through meaningful musical activities
-self-expression and creativity
-musical skills and knowledge
SLOs
Specific Learner Outcomes in Elementary Music are categorized into
eleven different categories. These include Rhythm (R), Melody (M),
Harmony (H), Form (F), Expression (E), Listening (L), Moving (MV),
Singing(S), Playing Instruments (P), Reading and Writing (RW), and
Creating (C). These will be shown using the abbreviations in
parentheses. There are over 200 SLOs in the POS, so, unless otherwise
requested, I will be listing the most relevant grade 5 and 6 outcomes at
the beginning of each lesson. If an earlier outcome is to be a focal point
for a lesson, I will list it as well.

P.5.9. Follow simple rhythm scores.

P.5.13. Demonstrate skills on as many as possible of the following instruments:
Orff Instruments through speech, rhythm, ear training and use of pentatonic
scale, create own compositions.
L.6.29. Identify some of the following: theme and variations, ragtime, blues, jazz,
rock

Objective: Assessment: Students will be

TSW play rhythm patterns on I, IV, V
on Orff instruments, and accompany
on body percussion and rhythm
sticks, and with singing.
Key Questions:
How can we play chord roots for
simple blues songs?
formatively assessed through questioning,
focused on the fundamentals of choral
performance.
Accommodations: There are some
behaviour challenges in this class, but no
major ELL or disability exceptionalities are
present.

Materials & Equipment:

Flipchart paper, white board, or Smart board, piano
Learning Resources:
Alberta Education Music 1-9 Program of Studies
Orffestrations for Spirituals by Linda Forrest

PROCEDURE
Before class: Write treble staff on whiteboard, with notes written on
(E,G,B,D,F) (F,A,C,E)

Put keyboard percussion parts on Smartboard. PDF file has been emailed
to you.

Technique: Interval singing 1, 1-2, 1-2-3-2-1, etc.

And/or some sort of R/L hand technique, could be patting knees alternately with
both hands, and switching knees while saying Swit-ching or Left-Right, or
patting their heads and rubbing their belly at the same time (more challenging
than it sounds).

Body: Split the class in half.

Remember to hold your mallets like youre riding a bike. This will give you more
control. Pretend youre bouncing a ball. Let the mallet gently bounce on the bar
and rebound. Whenever were playing, we want to alternate hands, even if were
playing the same note. It helps us to play evenly if we work consistently with both
hands.

Well be playing a basic 12 bar blues today. This will involve playing the root note
of three chords.

Who can tell me what a chord is?

-Its three or more notes played together that sound good.
-Show them a few chords (major and minor)

We have major chords, and minor chords. The root note is the note the chord is
named after. You could call it the foundation of the chord.

Draw treble clef staff with notes on whiteboard.

Display xylophone part on Smart Board.

12 Bar Blues
See sheet music/PDF

Note: I wrote this with ti-tis, and it should eventually be played with swing to
get the blues groove. However, Music 5 was not quite up to playing ti-tis and we
didnt get to playing with swing yet. Sub with quarter notes if they need it down a
notch. Start by playing alternating quarter notes on D, and then trying alternating
eighth notes, before trying the actual song.

Half the class plays 4 bars of ti-ti, ti-ti, ti-ti, ti-ti on D

Then 2 bars of ti-ti, ti-ti, ti-ti, ti-ti on G.
2 bars of same on D

Then 1 bars of ti-ti, ti-ti, ti-ti, ti-ti on A, 1 bar of same on G

1 bar of same on D, 1 bar of same on A.

Other half of class on rhythm sticks. Have them stomp on the 1 and 3, and hit the
sticks on 2 and 4. Once theyve done this a few times, switch up. Go through
again. When theyve done it, have them put mallets down and talk about swing.

Introduce swing to the equation. Have them play with swing. Every first ti is
longer than the second ti. Theyre still written as equivalent, but theres a bit of a
swinging, rocking, asymmetry.

I like to say this as ti-eh-ti, ti-eh-ti, ti-eh-ti, ti-eh-ti. This is a good way to
remember swing.

This is very common when playing jazz and blues. Demonstrate straight eighths
vs swung eighths on bass xylophone.

Were playing a basic blues pattern. How many bars can you count here?
There are 12 bars in this pattern. This is a classic blues form.

The Blues is a genre that is one of the foundations of rock music, and also
influenced modern hip hop, R&B and gospel music. It was invented by black
Americans in the early 20th Century, and it has a very simple structure. (If youd
like to play a simple blues on the piano, please go for it! Ill show them a really
quick blues song on guitar/voice next class)

Switch again.

All right, now theres a very talented lead guitarist who plays the blues that I
wanted to show you. This song is on the Music 5/6 and Music 5 playlist on my
Youtube channel if you want to watch at home.

Listening: BB King The Thrill is Gone.

So, this is BB King. Hes one of the greatest blues guitarists of all time. What he
plays on guitar is very simple, but he uses something called vibrato brilliantly.
Vibrato is when you make the pitch of a note vibrate up and down just a bit, to
produce a pleasing sound. You cant do it on piano, but lots of guitarists use it
when they solo, and good singers and string players, like violinists use it lots.
Dont worry too much about the lyrics on this one, theyre not relevant to your
lives, but do pay attention to his voice, and especially his guitar.

So for the next few classes were going to work a bit with soloing over a groove
like we played today, using a scale called the D Minor Pentatonic Scale. What BB
King played was called the Blues scale, which is a pentatonic scale with one extra
note. Thats one of the reasons I showed you blues soloing. Youll be doing some
of that on the glockenspiel and xylophones.

Closure: All right, Grade 5s, were starting to rock on the keyboard instruments,
and were working in a low-budget rhythm section. This is pretty awesome. Have
a great day.

Next class: Soloing improv over 12-Bar Blues (if they can play eighth notes with
swing. If not, well work up to it next class).