Performing a spiritual with instrumental accompaniment

Unit on performing instrumental accompaniments.
Previous lessons which prepared the students for this lesson include working with the pentatonic scale, rhythmic understanding of quarter, eighth, half, and sixteenth notes and rests, singing alone and with others as well as the proper way to play barred percussion instruments.
This is the third of four lessons.  The concept of accompanying using written melodic notation is the lesson which will then lead to the fourth and final lesson of this unit with reading melodic notation and incorporating improvisation.

Duration
Less than 1 hour
Lesson Type
Project Based Lesson

Lesson Created By: JeanieReed

Lesson Partners: ABC (Arts in Basic Curriculum)

Essential Question

What must I know to read notation on the treble staff and play my instrumental part accurately?

Grade(s):

  • 5

Subject(s):

Recommended Technology:

Promethean board and flipchart

Other Instructional Materials or Notes:

Boomwhackers, rhythm cards, Spotlight on Music books, page 10, CD 1:11, Promethean board, instrumental flipchart, 2 alto xylophones, soprano xylophone, bass bars, bass xylophone, alto metallophone, mallets
Spotlight on Music books
By Emily  Crocker, Judy Bond, Rene Boyer   In The Great Gitin’ up Mornin’, an African American Spiritual

Lesson Progression

Learning Targets:  I can read and clap rhythmic notation.
                                I can identify the note names using melodic notation.
                                I can sing the notated melodies.
                                I can play instrumental parts to accompany the spiritual.

Criteria for Assessment:  Melodic note reading.
                                            Playing a pitched percussion instrumental part independently.
Description of instruction for the lesson: 
                                Lecture and discussion on spiritual.
                                Lead students as they sing the spiritual
                                Demonstration of instrumental parts.
                                Small group instrumental practice.
Teacher Procedures:    

  1. The teacher will play notes from the pentatonic scale on boomwhackers.
  2. The teacher will present a variety of written rhythmic patterns.
  3. The teacher will play the recording of In That Great Gitin’ up Mornin’ as a review.
  4. The teacher will give a starting pitch show the hand signs that accompany the melody.
  5. The teacher will lecture on the history of spirituals and encourage discussion.
  6. The teacher will present a flipchart containing the three instrumental parts.
  7. The teacher will divide the class into 6 groups and give each group a pitched percussion instrument.
  8. The teacher will have the students stand “relay” style at their group’s instrument.

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Student Tasks:     

  1. The student will sing, using Curwen hand signs and solfege, in response to what they hear and see when the teacher plays the boomwhackers.
  2. The student will turn around with their back to the teacher and sing in response to what they hear (only) using Curwen hand signs.
  3. The students will clap and speak rhythmic patterns using the takadimi method.
  4. The students will follow the musical score and listen to In That Great Gitin’ Up Mornin’
  5. The students will sing the song a cappella in its entirety.
  6. The students will discuss spirituals and their place in history.
  7. The students will sing the various notated melodies and pat on their legs.
  8. The students will practice patting and playing the part assigned to their group. (There will be one instrument per group.)
  9. The students will stand “relay” style and play their instrument parts individually along with the other individual instrumentalists. The students waiting their turn to play will be responsible for singing the song. After each time the song is sung a new student per group will play.

  
 

2017 South Carolina College and Career Ready Standards for General Music.

Spotlight on Music, Grade 5 Macmillan/McGraw-Hill

View Resource

Assessments

Teacher Rubric for playing notate melodic accompaniment:

4. Distinquished
3. Proficient
2. Apprentice
1. Novice

Musical accuracy :  the accompaniment was performed as written
4.  The student played the instrumental part with rhythmic and melodic accuracy
3.  The student played the instrumental part with either rhythmic or melodic accuracy, but not both.
2.  The student played the instrumental part with 50% rhyhmic or melodic accuracy.
1.  The student rarely played the instrumental part with rhythmic or melodic accuracy.