Intonation through Chorales

Kenneth D. Garrison, Jr.
b45kgarr@ci.manchester.ct.us
Manchester School District

TI:ME Technology Areas Addressed:

Notation

Level:

Elementary

Class:

Instrumental

Equipment:

Duration:

10 Minutes

Prior Knowledge and Skills:

Students have a minimum of four months of beginning instruction on their respective instruments.

MENC Standards Addressed:

MENC 2: Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
MENC 5: Reading and notating music.
MENC 6: Listening to, analyzing and describing music.
MENC 7: Evaluating music and music performances.

Materials:

Warm-up Scale, Alma Mater Chorale, Instruments

Objectives:

Students will begin to work on hearing intonation within a band and within their section. We will start with playing the concert Bb scale in unison and the students will be asked to listen within their section for intonation problems. The students then will play the Alma Mater chorale and listen for intonation issues with the whole band.

Procedures:

The students will be asked to play the Bb major scale as the warm-up to the band rehearsal in unison and listen for any intonation issues. Those specific issues will be discussed and, hopefully, remedied. The chorale will be handed out and a student will be chosen to listen a specific section of the band while standing next to the conductor. That specific section will be asked to play by themselves so that the rest of the students will be able to focus on the intonation of the specific section. Any issues will hopefuly be remedied and then the band will proceed to the first piece of band music.

Evaluation:

The student listening to the specific section of the band will fill out the intonation rubric created by the Manchester Elemenetary Instrumental teachers.

Follow Up:

Different students and sections will be chosen so that every section and hopefully most, if not all, students will get to listen and evaluate the band from the front of the band.