Play Ball ! What’s the score?

Ron Dumais
RDumais695@aol.com
Gaudet Middle School

TI:ME Technology Areas Addressed:

Notation
Information Processing

Level:

Middle School

Class:

General Music

Equipment:

Computer Lab equipt with Notation Software and Headphones

Duration:

45 Minutes

Prior Knowledge and Skills:

Prior to this lesson student will already have a basic knowledge of the instrument families, their various tone colors and some their traditional musical function.

MENC Standards Addressed:

MENC 4: Composing and Arranging Music within specified guidelines.
MENC 6: Listening to, analyzing and describing music.

Materials:

A teacher created pre-prepared notated segment of a basic band score created in a notation program.

Objectives:

This lesson will offer students an opportunity to analyze a traditional band score on a very basic level.

They will learn how to modify its tempo and instrumentation so they may experience making some of the hard decisions involved in composition and orchestration.

Procedures:

1) Students will begin by listening to the prepared notated sample score provided by the teacher.

2) Students will then be given a digital copy of the score to work with.

3) Instrument grouping; Score order; Range and Transposition will all be pointed out on a very basic level.

4) Students will now alter; tempo and instrument selection.

5) Each student will then play and defend their changes in an open class performance.

Evaluation:

Students will evaluate cooperatively through class performance and discussion.

Follow Up:

1) Allow students to modify various rhythmic variations that they choose to make throughout the score. Have students demonstrate and discuss their outcome.

2) Students will explore octave manipulation, how it alters each instrument’s tone color and how that might affect the overall blend.