Ashley Hedlund

MUS 344 CMP Project

Lesson 1
Central Focus:
The central focus of this learning segment is the introduction of the Be Thou My Vision.
Specific Objectives:
Students will introduced to the piece, and discuss their initial thoughts.
Materials:
Powerpoint, papers
Sequence:
Est.
Procedures
Assessment
Time
15
min.

Introductory presentation to introduce the piece.

5 min.

Listen to the piece and have students write on a paper

their thoughts, feelings, and any experiences this
evokes.

5 min.

Discuss everyones thoughts on the piece as a class.

Informally just note class

participation.

Collect students papers.

Reflection of Teaching and thoughts for next lessons (if this is not the last in the
sequence):
Review the papers the students thoughts on the piece before the next class.

Lesson 2
Central Focus:
The central focus of this learning segment are keys (d minor, A Major, and Db Major).
Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to perform small melodies in d minor, A Major, and Db Major. (Skill)
Materials:
Worksheets for the students to complete.
Sequence:
Est.
Procedures
Assessment
Time
5 min.

Discuss the differences between major and minor. Write

the major and minor keys on the board.

5 min.

Sing the tonic of d minor, have the students match and

have them sing d minor with solfege. From the tonic,
have them find a 5th above and change to singing A
Major with solfege. Repeat this for Db Major as well.

15
min.

Play activities where I model the first measure of a well

known easy song (Childrens songs and then get more
difficult as they figure it out) in one of these 3 keys and
the students will play the rest of the melody. They will be

Give the students a handout at

the end of class with 3 staves.
They will be assessed on writing a
key signature as well as writing
out a scale for d minor, A Major,
and Db Major. There will also be a
section where the first measure
of a childrens song will be
written out in one of the three
keys and they have to complete
the melody (the activity we
played except just writing it out).

told which key its in beforehand and then have to use

the knowledge of the key signature and aural skills to
help figure out the rest of the tune. Switch things around
where the student is the leader and starts the song as
well.

5 min.

Give the students a handout before that will be due at

the end of class or the next day (depending on how
much time is leftover). This will be the assessment.

Lesson 3
Central Focus:
The central focus of this learning segment is rhythm.
Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to play, write, and use difficult rhythms to rewrite a given melody. (Skill and
knowledge)
Materials:
Worksheet for students.
Sequence:
Est.
Procedures
Assessment
Time
5 min.

Have students look through their parts, identifying the

difficult rhythms and have them come up and write them
on the board (brainstorming together).

5 min.

Work through these rhythms- break them down and have

students compare the difficult patterns to their base
pattern (advanced triplet patterns versus a basic triplet
pattern).

10
min.

10
min.

Informally- check participation in

looking through their parts and
collaborating. Also check if
anyone seems extremely
confused.

Call & Response activity- Model and play short segments

using these rhythms and play them compared to the
base rhythms. Have students play in response back. Play these in the keys they just learned as well, applying
the last lesson to this lesson.
Either make a loop on a track or make a loop with the
class, and have all the students participate. Play the
combined loop rhythm for 8 beats and then have one
student solo for 4 beats. This will give everyone a chance
to play in from of the class, using the more difficult
rhythms we have used- this also helps me informally
assess students.
*Give students a take home worksheet due the next
class -

Performance informal
assessment- students playing in
front of the class.

Have them take home a sheet

with a melody on it. Have them
rewrite the melody using the

more difficult rhythms we have

been working with.

Lesson 4
Central Focus:
The central focus of this learning segment is melodies.
Specific Objectives
Students will be able to identify Slane and Gillinghams theme and show where they recur.
(Knowledge)
Materials:
Be Thou My Vision scores for all students.
Sequence:
Est.
Procedures
Assessment
Time
10
min.

10
min.

10
min.

Introduce and play the themes in melodies. Ask who has

the melodies and have the students sing the melodies.
Discuss what makes a successful melody. This will be
helpful for a future composition project.

Informal- participation
Formal- have them turn in the
score and check to make sure
they could identify the melodies
occurring throughout the piece.

Give the students some time to work alone or in pairs. I

will play Be Thou My Vision for them and they will be
given a score. Each student will highlight where the two
melodies occur throughout the piece. This will be turned
in by the end of class.

Lesson 5
Central Focus:
The central focus of this learning segment is legato style (full length).
Specific Objectives
Students will be able to perform in a legato style, being able to hold notes to full length. (Skill)
Materials: ---Sequence:
Est.
Time

Procedures

Assessment

5 min.

Using an excerpt of the piece, have students all draw

arrows on their music showing a line through the phrases
and long notes.

Playing test the next few classes.

Students will play the excerpt in
front of the class and get a simple
grade.- formal

5 min.

With that excerpt, have students clap every shortened

note and hiss every longer note,

5 min.
Have them change from clapping and hissing to singing,
showing them how we will base our instrumental playing
off of how we can sing it, so singing will help students
grasp how they should perform the style.
10
min.

5 min.

Now after clapping, hissing, and singing, play this

excerpt focusing on all parts of the legato style we have
talked about.
Tell them about the playing test that will be graded. It will
be on a different excerpt with the same style, where
each student will play, and will be graded on the legato
style and note length that we learned.

Lesson 6
Central Focus: The central focus of this learning segment is ostinatos.
Specific Objectives
Students will be able to write an original ostinato with a partner and perform it for the class.
(Knowledge)
Materials: ----Sequence:
Est.
Time

Procedures

Assessment

7 min.

Show some modern music examples that use ostinatos

underneath the melody, and discuss the characteristic of
ostinatos.

Before leaving, have the pairs of

students turn in the ostinato
patterns they wrote. Look over at
what they created and take notes
on how they interpreted the
ostinato.

3 min.

Identify a few ostinatos in this piece.

5 min.
Break these down and play the ostinatos together, either
just playing the rhythm on a single pitch, or as written.
5 min.

10
min.

Have a short discussion on how and why a fast ostinato

pattern is important and useful in a lyrical piece such as
this one.
In pairs, have the students compose an ostinato and play
in front of the class (continue this to the next day if there
are a lot of students).

Lesson 7
Central Focus: The central focus of this learning segment is creating a background story for Slane.

Specific Objectives
Students will be able to create a story for Slane and compare their stories to the actual background
of Slane. (Affective)
Materials: ----Sequence:
Est.
Procedures
Assessment
Tim
e
5

10

Listen to the piece again and have students create a story

from their thoughts on the piece, being as creative as
possible.
Discuss their stories and compare them to the story I
wrote.

Collect the stories the students

created and hang them up,
showing the class how creative
you can be while thinking about
a piece.

5
Have the students take some time and research the
background of the piece, either alone or in pairs.
5

Come back together as a group and compare their stories

again to the actual history of Slane.

Lesson 8
Central Focus: The central focus of this learning segment is text painting.
Specific Objectives
Students will be able to identify text painting in a piece and reflect on how the music and words relate
and how emotions can be evoked from the piece.
Materials:
Songs ready with text painting examples.
Sequence:
Est.
Procedures
Assessment
Tim
e
10

Ask students to brainstorm and write down on the board

different descriptive words that you can also describe the
same thing as the music.

10

As a class, take one stanza of the Be Thou My Vision lyrics

and pick out the describing words that translate into the
music.

10

Show students modern pop music examples of lyrics and

discuss how the lyrics and music show the same thing.
Hand them each their song, with a writeup due the next
class for them to identify examples of text painting.

Lesson 9

The paper the students will be

given will be different for each
student. They will have a song to
search and then will have to find
the lyrics, listen to the piece, and
find and explain examples of text
painting in that and how
emotions can be evoked from the
music/words.

Central Focus: The central focus of this learning segment is Irish folk songs.
Specific Objectives
Students will be able to discuss characteristics of a folk song and apply their knowledge by creating a
playlist of pieces with connecting characteristics. (knowledge)
Materials:
Spotify or youtube
Sequence:
Est.
Procedures
Assessment
Tim
e
10

Discuss the characteristics of a folk song are, specifically

Irish folk songs. Make a large brainstorming list and
compare the class list to my own.

10

Play other examples of Irish folk songs and modern music

with the same characteristics the students came up with.
In groups, compare and contrast to Be Thou My Vision.
After group discussions, come back and talk about any
final thoughts and how the pieces are all connected.

Explain and give the assignment.

Informally, Ill be assessing

student knowledge after hearing
pieces, seeing how they can
relate and compare them to
other songs.
The formal assessment will be as
follows: Each student will create
a spotify/youtube playlist with 15
songs they believe have similar
characteristics to Be Thou My
Vision. These do not need to be
classical, folk songs, but need to
have connecting characteristics,
just like we did in class. Students
will get the weekend for this
project and will upload a link to
their playlist on the class
website, as well as attaching a
document with a short
explanation as to why they chose
each piece.

Lesson 10
Central Focus: The central focus of this learning segment is ornamentation.
Specific Objectives
Students will be able to compose a final project in groups using techniques we have previously
covered and implementing the use of ornamentation.
Materials:
Instruments, handouts with instructions for the final project.
Sequence:
Est.
Procedures
Assessment
Tim
e
10

Introduce ornamentation, show examples of different

types just written out.

Show examples in pop music, modern music, classical, just

so students can see them in use.

Final Project: Perform for the

class and parents an original
work in groups of 3-4. First,
students will find a poem or
writing work and create a melody
incorporating text painting from
the words. This melody music

10

Pass out a helpful paper that reviews and just reminds

them of ornamentation.
Introduce final project and how ornamentation is
incorporated. Answer any questions on ornamentation and
about the project.

include ornamentation as well.

The students will also include a
bass line and 1-2 inner voices.
The final requirement is that
there must be an ostinato
pattern in the work as well.