Unit Plan: Guitar Justification: I would plan to teach this unit to a high school general music elective class.

The class would be available to students of any grade level in the high school. High school is a time when adolescents begin to discover themselves and who they are. A part of this discovery process is a developing taste for music. Whether the preference falls with rock and roll or pop music, a guitar class can cater to the musical interests of those students. Learning to play the guitar would give these students the skills required to play along to the music of their favorite musician, be it Led Zeppelin or Miley Cyrus. Such an interest can be students such as Elizabeth from the Perlstein reading. Many students are only into popular music, and do not care for a classical music setting, such as concert band or orchestra. A unit on guitar in a general music class would attract students like Elizabeth who would be more interested in playing music that they feel is relevant to their life. Another benefit of this unit is that it involves playing an instrument. Playing the guitar is an engaging activity. Students have to think about finger placement and hand strokes for strumming simultaneously, giving students the chance to be constantly working and participating in learning throughout the lesson. Most schools have an arts elective requirement that students must meet before graduating. However, for those students not involved in the band or orchestra departments, their only options are limited to topics such as music history or music theory, neither of which I believe are dull or boring topics, but would lack the same daily engagement that would be seen in a guitar class. This would be an attractive option for a student such as Jimmy from the Perlstein readings, who functions best in a hands on learning environment. Having a guitar to actively engage in the music with would keep a student such as Jimmy excited about music and the arts.

Essential Questions: - How can develop the skills we need to read music on a guitar? - How can we use the guitar to create beautiful music? 8-Week Plan Week One: Objectives: - Students will be able to identify features of a guitar on a diagram of the instrument. - Students will be able to recognize notes in a treble clef staff for both lines and spaces and understand how the order of notes occurs, using only the letters AG before repeating back to A - Students will be able to identify the names of the notes played on each open string as well as identify their location on a staff and

Overview: The basic plan for this first week of classes is to familiarize the students both with the strange new instrument in front of them and with the treble clef and the notes within it its staff. The students will receive a handout with the different parts of the guitar labeled and will be expected to memorize these different parts. Students will also learn the names of the notes and where they can be found on the staff. For this lesson, the teacher will provide clever acronyms for the lines and spaces of the treble clef, the lines using Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge and the spaces simply using the word FACE. The students will also be asked to come up with their own clever acronyms to share with the class that may help them to remember the note names in the staff more easily. When the notes of the open strings of the guitar are introduced, they will be introduced both with a treble clef and the tablature at the same time. At the end of this week, students will have a quiz on the parts of the instrument, as well as to write the names of notes given on a staff and the names of the note for each open string. Week Two: Objectives: - Students will be able to build a major scale using whole and half steps and be able to read all notes of the G major scale using the first three strings of the guitar on the treble clef staff and using tablature. - Students will be able to strum the notes of the G major scale in rhythms consisting of whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, and eighth notes and use correct finger strumming technique - Students will be able to perform simple melodies in the key of G major provided by the instructor. Overview: The basic plan for this week will be to begin learning to read notes on the guitar. During the first lesson, students will learn about the lengths of notes (e.g. whole note has four beats, half notes has two beats, etc.). The first lesson will focus around the first string of the guitar and the notes E, F#, and G. On an overhead projector, students will see these three notes in a variety of different rhythms written both on a treble clef staff and in tablature notation. These exercises will use fairly simple rhythms, varying in difficulty by the addition of multiple notes in one exercise. For the second lesson of the week, the notes of a G major scale that can be found on the second string, B, C, and D, will be introduced in a similar fashion to the notes on the first string. At this point, students will be able to learn simple melodies using the notes already learned in the scale. Finally, the final lesson of the week will include the final notes of the G major scale on the third string, allowing for exercises that include the scale in its entirety, as well as full melodies in the key of G major, found in the book, The Guitar Book The Ultimate Guide to Playing Like the Greats, which contains a number of riffs and melodies from pop, rock and jazz tunes, varying in difficulty and allowing the teacher to choose riffs that meet the abilities of their class. When the scale as a whole is introduced, the teacher will also provide the stepwise relationship of each scale degree in the scale, being whole-wholehalf-whole-whole-whole-half. Week Three:

Objectives: - Students will be able to read all notes of the D major scale and the C major scale on the treble clef staff and using tablature - Students will be able to strum the notes of the D major and C major scales in rhythms consisting of quarter notes and eighth notes using correct finger strumming technique - Students will be able to perform simple melodies in the keys of D and C major Overview: This week will increase the students knowledge of notes and scales on the guitar. Knowing the notes of the G major scale, it will be much easier to learn the C and D major scales, building off the ability to build any major scale learned in the previous week. Each scale will have a day devoted to it, and will be based off of exercises displayed via an overheard projector. The teacher can also utilize the book, The Guitar Book The Ultimate Guide to Playing Like the Greats, to find interesting and catchy riffs based off of the D and C major scales for each day. At the end of this week, there will be a playing test consisting of playing one octave up and down for G, C, and D major scales. Week Four: Objectives - Students will be able to build major triads on a staff in the keys learned in the previous weeks - Students will be able to read chord diagrams, specifically those chord diagrams for G, C, and D major chords - Students will be able to play a I IV I V I chord progression using the G, C, and D major chords and apply this idea and these chord changes to the song Brown Eye Girl Overview: The basic plan for this week is to introduce the first chords to the students. Students will learn how to build triads from the major scale, taking scale degrees 1, 3, and 5 of the scale and stacking them in the staff. In addition, the students will be given chord diagrams of chords corresponding with the three scales learned in the previous weeks. They will learn how to play a chord based off of the information given in the diagram, learning how to decipher the diagram and form the chord on the neck of the guitar. Once each chord can be played alone, the teacher will introduce moving from chord to chord. For this, students will utilize an exercise in which they will strum one chord for four beats and switch to the next chord for four beats, repeating this pattern to build comfort in the change. Students will then receive the tablature for the song Brown Eyed Girl, which utilizes the three chords that they just learned, so that the students can put the chords they just learned into the context of a recognizable tune. Week Five: Objectives:

Students will be able to build a minor scale using whole and half steps and be able to play E, A, and B minor scales Students will be able to play melodies ranging from easy to intermediate in the keys of E, A, and B minor

Overview: The basic plan for this week is to introduce natural minor scales to the class. Each class day will be spent on one of three minor scales listed in the objectives, E, A and B minor. The minor scale will be introduced in a similar fashion to the major scales, showing the intervallic relationship between each scale degree. The relationship for a scale in minor is whole-half-whole-whole-half-whole-whole. From here, the teacher can use the book, The Guitar Book The Ultimate Guide to Playing Like the Greats, to find interesting riffs in the minor keys to reinforce the concepts learned. Week Six: Objectives: - Students will be able to build minor triads on a staff in the minor keys learned in the previous week - Students will be able to play E, A, and B minor chords from chord diagrams given in class. - Students will mostly be able to apply these minor chords to the songs Proud Mary and Wrecking Ball Overview: The basic plan for this week is to introduce minor chords based off the scales that the students just learned. Similarly to the major scales lessons, students will learn to build minor triads in the staff using scale degrees 1, lowered 3, and 5. Students will also learn how to play E, A, and B minor chords using chord diagrams. To learn these chords in the context of a song, students will be given tablature sheets with the chord changes for the songs Proud Mary and Wrecking Ball. These songs include both major and minor chords that the students have learned in the previous weeks, helping to bridge the gap between the two lessons. As with the major chords, students can use the same exercise to practice chord changes from major to minor, repeating until accuracy in finger placement is improved. Week Seven: Objectives: - Students will be able to play E, F, F#, and A major chords and F# minor chords - Students will be able to mostly play the chord changes to the choruses for Uptown Girl and 25 or 6 to 4 using the correct strumming pattern Overview: The basic plan of this week is to have students learn additional chords to aid in their preparation for the final assignment. The first lesson will be a playing test of all minor scales and chords learned previously. The next two lessons will consist of learning two new tunes, Uptown Girl and 25 or 6 to 4. These songs use many of the

chords that the students have already learned in the past weeks. However, they also include several new chords that students can learn through their respective chord diagrams. Uptown Girl contains A major and F# minor chords, while 25 or 6 to 4 contains F#, F, and E major chords. Week Eight: Objectives: - Students will choose a song to prepare for the final assessment and be able to accurately play the chord changes to the song - Students will be able to perform their chosen piece in front of the class with a partner with accurate chord changes and rhythm Overview: This week will provide students with a chance to work with their partner in preparing for the final assessment, as well as to perform their chosen piece for the class. The first lesson of the week is a chance for students to ask questions about certain chords they are unsure of or with which they need assistance. Depending on the size of the class, performances can take up one to two class periods. If only one class period is occupied, students will have an extra day to practice the chord changes of the selection. Final Assessment: The final project for this class will be to pair up with another student and learn a popular tune to perform for the class. Students will choose a song of their choice to learn from UltimateGuitar.com or Guitaretab.com. The new song must include at least three new chords that the students have not learned in the class, utilizing chord diagrams to learn the new chords. The song choice will need to be approved by the teacher to ensure it is appropriate for the level of the class and is school appropriate. Students will need to prepare the chord changes for the chorus and the verses using some time given in class as well as preparation outside of the classroom as necessary. For the performance, the pair will be required to play once through the chorus, once through the verse, and finish with another round of the chorus. For extra credit, the students may also choose to learn a melody line on the guitar and have one member of the group play that line or learn the lyrics to the chorus and sing them while playing the chord changes underneath during the second time that the chorus is repeated. This is to ensure that students can still perform chord changes accurately without the additional music aspects. While the main goal of the assessment is to assess students ability to learn and play chord changes in a piece of music, students who feel more comfortable with their abilities to play the guitar or have the ability to sing as well are encouraged to take the extra step in creativity.
10 Chord changes are clear and concise, without fluctuation 8 Chords changes are mostly clear and concise, with little 6 Chord changes are somewhat clear and concise, with some 4 Chord changes are unclear; no clear tempo can be

in tempo between chords. 10 Chords are accurate, with no errors in finger placement or note accuracy. 5 Song choice includes at least three chords other those chords learned throughout the unit.

fluctuation in tempo between chords. 8 Chords are mostly accurate, with few errors in finger placement or note accuracy. 4 Song choice includes two chords other those chords learned throughout the unit.

fluctuation in tempo between chords. 6 Chords are somewhat accurate, with some errors in finger placement or note accuracy. 3 Song choice includes one new chord besides chords previously learned throughout the unit.

derived from performance. 4 Chords are inaccurate, with many errors in finger placement or note accuracy. 2 Song choice does not utilize any chords that were not learned during the course of the unit.