Jake Grimsley

Musical Question Lesson Plan

Summary/Overview: This lesson is written with the intent of being used by a beginning band
ensemble in the process of learning and rehearsing the piece Blue Ridge Rhapsody by John
Kinyon.  The band used for this lesson can play the piece all the way through, but still requires a
lot of musical polishing before they are ready to perform for an audience.  This lesson uses
informal learning so all students have the opportunity to learn more about how Kinyon took
influence from Virginian culture to create the piece, and how culture and other mediums of art in
general can be used to create music.

Objectives:
 Students will understand the influences that lead to Blue Ridge Rhapsody being written.
 Students will understand how music can be created through other influences around daily
life.
 Students will understand how music can be a way of expressing visual ideas through
sound.

Relevant Virginia Standards of Learning:

 6.6 - The student will explore historical and cultural influences of music.
a) Identify the cultural influences, musical styles, composers, and historical
periods associated with the music literature being studied. 
b) Describe ways in which culture influences the development of music and music
styles.
 6.7 - The student will explore the functions of music, including the use of music as a
form of expression, communication, ceremony, and entertainment.
 6.8 - The student will explain intellectual property as it relates to music.

Relevant National Standards:

 MU: Pr4.2.6c - Identify how cultural and historical context inform performances.
 MU:Pr4.3.6a - Perform a selected piece of music demonstrating how their interpretations
of the elements of music and the expressive qualities (such as dynamics, tempo, timbre,
articulation/style, and phrasing) convey intent.
 MU:Cn11.0.6a - Demonstrate understanding of relationships between music and the other
arts, other disciplines, varied contexts, and daily life

Required Materials and Visual Aids:

 Instruments
 Blue Ridge Rhapsody sheet music
 Blue Ridge Rhapsody score
 Smartboard/projector
 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3c/Rainy_Blue_Ridge-
27527.jpg/1600px-Rainy_Blue_Ridge-27527.jpg 

Procedures:
  Students will walk in the classroom and sit at their normal destinations (nothing changed
here).
 Students will go through a ten-minute scales warm-up with the teacher.
 Students will play Blue Ridge Rhapsody by John Kinyon once all the way through.
 Students will be asked to say what the piece makes them think about/visualize.
 Students will be shown a picture of the blue ridge mountains, and told what they are,
where they are, how they are something that many Virginians think of when they think of
home.  
 Students will play through the piece for only a minute or two while the blue ridge
mountains picture is showing on the smartboard.  
 Students will be asked if this made them feel any different about the piece of music they
were playing, having a class discussion.
 Students will be told the full extent of the origin of the piece, meaning who wrote it, why
they wrote it, what inspired them when writing it, and who they wrote it for.
 Students will be asked to talk more about what they think of the piece now, knowing
more information about it.
 Students will be prompted to have a group discussion about the influence of everyday life
in music, and how hearing music can help visualize other mediums.
 Students will be asked to give examples of other pieces of music they know which
represent non-musical things.

Assessment:
 Students will be assessed based on their level of participation in the discussions prompted
by the teacher.
 Students will be assessed based on their understanding of the concepts the teacher
prompts them to discuss.
 Students will be assessed based on how they relate the discussion on Blue Ridge
Rhapsody to other similar ideas in different art forms.

Extensions:
This lesson was designed to give a different perspective on where music comes from, and to
prompt students to listen rather than just reading.  In more aural-based situations, students have
the tendency to think about the music, but when reading music off of paper, the situation
becomes very formulaic for many students.  The idea of this lesson is to change this, making
students think much more about the music they’re playing and what it represents, rather than just
playing the right notes and dynamics.

Adaptations:

 Size:
o The blue ridge mountains picture could be printed out and given to each student
individually on sheets of paper so they could have it closer.
 Color:
o All students could have the ability to view the visual materials with a different
color coding based on their individual needs.
  Pacing:
o The lesson could be split into two class periods to use slower pacing.
 Modality:
o All students would receive a piece of paper with bullet points from the lesson.
o The lesson would be recorded so all students would have the opportunity to go
back and listen to parts they don’t understand.

Winding:

 Back:
oStudents will speak about only the experiences of Virginia natives that relate to
this piece of music.
o Students will be given examples of pictures and music inspired by them, with no
specific discussion as the background of the images and music shown.
o Students will be prompted to discuss how different pieces of art make them feel
on a base level of emotions (happy, sad, nervous, etc.).
 Forward:
o Students will be shown other examples of pieces of music with similar influence
as Blue Ridge Rhapsody, and be prompted to discuss the differences between
each piece with the same influence.
o Students will be prompted to discuss the differences between how each individual
interprets the same pieces of art.
o Students will be prompted to discuss how individual background changes us
throughout our lives as well as how we hear, see, and feel various art forms
differently from others.