Elementary
Lesson Plan
Project
3
Steven Schopp
The
Brass Family
National
Standards:
6.
Listening
to, analyzing, and describing music
7.
Evaluating
music and music performances
8.
Understanding
relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts
9.
Understanding
music in relation to history and culture
Objective: Students will
be able to identify, by sight and sound, the brass family of musical
instruments in the orchestra and band.
Students
will become familiar with the types of ensembles and solo performance
situations where brass instruments are used in the community.
Purpose: This lesson will fulfill
the brass portion of the curricular unit on Instruments of the Band and
Orchestra. Students will also
learn about uses of brass instruments (weddings, herald trumpet fanfares, taps
at funerals, brass marching bands, etc.) that go beyond large concert
ensembles.
Materials Needed:
·
Classroom
computer
·
Computer
LCD projector
·
PowerPoint
software
·
Brass
PowerPoint Introduction
·
Sibelius
Instruments software
·
Internet
Access
·
At
least one brass instrument
·
Brass
Mouthpiece
·
Stereo
CD player with appropriate examples of brass music:
o
La
Peri, Paul Dukas
o
Soundtrack
from Brassed Off
o
Procession
of the Nobles Rimsky-Korsakov
Anticipatory
Set: As students enter the room, La
Peri, by
Paul
Dukas
will be playing.
Procedure:
1.
The
teacher will introduce the lesson with a PowerPoint slide presentation. The PowerPoint consists of a slide on
how brass instruments produce sound and slides for each instrument in the brass
family. Each slide contains a
sound clip of the instrument.
2.
With
the how brass produces sound slide, the teacher will play the sound clip of
buzzing lips into the mouthpiece followed by the sound clip of buzzing into the
mouthpiece & horn to produce a tone.
3.
Students
will be asked to buzz their lips, without puffing cheeks, to produce the
buzzing sound.
4.
The
teacher will demonstrate buzzing with and without the mouthpiece and them
produce a sound on a brass instrument.
(If the teacher does not play brass, a student or another teacher could
assist)
5.
Each
instrument will be discussed in detail as the slide is shown. At the beginning and end of each
discussion, the demonstration sound clip will be played.
6.
Using
the Sibelius Instruments in the Sibelius Educational Suite, students will be
shown the position of the brass section in orchestra, concert band and brass
band.
7.
As
they view the ensemble set up in Sibelius Instruments, examples will be played of
brass sections in each large ensemble as follows:
a.
Orchestra/Band
Procession of the Nobles
b.
Brass
Band Brassed Off Soundtrack
8.
Students
will be asked to explore ways in which brass instruments are used other than in
bands and orchestras (this may include jazz, pop, ceremonial solos, etc.).
9.
The
Internet will be used to research these uses, either in class if sufficient
computers are available, or as a homework assignment. The following websites will be suggested:
a.
www.mdw.army.mil/fs-b05.htm
b.
www.fortnet.org/~meh/scouts/bugle/
f.
Keywords
for Google.com search:
·
Herald
trumpet
·
Bugle
·
Jazz
trumpet (or trombone, etc.)
·
Bugle
calls
Check For Student Understanding:
The teacher will play pieces with obvious examples of
each instrument (e.g. solos) for students to identify. The sound clips on the PowerPoint may
be used if the projector is turned off.
Students will be asked the results of their research and
discuss why a particular brass instrument would be used in that way (e.g.
herald trumpet for a fanfare or wedding or trombone for a jazz solo).
Extensions:
As the curriculum specifies instruments of the orchestra,
this same lesson can be created for the string, woodwind and percussion
families with appropriate examples.
On days following this lesson, players of various brass
instruments might be invited in for a demonstration and discussion of their
instrument.