This post is the fifth in a series of beginning-of-the-year lesson plans. For previous weeks, please see:
Week 5! We are really moving along!
We've had two weeks of full orchestra at this point, and I am starting to get tired of sorting the name cards twice a week, once before full orchestra, and once for small groups, so this is usually the week when I stop putting them out for small groups. Students can choose where they sit, and I can usually figure out the names of all the students that I haven't learned yet either by using the small group schedule and process of elimination, or I can peak at the label on their folder or case, or just ask if I'm struggling :) I use name cards on stands the whole year for full orchestra, but stop during small groups at about this time of the year.
In full orchestra this week, students count the distance between the notes of the open strings and learn that violins/violas/cellos are tuned in perfect 5ths, while the bass is tuned in perfect 4ths. We play some student compositions that I have chosen in advance, and we air-bow our different bowing pages (without bows out--we'll save that for the next week!).
Again for this lesson plan's sample script, I will assume this is a violin group. This lesson plan is for a 30-minute small group, designed for groups of about 3-4 students all on the same instrument.
ON THE BOARD:
- Agenda on screen
- The five D string notes written on the staff (D, E, F#, G, A), not labeled yet
ALSO NEEDED:
- Pile of student compositions from last week, in order of the order I will be seeing students that week
- Grade/attendance sheet ready to write down marks for Three-Point Shot for anyone who was absent
- Have spare folders and Orchestra Expressions books handy in case students forgot theirs
- CD player with Orchestra Expressions CD
- Spare instrument for me
- Link to flashcards on Quizlet
- 1-page Google Doc condensed version of this lesson plan (includes lesson plan for full orchestra too)
UNPACKING:
Welcome! Go ahead and unpack instruments. Sponge or shoulder pad on.
p. 10--THREE POINT SHOT:
[If anyone was absent last week, I have them play #11 "Three Point Shot" quickly while the others are unpacking. We do not play it all together afterwards, but rather move on right away.]
INSTRUMENTS PARTS:
While you're unpacking instruments today, I bet you already know the names of a lot of instrument parts. For example, we pick up the violin by its...neck. We have four [pluck strings]...strings. We put our jaw on the...chin rest. (I think it should be called the "jaw rest" but it's really called the chin rest.) The most delicate part of the instrument that we are careful to protect is the...bridge. This long black thing is...we put our fingers on the...it's the board where we put our fingers...yes, fingerboard. At the end here we have the...end button. Did anyone catch the name of this wooden part here that shows off the craftsmanship of the violin maker? Have you ever seen ancient papers that are all rolled up? They are called...scrolls. And this is the scroll; it looks like a scroll would, all rolled up. What about these? I'm not sure if I've mentioned this to you yet. These are the pegs. We do not touch the pegs. I use the pegs to help tune the instruments. I don't want you to turn them yet because I don't want anyone to accidentally break a string.
ECHO:
[If the small group is starting late or I know this is a group that needs extra support I may skip this part and move right to the D string notes to save time]
From rest position, let's find playing position. L shape, plant the thumb. Please echo what you hear. [Pluck a 4-beat pattern using different open strings]
[Name], could you play 4 beats for us to echo? Any open string is fine. [I help prompt the others which string they started on when we echo]
[Let each student lead a pattern]
Nice job improvising and using your ears to know what to echo!
LEFT-HAND PLAYING POSITION/D STRING NOTES:
Let's find our new left-hand playing position. Last week we found that when we press fingers on the D string, we get new notes. As we add fingers, we get higher sounding notes.
Playing position. Left hand underneath, way up high, jawbone on chin rest. Now, instead of making an L shape, let the right hand hang on to whatever is comfortable for you so that the left arm can do an arm swing. Swing all the way up to look at the palm. Notice wrist is straight, fingers are curvy. Balance the neck of the violin on the knobby pointer finger bone, thumb touches lightly across (by the red tape). [Make some individual adjustments, as needed]
Right hand, L shape, plant the thumb. Pluck open D, no fingers. Now, we're going to add first finger, pointer finger, on the D string to cover the red tape. Give that a pluck. This is called..."E," not open E, but E on the D string. [I'm helping getting the right finger on the right tape and pressed down enough to get a clear sound]
I did not give you a tape for the second finger. There's going to be a space between 1 and 2, so 2nd finger falls just under the black tape. Press down the 2nd finger on the D string, just behind the black tape and give that a pluck. 2nd finger is called..."F#."
Third finger is best friends with 2. Set 3rd finger, ring finger, on the black tape, on the D string, right next to the second finger. 3rd finger makes "G." Not open G, but high G.
Stretch 4th finger, pinkie, all the way up to the blue tape on the D string. 4th finger makes "A." It sounds the same as open A. Press all the way down to the fingerboard for a clear sound. Rest position.
What we just played sounds like "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol." Let's see what these notes look like on the staff. [look to dry erase board with notes already on the staff]. We've seen this note before. This is open D, no fingers. Now the note gets higher so we're on the bottom line and this is...E. Good, how many fingers? 1. Does this look like open E? No, open E would be way up here on the top space, so this E is E on the D string. Next we go from the line to the space. This is 2nd finger to make...F#. After F# we go to the line for...G. How many fingers? 3. Does this G look like open G? No, open G would be way down low, below the two ledger lines, so now you know two different Gs too. And then this note we've seen before. This on is...A. We could play open A or on the D string we could play all 4 fingers to make A. They sound the same.
In your folder you have a handy dandy fingering chart. Open your folder and grab your pencil. Let's fill out the fingering chart. Find the D string, 1st finger. 1st finger makes...E. Write a capital E in the first finger bubble. [Walk around and point to the D string 1st finger bubble so students know where to write] 2nd finger on the D string makes...F#. Write a capital F plus the sharp sign--looks like a hashtag--in the 2nd finger bubble. Third finger is...G. Write a capital G in the 3rd finger bubble. And then fourth finger makes...A. Yes, write A in the fourth finger bubble. Great.
Let's open books to p. 14 now. "New Note F#" Which note are we playing? Notice only the first F# in a measure gets the sharp sign; the sharp sign is good for the whole measure so this next note is automatically still F#.
[Play with the CD, track 24--press pause at the end of the line and skip the repeat--"You can play with the repeat at home"]
"New Note E." How many fingers does it say we need for E? Good, first finger covering red tape.
[Play with the CD, track 25; again I skip the repeat]
Rest position. Take a little break. Before playing "Shuffle Back and Forth," let's say the letter names first. "F#, F#, E, E, F#, F#, E, rest..." [while I play on the piano and say letters with the students]. Now say finger numbers. "2, 2, 1, 1..." Do you see why it is called "Shuffle Back and Forth"? That was a lot of back and forth between F# and E!
Playing position, let's play "Shuffle Back and Forth." Starts with 2nd finger F#, so first finger covers red tape, big space for second finger, just under the black tape.
[I accompany on the piano--I go a little slower than the CD does]
Now go ahead and try "Mary Lee" on your own. See if it sounds familiar to you.
[I go around and help students as needed]
Did you recognize it? [If not, I may play a little and that's usually enough to recognize it as "Mary Had a Little Lamb."]
Let's flip back a page now, to p. 12. Look at "Pumping Iron #1." Which notes do we need in this piece? How many fingers?
We'll start all four fingers, blue tape, for A, and then for G, 3 fingers, all we do is pick up the pinkie finger, the 4th finger. The only movement for this piece is the pinkie pressing down for A and picking up for G.
[Play with the CD, track 19]
Okay, that's all we're going to do with the left hand fingers today. Are you noticing little grooves in your fingers? Yup, that's normal; they'll go away soon.
BOWING:
Let's take the bow out of the case. The first thing we do is...tighten the bow.
Find your bow hold. Next week I'm going to go around and look at everyone's bow hold to make sure everyone is comfortable with pinkie on its tip, middle fingers hug the frog, little space for pointer, thumb is bent. [Make adjustments as needed]
Now, with your left hand, pick up your instrument by its neck and find rest position.
Let's play #21, "A String Level." I see the word arco which tells us to play with...the bow. Do we start down-bow or up-bow? Yes, down-bow, from the frog, pull the bow out.
Set the bow near the frog on the A string, between the bridge and the end of the fingerboard.
[Play with the CD, track 21; I go around and spend about 2 measures per student helping pull the bow straight while they are playing each of these bow level pieces]
Raise the elbow a little to play "D String Level"
[CD track 22]
Raise the elbow even more for "G String Level." Start down-bow, near the frog.
[CD track 23]
Rest position and turn the page.
Let's talk through "Cross Bows" on the top. Let's say the letter names: D, D, rest, rest, A, A, rest, rest. We've just run into a...repeat sign, which sends us back to...the beginning. So again we will play: D, D, rest, rest, A, A, rest, rest. Now we're at...Circle B and we keep playing: D, D, D, D, A, A, A, A. Now we've run into another...repeat sign, which sends us back to...do you see the backwards repeat sign at Circle B? We go back to Circle B and play again: D, D, D, D, A, A, A, A.
Did you notice there are different open strings in this piece? We'll have to adjust our elbow level for the different strings. Let's try "Cross Bows" [slowly, no CD or accompaniment, not really in time]. Up into playing position, find your bow hold, set the bow near the frog, between the bridge and the end of the fingerboard on the D string so we can pull the bow down.
Ready, play. D, D, rest, lower the elbow for A, A, rest repeat/raise the elbow D, D, rest, lower the elbow for A, A. Now we're at Circle B. Raise the elbow to find the D string level, and we play: D, D, D, D, lower for A, A, A, A, repeat back to Circle B, D, D, D, D, A, A, A, A. Now you're ready to play this whole page at home with the bow this week.
PACKING UP/CLOTH/FLASH CARDS
We had tightened our bow before, so now we...loosen. Lefty-loosy, counterclockwise. You'll notice the stick and hair getting closer together; you may see some individual hairs start to separate. Gently slide the tip end of the bow back into the case.
[I run my finger over the strings on my violin]
Has anyone noticed some white rosin dust on their strings or instrument? If you have a cloth in your case, go ahead and take it out. If you don't, I'm going to throw a cloth at you. Just a heads up, I'm not a very good thrower :) [It would probably be better to just hand students a cloth, but it is entertaining to see how bad my aim is even from a short distance]
Wipe the rosin dust of the strings of the instrument (no, not the bow hairs, the strings of the instrument) [there are always a few students who start wiping the bow hairs...], the body of the instrument, the fingerboard...anywhere you might see the white rosin dust building up. It is a good idea to wipe the rosin dust off the instrument every time you pack up so the rosin dust doesn't build up and get caked on.
If you don't already have a cloth for your case, this would be a good time to find one at home that you can use. If you have a clean, dry washcloth, that would work. Or if you have a sock at home that doesn't have a match, you could put a clean sock in your case and use that. Or if you have an old T-shirt at home and you get permission to cut it up, you could put a piece of fabric in your case to use as a cloth.
Okay, sponge/shoulder pad off, instrument flat in the case. Go ahead and zip up or clasp up the case.
Let's go through the practice assignment for this week.
This week you're ready to play the pieces on p. 12, 13, 14, and 15 in the book. We have the green sheet from last week that has "Barcarolle" on it. In the white packet, we're ready for p. 3, that starts "Pumping Iron #3." I'll show you flashcards on Canvas in a minute, and then we already talked about finding a cloth at home.
On Canvas, to find the flashcards, click on "Modules," then scroll all the way down to the bottom. There you will find "Flashcards." I'll click on that. There are flashcards for the open string notes and D string notes. Let's do D string notes. We're violins in here, so I'll click on "Violins" and then let's play the Matching game. Which note is this? How many fingers? [Go through the Matching game; I click on a note and the correct answer once someone has said it] That was ___ seconds. There are some fast times on here! I wonder how fast of a time you will get when you practice these at home! If you get a record, you'll have to take a screen shot and share it with me!
Okay, let's check the schedule to see when I'll be seeing you for small groups next week. And next up should be ____, so you can send them on down if you don't see them in the hallway on their way down yet. Instruments back on the rack. See you at the end of the day when you come to grab your instrument!
- Go to Lesson Plan for Week 6
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