MUSIC UNIT PLANNING TEMPLATE

Year 10 Film MUSIC UNIT

Cashmere High School

Teacher: Grant Bartley

Year Level: 10

Curriculum Level: 5

Number of Lessons: 16-18 hours

Aims:

Pre-requisite knowledge and skills expected:

Resources required:

Strands/AOs covered in this unit

UC, PK, CI, DI - Level 5

Embedded Key Competencies :

Thinking; Making meaning; relating to others; managing self; participating and contributing.Teaching and Learning Sequences

Focus questions:

Lesson 1Focus questions: Listen to the music first, what type of mood do you think it creates? For example how does the music make you feel, how would you describe the music? What does it make you think of?Students are to focus on the mood music creates and the effect tempo has on this

Start: Introduce fantasia- focus questionsI want you to imagine a scene in your head when you listen to this.

Students to share their ideas with a peer, and then peers can share with class Show student the YouTube clip. Brief background on fantasia- pictures created for music( usually other way around) Introduce the elements of music main ones. Focus on Tempo, dynamics, pitch, timbre ( tonality advance)Explain that many of these elements help to create the mood in a piece of music.

Begin with tempo, explain concept in music. What is it about the speed of this piece that makes it an urgent sounding piece or mischievous? (class mind map or group)Activity:

Teacher can demonstrate how the theme would sound if the tempo was changed

Various examples played, In peers, students asked to write down and describe how the change in tempo affects the mood.

Lesson 2

Focus: the relationship between dynamics and tempoAsk students whether they see a relationship between dynamics (volume) and tempo (speed) in the piece. eg often when the music gets faster it also gets louder which helps create the urgency in the piece.

Recap on previous lesson- tempo Introduce students to new element dynamics. Volume of piece, how it changes either gradually or suddenly( advanced- the Italian words for these, could ask just to assess where everyone is) basic introduction to pp p f ff and sfz Play Fantasia again (soundtrack only), stopping and starting and asking students whether they thought the piece was getting louder or softer

Activity: game- dynamics on board, class split into two groups. Each group member has a turn at coming up to circle correct dynamic, fastest group wins. Students have a go at playing Fantasia theme on piano or guitar by ear, and experimenting with tempo and dynamics. Advanced students can notate if they wish.

For homework students are to find a piece of horror theme music from a movie and write down one way to describe the tempo, one way to describe the dynamics, and how the two work together to help create the mood of the scene. Students are to reference song if from YouTube so that teacher can find it.

Lesson 3Focus question

Is this piece high or low? Or both? Does it change?

How do you think the pitch helps create the mood of this piece?

Collection of homework- students to put in box to be marked by teacher

Introduction to element-Pitch ( high and low pitch) teacher demonstrate on the piano

Play A Night on bold Mountain- students to discuss focus questions in pairs and then share with the class. Introduction to the Last element we are going to look: Timbre( sound quality and instruments)

Different instruments have different sounds eg a flute is quite light high but hollow sounding,Violins can be screechyPlay sugar plum fairy. What is the Timbre? Does anyone know what instrument is playing the main tune? do as classgroup activity/ competition, Match the sound description to the sound heard.

Lesson 4

Music is often used in movies to help establish a characters personality. Students to listen to music from Lord of the rings scene and are to guess what could be happening in the scene, as well as describing what mood the scene creates. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHJDhPVpI1sTeacher to then play YouTube clip- singing represents orcs/mordor theme.

Recap of elements looked at: Tempo, dynamics, pitch, timbre

Activity: Students to get into groups, jigsaw task- four groups each focusing on an element within lord of the rings example. Group to discuss/write down how their element helps to compliment the scene. Gollums song played from Lord of the rings- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Hmt82NFhYkTeacher to ask students to describe mood of song and how this conveys character Gollum.

What could we do to make this a happy song?

Play students an example of theme on Sibelius that has had elements changed to make it happy. Ask student to pick out the elements that have been changed

Lesson 5

Introduction to Sibelius- how to write, how to find things

Teacher to give students main theme of Sugar plum fairy to write out on Sibelius to practice using the program( students can work in groups)Student are to then experiment with changing the elements/ effects around this theme to see if they can create a different mood.- students work from instruction sheet. Can try different instruments, Dynamics, tempo etc, dynamics and tempo given on sheet to refer to.Advanced students can try working with tonality and changing key or major to minor etc

Lesson 6

Focus:

As above.

Finishing off theme on Sibelius

Students to share their piece with another group and talk about how they changed the theme and what new mood they created

one or two pairs can share their work to the class- pieces to be saved on to computers for marking.

Lesson 7

Introduction to Silent films and the importance of the musicGroups chosen and instructions given for role play task. Groups to brainstorm ideas and to be checked over by teacher.

Students beginning to look at creating their own silent role play to a small theme composed.

Can first choose the mood of the theme and work with the elements to create a piece of music on any instrument of their choice. or they can create the role play first and the music to go along with it after. Students to work in groups of 4 or 5. Students can choose groups provided there is a mix of abilities in each group and the teacher may make adjustments depending on numbers etc.

They can choose to either record their composed piece and practise it, learning it by ear and remembering if from the recoding, or for more advanced students, they may wish to write it up on Sibelius. One to two people in the group will play the music while the others take part in the role play. Groups need to find their own space away from others because at the end of the unit the groups will perform and the class will have to guess what the role play is about and what mood the music creates.

Lesson 8What happens if we only have the music to tell a story without the pictures?

What would be an effective way to play to show with an instrument someone is creeping away? What would we do with the pitch do you think? or the tempo? Dynamics?

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Teacher to show Peter in the woof- opposite to a silent movie in a sense. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB66bInIXAYListen to about 15-20 minutes.

Teacher to stop and start when needed to ask questions.Look at Timbre- how different sounds of instruments are used. Teacher to inform the students that this can give them some ideas for their performance if they wish to represent a certain character or personality with

1: an instruments sounds,

2: the way a instrument is used. ( give them examples) Students continue to work on role plays and develop ideasby end of this lesson all students could have a clear idea what they are going to do and a plan written

Lesson 9

Teacher to discuss assessment criteria for the group performances

A section of criteria will be based on how effectively they convey their intended mood or character or emotion based on how well the rest of the class can guess what it is.

Other marks will be given for participation, working well together as a group( everyone playing their role) - marks will be given to individuals not groups.Students can either be involved in creating music or involved in the role play, or they can do both. Brief recap of all the film sip pits looked to help give students ideas for what they can do. Students being to work on their pieces. Teacher spends time with each group to see where they are at, and help with any problems.

Lesson 10

Groups can share with the teacher in small interviews what is going well, what they need help with etc, and the teacher can offer suggestions, can offer suggestions or ask questions to help their own

Students continue to work on their piece,

Students who have come up with ideas for music are able to record their ideas so that they can remember what they created and rehears

Students who wish to write/notate can do so on Sibelious.

Lesson 11

Focus:

As above.

Students spend lesson rehearsing for their performance.

Lesson 12-15

Groups perform their Silent role plays with music.Performances to be videoed.

At the end of each groups performance the class has to guess what mood/character type the group were trying to convey, what effects they used with the instruments and how they used the elements. What they could improve on, and what they liked.- teacher to write up class comments for group as well as her own.

Lesson 16-17

Lesson 18

Extension Ideas:Specific Learning Outcomes

The student is able to:Lesson/s in which SLOs are coveredAssessment Methods

Where to Next:

Evaluation of the Unit: