MU:Pr4.3.T.la: Demonstrate how understanding the context, expressive challenges, and use of digital tools in a varied repertoire of music influence prepared or improvised performances.
History, Art or Basketball Summary Presentation
This lesson is a continuation of the History, Art & Basketball lesson started in MU:Pr4.1.T.1a. As the teams develop their project through the Develop and Explain (MU:Pr4.1) and Describe and Demonstrate (MU:Pr4.2) this level of the lesson has them demonstrating their own understanding of the previous levels by creating a final project ready to present to the class. The teams should present their final draft to the class and be prepared to discuss their process, the challenges they faced and how they addressed those challenges to capture the desired context and expression of the product. The teams should be prepared to consider feedback from their classmates as they make final edits to complete the finished product for presentation.
Imagine Dragons: Believer
Performers make interpretive decisions based on their understanding of context and expressive intent. Begin by moderating a discussion with the class on the different settings or contexts that performers have to perform in and how these settings and contexts might influence how the music is presented or performed. This lesson asks the students to listen to 3 different versions of Believer by The Imagine Dragons (studio, acoustic and live) then answer questions about the different settings and contexts that each performance takes place in. Teachers can produce a digital or hard copy document with the questions you want the students to answer and provide an opportunity for students to share their ideas with each other and how these considerations will effect their own products and performances.
Kunstderfuge
This lesson gives students an opportunity to explore and create expression in music using an excerpt from the 1st movement of Beethoven’s Trio in Eb major using the automation feature of the DAW. Kunstderfuge.com is an excellent resource for downloading midi files from significant composers from the 17th and 18th century. For the purpose of this lesson I use an excerpt from the 1st movement of Beethoven’s trio in Eb. I would suggest downloading the midi file and uploading it into soundtrap or some other DAW. Then split the tracks at meas. 41 and deleted the rest of the regions. Use this as a template that you can share with the students. If you want to use a longer excerpt, or the entire movement, you can depending on how much time you want to take with the project. For this lesson, I assume that some discussion and instruction has already taken place about using dynamics to create expression in music and why it is important. Explain to students what the automation feature does in their DAW and how to use it. The students will use the automation feature to create dynamics and adjust the balance in the original MIDI file to create expression and shape to the phrases.
Soundtrack Project
This lesson gives students the opportunity to create a soundtrack for a short video or movie clip. The lesson will require the teacher to do some prep work by creating a shared folder of video clips for the students to choose from and folders of sfx and foley sounds for the students to use in the creation of their soundtrack. Students will select a video of their choosing from the files provided by the teacher. They will use a soundtrack planning guide to state their desired expressive intent and context for their video and create a project plan to map out the music that needs to be created and sfx and foley sounds that they will need for their soundtrack. Project planning should include ample time for sharing and gathering feedback, reflection and revision before creating their finished project to submit for assessment and presentation. The project ends with a Screening Party where students can bring in popcorn and snacks to watch each other's movies.
*A student planning guide, scoring rubric, student movie review sheet for the Screening Party and links to web resources for finding videos, sfx and foley libraries are included in the lesson plan library.