Category: Group Classes

A "John Williams" Themed Group Class

1/18/2019

In honor of my "Living Composer Project" (you can read all about it HERE), I decided to give this month's group class a living composer theme!

There are many great living composers to choose from, but I wanted to choose one that my students would be familiar with and that they would be excited to learn more about. Enter one of my favorite living composers: John Williams!

Most of my students know John Williams as the composer for the "Star Wars" and "Harry Potter" films. But did you know that he has not only composed the music for over 100 films, but he has also written many concert works--including two symphonies, numerous concertos, and a song cycle for voice and orchestra? He has also composed pieces for significant cultural events, including the Olympics and the U.S. presidential inauguration. With his illustrious career as a composer and conductor, I think John Williams can safely be counted as one of our greatest American composers.

Here are the activities I included in our John Williams group class. I hope these give you a few ideas you can use with your own students!

1. Name That Tune

We kicked off the class with an icebreaker game of "name that tune." I did not tell the students the theme of the class--but I told them that all of the tunes would have something in common! Since I have oodles of pop books featuring arrangements of music by John Williams, I took the first line of several different pieces and had each student in the class sight-read a line. I asked the other students in the class to "name that tune."

Once everyone had a chance to sight-read a few lines, I asked the class to guess today's theme. Everyone guessed "movie themes," and then I pointed out that all of the pieces they had heard today had been written by the same composer--John Williams.

2. Biography of John Williams and Listening Examples

I found a good kid-friendly biography of John Williams HERE on the Making Music Fun website. (There is also a free word search activity sheet, as well as several paid activity bundles, that I did not use if you are looking for more John Williams activities.) I also added a few extra facts from the biography on John Williams' official website, found HERE.

After we read about John Williams' life and career, we listened to some examples of his best-known works. I found a YouTube video with many excerpts HERE--scroll down to see time stamps for each piece.

Because Williams' music is so descriptive, his pieces provide many opportunities to get students thinking like a composer. They are also great for getting students to listen and identify different instruments in the orchestra. Here are a few of the questions I asked the group as we listened to excerpts of Williams' music:

In the theme from "Jaws," how did John Williams create a feeling of suspense?
Williams created contrast in the "Star Wars Theme" by using two different instrument families in the A and B sections of the piece. What were they?
What instruments did John Williams use in the opening of the "Olympic Fanfare" to create a majestic feel?
How did John Williams evoke a feeling of magic in "Hedwig's Theme" from Harry Potter?

3. Performance Practice

Unfortunately, I wasn't quite organized enough to have each student prepare a piece by John Williams to perform, so we just used our normal repertoire for this part of the class. However, there are so many great arrangements of his music out there that it would be easy to have each student prepare a John Williams piece if you wanted!

4. Ensemble Practice

I pulled out a couple of my pop books with teacher duet parts (Alfred Popular Hits and Carol Matz's Famous and Fun Pop books) and had students sight-read John Williams pieces in groups of two. My more advanced student played the teacher part, and my less advanced students took turns playing the student parts.

Once each student had a turn playing in a duet pair, we took the easiest piece and played it as a trio, with one student playing the teacher part, a second student playing the student part, and a third student doubling the student part up high on the piano. This created a nice orchestral sound and was a great way to wrap up our class.

What do you think? Are you a John Williams fan, or are any of your students? What other ideas would you recommend for a John Williams-themed class? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

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A Group Class Lesson Plan: George Gershwin and Jazz

8/25/2018

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If you are planning a group class to kick off the new school year, today's topic is lots of fun and features a composer born in September: George Gershwin!

I used this lesson plan with my first fall group class this past weekend and it was enjoyed by all. It was a great way to introduce my students to a few famous Gershwin tunes and to add a few jazz terms to their musical vocabulary. Here is what we did:

To start the class, we played an icebreaker game of "name that tune." I played excerpts from two famous Gershwin tunes: "I Got Rhythm" and "Summertime." (I played from my Gershwin songbook, but you can find these songs on YouTube too!) Most of my students recognized these songs, especially once they heard the lyrics.

I asked students what style they thought these songs were, which led us to learning a bit about the history of jazz, as well as a few jazz vocabulary words: "swing," "blue note" (or "bent note"), and "improv." A great, kid-friendly information page on the history of jazz can be found HERE.

For our listening activity, I played an excerpt from Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" as an example of jazz "concert" music. The Classics for Kids website has a great five-minute presentation on "Rhapsody in Blue" HERE. Or, you can use excerpts from this video of Leonard Bernstein playing the piano part while conducting the New York Philharmonic--a feat both me and my students found very impressive! (Be sure to point out the "blue notes" in the opening clarinet glissando and the trumpet solo.)

Next, we learned a few facts about George Gershwin. HERE is a website with a great, kid-friendly bio of Gershwin--or use the facts below!

A few facts about George Gershwin:

1. He was born on Sept. 26, 1898 in Brooklyn, NY. His parents were Russian immigrants.

2. George showed a great aptitude for music. Before he took piano lessons, he taught himself to play many songs on the piano by watching the keys on a player piano at a friend's house.

3. Though he was classically trained, Gershwin loved jazz and popular music and started working as a songwriter in Tin Pan Alley (a nickname for the street in New York City where many music publishers had offices) when he was only 15 years old. His brother Ira was the lyricist for many of his songs.

4. He wrote his famous "Rhapsody in Blue" in just three weeks, for a concert showcasing jazz and orchestra music.

5. He died on July 11, 1937, just a few days after being diagnosed with brain cancer. He was only 38 years old.

Next, each student had a chance to perform a few pieces for the class. I had asked a couple of my more advanced students to be prepared to play a jazz piece from their repertoire, which gave us an opportunity to talk about the jazzy elements we heard in the music.

Finally, to end the class we did an improv activity using 12 bar blues and the pentatonic scale. Since I had a wide range of levels in this class, ranging from less than a month of lessons to more than five years, I created an activity that I could customize for each student so that everyone could participate.

First, I had each student (even my more advanced students) create a melody on the black keys while I played the duet part. Once everyone was comfortable doing that, I had my most advanced student play the duet part while my less advanced students improvised their melodies, giving each student an opportunity to play duets with the others. We even turned it into a trio by having one student play the root of each chord low on the piano in whole notes in addition to the other two parts.

Click HERE if you would like to download this improv activity to try with your students!

I think this month's class was a hit! What do you think? Will you have your students learn a bit about Gershwin or do any improvising this September? I'd love to hear your comments!

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"The Carnival of the Animals": A Group Class Listening and Improv Activity

4/20/2018

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Today I would like to share a fun activity that my students did at their most recent group class. (See my other group class lesson plans HERE!) I have done this activity a few times now with my students and it is always a hit! It is a great way to incorporate music history into the lesson and get students thinking like a composer.

First, we start by learning a bit about French composer Camille Saint-Saëns, who lived from 1835-1921. Here are a few fun facts about Camille Saint-Saëns:

Like Mozart, Saint-Saëns was a child prodigy. He played his debut concert at age 10, where he offered to perform any of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas from memory.
Saint-Saëns was an accomplished organist and worked as a church organist upon finishing his studies at the Paris Conservatory. Upon hearing him play, Franz Liszt declared that Saint-Saëns was the greatest organist in the world.
Saint-Saëns taught composer Gabriel Fauré, who in turn taught Maurice Ravel.
“The Carnival of the Animals” is one of Saint-Saëns’ best known works. Completed in 1886, it contains 14 short movements and was originally written for an ensemble including two pianos, strings, flute, clarinet, xylophone, and glass harmonica. It was such a humorous work that Saint-Saëns insisted that it not be published in his lifetime, as he was afraid it would detract from his image as a serious composer! The only movement he allowed to be published in his lifetime was “The Swan.”

Next, we listen to a few movements from “The Carnival of the Animals.” I ask students to guess what animal they think each movement represents. Then we discuss how Saint-Saëns represented that animal in the music using instrumentation, tempo, and pitch. The movements that I have found that work the best for this activity are:

"IV. Turtles”—this clever piece contains the melody from Offenbach’s famous “Can-Can Song” played very, very slowly. Be sure to play students a snippet of the original, up-to-tempo “Can-Can” theme first so they get the full effect!
"V. The Elephant”—students usually guess this one correctly as soon as they hear the first low melody notes!
"VII. The Aquarium”—many students recognize this piece from its use in TV commercials and movies. It has a magical, floating feeling that perfectly depicts a school of underwater creatures as they dart and swim around.
“X. The Aviary”—the opening flute solo sounds just like a bird song, making this movement easy to recognize!

Finally, I tell students that it is their turn to create a piece that represents an animal! I put several animal names in a hat (at this most recent class the animals included a bear, frog, snake, kitten, snail, and a cheetah) and each student must draw a name from the hat and improvise a piece at the piano to represent that animal. The other students then must guess which animal they hear! I remind students to ask themselves the following questions, both when creating their improvs and when listening to the other students:

Is this animal noisy or quiet, big or small?
Does this animal move quickly or slowly?
Does this animal hop, or move smoothly?
Is this animal friendly or scary?

It is always fun to hear what creative ideas the students come up with to depict each animal—and it is usually surprisingly easy for the other students to recognize each animal correctly! This activity often jump starts ideas for new compositions for my students that we can continue working on in their private lessons.

What do you think? Have you ever used “The Carnival of the Animals” as part of a lesson? I would love to hear your ideas in the comments!

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A "John Williams" Themed Group Class

A Group Class Lesson Plan: George Gershwin and Jazz

"The Carnival of the Animals": A Group Class Listening and Improv Activity

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