Lesson Plan for the Wild Wild Woodwinds

Riding the Woodwind Bike

Nicole Ulmer

-Introduce topic: How to play musically

Have students listen to song from my ipod

Pause and have them sing along. What things did they do during their favorite parts? Let them
explain their favorite parts of the song and why without context.

Explain why these moments are cool and then explain how we can add these cool elements to
our own playing. Look for:
-Dynamics
-Tempos fluctuation
-Articulation
-Above all, anything that makes us feel something

Why are we learning this now? Isnt this what we learn after the basics? NO WAY!
-Riding a bike:
-Basics=Balancing, peddling, braking. These things are the meat and potatoes of riding a bike,
just as dynamics, tempo, and articulation are in music, but what if we only rode our bike on our
flat driveway, and never went for the big hills!? Wouldnt it be fun to ride some hills in our
music?

Go time
#37 Sweetly Sings the Donkey

1. Play TOGETHER straight through with no dynamics, defined articulation, or tempo fluctuation
2. (Have each group do this separately first) Flutes and clarinets start at p and crescendo
throughout to F, Saxophones start at F and decrescendo to p--- now play in a round together.
(Side note, really get them to explore the full range of their dynamics. Drama Queens of music)
3. Ask where they would like to add in their own elements of musicality and maybe why, then
allows their ideas to be played as a class.
4. Take a poll: Did we like playing straight through without any musical elements, or did we like
the most recent version better? Why?

How this lesson works with Nafme and State Standards: (listed on attached sheet)

Both sets of standards expect the students to be able to sing alone or in the group setting.

Number 6 of the Nafme standards states: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music which
we did by analyzing the song from my ipod and describing what made us like it.

Number 8 of the Nafme standards stating: Understanding relationships between music, the
other arts, and disciplines outside the arts- in an abstract way, we are connecting a daily life
activity of riding a bike and the process that goes into learning that skill, which we then applied
to our music playing. This is an example of taking a thing that most kids already know how to
do, and applying it to this new concept in their music abilities.

Standards

State Standards :
General Music
-Demonstrate singing skills using a singing voice
[Reasoning: Some MS classes are part of an exploratory wheel
-may be keyboards only, world music, etc.)

Nafme Standards:

1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
5. Reading and notating music.
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.