There were 2 new resources this week, a graphic arts notation resource and a HSC extended response question. The graphic arts notation came from https://katebilton.wixsite.com/ecp711/lesson-two-j7iai. The only thing I did, is cut some of the images out as I thought they were too similar and would have been hard to distinguish between.

I made a HSC extended response question basing it off ideas I found on Canvas and how relatable it would be to the development of students learning in my program. I included some starting points for discussing on tone colour, which were taken directly from the Music 2 syllabus. This would be preceded by a very brief glimpse of Eliza Aria Aural analysis also from Canvas, to give students an idea of how and what to write without giving them the answers.

The intro DAW activity is a good way to introduce another work of the unit and mix up the type of activities that the students engage in. The manipulation of a wav file in a DAW, will broaden the student’s knowledge of the capabilities of technology. Lidy’s Piece by Kate Moore will peak student’s interest as it features many extended techniques on the cello; this will facilitate creativity as something simple as trimming a loop and adding a drum beat can result in each new piece having a vastly different character. I created the Diary Guide Sheet as a way to keep the mini project diary entries music-focused. It will help students make entries, critically think about the concepts of music, reflect on the learning process and prepare themselves for future assessments in high school and tertiary education.

The introductory sight-singing activity not only helps students practice their sight-singing which is an integral part of the unit, but also preludes the idea of arranging music by moving musical ideas around in a different order. In the cut outs, I used C major 4/4 time; there is a lot of logical steps and leaps to the melody but if they are rearranged a certain way, intervals such as a 6th can appear. This makes for an interesting activity as students can anticipate difficulties that may occur and distinguish between good and poor phrasing. The ‘Compositional techniques’ sheet was designed to scaffold the process of applying the techniques of fragmentation, augmentation and retrograde to music material. There are clear demonstrations/examples and a small activity at the end where the students can explore innovative approaches to complete the task; the activity can be used in their mini-project which can be a good starting point. A fun extension would be for a student to project their finished arrangement and have other students work out what techniques they used and where. In ‘Eliza’s Aria Arrangement Guide Sheet’ the students are carefully guided through a step by step process to ensure maximal success. It is differentiated so there are a few approaches to completing the task:

• You can adhere closely to an original arrangement e.g. string quartet version and write a new section e.g. use compositional techniques to write a new ‘B’ section
• You can arrange it for a different instrumental ensemble that hasn’t been done before
• Use DAWs like soundtrap/garageband to use the arrangement (the video below was listed in resources for the ‘listen to arrangements’ section of this lesson; this would be a good example of how it can be done)

So there are many ways to complete the task, the more innovative the better. The good thing about the ‘Arrangement Guide Sheet’ is that it simplifies the composing/arranging process and when they are done planning I can review it and make sure they are on track to a successful arrangement. There will be a few lessons to complete this and some teacher guidance so students won’t feel overwhelmed.

As I was reading about Elena Kats-Chernin, I discovered some musical influences of hers, and thought it would be beneficial for students to engage in some study of their work. I incorporated a work from Tchaikovsky and Brahms for a melodic dictation, performance activity and comparative analysis in order to give a broader scope of the conception of ‘Eliza’s Aria’ and the musical background of Elena Kats-Chernin herself.

Audio excerpt for Tchaikovsky – Theme from Swan Lake

Audio excerpt for Brahms – Hungarian Dance No.5

Manuscript excerpt for Swan Lake and Hungarian Dance No.5

I selected these pieces as they shared some similarities with ‘Eliza Aria’ and had parts that were suitable for melodic dictation at this stage of learning. I downloaded the YouTube files and edited them in Soundtrap only selecting a suitable portion of the piece (in relation to difficulty). The Manuscript excerpt will be a 2-sided sheet where it is differentiated for those who can do the melodic dictation with very little assistance and those who need more assistance. I tried to be as strategic as possible when it came to revealing notes; not revealing step-wise scale movement or leaps that could be identified within reason.

I found a quote on Chernin’s musical influences and thought it would be useful for a classroom discussion covering topics like the nationalities of the composers, the context of their compositions and identifying similarities/differences between their music and Chernin’s music.

I made this PowerPoint Slide on Elena Kats-Chernin for the class discussion

(Article on Elena Kats-Chernin which features the quote on the slide)

I created a Guided Comparative Analysis Sheet to assist students in the comparative analysis but also to use it as tool to help them distinguish the concepts of music and how to match them with what they are hearing.

I decided to create a simple yet fun activity that I think it will help break up the tone of the lesson. This way the lesson is not all notation reading, not all strictly teacher-directed and it allows students to use devices. Knowledge gained from the internet scavenger hunt will be more memorable to the students, than if I had a list of facts on the board and directed the students to read them. The questions are designed to familiarize the student with the composer, the context of the piece and get them thinking about why they should learn this; a good discussion point would be how these things influence our interpretation of the music/score. Here is a link to the ‘Internet Scavenger Hunt’ which I created.

I also found a progressive sight-singing book online which I thought would be a useful tool for small homework assignments and would give me time to write my own in-class sight-singing exercises.