Part 4

							Piano Pedagogy II Final Exam Part 4: Group Lesson Plan
Compiled by: James Berry, Boise State University Title: Fun With Chopsticks and Intervals Materials: Digital pianos for each student with MIDI capability, MIDI disk of Chopsticks, interval flash cards, 4-6 part Ensemble version of Chopsticks Objectives: o Students will play the popular song Chopsticks in an ensemble, designing their own instrumentation. o Students will learn about intervals and basic V-I chord structure and be able to make up their own accompaniment o Students will work on hearing intervals and improve their ear training skills. Procedure: 45 minute Group Lesson Students will enter the room and all sit down at their keyboard and listen for instructions. The teacher will say to the students – “Today we are going to be playing a very familiar song as an ensemble and later you will get a chance to make up your own part.” The instructor will then ask the students to listen as the instructor plays Chopsticks and asks the students to recognize the tune. Of course, one of the students will most likely raise their hand. At this point, hand out the 4-6 part ensemble version of Chopsticks. In your arrangement, vary where the melody is located and also make sure that some parts have chordal accompaniment between G and C – wherever is appropriate. Spend about 15 minutes sight reading and working out the kinks of Chopsticks and then ask students to find an appropriate instrument for their part. If their part is high, perhaps suggest a flute. If it has the bass, suggest a tuba or string bass. Have the students try and guess which instruments that the others picked out. Next swap parts and have students sight read the other parts with the instruments of their choice. Once they have had a sufficient amount of fun, ask them to sit in a common area with their music to talk about some of the concepts of the piece Chopsticks. Explain that the piece is made up of chords and intervals. Tell them, that first we will talk about the chord structure. Tell them that the whole song is made up of 2 chords – G7 and C which alternate back and forth. Ask them to spell these chords and come up with suggestions for accompaniment patterns. Have the students go back to their keyboards and ask each of them to come up with a unique pattern alternating each measure to fit the chord structure. Have them all play together their unique pattern with you playing the main melody of Chopsticks. If they are advanced students, see if they can transpose the song into another key – such as G, D or F. This should take roughly 15-20 minutes. Return to the common area and explain the concept of intervals being the space between two notes and ask what intervals make up the song Chopsticks. Have them right in the intervals below the notes on a solo copy of Chopsticks. Use flash cards to help them with this and see if they can recognize intervals by sight. After this if you have time, play an ear training to see if they can recognize intervals by hearing them. This should take the remainder of the lesson time.