Activity 1

Who: This activity is for tween and young adolescents who plan to expend their musical knowledge and intend to continue their musical careers into high school and beyond.

The Need: There are a handful of 8th grade band students that are performing beyond their grade level in this area. Because they are seen as gifted, they are not being provided with extra lessons to expand and improve their abilities. This activity focuses on teaching these students the musical scales that they will be required to know by memory if they choose to continue with band into high school. This activity also allows these students to be challenge by new material that has not been covered in class yet, as well as expand their knowledge and abilities on their individual instruments.

What: In this activity, students were asked to memorize the Concert F and B-flat major scales at whatever speed and rhythm was most comfortable for them. The activity began by having each student slowly play the notes for each scale in ascending and descending order. During this process, I would tell the student which note to play, have them hold it for a few beats, and then tell them which note to play next. I then have the students play the notes by reading them on their scales pages, which I had provided prior to the lesson, without me saying the notes out loud. Finally, I had the students turn their stands around and attempt to play the first 5 notes by memory. Once this was successful, I then had them play the entire scale without looking. As expected, this took several tries and a lot of patience from the students, but at the end of each lesson, each student was able to perform both scales by memory. To test their retention, each student was asked to either record themselves playing the scales by memory or perform them for me via zoom in the following lesson before we began to work on the next set of scales. Each student was successful in being able to retain the information that they had previously learned.

UDL and SEL: For this activity I incorporated UDL by allowing my students to have multiple means of expression when it came to performing the scales by memory in the following lesson. To do so, I allowed students to either perform in person, through video recording, or through audio recording. These options were determined by asking each student how they would prefer to be tested on the subject.

For this activity I incorporated SEL by promoting responsible decision-making. During each lesson, I had the students help me troubleshoot by asking them why they think they may be struggling to remember the scales. 3 of the students answered this question by stating that they did not practice as much as they should have. I followed this answer by having them think about whether that was a strong choice and if they believed that choice helped them.

How:

1.       Provide each student with a copy of their scales on a piece of sheet music or through a printable document.

2.       Have each student play the individual notes as you read them out loud.

3.       Ensure that the student is able to follow along with this process.

4.       Have each student play the individual notes without you reading them aloud.

5.       Ensure that the student is able to do this successfully.

6.       Have the student attempt to play the first few notes of the scale by memory.

7.       Once step 6 is successfully, continue with the rest of the scale by memory.

8.       Once step 7 is successful, have the student put the two parts together and perform the entire scale by memory.

9.       Once all steps are successful, attempt to have the student continue to increase the speed of their performance and begin to work on sound quality.

Materials:

·         Printable document of all 12 major scales foe each instrument

·         Proper sound/audio equipment if doing virtual lessons

·         (optional) Instruments to demonstrate