David Appelman Lesson Plan #2 E502 Field Experience Beginning Jazz Band Warm-up & Progression Exercise (20

25 minutes)
Class Setting: A beginning high school jazz band comprised of primarily freshmen and sophomores who have 2-3 years of
experience on their instruments.

Overall Goals/National Standards:

1. 2. 3. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.

Behavioral Objectives:
1. 2. 3. 4. The students will demonstrate playing the three identified scales in the chord progression (dorian, mixolydian, and major) within the key of C concert. The students will understand the correlation between the scales (dorian, mixolydian, major) and their relationships within the ii-V-I chord progression through feedback elicited by the teacher. The students will play a provided ii-V-I lick example. Students who volunteer will demonstrate their improvisatory abilities within the ii-V-I progression framework.

Prior Learning: Students are familiar with the dorian, mixolydian, and major scale. Materials:
1. 2. Students instruments. Chord Progression Exercises Handout (ii7 V7 I).

Procedures:
1. The teacher will hand out the Chord Progression Exercises (ii7-V7-I) sheet prior to the beginning of class. 2. The teacher will tune the band, specifically checking the woodwind and brass players intonation with a tuner. WARMUP (Scale Exercise) 3. The teacher will warmup the band by having them play the opening scale exercise on the handout a few times. The teacher will first demonstrate by playing the scale exercise once at a medium tempo, and will then have the band play the scale exercise. 4. The teacher will ask the band, How do the dorian and mixolydian scales relate to the major scale? Based on students answers, the teacher will confirm and expand on the answers, and will also provide a brief explanation as to how the dorian, mixolydian, and major scales are incorporated into many jazz standards. 5. The teacher will also briefly explain how the scales relate to the common ii7 V7 I progression. LICK EXERCISE 6. The teacher will briefly explain how this Lick Exercise is one example of applying these scales to the ii7 V7 I progression. 7. The teacher will first demonstrate the exercise by playing it slowly for the band, and will then have the band play through the exercise a few times until all the notes are played correctly. 8. The teacher will ask the students, What similarities do you notice about the notes in each chord change and the dorian, mixolydian, and major scales? Based on the students answers, the teacher will confirm and expand on the chord scale relationship that is represented in the Lick Exercise. OPEN IMPROV SECTION 9. The teacher will briefly explain how each measure provides an outline of the chord and its related scale. 10. The teacher will isolate the melodic/harmonic instruments of the rhythm section (piano, bass, guitar), and have them play through the ii7 V7 I progression a few times to ensure that their accompaniment for the willing soloists. 11. The teacher will demonstrate improvising over the progression, and will then ask for willing volunteers to experiment with the progression.

Assessment:
1. 2. 3. While the band is playing through the Warmup Exercise, the teacher will walk around the room and observe the students note accuracy. During the Lick Exercise, the teacher will walk around the room and observe the students note accuracy. During both the Warmup Exercise and Lick Exercise, the teacher will ask questions, allowing the students to think critically about the correlation between the scales and their relationships with the ii7 V7 I progression.

Evaluation:
1. What parts of the lesson were successful? a. I thought I was successful i. Using a tuner to ensure the horns were in tune prior to the warmup/exercises. ii. Demonstrating on flute the different sections of the Chord Progression Exercises. iii. Explaining the nature of the dorian and mixolydian scales, and how they relate to the major scale; eliciting feedback from the students regarding this as well. iv. Breaking down the Lick Exercise by looping first two measures and then last two measures, which gave them time to learn the notes and fingerings. v. Preparing the rhythm section (piano, bass, guitar, drums) to accompany the soloists. vi. Explaining the nature of improvising, specifically over the ii7 V7 I progression. vii. Establishing a positive rapport with the students, and giving them a lot of praise and support after the solos. viii. Creating scaffolding for solo volunteers to improvise successfully, despite their lack of prior knowledge with the progression. 2. What areas of the lesson werent as successful? a. I thought I was unsuccessful i. Preparing the unexpected trombonist with their part in the handout. They ended up reading the bass part, which was in the correct clef, and theoretically was still within the playing range of the trombone. The problem was that the student wasnt able to play in the low register. ii. Preparing all of the students with the Scale Exercise. I didnt spend enough time repeating the exercise like I stated in my lesson plan overview. The trumpets were really struggling with their notes; I acknowledged it, but chose to move on to the Lick Exercise instead of helping them. iii. Eliciting enough feedback from the students to ensure that they understood the concepts being taught. In general, I provided a lot of explanation, but only asked Does this make sense? most of the time, rather than asking more open-ended questions. iv. Providing clear, concise, and brief explanations of the concepts being taught. As a result, it ate up valuable time for the students to practice playing the exercises and providing feedback. 3. What changes could be made to improve the lesson? a. I would make the following changes to improve the lesson i. Spend more time preparing my talking points in order to avoid umms and over explanations, also allowing me to design more effective questions that would encourage critical thinking. ii. Prior Learning I was misinformed about the students current knowledge with the dorian and mixolydian scales. As a result, this created a wider Zone of Proximal Development, which made accomplishing my behavioral objectives more challenging. Had I known the students limited knowledge about these scales, I would have divided the lesson into two smaller lessons, with the first focusing primarily on playing and hearing the scales, where the second lesson would be applying the scales to the ii7 V7 I progression.