Here at the Mobile Music School, we understand that some primary school teachers may not be comfortable teaching music or following the Irish Primary School Music Curriculum. For this reason, we have compiled a set of complimentary lesson plans and music resources to help out! This set of easy to follow lesson plans has been designed for primary school teachers, helping them to teach music in the classroom. In addition, these plans are all based on the Irish Primary School Music Curriculum. Each resource has a theme, or story. Further to this, the teacher guides the class through the story, asking students questions along the way. These skills are intended to be developed over the eight weeks, so don’t be disheartened if the children don’t fully grasp the concepts straight away!
Aims and Objectives
1 – Increased awareness of the music that surrounds each child
2 – Introduction to the orchestra
3 – Introduction to the different families of instruments that the orchestra contains
4 – Learning about the role of the conductor
Resources
Musical expert of ‘Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra’ Theme section opening 2.5 mins
Aerial photo/ aerial view of an orchestra
A photo of each of instrument families – string, brass, woodwind and percussion
Activity 1
Teacher: ‘Today we are going to listen to a piece of music. A particular type of musical group performs this piece of music. I would like everybody to put their best listening ears on and figure out what type of musical group we are listening to.’
After the expert has played ask the class if they can tell you what type of musical group we listened to? (An orchestra).
Activity 2
Q: What is the name of the person who writes music?
A: A composer
Benjamin Britten is the name of the composer who wrote Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. Benjamin Britten was born in 1913 and came from England. He was asked to write this piece of music for a television show that taught young people about the orchestra, the instruments it contains, and the type of music it can play.
Q: If Benjamin Britten is the composer, who is the person who is in charge of the orchestra?
A: A conductor
A conductor is the person whose job it is to rehearse and direct the orchestra, set the beat and help the musicians to perform at the correct time.
Activity 3
Put on the musical excerpt and ask the class to catch the beat. Encourage each pupil to listen and clap in time with
the music
Activity 4
Let the class listen to the opening few bars, and ask them to listen very closely to the rhythm that makes up the melody. After this is done, select somebody in the class to clap the rhythm that they think makes up the melody.
Activity 5
Hum or sing the melody. Let the class listen to the opening few bars and ask them to listen very closely to the melody. After this is done,
select somebody in the class to sing or hum the melody that they think makes up the melody.
Activity 6
Ask the class: ‘Are all the instruments in the orchestra the same?’
Explain to the class that the orchestra is broken up or organised into four families; the string family, the brass family, the woodwind family and the percussion family.
Having looked at pictures of these instruments, try and investigate why the instruments in each family are grouped together.
Listen to the expert one last time to establish the sounds of each family.
Keywords – ORCHESTRA, COMPOSER, CONDUCTOR, BEAT, RHYTHM, MELODY, BRASS, STRING,
PERCUSSION, WOODWIND
Strands – Listening & Responding and Performing
Interested in booking a workshop or short programme? If so, contact us here.
