Walking to the Sky 1

Objective: Students will perform sections of Walking to the Sky with improved tone,
articulation, and alignment while also being challenged to assess and offer suggestions to their
peers

Assessment: Is there an active effort being made to improve tone quality and intonation? Is there
definitive articulation in the sections that need one? Are the notes vertically aligned front to
back?

Warmup:
1. Show them the statue of walking to the sky
2. Tell them about Jonathan Borofsky
a. He's a sculpture artist that graduated from carnegie mellon in the late 60s and has
been commissioned for his sculptures ever since. He only sculpts human figures
depicting daily human life and struggle.
b. The sculpture walking to this guy consist of a 100 foot tall stainless steel pole
facing the sky. 5 realistically painted life size figures are walking upwards,
including a little girl and three people standing at the base looking up. A
celebration of the human potential for discovering who we are and where we want
to go the sculpture was inspired by his favorite story as a kid of a giant who lived
in the sky. what was unique about this giant is that he did good things for people,
we visit him and the sky and discuss what good things we could do down on
earth. That got me thinking how do you go to the sky? how do you get up there?
c. The sculpture is installed in dallas, pittsburgh, seoul south korea, and rockefeller
center in new york where it was viewed as the unofficial tribute to 9/11 victims.
d. We're going to listen to the piece now and I'm going to leave the pictures up think
about how this piece relates to you we're all striving in life to make ourselves
better, think about how that applies personally to each of your lives.

Lesson Sequence:
3. Let's start at the beginning, we'll play a little ways into it before we go back and fix some
stuff. take what you thought about while looking at the sculpture, apply here. I know all
the notes aren't quite there, but we're all musicians, let's put some music into this piece of
art- stop @ m.85
4. Beginning-
a. Clarinets and saxophones (toms, congas, cabasa)
i. Don't let your lower notes be softer than your higher notes, keep
everything at a consistent dynamic - push more air through the lower notes
 so the top notes don't stick out as much. Saxophones, don't let your eighths
be any louder than what you hear the clarinets doing.
ii. EVERYONE LISTEN TO HOW THEY PLAY IT-- DO YOU THINK
THE 8THS ARE SHORT ENOUGH?
iii. Clarinets make sure you get out of the way and start today crescendo at
least two measures before the melody comes in - add everyone stop at 25
5. M 17
a. Anyone with any kind of eighth note including percussion
b. Think about your vertical alignment within the different articulations --
EVERYONE ELSE LISTEN AND TELL ME HOW THE ARTICULATED
EIGHTHS FIT IN WITH THE SLURRED. FOLLOW UP: WHO NEEDS
TO COME OUT MORE?
c. Again with that in mind plus people with whole notes - then everyone - play to 49
6. M. 41
a. Melody only including vibes
i. Listen for intonation - if you can't hear the synth you're too loud you're all
in unison. she's your reference for pitch. if you're closer to vibes listen
there - hold out each pitch if needed. Same at 45
ii. EVERYONE ELSE---IS IT IN TONE, IS IT IN TUNE. WHAT
ADVICE CAN YOU GIVE TO HELP IF YOU PLAY THIS
SECTION AT A DIFFERENT TIME?
iii. Get into that-- everyone-- two before 41-- stop at 49
iv. Regroup--offer some kind of feedback whatever that may be
v. Two before 41 to 73-- apply everything we've gone over today into these
sections, they're all the same with a few differences in who has what. be
intelligent, aware musicians