Middle School Lesson Plans

BEGINNER TRUMPET CLASS

Materials needed: Instrument, mouthpiece, band binder

Objective: Students will be able to play their first tones on instruments with correct playing position.

Introduction:

“Good afternoon everybody! Lets start off by going over some rhythms!”

Theory:

-Review half notes and half rests. Also review over past knowledge so I can check to see they remember and have
retained all that we have taught them.

-“Today we are going to compose our own rhythms. For about 3 weeks we have seen 4/4 and so lets create our own
rhythm. Ethan, give me a bar of 4/4.”

-Continue calling on students until we have 4 measures of rhythms.

-“So this is our own rhythm of the day, lets just go ahead and count in our head.” (Students will practice in their head
and will count out loud.)

- “Now we will count this out loud. Show me ready position. Now show me your platform.” (Turn on the metronome and count
them off.)

-Do this multiple times until they are close to perfect. Ask them to relax.

-“Now I want to introduce something new. (Write 5/4 on the board.) “This is 5/4, can someone tell me how many beats
are in a measure now?”

-Repeat process about writing their own rhythm of the day and then count and clap out loud.

Breathing:

“So today we are going to review our breathing exercise.”

-“Now I want everybody to keep their mouthpiece in their lap. Show me your counting fingers on the other hand.” (Turn on the
metronome and count them off.)

- “Now I want everyone to bring their mouthpiece up their face and lets do the exercise.”

-(As the students are doing the exercise I will keep saying START 2 3 4, STOP 2 3 4 for the first 2 measures. After this
I will just observe and listen to the kids to make sure they have a constant air stream.)

- I will review this process about 2 or 3 times.

- For low brass I want to hear a lot of air and windy sound through the mouthpiece. For trumpets I need to still hear that
airy sound, not as much as low brass. For French horns I want to make sure angle on mouthpiece is correct and some airy sounds
but not as much as other instruments. For all instruments I want to make sure their faces stays the same and does not move when
they bring mouthpiece up to their face.
FIRST SOUNDS ON INSTRUMENT:

- “Everybody now open your cases and show me ready position with your horns in your lap. Do not put mouthpiece in
receiver yet.” (Allow students time to get their horns. Assist if necessary.)

- Make sure each student has their horn correctly in their lap. Now ask them to place the MP on the receiver.
Remember righty tighty and push.

- Now I will go around and ask each student to show me his or her playing face without the mouthpiece. Once they
have shown a good face, they can now try on the horn. When observing their face give them positive feedback and also give them
critique on any problems they should fix.

- While I am going around, students can stay in relaxed position as long as they stay quiet.

- I will go around to each student once and then again.

TEST (Monday Only):

- Students will have a test over bringing their instrument up to their face and putting it right up to their lips with no
movement in their head.

- Instruct the other students that while we are taking the test, they must stay quiet and respect the other students. If I
hear any noises or them practicing they will receive a deduction on their test.

- GIVE THE TEST

- Once the test is over, I will do it one last time with everybody.

ASSESSMENT:

- T: I will constantly assess characteristics of their sound and face throughout the class while giving
feedback on how to fix it. At the end of the rehearsal I will go around and ask students what their tendencies were.
The questions I ask will be based upon information I gave during class. This is just to make sure the students were
listening and can also comprehend.

CONCLUSION:

- Once I have given them a chance to play I will ask them to carefully remove their mouthpiece from the receiver.
Remember leftly loosey and pull.

- Now that they removed their mouthpiece I will ask them to carefully put their instrument back in their case and close
the latches.

- “Please put your instruments back in your case carefully and correctly. Thank you and have a nice day!”
 Concert Band Lesson Plan

Materials: Instruments, music, pencil

Objective: Students will able to produce good tone on their instrument consistently.

Introduction:

● Start with hand and arm stretches to get everyone’s attention. This will allow me to also go over our agenda for the day.

Sequence:

● First thing I want to start with is playing a concert F. This will allow us to just establish our sound and warm up our
lips. We will hold this out for one whole note, rest for four counts and then repeat.

● Next I want to play just one quarter note. Let’s do this on a Bb. We are going to start this note with the tongue. Some
things I want you to think about are:
● Starting with the tongue
● Tonguing in the same place
● Releasing the note on time

● We will play one quarter note followed by 3 rests and then repeat.

● I want to do this so the students can establish their tone while also going over articulation. Doing this multiple times
will allow them to gain consistency.

● After we have done this numerous times it is now time to move onto our song for the day.

Ode to Joy:

● “Will everyone please take out Ode to Joy.”

● This song consists of many quarter notes so it will allow us to work on some more articulation.

● “Can I have everyone play from the beginning to measure 13?” (Count them off and let them play.)

● After they have completed the rep, give them feedback on either tone or articulation.
 ● “Now I would like to hear the melody, which consists of the clarinets, flutes, and saxophones.” (Have them play)

● “This is the melody so but since there are so many of us we can play a little bit softer.”

● I would like to hear flutes, saxophones, and clarinets at the beginning. I want to make sure we are all breathing at the
same place.

● At this time I can also go down the line and hear individuals to make sure everyone is playing this part right.

● Now I will have the accompaniment part play, which consists of euphoniums and trombones. Work on measure 8 into
measure 9.

● Recontextualize this into the full ensemble. Just play top to measure 13 first. After this we can play through the entire
thing with the repeat.

● Once we have played through this once, I will review what we talked about dynamics yesterday.

● Break down measure 9-13 to apply dynamics. Melody and harmony separate parts.

● Put full band together and then take it back to the top.

Conclusion:

● “Please push your stands down, and have a great day!”

Discipline:

● If at anytime the class is talking or not following my instructions I will just take a step back and wait until they are all
quiet. This will allow them to hear all of my instructions with no distractions.
Symphonic and Honors Band Percussion

Instructional outcome: Students will be able to successfully play first 4 bars of snare drum region music.

Materials: Snare drum, snare sticks, drum pad, pencil, and region music

Sequence:

Introduction:

“Good morning class, today I want to go over the first four bars of the snare drum region music. Before we
look at the music I want to warm up.”

Warm Up:

T: Take out sticks and model small exercise for students. “The exercise we
are going to work on to prepare us for the music is called chicken and a roll.
It is on the second page of your warm up packet.”

S: Students flip to second page

T: I will model the exercise multiple times and then ask the students to play
along with me.

S: Students play music along with me. Once we have played it multiple times,
I will go down the line and ask each person to play it on his or her own.

T: I will give feedback on how they can get a cleaner roll and ask them to do it
again until I am pleased with the exercise.

Region Music:

T: “Now that we have warmed up let’s pull out the snare region music. First
thing I want us to do is number the first eight measures.”

S: Students will number measures

T: “Can someone tell me the time signature?” Time signature is ¾

T: “Let’s take a look at the first four measures of the piece. If we take out the
rolls and flams can someone count out the first four measures?”
S: Student will count first four measures. This mainly consists of quarter and eighth notes.

T: “Now I will play the first four measures and I would like for everybody to follow along.” I play first four
measures.

T: “Now that I have modeled the first four measures, I want to write in the stickings that I used for those
measures.” I will give the stickings and the students will write them in.

T: “Now let's all play the first four measures together.”

S: Students will play the first four measures.

 T: “Now that we have played together I now want to go down the line and give everyone a chance to play on
the actual snare drum. Who would like to go first?”

S: Students will volunteer and ask they go up one by one I will critique them on items such as:

● Rolls
● Volume
● Flams
● Stickings

T: I will give each student assessment as they play and give them multiple times to play.

T: After we have all played individually I will ask everyone to play together as a class.

Closing:

“Okay class, so today we successfully went over the first four bars of the snare drum etude. As this week goes
on I want you to keep working on just these bars for next week.”

THURSDAY

Symphonic and Honors Band Percussion

Instructional outcome: Students will be able to successfully play first 2 bars of mallet etude on region music.

Materials: Mallets, keyboard instrument, pencil, and region music

Sequence:

Introduction:

“Good morning class, today I want to go over the first two bars of the mallet etude of your region music.
Before we look at the music I want to warm up.”

Warm Up:

T: “To start our warm up I want you to take out your region music and flip to
the mallet etude. Can someone tell me what the key signature of the piece is?”
Key signature is G major.

T: “When I find out what key a piece is in the first thing I do is play the scale.
Instead of playing just the scale I want to teach every one a really good
exercise. The exercise is called the green scale.”

T: I will have green scale music for students and pass it out at this time.

T: “I will now play the exercise very slowly and I want everyone to follow along.”

T: “Now let us all play this exercise going measure by measure.”

 S: Students will approach instrument and play along with me.

T: We will do this multiple times until I see everyone can play it.

Region Music:

T: “Now that we have warmed up let’s pull out the mallet etude music. First
thing I want us to do is number the first four measures.”

S: Students will number measures

T: “Can someone tell me the time signature?” Time signature is 4/4

T: “Now I want us to go note by note and name each note. While we name each note I want you to place your
finger on that note on the keyboard.”

T: We will go through first two measures of piece while doing this process.
T: “Now that we have named and seen each note I will play the first two bars and I want you to follow along in
your music.”

T: “Now let’s all play just the first measure very slowly. As you play each note I want you to name that note. ”
S: Students play the first measure while also saying notes as they play them.

T: We repeat process for second measure.

T: “Now that we have played the first two measures together I want to go down the line and have each person
play by themselves.”

S: Students will play both measures while still naming notes.

T: I will give feedback to each student pertaining certain aspects such as:

● Stickings
● Volume
● Mallet placement
● Accuracy

T: I will give each student assessment as they play and give them multiple times to play.

T: After we have all played individually I will ask everyone to play together as a class.

Closing:

“Okay class, so today we successfully went over the first two bars of the mallet etude. As this week goes on I
want you to keep working on just these bars for next week.”