Lesson Plan Information 

 
Lesson Plan Name: 
3/27/2018 
Symphonic Band 
 
Lesson Objective: 
Students will: 
● Perform warm-up with proper intonation and dynamic levels while working on 
developing their tone. 
● Perform the “Shenandoah” section of American Riversongs with proper phrasing 
and dynamics. 
 
Standards (Connecticut, National, District):  
MU:Pr4.2.E.Hs novice 
a. Demonstrate, using music reading skills where appropriate, how knowledge of formal 
aspects in musical works inform prepared or improvised performances. 
 
Repertoire:  
American Riversongs ​by Pierre La Plante 
 
Materials: 
Scores for the piece listed above, a whiteboard, a metronome, aux cord, phone/computer to 
play recording of ​Shenandoah 
 
Assessment: 
● Performance and discussion on phrasing in ​American Riversongs 
 
Procedure 
 
● Students enter the room, go to their chair and begin setting up their instruments. 
Once instruments are set up, teacher will begin the warm-up. 
● Warmup: 
○ Chromatic Long tones at 60 bpm  
○ All Scales in the Circle of Fifths at 108 bpm 
○ Tune 
■ Teacher will play a Concert F for the ensemble, students will tune on 
their own. 
● Teacher will have students play a Concert F together at a mf 
level, while listening for intonation. 
■ Repeat process with a Concert Bb 
■ Pitch Barometer exercise 
● Students will all hold out a Concert F together and listen for 
blend and intonation. Teacher will point to a particular 
 section or small group of students and cut the entire 
ensemble off except for those students.  
● Teacher will ask those students if they think they were sharp, 
flat, or in-tune with the rest of the ensemble.  
● Teacher will then ask the rest of the ensemble.  
○ Repeat for each section in the ensemble 
○ Teacher will have this recording of the song “Shenandoah” pulled up on the 
computer and ready to play for the students. 
○ Teacher will have students take out ​American Riversongs 
○ American Riversongs 
■ M. 72 - 76 
● Teacher will direct students’ attention to the words “poco rit” 
○ Write it on the board, have students raise their hands 
if they have heard or seen those words before. 
○ If no one has an answer, we will play the passage and 
the teacher will have students focus on the conductor 
for any changes they notice in the beat pattern. 
○ “What happened in the music when we got to bar 
75?” 
■ It got slower, ask again what poco rit could 
mean. 
■ Clarify the words “poco” and “ritard” 
● Clarify phrasing by having students are taking a breath at the 
end of bar 73 
■ M. 76-82 
● Talk through the time signature changes 
○ Ask “How many beats per measure do we have at 
measure 76?” 
○ Where does that change? 
○ How many beats per measure do we have at bar 78? 
● Play through 76-82 with the pickup 
○ Isolate sections with individual lines 
■ Upper woodwinds - add a breath after beat 3 
of measure 79 
○ Horns 
■ Help with rhythms and pitches 
■ Teacher will play each individual phrase on 
the keyboard so they have it in their heads 
before playing it. 
■ M. 89-100 
● Listen for correct notes and rhythms 
● Dynamics - we are growing until we get to the downbeat of 
measure 93, come down and then we are coming back up. 
○ Play recording of Shenandoah for students, pausing to discuss how melodic 
and harmonic lines are related and are played in the recording. 
 ■ Ex: At measure 82, “Do you hear how the sections with the 8th 
notes bring out their moving lines?” 
■ Low Brass at measure 89, listen for how your part is brought out, you 
have the melody now.  
■ Measure 94 - listen for the tempo, it is going to slow down 
■ Measure 95 is going to have more weight on it, direct attention to the 
accents 
○ Play Measures 76 - 89 
■ Correct incorrect rhythms and notes 
■ Discuss the phrasing that was used into the recording, apply it to our 
performance 
○ Repeat process for 89-100 
 
Assessment 
Informal assessments: 
● Questions used to gauge understanding and development of the terms: Phrase, poco 
rit 
● Discussion on the recording and immediate performance after the recording 
Formal assessments: 
● N/A 
 
Next Steps 
● Continuing to work on this section of the piece with attention to style and expressive 
intent. As we move forward with this particular section, students will be engaging 
more with proper musical phrasing that is often repeated. The progress from this 
lesson will be used to apply the concepts discussed to other sections of the piece and 
to other music as students develop as musicians.