Ab Major Lesson Reflection

For this lesson, I wanted to teach the Symphonic Band the Ab Major scale. From

previous lessons, they knew the C major scale, the flat scales up to three flats, and the sharp

scales up to two sharps. Middle schoolers are generally expected to know their major scales up to

four sharps and flats, so this would be a good and appropriate extension of their knowledge.

First we went over the key signature and note names of the Ab major scale. They already

knew the order of flats as well as the Eb major scale, so learning the Ab major scale was a

natural next step. We first went over the key signature and note names before playing it together

as a group. Then, I asked for a few volunteers to play for the class, and actually got a fair amount

who stepped up. The most common issue was a D natural instead of a Db, but most of them just

needed to be reminded of it, then it was easily fixed. Many of them were playing multiple

octaves had some issues towards the top, but once they were given another chance they were

able to correct themselves.

As many of them were able to play their Ab major scale fairly comfortably, I pushed

them a little bit further and went over some other concepts as well. First, we played the Ab major

arpeggio. To do so, I wrote down the scale on the board and put numbers on top of them. Then,

we would play 1-3-5-1-5-3-1. In a similar manner to how we went through the scale (as a class,

then with volunteers), we went through the arpeggio. They seemed to understand the number

system, so I used it to teach them how to play the scale in thirds as well. So with this it was 1-3,

2-4, 3-5, etc. I would also point at the numbers on screen as they played so they would

understand what exactly they were supposed to be playing at any given time. Lastly, we went

through what I called a “ladder” exercise, where we went 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, etc. Just like with the

other exercises, they were able to get through this one without too much trouble.
 The students all appreciated the new approaches to the scales that I showed them. As they

already knew a lot of scales already, it was refreshing to learn new takes on them. If I were to

teach this again, I would have made a visual aid with the pitches written out on the staff for them

all to see. The numbers and note names on the whiteboard were helpful, but I would have made

more connections had I actually made a PDF of staff paper. I will consider doing so next time.