Blended Learning Lesson Plan

Lesson Title: Making Music Magic

Objectives:
Students will be able to compose and arrange melodies for their instrument within basic forms
Students will be able to play the melodies they arrange for their instrument
State Standards: Intermediate Low - Benchmark IM.CR IL.1

Context: I am teaching this lesson that students can start learning about composing/arranging for
their instrument. In the larger unit, we would go over why arranging for your instrument is a
useful tool and how to use it in the real world. Students will be bringing in a prior knowledge of
playing their instrument while improvising. After this, students will start arranging parts for
other instruments they don’t play. I am teaching students about all instruments and asking
students to demonstrate their thought process when presenting their projects.
Data: Students will be grouped at random, I will simply just ask students to go to whichever
group they want to start out at. There is no hypothetical data to base these groupings off of.
Materials: Computer with Garage band, Musescore, instrument, manuscript paper, pencil.
Procedures:
Introduction (5- minutes): I will explain what all the groups are and what to do in them,
along with letting students pick which group they go to first. This will be very brief, to maximize
time in the groups.
Teacher Directed ( 13- minutes): I will be showing students a common form that many
musicians use in popular music, and then will be asking students to talk about the ideas
they may be having for playing in the form. I will then ask students to play whatever they
think they will want to be arranging. After that I will show students shortcuts in
GarageBand and how to compose easily. With any additional time left over I will show
examples of musicians improvising and composing on the spot.
Collaborative (13- minutes): Students will play what they think they want to be arranging
and composing for others in the group. They will then write down the melody they are playing in
Musescore and ask other students to read it while the student plays what they wrote. Students
will trade off playing for eachother until time runs out.
Independent Digital (13- minutes): Students will be recording themselves playing the
melody line they wrote out and learned in Garageband. They will then add 2 additional
instruments to the track in Garageband. Students will be learning how to quantize the melody
they played and fix any errors they made when recording by editing the track.

Closure (15- minutes): Students will play their tracks for the class. Once everyone has
played their track I will ask students what they learned and how they can apply it to their every-
day practice.

Rationale:
Garageband: This piece of multimedia is good for beginners learning to put and record
music into a DAW. It supports the objective because it allows students to record
themselves, play other instruments in the same track, and listen to it back. I know it is of
high-quality because Apple has done plenty to upgrade this software to be arguably the
best free music recording software in the world. This choice differentiates instruction so
that all learners are able to use it with little to no setbacks. It is easy to use and there are
tools that can be enabled to help those who need help using it.

Musescore: This software is a great tool for students to use because they can write down
and notate any instrument in any style of music. It supports student creativity and lets
students write down whatever music they want to and listen to it back. It supports the
standards because it allows students to write down melodies easily with the easy-to-use
software. It is high quality because I use it all the time to write things for world class
ensembles, and it is easy to use and looks professional. This multimedia is able to
differentiate instruction to anyone that wants to use it. It is easy to use, and there are
different ways to utilize the software to get the same experience as everyone else. If you
have trouble using a keyboard and mouse you can use a tablet and tap in the notes you
want with the touchscreen.