OVERVIEW: The three lesson plans, written to correspond with Behind the Music: Music in America 1970, can be used as a unit of study or as individual lessons. Coordinating this unit with the student's social studies/history curriculum will enhance the student's understanding and comprehensive learning of both musical and historical concepts.
[Note to Teachers: This series of lessons covers music that rose to popularity during conflict in the United States over participation in the Vietnam War. Some of the musicians featured experimented with drugs, including two who died from drug-related causes, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. If your curriculum is subject to restrictions on the topic, you should review the videotape before using it in the classroom.]
 | Behind The Music: Music in America 1970
Lessons for High School Advanced Guitar Classes
Folk Rock Singers and Songwriters
Lesson 3 of 3 |
Objectives
- Students will compose and perform a song in a popular or folk style for acoustic guitar and voice or for two acoustic guitars (Can be adapted for composition using other instrumentation)
- Students will listen to and analyze songs of folk rock musicians of 1970
National Standards 2, 4, 6, 8, 9- Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music; Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines; Listening to, analyzing and describing music; Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts; Understanding music in relation to history and culture.
Materials
- VHS VCR Player
- Television
- VH1 Cable in the Classroom program Behind the Music: Music in America 1970
- Web-based lesson materials
- Recordings or sheet music of songs by James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, or comparable singer/songwriters of 1970
- Audio-playback equipment
- Manuscript paper
Prior Knowledge and Experiences
- Students can play first-position major, major-seventh, minor, minor-seventh, and dominant-seventh chords and their barre-chord counterparts.
- Students can play several beginning-to intermediate-level accompaniment patterns
- Students can compose and notate simple melodies using conventional music notation
- Students can notate chord progressions using "slash" notation.
- Students have been introduced to chord functions in a major key and to the use of borrowed dominants and cadences.
- Students have been introduced to the formal elements of a pop or folk song (verse, chorus, bridge, coda).
Procedures
- Show students third segment of 10 minutes of the video Behind the Music: Music in America 1970. You may show the entire video, but this lesson is related to the video's third segment.
- Lead students in a discussion of the narrator's statement that musicians "turned their backs on politicians" and retreated to "an inner life instead of the outer life." Use as examples James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" and Joni Mitchell's "Circle Song" or other selections from the two singer/songwriters. If you have recordings of these musicians, please share them with the class. What were the social, cultural and political issues that inspired the composition of these pieces.
- Review with students the formal musical elements (rhythm, harmony, etc) of pop and folk songs and analyze two or three examples. How did the elements that the above composers chose, help to enhance the text?
- Have each student compose a song using a given form, all students using the same form; for example: introduction (8 measures), verse 1 (16 measures), chorus (8 measures), verse 2 (16 measures) chorus (8 measures), bridge (8 measures), chorus (8 measures), coda (4 measures). Lead students in a dialogue discussing why the form is used or is effective.
[The following section can be adapted for the level and experience of the students and can be used for composition using various instruments.]
- Help students identify an appropriate key, style, and tempo for their songs. Then assist them in determining the proper chords to be used based on the key of their choice. Limit the chords to I, ii, iii, IV, V, and vi in the chosen key and borrowed dominants V/V, V/ii, and V/IV. [Note: Chord extensions such as minor sevenths may be used if students can play them.] Give careful instruction in the proper use of cadences in the chosen key and in the selected borrowed dominant chords.
- Have students begin drafts of their songs by writing a melody and adding chords, or vice versa. Once their drafts are completed, assist them in notating their songs properly. Explain that they should use a lead-sheet format with a two-staff system--the top staff for the melody and the bottom staff for the chord changes, using slash notation. If the melody is to be sung (rather than being performed by a second guitarist), tell them that they may write lyrics at this time. Emphasize creativity within the given form, but encourage students to keep their songs simple.
- Once you have made suggestions and corrections, have students complete final drafts and perform their songs for the class.
Extension: Play for students a recorded piece that uses the form studied, and ask them to write the name for each section as they hear it.
VH1, in partnership with Cable in the Classroom, collaborated with
MENC: The National Association for Music Education to develop this series of lessons.
The lesson is adapted from Strategies for Teaching Middle-Level and High School Guitar, compiled and edited by William E. Purse, James L. Jordan, and Nancy Marsters: 1999 ( MENC: Reston, Va.).
National Standards for Music Education
- Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
- Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
- Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
- Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
- Reading and notating music.
- Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
- Evaluating music and music performances.
- Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
- Understanding music in relation to history and culture.
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