[Note to Teachers: This series of lessons uses songs that address the use of drugs for recreation and escape. If your school policy allows, you might take advantage of opening a discussion on the topic of inappropriate use of drugs. If your curriculum is subject to restrictions on the topic, you should review the videotape before using it in the classroom.]
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Takin’
It to the Streets
Lessons for Middle and High School General Music Classes
Musicians’ Roles
The Modern Day Minstrel
Lesson 1 of 4 |
Objectives
- Students will identify and describe the various roles that musicians
fulfill.
- Students will recognize and identify various genres of music
National Standards for Music Education
7. Evaluating music and music performances.
8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines
outside the arts
9: Understanding music in relation to history and culture.
Materials
- Videotape of Takin’ It to the Streets
- Television
- VCR
Procedures
- Tell students they are going to view a program about musicians
who make their living performing on the streets.
- Tell students that while these musicians perform on the streets,
some have performed in other venues in other capacities. Have students
take out a pencil and paper to note some of the varying roles--or
jobs-- these musicians have filled as they watch the program.
- View program Takin’ It to the Streets.
(Teachers: Please conduct the following procedures at point in time
during the video where you deem appropriate. The program can be used
in full or in part, depending on your curriculum needs.)
- Ask students to identify the different genres of music shown in
the film. Accept reasonable answers, including classical (violinists),
popular or contemporary (Cagle Family), jazz (Doreen Ketchers &
band), rock (Red Elvises). Also, accept folk, novelty (spoons), and
such.
Compare and contrast the similarities and differences between the
program’s featured musicians, with the early day minstrel.
- Lead students in a discussion of roles these musicians have filled.
(Music students, performers, teachers, concert violinists, Chinese
cultural commissar, construction worker, missionaries, immigrants,
parents, grandparents, etc...)
- Discuss with students some of the reasons given by these musicians
for performing on the streets. (Cash, applause, artistic freedom,
self-satisfaction, audience response and access, provisions for family,
reaching people, joy, self-expression, life-style, etc...)
- Ask students to think of where music is performed in their community.
Is there any performed on the streets? Can students think of any spontaneous
place where musicians play? Do most musicians in the community--amateur
and professional— play in organized environments such as community
bands, symphonies, quartets, church choirs, school groups, and the
like?
- Assign students to identify and interview musicians in the community.
Have them report to the class on their findings, including: the musicians’
training, place of performances, musical style, “day” jobs,
amount of practice and rehearsals, how old they were when they began
studying or playing music, why they decided to become musicians, etc...
- Invite local musicians to visit the class and discuss their respective
roles as musicians.
Extensions:
For instrumental or choral classes. Have students discuss reasons
why their ensemble or group might perform in a public place. Accept
reasonable answers, but lead students to think of community goodwill,
school music advocacy, etc... Have students brainstorm about a public
place their group could perform. Students might choose to perform
as a large ensemble, or in small chamber groups. Have students create
a plan to perform in one of the suggested places. Include in the plan
the time and day, equipment needed, repertoire, inclement weather
plan, transportation, permissions or permits, etc....
History and Social Studies Connections. You may wish to coordinate
with your school’s history, government, or social studies teachers
to find out when students study 20th century China or modern political
and governmental powers. The video’s third segment features Chinese
violinist Ying Wei, former Cultural Commissar under the Chinese communist
regime who, because of state censorship of certain music, stopped
performing and earned a living as a construction worker for 30 years.
This personal story illustrates the conflict of political oppression
and artistic freedom that arose in China during the Cultural Revolution
of the 1960s. Have students research the Chinese Cultural Revolution,
using Internet and library sources, and include two to three musicians
or artists whose lives were changed by that government’s policy,
or dictatorial regimes in other countries.
This lesson is adapted from Strategies for Teaching High School General
Music, compiled and edited by Keith P. Thompson and Gloria J. Kiester
(copyright 1997, MENC).
VH1, in partnership with Cable in the Classroom, collaborated with
MENC: The National Association for Music Education to develop this series of lessons.
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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