Say It Loud!:
A Celebration Of Black Music In America 
  
Lessons for High School Music and Social Studies Classes
Episode 3: Can I Get A Witness
  
Lesson 3 of 3
Gospel Beginnings 

  The Following Lesson Plan was originally written in collaboration with MENC: 
  The National Association for Music Education to correspond with the VH1 Music 
  Studio episode "Legends: Aretha Franklin" and has been adapted for 
  use with "Say It Loud! A Celebration of Black Music In America" 



Objectives 
  
  
  Students will: 
  € Students will identify musical characteristics of gospel 
  € Students will sing a gospel selection 
National Standards for Music Education
  1--Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music
  6--Listening to, analyzing, and describing music
  9--Understanding music in relation to history and culture. 

  
  Materials


  € VHS VCR Player
  € Television
  € VH1 Cable in the Classroom program VH1 Legends: Aretha Franklin
  € Web-based lesson materials
  € Paper and pencil
  € Recording and sheet music of a gospel selection, such as the traditional 
  "Precious Lord, Take My Hand," by Thomas Dorsey, or the contemporary 
  "Show Up!" by John P. Kee, or any gospel selection in your school 
  music library that you also have a recorded version performed by a gospel choir
Optional: teacher-provided recordings of Aretha Franklin, such as "Precious 
  Lord, Take My Hand," "Respect," or "Who's Zoomin' 
  Who 

  
  
Procedures 


Part I
  1. Play a recorded example of "Soul" music as students enter the classroom 
  and get settled. Ask students if they have heard this type of music before. 
  You may refer to the following information about soul music.
  According to Baker's Dictionary of Music, soul music, also known as rhythm 
  and blues, exhibits two strains: upbeat, funky music associated with Stax and 
  Atlantic labels, and sentimental ballads evolving from the Motown sound. In 
  either case the singing style is passionate and embellished.
2. Tell students they are going to watch a program about expressing spirituality 
  through music. 
3. Have students take pencil and paper to note different genres of music they 
  hear in the program.
4. Play program.
5. Discuss with the students what styles of music they hear in the program.
  (Accept reasonable answers, including gospel, jazz, pop, rhythm and blues, soul, 
  Motown, etc...) During discussion the teacher may provide live or recorded examples 
  of each style mentioned. 
6. Ask students which style they heard first. (Blues Song)
7. Lead a discussion about one of the artist's featured in the program, 
  Aretha Franklin, who grew up as the daughter of an African-American preacher 
  and was immersed in traditions of the church's spiritual and gospel music. 
  You may wish to bring out development of the gospel tradition from your own 
  knowledge of music history. Some of the points you might want to mention include:
After the U.S. Civil War, African American churches emerged with the predominant 
  style of sacred music being the Negro spiritual with its roots in slavery and 
  work songs. A splinter group left the Black Baptist church in 1895 re-emerging 
  as the Church of God in Memphis, Tennessee. Members sang spirited songs accompanied 
  by piano and often tambourines and drums. 
While spirituals were more often somber in feeling, the jubilee was happy and 
  lively. Both influenced the development of gospel music.
Aretha Franklin performed, along with her sisters, in revival meetings on the 
  road and the New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit where her father preached. 

Her father, known as "The Man with the Million Dollar Voice," was 
  part of the tradition of great orators in African American churches who delivered 
  his spoken message in musical cadences, crescendos and decrescendos, repetition 
  and variation, and of course, call and response. (Give students or ask students 
  to provide examples of each.)
Singers of sacred music in gospel traditions sing with sincerity, dignity and 
  passion. Vocal improvisation is spontaneous, not planned, led by spiritual fervor.
Ask students if they can name other popular singers who spent formative years 
  singing in church choirs ( Sam Cooke, Cissy Houston, Whitney Houston, Gladys 
  Knight, etc.. ).
8. Lead students to notice that while Franklin found popular success and fame 
  as a rhythm and blues soloist, she frequently returned to her roots of gospel, 
  whether singing Thomas Dorsey's "Precious Lord, Take My Hand," 
  at Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral in 1968, or her albums such as One 
  Lord, One Faith, One Baptism (1987), Gospel (1991), Amazing Grace (1999), etc....

Part II

1. Choose a gospel song recording and sheet music from your school's music 
  library. (For suggestions, refer to Materials section above.)
2. Play an excerpt from the recording, asking students to listen for musical 
  characteristics.
3. Lead a brief discussion of three common musical characteristics of gospel: 
  syncopation, strong beats on two and four, and call and response form. (Students 
  may mention other characteristics, too, including either slow long-phrased melodies 
  or a fast syncopated melody, fervent feelings expressed by choir members, harmonies, 
  congregational participation, etc...)
4. Explain the use of syncopation in the gospel song, and write an example 
  of this rhythmic pattern on the chalkboard. Have students echo-clap the pattern. 
  Play the selected gospel song again and have students listen for the syncopated 
  pattern as you clap it each time it occurs.
5. Play the recording once again, instructing half of the choir to clap the 
  syncopated rhythm as the other half claps on beats two and four throughout the 
  song.
6. Ask students to listen for the call and response in the selected gospel 
  song. Replay the recording.
7. Teach the "response" by oral tradition, choosing a lead singer 
  to improvise on the call. After going through individual parts, have students 
  sing the entire song with piano accompaniment--unless you have access to a Hammond 
  organ, the keyboard accompaniment most associated with gospel music. 


Extension

Have students find a song in their own CD collection, their parent's or 
  grandparent's record collection, a church hymnal, or other songbooks they 
  might have access to that have a syncopated rhythm similar to the piece they 
  have just studied in class. Have students bring in their findings. Play the 
  music in class--if students bring in a songbook, play the selection on the classroom 
  piano. Have students identify the rhythms in each selection. How many styles 
  of music are represented? You may even wish to have students write a short statement 
  on their selection's style and how it correlates to gospel.
VH1, in partnership with Cable in the Classroom, collaborated with
  MENC: The National Association for Music Education to develop this series of 
  lessons.
  Part II of this lesson is adapted from Strategies for Teaching Specialized Ensembles, 
  compiled and edited by Robert A. Cutietta (MENC: Reston, 1999).National Standards 
  for Music Education
  1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music. 
  2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of 
  music.
  3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments. 
  4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines. 
  5. Reading and notating music.
  6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music. 
  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.