|
|
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 3of 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.
|
