VH1 Ultimate Albums
Bob Marley - Legend Episode #3
VH1 Music Studio
Cable in the Classroom

Lesson for Music Classes, Grades 7-12

Lesson 4


Objectives:
Students will analyze and describe Reggae music using correct musical terms to 
discuss tonality, instrumentation, meter, tempo, etc.
Students will experiment with singing and dancing to Reggae music in a style appropriate
to the genre.
Students will discuss the use of music to unite and inspire.

National Standards:  6 - Listening to, analyzing, and describing music; 9 - Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

Materials:
VHS VCR Player
Television
VH1 Ultimate Albums, Bob Marley, Legend Episode #3, segment five
Web-based lesson materials
Teacher selected recording of Bob Marley's "One Love"
Lyrics for "One Love" on transparency
	
Procedures:
1. Have recording of "One Love" playing as students walk into the classroom.
2. After students are seated, lead them in an analysis of Reggae music based on the recording they just heard and using the following points of discussion:
a. Tonality - Major or minor?
b. Instrumentation  (review)
c. Meter - Duple or triple?  Why mostly duple?
d. Tempo - Why is the tempo virtually unchanging (easier to dance and move to)?
e. Range of instruments played
f. Articulation - Legato or marcato?  Why?  

3. Ask students to describe Bob Marley and his music using descriptive adjectives and adverbs.  How do the elements discovered in the analysis reflect their descriptions?

4. Play "One Love" for students again, this time creating a short, repetitive dance that would mimic the "I 3's" (Bob Marley's singers) on stage.  Have students join you.  Put lyrics on transparency and urge students to sing.

5. Ask students to comment on the style of dance.  Does it reinforce the message of Bob Marley's music?  Does it remind them of any other styles of dance?

6. Lead students in a discussion of the mood of "One Love".  Why is it the perfect anthem for Rastafari, Jamaicans, and people everywhere (use discussions from the previous lessons as a foundation for this discussion)?  Ask students if they think Bob Marley knew the power of his music.  If students are not familiar with the term, explain the meaning of "epitaph".

Epitaph - A brief statement commemorating or epitomizing a deceased person or something past

From Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary

7.   Did Bob Marley write his own epitaph through his music?  What other musician could have been said to write his own epitaph in the form of a requiem (Mozart)?

8. Show VH1 Ultimate Albums, Bob Marley, segment 5.

9. Guide students in a discussion of the lasting influence of Bob Marley's music.  Do they think Bob Marley's music will always be used to inspire and unite?  Can music be called the Universal language?  Why or why not?  Would  Bob Marley have been as effective had he been a poet, and not a musician?  Ask students to comment on why music has the ability to stir such emotion in its listeners.


These standards-based materials are provided through a partnership with MENC:  The National Association for Music Education.  This lesson plan written by MENC member Renee Gabel, General/Choral Music, Ridley Middle School, Ridley Park, PA.