9/27 Observation: 7th Grade Woodwinds Lesson Plan

Objectives:
1. Students will practice appropriate breathing in and out of time by taking in and
expending as much air as possible without moving their shoulders.
2. Students will transfer breathing exercises to mouthpiece and account for
resistance from mouthpiece with extra air.
3. Students will execute good posture (feet flat on floor, sit up tall, bring mouthpiece
to you).
4. Students will verbalize and execute the rhythms from the rhythm sheet.
5. Students will transfer rhythm practice to literature work (Harry Potter) in order to
accurately play the rhythms in the piece.
6. Students will execute dynamics in long tone exercises without teacher prompting.
7. Students will say the counts and play exercises on method book page 15 while
adhering to slurs, accidentals/key signatures, and rhythms appropriately.
8. Students will review the notes in the concert F scale and play them in time.
9. Students will use knowledge of concert F scale to navigate a sight-reading in
concert F.

Procedure:
1. Teacher leads students through Brain Gym exercises
a. Neck Rolls (releases tension; encourages binocular vision for reading)
i. Slow and not too much extension because we don’t want to pull a
muscle; don’t make full circle, instead go right to left and vice versa
b. Brain Buttons (increase blood flow to ears; better listening)
i. With pointer finger and thumb, gently try to unfold the outer fold of
your ear as you move from the top to the ear lobe
2. Students participate in Breathing Gym
a. Unmetered (encourages usage of full capacity of lungs at both extremes)
i. Breathe in, hold, take two more sips of air, hold, exhale, hold, push
out two more exhales, hold, repeat
b. Metered
i. In for 4 out for 4; 3:5; 2:6; 1:7; 1:18 (this last one is a challenge
one)
3. Students move to mouthpiece playing
a. Do metered breathing exercises with the mouthpiece in place
b. Game time: breathe in for 4 and out for as long as you can (I challenge
them to beat me)
4. Move to rhythm practice
 a. Dotted-quarter practice 2.0 sheet (attached at end of lesson plan)
i. Work on ¾ exercises; first tapping the beat across the body while
doing the ta-ka-di-mi, then playing on their mouthpieces
b. Then have them take out Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and look at
measure 10 (saxes look at board)
i. Ask them if the rhythm we just worked on is in that measure, then
have them play the rhythm with the notes from the piece
5. Move on to Long Tones exercise ( I don’t have a digital copy to attach for you,
sorry!)
a. Play through the exercise with a metronome and stop them after first line
b. If they didn’t do the dynamics, have them do the line again and don’t tell
them what to do to fix it (we’re working on doing dynamics without teacher
prompting)
c. Repeat process until improvement is made
6. Move on to Method Book Page 15
a. Play through Exercises #56-58 addressing key signature, time signature,
and accidentals
b. In 56, review what a fermata is
c. In 56 and 57, reinforce the concept of slurs
d. In 57, address pick-up note
e. In 58, ask them to point out musical concepts (pick-up note, key sig, etc.)
7. Move on to scale sheet (Concert F scale, level 2)
a. Have students in each section verbalize notes in Concert F scale
b. Play through scale note-by-note, addressing new notes when necessary
c. Play through scale with tempo
8. Move on to sight-reading (I will pick on in the key of F concert)
a. Prompt them to make a connection between the key signature and the
scale we just worked on
b. Tap and ta-ka-di-mi, then airplay with fingerings, then play for real

Assessment:
Assessment for this lesson will take place largely informally. I will ask questions and
assess student understanding by who answers correctly. I will also have students play
individually should I believe they are not understanding or executing the task
successfully. For long tones, I will assess understanding of dynamic contrast as a group
rather than individually. Posture will be assessed and addressed verbally by me if
inappropriate.
Standards Utilized:
MIB.1-6 & 10-15