Free Activity

bursts

Main content: verticality

Cultural reference: Beethoven, 1st movement of Symphonie #3, op. 55

Pedagogical objectives

  • The student is able to identify short sounds with frank and energetic attacks.
  • The student is able to create a short sound with a frank and energetic attack.
  • A student conductor is capable of directing clearly using signs.

 

Pedagogical intentions

  • Initiate the students to the notion of verticality in music.
  • Improve upon the students’ knowledge of the following musical parameters: timbre, duration, intensity
  • Refine the students’ perception of the characteristics of an attack: firm, soft, etc...
  • Improve the students’ responsiveness to the conducting gestures

Tools

Volume
Pluck
Selection tool

Camp musical Père-Lindsay, Val-St-Côme, Québec

Process

Setup:
  • Divide the group into small teams.
  • The teacher asks the students to choose two “rich” sounds, with a firm and loud attack, from the “short sounds” bank.
  • The student can also create their own two sounds, for example, by isolating the attack fragment of a long sound.
Performance:
  • The teacher (or a selected student) points in a random fashion to the different teams, who immediately trigger the playback of one of their sounds.
  • Assessment: listen to each sound and comment on them. Are the sounds chosen appropriate to the exercise (clear attack and articulate)? Were the signs of the conductor well respected?
  • Students revise their choices, if necessary.
  • Repeat the exercise but with a student conductor.

Example: Creating sounds

(The value on the metronome is very low, as such a sound will not repeat if a student hold the "pluck" tool for longer then needed.)

Suggestion for a creative activity

Proposal

  • Ask the students what might be the contrary to verticality.
  • Ask the students to find a “horizontal” sound from the fonofone banks, or to create one.
  • Build a texture using these sounds.
  • Collectively decide upon a musical form, based on the opposition between “horizontality” and “verticality”.