Ben Maynard

Muse 150
2-18-2016

Content and Achievement Standards

Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

c. sing music representing diverse genres and cultures, with proper expression and articulation
manifest in the song.

Class Goals and Objectives

Continue to develop students skills through various singing activities as well as a steady beat.
Enlighten students about the sixteenth, dotted eighth note rhythms in comparison to common
rhythms that they are familiar with.
Students will understand how the sixteenth note dotted eighth note rhythm fits into a beat.

Materials

Document camera and a copy of Old Dan Tucker

Procedures
1. Students and instructor will converse about vacationing to the countryside in Kentucky or Tennessee
and the music that is popular there.
QUESTION: Have you ever visited family or driven through the countryside? Have you ever
been to Kentucky or Tennessee? What kind of music have you heard there?
PROMPT:
Whenever I go and visit my grandma in Kentucky, I hear country music along
with bluegrass music. Today we will be learning a song called Old Dan Tucker,
which can be considered a country or bluegrass song. As I sing this song for you,
listen to some lyrics that might make this a country or bluegrass song.
2. Students will keep a steady beat and listen as the instructor sings/models Old Dan Tucker while
singing eighth note-dotted sixteenth note rhythms instead of sixteenth note-dotted eighth in the chorus.
QUESTION: Having heard the song, what lyrics did you hear that might make this song
country or bluegrass?
PROMPT:
Lets now learn the song together.
3. Students will echo Old Dan Tucker in small segments as modeled by the instructor in an effort
to learn the song by rote. The instructor will repeat this process many times, gradually increasing the
length of the phrase, providing enough repetition so that students will be able to sing accurate pitches,
rhythms, and lyrics.
PROMPT:

Now lets sing the whole song together.

4. The students and instructor will keep a steady beat and sing Old Dan Tucker. The instructor
will be sure to intone the starting pitch to make sure students can start together and sing accurately.
PROMPT:

I bet you can sing Old Dan Tucker without me this time. Lets see.

Ben Maynard
Muse 150
2-18-2016
5. The students will keep a steady beat and sing Old Dan Tucker. The instructor will be sure to
intone the starting pitch to make sure students can start together and sing accurately. The instructor
will evaluate students ability to sing accurate pitches, rhythms, and lyrics as they sing.
PROMPT:

This time, I am going to sing Old Dan Tucker differently. I want you all to
keep a steady beat for me and try to determine how my singing is different.

6. Students will keep a steady beat and listen as the instructor sings/models Old Dan Tucker, this
time with the sixteenth note-eighth note rhythm in the chorus.
QUESTION: What did you notice different when I sang it? How would you describe it?
PROMPT:
Now lets have you try to sing it with me in this new way.
7. Students and instructor will keep a steady beat and sing the chorus in Old Dan Tucker with the
sixteenth-dotted eighth notes rhythms. The instructor will be sure to intone the starting pitch to make
sure students can start together and sing accurately.
QUESTION: With knowing what a dotted sixteenth notes looks like, how might you write this
if you were writing a piece of music?
8. After students have had the experience of singing a sixteenth notes-dotted eighth note rhythm and
speculated on how a composer might indicate this in the music, the instructor will introduce the concept
of sixteenth note-dotted eighth note rhythm to his/her students Students will echo translate the sixteenth
note-dotted eighth note and the dotted eighth note-sixteenth and show how its different from the dotted
eighth note-sixteenth notes rhythm. The class will be divided up and one half of the class will keep the
rhythm and the other half will say the rhythm using Takadimi and vise versa.
9. Students will then learn about the notation of the sixteenth dotted eighth note compared to the dotted
eighth sixteenth note after the instructor uses the board and to create a visual reference to how it fits in a
beat.
10. To end the lesson, students will complete a brief assessment to test their knowledge of the know
rhythm that they learned.
PROMPT:

As you leave class, please fill out the short exit ticket that I will be handing out.

Assessment of Goals and Objectives

Assessment of singing skill will be informal and achieved by monitoring students during singing
activities. Knowledge of the sixteenth note-dotted eighth notes rhythm will be assessed using the Exit
Ticket strategy, having students answer a couple brief questions testing their understanding of the new
rhythm.

Follow up Lessons

Ben Maynard
Muse 150
2-18-2016
Future lessons will focus on other dotted rhythms such as dotted half note-quarter note, dotted quarter
note-eighth note, and possibly dotted sixteenth note-thirty second note.