Overview of Educational ActivitiesClinics and PerformancesResources available from The U.S. Army Field BandArts and Education AffiliationsCelebrating the music of Aaron Copland
The Listening RoomRead our newsletterHome PagePerformance SchedulePerforming Ensembles

Mi Alma Latina: High School Band Lesson Plan

High School Band Lesson Plan, PDF version
Bringing Music To Life

Back to Mi Alma Latina Introduction

OBJECTIVES:

  • Students will sight-read Dos Arbolitos with at least 75% accuracy.
  • Students will identify their musical role(s) in the music.
  • Students will define the term “ostinato” and identify it in Dos Arbolitos.
  • Students will discuss how lyrics can affect an arranger’s musical decisions.
  • Students will listen to a recording of their own band’s performance and identify points for improvement.

MATERIALS:
PROCEDURES:
  1. Distribute Dos Arbolitos to the students and, as they study their parts, discuss the importance of listening across the entire ensemble when sight-reading. Record the band as they sight-read Dos Arbolitos.
  2. Listen to the recording performed by the Field Band, asking the students to pay special attention to style and articulation. Also ask the students to identify how many different roles/characters they hear in the recording.
  3. Ask each section what roles their instruments have in the music—are they supportive, melodic, and/or rhythmic? Students should cite specific examples by measure number or another clear means.
  4. Ask the band if there is a common, repeated rhythmic pattern throughout and identify it. Ask students to decide on their own if, where, and when they have this pattern. Reread Dos Arbolitos with only that rhythmic line played.
  5. Explain how this is known in music as an “ostinato.” Have the students as a class create a definition for the term.
  6. Read aloud the translated lyrics to Dos Arbolitos. Ask how they might affect the arranger’s musical decisions when he wrote the music. Possible questions should include the following: what is the overall feel of the lyrics—heavy or light? How does the arranger use rhythm, articulation, and melody to express that feel? Dos Arbolitos means “two little trees;” are there any examples of how the number two appears in the music?
  7. Record the band as they reread Dos Arbolitos. Tell the students to use everything they have discussed to create a more musical presentation.
  8. Play both of your recordings and ask the band if they hear any changes in their performance. What was done well? What still needs improvement?

ASSESSMENT:
  • Did the students sight-read Dos Arbolitos with at least 75% accuracy?
  • Did the students correctly identify their various musical roles in the piece?
  • Did the students correctly define the term “ostinato?”
  • Did the students discuss the effect of lyrics on musical composition and interpretation?
  • Did the students use recording as a tool to identify how points to improve their performance?

NATIONAL STANDARDS:*
2.

Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

  • 2a. Students perform with expression and technical accuracy a large and varied repertoire of instrumental literature.
  • 2b. Students perform an appropriate part in an ensemble, demonstrating well-developed ensemble skills.
5.

Reading and notating music.

  • 5b. Students who participate in a choral or instrumental ensemble or class sight-read, accurately and expressively, music with a level of difficulty of 3, on a scale of 1 to 6.
6.

Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.

  • 6c. Students identify and explain compositional devices and techniques used to provide unity and variety and tension and release in a musical work.
7.

Evaluating music and music performances.

  • 7a. Students evolve specific criteria for making informed, critical evaluations of the quality and effectiveness of performances, compositions, arrangements, and improvisations, and apply the criteria in their personal participation in music.
  • 7b. Students evaluate a performance, composition, arrangement, or improvisation by comparing it to similar or exemplary models.
  • 7c. Students evaluate a given musical work in terms of its aesthetic qualities and explain the musical means it uses to evoke feelings and emotions.

*From National Standards for Arts Education. Copyright © 1994 by Music Educators National Conference (MENC). Used by permission. The complete National Standards for Arts Education and additional materials relating to the Standards are available from MENC—The National Association for Music Education, 1806 Robert Fulton Drive, Reston, VA 20191