ACO National Concert Season – Musicology Resource

Teaching Resource

PERFORMANCE 7 Activities for Teaching Performance

Contents IN THIS RESOURCE

1

WHAT IS PERFORMANCE

2

PROFESSIONALISM

3

ACTIVITY 1 - DISCUSSION

4

ACTIVITY 2 - DO’S & DON’TS

5

ACTIVITY 3 - INSTRUMENTS OUT!

5

ACTIVITY 4 - PERFORMANCE PRACTICE

5

ACCURACY

6

ACTIVITY 5 - THE HARD PART MUSICALITY

7-8 9

ACTIVITY 6 - THE HARD PART 2

10

ACTIVITY 7 - AT THE CONCERT

11

GENERAL CAPABILITIES AND CURRICULUM LINKS

12

In this Resource This is one of THREE resources released by the ACO for secondary schools to be used prior to and following attendance to ACO performances.

This resource focusses on PERFORMANCE. This resource contains a series of activities that can be used to explore the ACO performance style. Students can progress through the concepts prior to attending an ACO concert and afterwards reflect on how the elements of professionalism, accuracy and musicality came together in the performance.

This resource is best utilised when students complete activities 1 to 6 prior to attending an ACO concert. They can then use activity 7 to reflect on the ACO performance style after seeing them live.

The resource is suitable for students in years 7 to 12 and is relevant to the Australian Curriculum areas of The Arts (Music) with cross-curricula links to English, Humanities and Social Sciences and Technologies.

Teachers should consult their state curriculum body for details on their currently endorsed curriculum/syllabus subject material.

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What is Performance?

The three main areas in performance are : PROFESSIONALISM

ACCURACY

MUSICALITY

PERFORMANCE

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Professionalism

When you present a performance for exam or for an audience, professionalism is important.

Be confident – don’t make excuses!

Be prepared – know your music be rehearsed.

Be tuned – know what your instrument is going to do.

Be warmed up – warm up backstage, not on stage.

Check your balance – before you perform, check your balance in the performance space.

Don’t: Apologize for your performance, either before or after Make excuses for your performance, either before or after Change your piece at the last minute

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Activity 1 Discussion

Watch a portion of the video of ACO’s performance of Beethoven’s String Quartet, Op. 130 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe1CWH8m7EY and discuss the following questions with your students:

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•

What did you notice in the way the ACO performs?

•

With this in mind, what are some of the areas to consider when performing?

•

What would you say are important things to do on stage?

•

How did the concepts of professionalism, accuracy and musicality come together?

Activity 2 Do’s & Don’ts

As a class, list some DO’s and DON’Ts on stage.

Activity 3

Get your instruments out!

Students will present a short performance, with a focus on being as PROFESSIONAL as possible.

Remind your students that even if they think their performance was bad, it is important to: • • •

Take compliments for your performance - say “thank you” rather than disagreeing Acknowledge the audience (bow, nod, or gesture) Don’t grimace or scowl.

Activity 4

Performance Practice A volunteer (or someone chosen by the teacher) will perform an excerpt from a chosen piece.

Remind the students as they perform to focus on being as PROFESSIONAL as possible.

How did the students go?

Feedback: Keep it POSITIVE Keep it CONSTRUCTIVE

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Accuracy

In your performance, you want to be as ACCURATE as possible. This means playing all the right notes (among other things).

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Activity 5

The Hard Part

For this exercise, the teacher may like a volunteer to stand out the front of the class to act as a guinea pig. It’s perfectly OK that this person can’t play the excerpt yet.

Here are two excerpts (you can use alternatives according to the standard of your students).

Ask your volunteer to choose an excerpt, or part thereof, that best suits them. It should be difficult, but not impossible.

Method 1 The first method we’re going to use to get these hard bits under our fingers is the “backwards” method.

Step One – play the excerpt. Make a mistake. Identify the bit where you muck up.

Step Two – Let’s just focus on the hard bit. Just play the LAST NOTE of the hard bit.

Step three – Play the last TWO notes of the hard bit. Play them again. And again.

Step four – play the last THREE notes of the hard bit. Play them again. And again.

Step five – Keep adding one note at a time, taking care to master one step before moving to the next. Do this until you can play the hard bit fluently. Hooray!

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The Hard Part cont.

Method 2 This time, we’re going to try a different method to master the hard bit. Another volunteer might like to stand out the front and choose an excerpt.

This time, we’re going to use the “dotted” method.

Step One - Play the excerpt. Make a mistake. Identify the bit where you muck up.

Step Two – take the difficult passage and change the rhythm. Instead of playing straight

quavers or straight semiquavers, slow it down and play dotted rhythms

instead. Try it Long – Short Long – Short first. Do this a few times.

Step Three – Reverse the dotted rhythm. This time, try it Short – Long, Short-Long.

Do this a few times.

Step Four – Try it straight again!

Method 3 As a class or individually, try learning the notes using one of the two methods described.

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Musicality

You’ve mastered the notes. However, the notes are not enough. We need to add ‘Musicality’.

Generally speaking, Music always needs to GO SOMEWHERE and SAY SOMETHING.

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Activity 6

The Hard Part 2 Here are the excerpts again:

Now that you’ve played them, decide where the music is going. What is the most important note in the phrase? LEAD to that note.

Our last lot of volunteers will perform for the class – combining the three aspects of performance we have looked at today – Professionalism, Accuracy and Musicality.

Feel free to give feedback, but keep it positive and constructive.

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Activity 7

At the Concert

Observe aspects of professionalism, accuracy and musicality during the performance.

What did you notice?

What could you take from this performance?

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General capabilities and curriculum links Teacher’s Notes for reference to the Australian Curriculum: The Arts.

This table identifies general capabilities and cross-curriculum links for pre and post concert lessons sequences.

General Capabilities

Cross Curriculum Links

Critical and Creative thinking (CCT)

English

Personal and Social Capability (PSC)

Humanities and social sciences

Intercultural Understanding (ICU)

Technologies

Literacy (LIT)

Resource created by Matthew Law.

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