Project Idea: Concert Program Notes
Want to give your students a fun project while simultaneously making your upcoming Winter Concert a lot easier? Check out this project idea that I wrote for my Podcasting Across the Curriculum publication in the MusicFirst Classroom. Rather than either announcing the pieces yourself from the stage or writing a script for your students to read, simply create student groups to research each piece that is being performed on the concert, record short podcasts that provide program notes, add QR codes to your printed program, and away you go! I hope that this project is something you can do with your students.
Project Description:
In this project, students involved in their school music program will work to create podcasts that focus on concert program notes for the Winter or Spring Concert. Students will work in groups to research an assigned composition that is being performed at the school concert. Each podcast will include some background information on the composer, any included program notes written by the composer, a musical description of the piece, and student thoughts on performing the piece. The teacher will include a QR code next to each concert selection so that parents, teachers, students, and other members of the school community can learn a little more about each piece.
Suggested Resources:
Student Prompt:
Have you ever been to a concert and wondered about the person who wrote the music, why they titled the piece the way they did, what they were thinking when they wrote it, and why they made the musical decisions they did? Did you know that there are people whose job it is to write what are called Program Notes for concerts? Program Notes are typically written for classical music concerts - rarely (if ever) for popular music. These program notes contain all sorts of information about the composer and the composition. In this podcast project, you will work in groups to create a podcast (2-3 minutes long) about one of the pieces that you are performing in the upcoming school concert. Your teacher will assign your group the piece, and then you will need to answer the questions below.
Project Requirements:
Your podcast should be 2 to 3 minutes in length.
You will announce the title of the piece and the composer or arranger of the piece.
If the piece is an original work, it will have a composer. If the piece has been arranged or adapted for your ensemble, it will have an arranger.
If your assigned piece has an arranger, you should focus on the original composer of the work.
Many pieces that are performed by school ensembles have program notes already included by the composer or arranger. If your piece does, your teacher will share them with you. You should include those notes in your podcast.
If the program notes are very long, you should summarize them into no more than a paragraph.
Using as much musical vocabulary as possible, describe the piece.
What is the instrumentation?
If it is an arrangement, what was the original instrumentation of the piece?
How is the piece structured? Are there multiple sections?
If there are lyrics, who wrote them? What do you think they mean?
How difficult was this piece for you and your ensemble to learn?
Did you enjoy performing this piece? Why? Why not?
When you have completed your podcast, submit it to your teacher for assessment. Don’t worry about creating a QR code for your podcast - your teacher will do that!
If you would like to get access to the complete podcasting curriculum that I wrote for MusicFirst, just sign up for a FREE 30-day trial, visit the MusicFirst Content Library, and you’ll find the complete curriculum in the General Music section.
