Responsibility: Putting on a Show!
Orientation
What do you already know about the responsibilities that performers, Audiences and Promoters/Music Companies have?
Complete the following worksheet:
Watch the following clips as a class:
BEYONCÉ - O2 Priority Extended TV Ad.
Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra
Tension created at the beginning of this live concert (until 3’50’’) given by Lady Gaga in 2011 – note how the audience reacts.
The clips above show audiences as well as the artists. Discuss the following questions as a group and feed back to the class:
- Have you been to a live concert recently?
- What was the experience like?
- Before recorded music, live performance was the only way of hearing music. Now that recorded music is so freely available, why do you think musicians still play live concerts?
- Why do we still go to live concerts?
Appoint someone in the group to be a Note taker (write down answers that the group comes up with), a time keeper (keep track of how long you have left) and a reporter (represent the group when it is time to share your answers with the class).
Class Project: Putting on a Show!!
- In groups all students will participate in a performance of one item of music.
- Including an in class performance, and a Stage Performance at the end of year production.
- Leading up to this performance you will have the opportunity to work on advertising the performance, be an audience member as well as a performer.
- You will be given time to practice during class. In these practice sessions the teacher will go around and avise each group to improve the performance and help them manage the responsibilities of performers.
- It is important that each student takes responsibility for his or her own actions in preparing for the concert.
- Students will be given an individual google doc to keep track of what their responsibilities for the assignment has been.
Thinking deeper about the responsibilities associated with live performance.
Give the students the following questions before showing different youtube videos from a variety of different performances to initiate thinking. Again, students should discuss as a group and feedback as part of a class discussion:
- What responsibilities does the performer have? To whom?
- Who else has responsibilities at a live performance?
- Why is the audience expected to act in a certain way when watching a performance?
- What happens if they choose to act in a different way?
Homework Activity
Create a Seesaw video discussing responsibilities in the music industry that are new to you.
Learning goals
4.01 Know that the study of music is concerned with musical expression and communication
4.08 Be able to sing and/or play a melody with accompaniment
4.11 Be able to perform a repertoire of music, alone or with others, paying attention to
performance practice, breath control, posture and tone quality
4.12 Be able to make judgments about pieces of music, showing understanding, appreciation, respect
and enjoyment as appropriate
4.13 Be able to display a range of emotions while playing instruments and singing
4.15 Be able to perform as part of an ensemble and contribute to the overall experience of the
collaboration
4.17 Understand that the work of musicians is influenced by their environment and experiences
What things to you need to put on a show?
- The show should be around 1.5 hours
- How many songs do you need?
- How many acts/bands/artists?
- How will you manage transitions?
- Where will your audience come from?
- What will your audience be inspired by?
REFLECTION - after you have put on your show:
Create a Seesaw video reflecting on the success of the show.
Consider the importance of connecting with the audience as a performer.
Explain what you were responsible for and how you helped the performance succeed.
Exploring ways to connect with the audience
What are some different ways that the performer can make the performance more meaningful for the audience?
Program notes
Sometimes, it is helpful for an audience to have information about a piece before they hear it for the first time. Sometimes there is a verbal introduction by the performer, and sometimes the audience is provided with a programme with lyrics or explanations.
Listen to Marche au supplice (from Symphonie Fantastique), Berlioz, France (1830).
- write down what you liked about the music. What pictures did it create?
Listen again after reading these Program Notes: Marche au supplice (from Symphonie Fantastique), Berlioz, France (1830).
- listen again to the movement after you have read these program notes: the movement title translates as ‘March to the Scaffold’: What do you think this means?
“Convinced that his love is unappreciated, the artist poisons himself with opium. The dose of narcotic, while too weak to cause his death, plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest of visions. He dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned, led to the scaffold and is witnessing his own execution. As he cries for forgiveness the effects of the narcotic set in. He wants to hide but he cannot so he watches as an onlooker as he dies. The procession advances to the sound of a march that is sometimes sombre and wild, and sometimes brilliant and solemn, in which a dull sound of heavy footsteps follows without transition the loudest outbursts. At the end of the march, the first four bars of the idée fixe reappear like a final thought of love interrupted by the fatal blow when his head bounced down the steps.”
What was the difference between the two hearings of the piece? Did the additional information help their understanding, or restrict it? How could this impact on the audience’s responsibility, in terms of the way they perceive and interpret the music?
Write program notes for one of your compositions or performances this year
Your notes should include:
Information about the ensemble (who is playing)
Information about the work they will perform – composer, instrumentation, when it was written, whether it is an arrangement, etc.
A description of the music that will help the audiences appreciate the music at first listening
Any distinctive musical characteristics of the piece that the audience should listen out for.
Learning Goals
4.01 Know that the study of music is concerned with musical expression and communication
4.02 Know the uses of the elements of music
4.03 Know about the origins and history of musical styles and instruments
4.06 Be able to use music vocabulary and apply the elements of music to analyse and describe musical forms
4.12 Be able to make judgments about pieces of music, showing understanding, appreciation, respect and enjoyment as appropriate
Responsibility of the audience and fans.
Consider the following quotes talk about the responsibilities of the audience. Discuss audience ettiquet at different events.
- “It’s up to the audience. It always has been.” – Kate Smith
- “What I’ve discovered is that in art, as in music, there’s a lot of truth - and then there’s a lie. The artist is essentially creating his work to make this lie a truth, but he slides it in amongst all the others. The tiny little lie is the moment I live for, my moment. It’s the moment that the audience falls in love.” – Lady Gaga
Who is responsible for advertising and marketing performances?
You may want to Link back to the skills you learnt in Entrepreneurship Unit and also consider some of the things you have been learning in other subject like Art or Humanities.
Consider different forms of advertising. Facebook, Posters, radio adverts etc.
Work with a buddy or in a group to discuss answers to the following questions:
- How professional concerts are marketed?
- Who does this marketing?
- How far before an event does marketing take place?
- What information does marketing need to contain?
- What are the most effective ways of advertising?
- Why is it important to be organised and to spend time and effort choosing the best actions to promote a concert?
- How might the students market their own concert?
- Having the class report back on different questions and discuss as a whole class.
- If there is time let the students practice their performance.
Task 1
In your group design and make posters to advertise their performance.
- These posters will be put up in the music class or used to advertise our end of year performance.
- The poster must contain all necessary information about the concert, have real impact, focus on a particularly appealing aspect of the performance (appearing for one night only, their first appearance in public, world première, etc.)
Learning Goals
4.09 Be able to make links between music and other disciplines taught in school
4.15 Be able to perform as part of an ensemble and contribute to the overall experience of the collaboration
4.17 Understand that the work of musicians is influenced by their environment and experiences
Homework Activity
Create a Seesaw video discussing: How the choice of advertising for an event could influence its success or lack of success for a performance.
Finish the poster for the class performance.
Practice on the performance if possible to meet as a group.
Complete the tracker of what you are responsible for in the class performance.
Responsibility of the Performers
- Responsibilities of the performer are not just about performing on the day, what else to performers need to do?
- Think and write down responsibilities that performers may have other than practicing and performing (10 mins)
Responsibilities of performers
How they will ensure the stage is set up in advance of their performance
How they are going to come on stage
How they will look as an ensemble
How (and if) they are going to introduce their piece or their group to the audience
How the whole group will know when to begin playing/singing
How they are going to end their performance
Discuss the responsibilities of the performer, e.g.
- Individual practice
- Turning up on time to rehearsals
- Contributing positively to the group dynamic.
- Individual practice
- Rehearsals as a group.
Consider the following quotes:
- “It’s not necessarily the amount of time you spend at practice that counts; it’s what you put into the practice.” – Eric Lindros
- “Practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.” – Vince Lombardi
You will be provided with time to practice
Considerthe following situations. How will you help solve the problems:
- What if someone in the group is overcome by nerves?
- What if someone in the group plays a wrong note?
- Does it matter if performers appear nervous?
- What can the performer/group/audience do to help with nerves?
- Does it matter if a performer makes a mistake?
- Are there useful things you can do to avoid making mistakes and avoid performance anxiety?
These clips feature discussions about performance anxiety. Can you work out which is which?
- A clip showing a contestant on television talent show X Factor being overcome by nerves.
- A studio performance by The Corrs in 2001, during which they made several mistakes.
- Dr Don Greene works with students at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music to help them overcome performance anxiety.
Learning Goals
4.15 Be able to perform as part of an ensemble and contribute to the overall experience of the collaboration
4.17 Understand that the work of musicians is influenced by their environment and experiences