Xylophone Lesson Plan
Illinois State Standards
Anchor Standard 7 (Responding)
Perceive and analyze artistic work.
Enduring Understanding: Individuals choose music based on their interests, experiences, musical understanding, and each musical work’s purpose.
Essential Question: How do individuals choose music to experience?
Anchor Standard 8 (Responding)
Construct meaningful interpretations of artistic work.
Enduring Understanding: Through their use of elements and structures of music, creators and performers provide clues to their expressive intent.
Essential Question: How do we discern the musical performers’ emotions, thoughts, and ideas?
Anchor Standard 9 (Responding)
Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work.
Enduring Understanding: The personal evaluation of musical work(s) and performance(s) is informed by analysis, interpretation, and teacher- or student-established criteria.
Essential Question: How do we judge the quality of musical work(s) and performance(s)?
Anchor Standard 10 (Connecting)
Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.
Enduring Understanding: Musicians connect their personal interests, experiences, ideas, and knowledge to creating, performing, and responding.
Essential Question: How do musicians make meaningful connections to creating, performing, and responding?
Objectives
Students will:
- Learn the history of the xylophone
- Listen to two xylophone songs
- Compare and contrast xylophone songs
Materials
- Computer
- Speakers
- Smartboard
- Xylophones
Activities
-
Listen and Watch
3-7 minutes
“Danse Macabre” by Saint-Saëns (listen to all or a portion)
Listen to how the xylophones and other percussion instruments mimic the sound of skeletons (piece means “Dance of Death”). -
History of the Xylophone
15-20 minutes
Students share what they already know about the xylophone.
- Pitched percussion
- Different kinds of xylophones/pitched percussion: marimba, glockenspiel, vibraphone
- Bars made from wood or metal and played by hitting with a drum stick called a mallet
- Xylophones first found in Africa and Asia
- First used in Humperdinck’s opera Hansel and Gretel
Talented percussionists can play with four mallets – two in each hand! Example video: “Super Mario Bros.” theme on marimba performed by Aaron Grooves
-
Compare and Contrast
10 minutes
- Which example do you prefer and why?
- How do the examples sound similar?
- How do the examples sound different?
-
Depth Questions
15 minutes
- How do individuals choose music to experience?
- How do we discern the musical performers’ emotions, thoughts, and ideas?
- How do we judge the quality of musical work(s) and performance(s)?
- How do musicians make meaningful connections to creating, performing, and responding?
