© Copyright Colourful Keys 2019www.vibrantmusicteaching.com

Vibrant Music TeachingGroup Workshop Plan: Beethoven Bash Overview

Quick Look Lesson PlanTIME EST. ACTIVITY NOTES:

5 min Beethoven beat

10 min Guess the era

20 min Conduct like Beethoven

10 min Beethoven’s Bucket Dunk

5 min JUICE BREAK

20 min Improvise like Beethoven

10 min Classical Causeway

10 min Mask colouring

This lesson plan is designed to suit a group of 4-10 students at a variety of levels. (Please note that if you have more than 6 students you will need an extra copy of Beethoven’s Bucket Dunk.)

These activities will work best for students from 4 to 10 years old, although many older students will be happy to get involved too.

The time estimates given are very approximate and many activities may last longer than the listed times. This is a good thing! It’s much better to have too many activities than not enough. Feel free to skip over activities and extend others depending on how your students engage and/or whether they are getting restless.

This workshop is 90 minutes long. If you are doing a shorter workshop, feel free to cut out activi-ties as needed. The activities are all related and well-sequenced, but one does not necessarily have to lead to the next.

What You Need• Beethoven masks (in this PDF)• Improvisation accompaniments• Selection of audio tracks from different eras (YouTube/Spotify/personal collection)• Beethoven audio such as symphonies or concertos (YouTube/Spotify/personal collection)• Beethoven’s Bucket Dunk• Classical Causeway• Rhythm instruments: tambourine, egg shakers, drums, etc.

© Copyright Colourful Keys 2019www.vibrantmusicteaching.com

Vibrant Music TeachingStep-by-step plansGroup Workshop Plan: Beethoven Bash

BEETHOVEN BEATEstimated Time: 5 minutes

Sit in a circle and chant “Beethoven beat” in this rhythm while doing the actions.

Then chant “Little Ludwig born in Bonn” in this rhythm while doing the actions.

Split the group in half and have one group do “Beethoven beat” while the other does “Little Lud-wig born in Bonn”.

GUESS THE ERAEstimated Time: 10 minutes

INTRODUCTION• Ask your students about famous composers they have heard of. Remind them of pieces they have played by certain composers.• Discuss the different periods of classical music and see if they can describe how the music from each period sounds.

GUESS THE ERA• Put on music from different periods in a random order and get your students to guess which era each piece is from.• Discuss the differences and how they can make an educated guess as you go.

© Copyright Colourful Keys 2019www.vibrantmusicteaching.com

Vibrant Music TeachingStep-by-step plansGroup Workshop Plan: Beethoven Bash

CONDUCT LIKE BEETHOVENEstimated Time: 20 minutes

Beethoven was known for some pretty peculiar conducting for the time. He was described as wild-ly waving his arms, and jumping up for a crescendo and crouching down for a diminuendo.

WARM-UP CONDUCTING• Put on some music by Beethoven. Any of the symphonies would be a good choice.• Form a loose circle and “conduct” the music altogether. The more dramatic the actions the better.• If you have older students you may consider teaching them simple conducting patterns. Younger students will be better off just doing gross body movements.

CONDUCT LIKE BEETHOVEN!• Choose one student to be the performer and one to be Beethoven, the rest of the students are the audience.• Help the performer to choose something to play. This can be anything that they can play easily from memory, a scale, a chord progression or a memorised piece. The better they know what they’re playing the more effective as they can concentrate on what “Beethoven” is indi-cating for them to do.• Write down a sequence of dynamics on a sheet or small whiteboard and hold it up so the con-ductor can see it but no one else can.• The performer begins playing when “Beethoven” gestures them to, and changes the dynam-ics and tempo based on Beethoven’s movements.• Beethoven is not allowed to speak and must only use movement to convey the dynamics on the sheet.• After the performance is finished, the audience have to try and guess what was on the dy-namics sheet.• Choose a new performer and Beethoven and repeat. Make sure everyone who wants to gets a chance to be either the Beethoven or the performer before starting the next activity.

ALTERNATIVE ACTIVITY• Choose one “Beethoven” and give the rest of the students rhythm instruments to create an orchestra. You can take the piano yourself.• Proceed as above but with the whole group responding to Beethoven’s conducting. • After have everyone explain what they thought the instructions meant, and see if they all tally up.

BEETHOVEN’S BUCKET DUNKEstimated Time: 10 minutes

You can find full instructions on how to play Beethoven’s Bucket Dunk in the PDF here. If you have students who are beyond the stage of identifying skips and steps at your workshop you can easily create a multi-level game but having them use any level-appropriate flashcards.

Break for juice, water or snacks. Play music by Beethoven in the background.

© Copyright Colourful Keys 2019www.vibrantmusicteaching.com

Vibrant Music TeachingStep-by-step plansGroup Workshop Plan: Beethoven Bash

IMPROVISE LIKE BEETHOVENEstimated Time: 20 minutes

Beethoven’s was one of the greatest improvisers of all time. In his early days in Vienna he had improvising “duels” with the other well-known claviers of the time - and he always came out on top.

GROUP IMPROVISATION• Choose one of the improvisation accompaniment patterns from the back of this PDF. If you have an intermediate student at the piano party give this part to them. If not you can play it yourself.• Pick one student to be Beethoven and give them a suitable pentascale or scale to improvise on depending on their level.• Give all the other students rhythm instruments or ask them to be the audience members.• Switch so everyone has a chance to improvise. • Then play the original Beethoven pieces to them (recording or yourself) and discuss.

CLASSICAL CAUSEWAYEstimated Time: 10 minutes

You can find full instructions on how to play Classical Causeway in the PDF here. This game can be played with students at any level.

COLOUR YOUR OWN BEETHOVENEstimated Time: 10 minutes

Print out a copy of the Beethoven masks from the back of this PDF for each student. If you have older students you can provide scissors for them to cut out the masks themselves at the workshop. For younger students you may like to do this yourself in advance.

Give your students pencils and crayons and put on some music by Beethoven in the background while they colour and continue to chat about Beethoven and the Classical era.

© Copyright Colourful Keys 2019www.vibrantmusicteaching.com

Vibrant Music TeachingGroup Workshop Plan: Beethoven Bash Improvisation accompanimentsIMPROVISATION ACCOMPANIMENT 1 Based on the Moonlight sonata Op. 27 No. 2 (arr. in key of D minor)

IMPROVISATION ACCOMPANIMENT 2 Based on the Moonlight sonata Op. 27 No. 2 (arr. in key of D minor)

IMPROVISATION ACCOMPANIMENT 3 Based on Ecossaise in G Major

IMPROVISATION ACCOMPANIMENT 4 Based on the Pathétique sonata Op. 13 (arr. in key of F major)

© Copyright Colourful Keys 2019www.vibrantmusicteaching.com

Vibrant Music TeachingGroup Workshop Plan: Beethoven Bash Beethoven mask