Mix and match activities to create a fun lesson about rock music history. Integrate Solfeg.io in teaching about different decades in rock music and zoom into their most popular songs.
🎲 What's included in these activities:
💻 Materials:
🕐 Time: 10 min
🎯 Objectives:
🎶 Recommended Songs:
🎲 Activity:
-Play 'I Love Rock'n'Roll' by Joan Jett from the song library and show the slide with photos from the official music video.
-Discuss with students:
-Have a closer look at the lyrics of Verse 1, Pre-Chorus 1 and Chorus 1.
Do you know what 'record machine', 'beat', 'rock'n'roll' and 'jukebox' are?
What do you think the phrase 'The beat was going strong' means? (Strong presence of percussion instruments.)
How many times 'yeah' is repeated and in which part of the song? (It's repeated twice in Pre-Chorus 1. It emphasizes the singer's self-confidence, draws attention to 'me'.)
🕐 Time: 25 min
🎯 Objectives:
🎶 Recommended Songs:
🎲 Activity:
-Having listened to a rock song with the class, shortly brainstorm how rock music could be defined.
-Reflect on the lyrics in Chorus. 'I love rock'n'roll' clearly means rock'n'roll is an important source of inspiration for rock musicians.
Did you hear all these instruments in the song excerpt?
-Listen to Interlude and Pre-Chorus 3.
It's electric guitar - an essential instrument in rock music.
The solid-body guitar was invented by Les Paul in the 1940s. One of the first mass-produced solid-body guitars - Fender Telecaster - was introduced by Leo Fender in the beginning of the 1950s.
Before that, guitars were mostly hollow-bodied. In such instruments, the sound of the strings resonates through the soundboard and sound holes.
Electric solid-body guitar, on the other hand, depends on electric pickups, amplifier and speaker.
It allowed the guitarists to become louder and helped maintain a clear sound without the hum and feedback.
Electric musical instruments allow the use of different effects units that alter their sound.
Distortion is one of such effects: the gain of the audio signal is increased, creating a fuzzy, gritty, growling, harsh sound.
It was first achieved, using faulty equipment, for example, a broken amplifier, and later emulated by effects pedals that appeared in the market in the 1960s.
-'I Love Rock'n'roll' by Joan Jett was released in 1981. By that point, rock music had already divided into many different genres. Shortly explain some of them.
-These are only some of the subgenres of rock music. It's important to mention that various subgenres existed simultaneously and their influence can still be heard in contemporary rock music which is characterized by fusion and eclecticism.
-Discuss with the class, what could the genre of 'I Love Rock'n'roll' be. (Hard rock)
🕐 Time: 10 min
🎯 Objectives:
🎶 Recommended Songs:
🎲 Activity:
-Explore the category 'Rock' in the song library.
-Choose a song, for example, 'Sweet Child of Mine' by Guns 'N' Roses. Listen to an excerpt of the song.
What are the similarities (in instrumental and vocal parts, song structure, mood, lyrics)?
What are the differences (in instrumental and vocal parts, song structure, mood, lyrics)?
Do you think these songs belong to the same genre? Why/why not?
🕐 Time: 5 min
🎯 Objectives:
🎲 Activity:
Ask your students:
🕐 Time: 10 min
🎯 Objectives:
🎲 Activity:
Challenge students to go beyond the lesson by...
In this lesson, students will explore the diversity of rock music. While analysing an iconic rock song, they will get to know the characteristics of the genre and learn about its development during the second half of the 20th century. The lesson provides an overview of various subgenres of rock music and opens up a discussion about similarities and differences between them.
The timing and pacing of the exercises in this lesson plan example are approximate and will differ depending on your students' skill level. If the pace of this lesson plan is too fast for you, divide it into several lessons. If the pace of this lesson plan is too slow for you, explore the 'Beyond the lesson' chapter at the end of this lesson plan for additional activities.
⏰ Time: 50 min
🎓 Grades: 5-12
🎯 Objective(s): As a result of this lesson students will be able to...
💡 Required Prior Knowledge and Skills:
💻 Materials:
🕐 10 min - I Love Rock'n'Roll
-Play 'I Love Rock'n'Roll' by Joan Jett from the song library and show the slide with photos from the official music video.
-Discuss with students:
-Have a closer look at the lyrics of Verse 1, Pre-Chorus 1 and Chorus 1.
Do you know what 'record machine', 'beat', 'rock'n'roll' and 'jukebox' are?
What do you think the phrase 'The beat was going strong' means? (Strong presence of percussion instruments.)
How many times 'yeah' is repeated and in which part of the song? (It's repeated twice in Pre-Chorus 1. It emphasizes the singer's self-confidence, draws attention to 'me'.)
🕐 25 min - History of rock music
-Having listened to a rock song with the class, shortly brainstorm how rock music could be defined.
-Reflect on the lyrics in Chorus. 'I love rock'n'roll' clearly means rock'n'roll is an important source of inspiration for rock musicians.
Did you hear all these instruments in the song excerpt?
-Listen to Interlude and Pre-Chorus 3.
It's electric guitar - an essential instrument in rock music.
The solid-body guitar was invented by Les Paul in the 1940s. One of the first mass-produced solid-body guitars - Fender Telecaster - was introduced by Leo Fender in the beginning of the 1950s.
Before that, guitars were mostly hollow-bodied. In such instruments, the sound of the strings resonates through the soundboard and sound holes.
Electric solid-body guitar, on the other hand, depends on electric pickups, amplifier and speaker.
It allowed the guitarists to become louder and helped maintain a clear sound without the hum and feedback.
Electric musical instruments allow the use of different effects units that alter their sound.
Distortion is one of such effects: the gain of the audio signal is increased, creating a fuzzy, gritty, growling, harsh sound.
It was first achieved, using faulty equipment, for example, a broken amplifier, and later emulated by effects pedals that appeared in the market in the 1960s.
-'I Love Rock'n'roll' by Joan Jett was released in 1981. By that point, rock music had already divided into many different genres. Shortly explain some of them.
-These are only some of the subgenres of rock music. It's important to mention that various subgenres existed simultaneously and their influence can still be heard in contemporary rock music which is characterized by fusion and eclecticism.
-Discuss with the class, what could the genre of 'I Love Rock'n'roll' be. (Hard rock)
🕐 10 min - Exercise 1 - Rock on!
-Explore the category 'Rock' in the song library.
-Choose a song, for example, 'Sweet Child of Mine' by Guns 'N' Roses. Listen to an excerpt of the song.
What are the similarities (in instrumental and vocal parts, song structure, mood, lyrics)?
What are the differences (in instrumental and vocal parts, song structure, mood, lyrics)?
Do you think these songs belong to the same genre? Why/why not?
🕐 5 min - Discussion
Challenge students to go beyond the lesson by...