Alton Peters

Experience Design

Peg Leg the Pirate

Rationale
The purpose of this experience design in terms of musicianship is to start to distinguish
between major and minor keys/modes. This song is developmentally appropriate for 4th graders
for two reasons. First of all, the syncopated rhythms are in line with where these age students
should be reading and performing. Melodically, this piece has an octave range which is a tiny bit
lower than the comfortable range for these students without being too challenging. It also has an
octave jump which will most likely be a somewhat new concept for the students. This whole
experience will be just barely touching the edge of the comfort zone of the students musically,
but the game will have them not focusing on the difficulty of the new concept.

Understanding Statements
Students will be able to recognize the difference between a minor and major key.
Students will be able to sing the tone set of the piece from low la to high la.

I Can Statements
I can sing a melody written on a treble staff. (VA 4.2.6)
I can respond to music with a musical activity or game. (VA 4.5.2)
I can identify between minor and major tonality. (VA 4.10.2)
I can explain what tonality of music I prefer (if I have one). (VA 4.13)

Materials
• Gold Coin (Or another trinket)
• Laminated signs (major and minor, one of each for each student)
• Speakers to play music
Process

• Chunk 1 (11 minutes (counting wiggle room)

o Students walk in and immediately sit in a circle with hands palms up on their
knees. (1 min)
o At a relatively slow tempo, reach into your left palm with your right hand and
mime putting something in the left hand of the person to your right. Do this
rhythmically and start to say left, right, left, right, in tempo. (30 sec)
o Sing the song from beginning to end twice. (1 min)
o Ask “What did you hear?” (1 min)
§ They will most likely talk about the pirate and his gold
§ We are looking for words about how the pirate is feeling
o Say, “This time when I sing it, listen to how he is feeling” (30 sec)
§ Sing it again
o Ask, “So how is he feeling?” (1 min)
§ “Why?”
o “It turns out, I have his gold!” (30 sec)
§ Put the gold in your left hand and start doing the motion again
o “Can you sing it with me this time?” (1 min 30 sec)
§ Sing it twice, or more if it takes more for them to sing it back.
 o Let’s play a game! (3 minutes)
§ Have one student sit in the center of the circle (this student is peg leg)
§ The students start passing the trinket around the circle
§ Once the trinket is being passed, they start singing the song
§ When the song ends, the student in the center guesses who has the trinket
§ Do this 4 or 5 times to give a few students a chance to be peg leg
• Chunk 2 (5 minutes including wiggle room)
o “Now I’m going to sing this by myself. I want you to find out what the lowest
note is in the song.
§ Sing twice (1 min)
o “What words was I singing when the lowest note was sung?” (1 min)
o “Which one of those words did I sing the longest?” (1 min)
§ Sing again and have them listen.
§ This is getting them to focus on the ends of the two phrases.
o This time, I want you to sing only those words with me. (1 min)
§ Sing twice
• Chunk 3 (9 minutes (including wiggle room)
o “So other than the words, how did we know that peg leg was sad?”
§ They will most likely say something about the music sounding sad.
o “In most of our music, what solfege do we end on?”
§ Do
o “So, in this piece we actually end on La. When music is centered around La, it is
called minor.”
o “We can also have minor chords.”
§ Play an Em chord since the piece was in Em. Play it a couple times.
o “How does this sound compared to this next chord?”
§ Play EMaj
§ Switch between the two chords and ask the students what they hear.
o Roll the chords if they can’t tell with the chords just being played.
 • Chunk 4 (15 minutes)
o Pass out the laminated cards that say major and minor on them (2 minutes)
§ For an activity, play chords, and have students put up a card for either
major or minor. After each chord, ask a couple students how they knew it
was minor or major. (5 minutes)
§ After doing chords, play excerpts from a mix of pop songs and classical
songs, and ask the students the same questions. (8 minutes)
• Debrief

Assessments
The use of the laminated cards will be an easy way to assess understanding of minor and
major tonality. Participation in the game is an assessment of the second I Can statement.
Through talking to the students, you can find out what they prefer in music tonality.

Adaptation
Through this experience, I tried to really incorporate all kinds of learning. The singing is
auditory learning, the dancing is kinesthetic, and the cards are there for the visual learning tool.
Now, if these don’t help someone with visual learning preferences, it could possibly help to write
out a minor chord on the staff and show them the difference between intervals.

Extension
An extension on this exercise would be to use this as an exercise on syncopation. I chose
to use this as a melodic exercise on tonality, but it could definitely be used as an exercise in
rhythm.