Music Lesson Plan – Hitotsu Toya

Grade: 4th/5th

APS Music Standards:

S1: Singing/speaking alone and with others, varied rep. of music

S2: Performing on instruments and with others, varied rep. of music

S3: Creating melodies, movement, variations and accomps.

S4: Moving to a variety of music

S5: Reading/notating music

S6: Listening to, analyzing and describing music

S7: Understanding music in relation to history and culture

Materials: Lyrics of song enlarged, metalophones, xylophones

Objective: Students will be able to sing “Hitotsu Toya” and improvise using the Miyako mode

Procedure:

1.  Show students the words for the song “Hitotsu Toya” and have them echo-say sections of the song. Pay close attention to pronunciation. (Hi = hee, To = toh, etc.) Explain this is a traditional song sung for the Japanese New Year celebration.

2.  Play Hitotsu... (track with improvisation). Ask about the three sections of the piece (melody in Japanese, xylophone improvisation, melody in English.) What is the form? A B A prime.

3.  Have students echo sing the song in sections. Sing the whole song and use the recording if necessary.

4.  Explain that “Hitotsu…” uses the Miyako Japanese scale (E, F#, G, B, C). It is a pentatonic scale and is used for many Japanese folk songs. Set up the metalophones and xylophones with this scale.

5.  Once the students are able to sing the song on their own, have them sing with the other track (without improvisation) and demonstrate some improvisation during the open B section. Explain that simplicity and repetition are both conducive to good improvisation. Also, the sound of the gong denotes when the improvisation starts and ends.

6.  Split the class into two groups. One on mallet instruments, and the other as designated singers. Have the class perform the piece (along with the track with no improvisation) -- one group singing the piece while the other improvises simultaneously on the mallet instruments. Make sure the improvisers start and stop with the gong. Switch.

7.  Sing the piece with individual improvisers or pairs of improvisers for the B section. During the A sections, the mallet players can keep a steady beat on E and G as well.

Hitotsu Toya

Hitotsu toya--- hi toyo aku reba,

Nigi yaka de, nigi yaka de.

O kazari tate taru matsu kazari--- matsu kazari.

Temple bells will chime, o-h chime for the bright New Year that

Comes to us tonight, comes to us tonight.

Now on every door there hangs a spray of lovely pine, a-- spray of lovely pine.