Vacation Lesson 1: Chorus 1 & Post-Chorus 1

Summary

Mix and match activities to create a fun lesson in which students will learn the chorus and post-chorus of the song “Vacation” by Dirty Heads. Integrate Solfeg.io in teaching the basics of piano, ukulele, guitar, bass, percussion and singing.

🎲 What's included in the activities:

• Tuning the ukuleles and guitars (optional)
• Analyzing a song excerpt
• Warming up with singing, rhythm and instrument activities
• Practicing the vocal part, chords, rhythm and bass line of the Chorus 1 and Post-Chorus 1
• Combining and playing the Chorus 1 and Post-Chorus 1 with chords, rhythm tracks and singing
• Reflecting
• Ideas for homework & further lessons (Beyond the lesson)

💻 Materials:

• Solfeg.io web app best used with Chrome browser
• Solfeg.io mobile app (optional)
• Projector or computer and access to WIFI
• Computers or tablets
• Ukuleles, guitars and/or pianos
• Percussion instruments

Tuning

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objective:

• Tune the ukuleles and guitars.

🎲 Activity:

• Distribute the guitars and ukuleles to students.
• Ask them to open the Solfeg.io tuner. You can find it in the home section on the Solfeg.io mobile app.
• Tap on a letter to hear how the string should sound, find the corresponding peg on your guitar or ukulele and turn it to tune the string.
• When the encircled letter turns green and reaches the middle of the screen, the string is in tune.
• Repeat the actions with the other strings one by one until all of them are in tune.

Dive into the song

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Analyze a song excerpt
• Describe and reflect on different musical elements and their function

🎲 Activity:

• Open the song “Vacation”.
• Listen to a section of the song, for example, Chorus 1.
• Discuss with students what you heard.

Do you know the song?

What is the genre/mood/tempo of this song?

What adjectives would you use to describe this song?

What instruments did you hear?

How would you describe the vocal part? What voice type did you hear?

Vocal warm-up

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Warm up the vocal cords
• Get familiar with vocal techniques used in the song

🎲 Activity:

• Hum, sliding from C4 to C5. Repeat it a few times.
• Do a lip buzz, sliding between the same two notes. Repeat it a few times.
• Practice the octave jump from C4 to C5, as in the beginning of the song. Repeat the “A-a-ay” two times!

• Repeat the exercise, starting one half tone higher - from C#4. Continue moving up, each time starting one half tone higher until the limits of a comfortable vocal range are reached. Then repeat the exercise, gradually moving downwards - each time starting one half tone lower

Rhythm warm-up

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Warm up the muscles and get ready for the movements of playing the instruments or body percussion
• Get familiar with the rhythm of the song

🎲 Activity:

• Choose a percussion instrument or body percussion type.
• Clap or play this rhythm. Repeat it a few times.

Guitar, ukulele and piano warm-up

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Warm up the muscles and get ready for the movements of playing the instruments
• Get familiar with the chords in the song

🎲 Activity:

• Choose an instrument and open the corresponding visuals under the menu “Tools”.
• If you're not familiar with the C and Am chords, take a look at the chord diagrams in the song player and find the chords on your instrument.
• Play these chords:

Bass warm-up

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Warm up the muscles and get ready for the movements of playing the instrument
• Get familiar with the bass line of the song

🎲 Activity:

• If you're not familiar with the C and A notes on the bass, select “Bass” under the menu “Tools” - “Visuals”.
• Play these notes like this:

Warm-up round

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Warm up the vocal cords
• Warm up the muscles and get ready for the movements of playing the instrument
• Get familiar with the vocal part, chords, rhythm and bass line of the song

🎲 Activity:

• Divide students in groups: vocal, rhythm, ukulele, guitar and/or piano and bass.
• Mute all the tracks except the 4 rhythm tracks under “Controls” - “Volume” .
• Loop the Post-Chorus 1 by pressing the “Loop” button on the right side of the “Play” button and selecting it on the dropdown menu.
• Press “Play” and invite the groups to take turns to do their exercise from the aforementioned activities. Groups take turns and change every eight bars.
• You can also invite one student to conduct - show which group should play next.
• Do a couple of rounds until the class has warmed-up and is ready to sing and play the song!

Learning the vocal part

🕐 Time: 15 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Be able to sing Chorus 1 and Post-chorus

🎲 Activity:

• First, listen to Chorus 1 and read the lyrics.
• Repeat Chorus 1 and speak the lyrics out loud.
• Sing the melody with syllables of choice, for example, “lah-lah”, “dah-dah” or just vowels - “ah”, “oh” or use the suggested “a-a-ay”.
• Sing the melody with lyrics.
• Listen to Post-Chorus 1 and read the lyrics.
• Repeat Post-Chorus 1 and sing along!
• Combine Chorus 1 and Post-Chorus, try to sing them without stopping.
• If you did all this slowly, try to repeat both sections at a faster speed until you reach the original tempo.
• Try singing Chorus 1 and Post-Chorus 1 with the vocal track muted - you can mute it under “Controls” - “Volume”.

Learning the ukulele, guitar and piano parts

🕐 Time: 15 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Be able to play Chorus 1 and Post-chorus 1

🎲 Activity:

• Listen to Chorus 1 and establish what chords are there (C, Am, Em & G).
• For now, you'll leave the G chord out, so learn or recap the three remaining chords (C, Am and Em), following the chord diagrams.
• If there are at least 3 people in the instrumental group, they can take turns to play chords - each person chooses one of the chords and plays it when the corresponding symbol appears at the red line on the screen.
• Try to combine three chords (C, Am and Em) one after another. To practice at an even slower speed, mute all tracks except the four rhythm tracks under “Controls” - “Volume” and play a new chord every 8 beats without looking at the chord symbols on the screen. To practice this, you should loop any of the post-choruses since there are long breaks in the rhythm tracks in other sections. When you're comfortable with this speed, you can gradually reduce the amount of beats between chords.
• If you are comfortable with the slower tempo, you can try playing C, Am and Em in Chorus 1 and Post-Chorus 1 at a faster speed until you reach the original speed!
• Try playing both sections with the piano and synth track muted - you can mute them under “Controls” - “Volume”.

Learning the rhythm section

🕐 Time: 15 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Be able to play or clap the rhythm of Chorus 1 and Post-chorus 1

🎲 Activity:

• Mute all the tracks except the rhythm tracks under “Controls” - “Volume”. Listen to the rhythm section and look at the notation.
• Split into 4 groups and choose one rhythm track each. Choose rhythm instruments that suit best to each track.
• Play Chorus 1 again and try to play or clap along.
• Take turns learning the rhythm - you can mute the other three tracks when learning your track.
• Listen to Post-Chorus 1 and try to play along.
• Again, take turns learning each rhythmic part and be patient - this section is more challenging than Chorus 1!
• If you are comfortable with the slower tempo, you can try repeating the chorus and post-chorus at a faster speed until you reach the original tempo!

Learning the bass line

🕐 Time: 15 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Be able to play Chorus 1 and Post-chorus 1

🎲 Activity:

• Listen to Chorus 1 and find the four notes of the bass line on your bass guitar.
• Play along to Chorus 1.
• If comfortable with the slower tempo, you can try playing the chorus at a faster speed and try to reach the original speed!
• Add Post-Chorus 1 - you have to play the same notes there!

Put it all together

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Practice playing in a band
• Be able to play Chorus 1 and Post-chorus 1 in a band

🎲 Activity:

• Invite students to play Chorus 1 and Post-Chorus 1 together.
• Find a suitable tempo for all, slow the song down if needed.
• Have “Notation” selected under “Tools” - “Visuals”. If the piano, guitar, ukulele or bass players are not comfortable with playing just from chord symbols without the diagrams, repeat Chorus 1 and Post-Chorus 1 with the necessary visuals selected.

Reflection

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Reflect on the learning process

🎲 Activity:

Ask these questions to the class and have a short discussion

• What was the most challenging in their instrumental/vocal part?
• How was the experience of playing together (both in smaller instrument groups and the class as a whole)?

Homework assignment

🕐 Time: 3 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Improve the song section students learned at the class
• Get ready for the final performance

🎲 Activity:

• Ask students to practice their part of the chorus and post-chorus at home.
• Encourage them to learn their part by heart