Title: Fruit Salad Day- Mock Morris by Percy Grainger

Rehearsal: 2/27/15
Description: Students will be seated semi-randomly. Each student will be next to at least one
person form each other section in one direction or another.
Subject: Orchestra
Instruction time: 20-25 minutes
Student grade level: 9th
Standards to be addressed:
Universal Constructs:
Complex Communication: Playing, Listening, Analyzing, Understanding
Relationships
Productivity and Accountability: Playing, Listening
Critical Thinking: Analyzing, Understanding Relationships, Listening,
Interpreting, Evaluating, Comparing
Creativity: Playing Synthesizing, Problem Solving
Collaboration: Playing, Listening, Problem Solving
Flexibility and adaptability: Playing, Listening, Monitoring, Analyzing
Resources used in this lesson:
Music- One per orchestra member
Instruments, stands
Lesson Objectives that meet the standard(s) above:
The learner will play Mock Morris by Percy Grainger with correct bowings, articulation,
dynamics, phrasing, and character.
The learner will listen to their classmates and analyze how their playing fits in with the
parts surrounding them.
The learner will play with an individually strong sound, being sure to monitor their own
sound in relation to what others are doing and what is written in the musis.
Essential questions for this lesson:
How do you listen? What is actually involved in the act of listening to other people play
while you are also playing?
Can you hear the other parts? Can you hear more? Can you hear them in a different way
than before?
What will you do, now that you hear these other parts, to better blend with the rest of the
orchestra?
Lesson Procedures: (See Rehearsal Plan)
Run Mock Morris
J-N
T-W

 C-D
Thinking strategies used in this lesson:
Questioning is used to help students think about their playing and listening skills. This
includes built-in reflection and adaptation to new information.
Summarizing helps students understand what happened in a previous run-through to
better be able to solve problems.
Purposefully making connections is another thinking strategy which is used here to create
a better idea about how parts fit together.
Assignment
Now that you are individually strong players of your part, it is time to start taking
Smartmusic playing tests. You should complete this by the end of next week
Assessment of objectives for today:
Visual assessment and discussion participation
______________________________________________________________________________
Valley Southwoods Rehearsal Plan
Fruit Salad Day
2/27/15
1. Tune the orchestra.
a. As they tune remind them about what they should be thinking about while tuning
i. Their pitch
ii. Their pitch in relation to others pitch
iii. Their tone
b. Tuning skills are a vital for all musicians who want to hold their own in an
ensemble.
c. Being able to tell if a pitch is sharp or flat is important for many reasons and in
many situations.
2. Warm up
a. G major scale
i. Play full scale, 2 octaves
ii. Use the up/down exercise
1. This gets their head out of their stand and makes them watch.
2. They should listen to the players around them.
3. Make sure you know the notes of the scale were playing. Dont
leave and wander off into a different tonality.
b. Mock Morris G major scale warm up.
i. Use the rhythm as usual once
ii. Second time: crescendo on the way up, decrescendo on the way down.
3. Explanation of seating arrangement

a. All orchestra members are sitting next to at least one person from every other
section
b. Mock Morris has seven (sometimes 8) different parts/sections, and therefore is
very complicated.
c. The purpose of today is to help all of you hear all of those parts and know how to
blend and play as an ensemble member.
d. For this to work, all of you must be individually strong. You will feel very
exposed because essentially, youre sitting by yourself. The rest of the people
playing your part are far away and you may not be able to hear them as well, so
play like youre the only person in your section.
4. Run Mock Morris
a. note: sections to spend time on today are J-N, T-W, C-D
b. Questions:
i. What do you hear that is different from when we sit the usual way?
ii. What do you like? What do you not like?
iii. Do you like being able to hear more/better?
iv. Now that you know those parts are there, how can you train your ear to
listen for those parts across the room once we go back to trad seating?
v. How did your individual part go? Did you feel that were more or less
successful today than when the rest of your section is around you?
5. J-N
a. Play the Dont answer this question game
i. First violins: Who do you play with from J to K?
ii. Play J-K
iii. Now let them answer
iv. All other sections, less.
b. Starting at K, 5.5 sections are together and two of them are rushing. If you think
that you are one of the people rushing, focus on keeping a steady beat as we play
from K to L.
i. Play K-L
ii. Cello I and cello II probably still rush.
iii. Cello Is alone with metronome
iv. Cello IIs alone with metronome.
v. Cellos with metronome
vi. Everybody back together at K
c. ~L is very complicated. There is a sffz the beat before L and we drop many levels
in dynamic and half the orchestra has to switch to pizz. Use your new neighbors.
Listen and blend.
i. Use whole bows for the sffz.
ii. Everyone count. You absolutely must observe and perform the eighth rest
before L.
iii. If you can, memorize a few measures on each side of L so that you can
watch me.
d. M-N
i. Some of you have ff some have f some have p at M. Only one section that
has a loud dynamic is arco. (violas)

ii. Even though there are three sections with at least a fourte, this is still a
quiet section. Everyone get out of the violas way.
iii. Violas leave room to crescendo
iv. By the time we get to N, you should be playing as loud as you possibly
can with good tone.
6. T-W
a. Viola solo
i. All violas are in different places in the orchestra- Play like a soloist!
ii. Everyone who is not a viola, listen to the viola part.
iii. Everyone who is not a viola, listen to the other parts around you that are
not the viola part.
1. Who do you fit in with?
2. Always remember to listen for that part.
7. C-D
a. Play the dont answer this question game
i. Violas: who do you play with at C?
ii. Play at C with everyone
iii. Now let them answer
b. Just violas and cello II at C
i. Each one of you has to know all of these notes and be able to play them
like a solo. If one of you is not using frog staccato or gets behind or is
out of tune. The entire soli with sound like that kind of playing.
8. Wrap up
a. What will you do, now that you hear these other parts, to better blend with the rest
of the orchestra?