Unit Plan 34 (Grade 6 Orchestra): Purposeful Music Choices

Focus: Explain how performance choices affect audience experience and musical meaning.

Grade Level: 6

Subject Area: Orchestra (Interpretation • Tone Color • Personal Goals)

Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 50–60 minutes per session

I. Introduction

In this unit, Grade 6 orchestra students explore how musical choices—such as bowing style, string choice, dynamics, and tone color—shape the way music feels to an audience. They listen to contrasting performances, identify how instrument roles and tone color change character, and connect these choices to their own interests and goals as string players. Finally, students design and explain a short “Purposeful Performance Plan” for a class excerpt, showing how their decisions are meant to affect audience experience and musical meaning.

Essential Questions

• How do bowing style, string choice, and tone color change the character of a piece for the listener?
• In what ways do different instrument roles (melody, harmony, accompaniment) shape how an audience experiences music?
• How do my personal interests and goals as a string player influence the musical choices I make?
• What does it mean to make purposeful performance choices instead of just “playing the notes”?

II. Objectives and Standards

Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:

1. Identify how bowing style, string choice, and instrument roles affect tone color and character in string music.
2. Compare at least two performance options for a short excerpt and describe how each would feel to an audience.
3. Connect their own interests and goals (e.g., stronger tone, cleaner bowing, better intonation) to specific performance choices.
4. Create a simple Purposeful Performance Plan for a class excerpt that explains which musical choices they will use and why.
5. Present a short explanation or reflection showing how their choices aim to affect audience experience and musical meaning.

Standards Alignment — Grade 6 Orchestra (custom, NAfME-style)

• OR:Re7.6b — Explain how bowing style, string choice, and instrument roles affect tone color and character in string music.
  • Example: Students explain how playing on the G string creates a darker tone than playing on the A string.
• OR:Cn10.6a — Describe how personal interests and goals influence musical choices and growth as a string player.
  • Example: Students set a goal (stronger tone, cleaner bowing, better intonation) and explain why it matters.

Success Criteria — Student Language

• I can explain how bowing style, string choice, and instrument roles change the tone color and character of music.
• I can describe how different performance choices might make an audience feel excited, calm, mysterious, or powerful.
• I can connect my own goals (like stronger tone or better intonation) to the choices I make when I perform.
• I can create a plan for how I want a piece to sound and explain why those choices fit the story or mood.
• I can use musical vocabulary (tone color, bowing, dynamics, character) when I talk about performance decisions.