If you haven’t already come across it, you should take a look at Wendy’s Cartoon Motive Contest.  It has been interesting to watch these motives develop from a cartoon competition and I can’t wait to see more feedback from Wendy on how this activity was organized and put into practice.  From what I have seen, though, I am considering doing something similar over the course of next year’s group classes.  My lesson plan might go something like this:

Group Lesson #1:  Cartoon contest is introduced.  Students must create a cartoon character and provide a description.  If students are stuck for ideas, we will do some brainstorming to come up with general ideas.  Time will be provided in class to start working on them.  Students will hand in their cartoon characters prior to the next group lesson.

Group Lesson #2:  There will be 5 group classes next year.  Students will present their cartoon character to their group class and describe it.  Each class will vote for one winning cartoon from each of the other groups, excluding their own.  (I may provide an opportunity for parents and blog readers to vote as well).

Group Lesson #3:  The winning cartoon character will be announced and the motive competition described and assigned.  As a class, we would brainstorm different sounds and feelings that we could imitate on the piano to portray a character.  For example, if the character is a fox in a hen-house, you could imitate the fox sneaking into the hen-house with a chromatic or minor scale passage, hen wings flapping with quick staccato grace notes in the left hand and the clucking with the right hand in the higher registers, the farmer storming out with stomping feet in the low registers and a pause followed by a “bang” as the farmer fires his gun at the fox, and finally the fox avoiding the shot and quickly running out of sight.

Students will be given opportunities to work on their motive with me during individual lessons.  They must be completed before the next group lesson.

Group Lesson #4:  Each student will play their motive and describe how it represents the cartoon character.  Similar to Group Lesson #2, each class will vote for one winning motive from each of the other groups, excluding their own.  (I may provide an opportunity for parents and blog readers to vote as well).

Group Lesson #5:  The winning motive will be announced and students will work together to create a whole 8 or 16 bar song.  Similar to Group Lesson #3, we might brainstorm a storyline to our song.

All participating students would receive paperclips or entry ballots in accordance to their incentive program.  Winners of the cartoon contest and motive contest would receive additional paperclips or entry ballots and could also be published in the studio newsletter.

I would want to present this project to the parents at the year-end recital.  The cartoon artist could present their character, the motive composer could describe how their motive relates to the character and play it, and another student could be chosen to perform the piece.

~ Ms. Natashia