Unit Plan Creating a Groove/Introduction to Arranging

Year level year 7

Length 9 lessons
Objectives:
Students will be able to:
Describe the role of bass, guitar and drums in creating the underlying
groove of a song
Aurally identify bass, drums and guitar in a recording
Describe the typical rhythms and patterns for bass, drums and guitar
within the genres of rock, swing, Latin and pop
Play these typical patterns on the bass, drums or GarageBand instruments
Play the melody of a simple song, accompanied by a bass and drum
groove
Describe the elements of arrangements that make them effective (e.g. layering)
Create their own basic arrangement using Incredibox program
Prior knowledge:
Ability to read notes in treble clef with no ledger lines
Reading simple rhythms
Basic skills on a melodic instrument
Basic technique on electric bass and drum kit/garage band smart
instruments
Resources:

Various sound recordings YouTube

Creating a Groove sheet
E-lr learning platform drum and bass information and videos
Drum patterns sheet
Bass guitar patterns sheet
Joshua lead sheet with melody and chords
Class set of glockenspiels/students own instruments/recorders
Drum kit (or garage band on iPads/air drumming)
Electric bass guitar (or alternative)

Lesson 1 Introduction to creating and groove

Introducing the concept of a groove

Listening to some examples from sound recordings
Homework task choose a song with a clear bass and drum part, and
describe the roles these instruments are playing.
Learning the melody for Joshua

Lesson 2 Different kinds of grooves

Recap and reflect on homework how do bass and drum parts generally
fit together? Brainstorm some ideas as a class
Talk through Rock and Funk grooves on the sheet, listening to recorded
examples of each genre on YouTube
Have a go at playing the grooves by air drumming/air bass or on
Garage Band
Revise melody for Joshua
Experiment with playing the rock and funk grooves to accompany Joshua
divide up the class so each student gets a turn at both

Lesson 3
Quick quiz or discussion to recap ideas so far. What is a groove? How do
the bass guitar and drums usually work together to create a groove?
Repeat activity from last lesson, but this time looking at Latin and Swing
grooves
If possible, get some students to play the grooves on actual instruments
Lesson 4 Creating an arrangement
Listen to some YouTube examples of different arrangements of songs
Brainstorm as a class what makes these arrangements effective?
Select a style from the grooves weve been working on as a basis of a class
arrangement
Divide the class into three groups (melody, bass and drums) and work as
a class to create an arrangement of Joshua following the arranging
techniques discussed
Lesson 5 continuing class arrangement
After completing the arrangement, students do a brief reflection on the
process what worked? What would you do differently?
Lesson 6 Introduction to Incredibox
Demonstration of Incredibox program
Create a class arrangement based on the arranging techniques weve
learnt (ideally using smartboard)
Students note down the structure of the arrangement
Lesson 7 Individual Incredibox arrangements
Students create their own arrangements using Incredibox
Lesson 8 presenting arrangements and revision for test
Students present their arrangement to the class and complete a selfassessment
Revise as a class for test
Lesson 9 test or negotiated assessment as required