Objectives:
• to revise vocabulary related to music
• to practise giving personal reaction and opinion
• to practise extensive and intensive reading skills
• to role-play the situation
Warm up
A) Guess the riddle: What key does not lock a door? (A music key)
B) Comment on the joke:
Agent (To a newly rich client, engaging talent for her "At
home" ) — "What about Madame D'Oprano?" Client - "Is she
good?" Agent — "Good? Why, she's a great virtuos". Client —
"Never mind about her morals. Can she sing?"
Introducing the Topic
Vocabulary
A) Find fifteen music words.
B) Complete the sentences with the words from the box.
1. _is often played by a big
orchestra in a concert hall.
2. _is often played by young
people with guitars in a group.
3. _is usually played by young
people with brightly coloured hair.
4. _comes originally from black
American musicians.
5. _usually offers simple tunes which are popular for a short time.
6. _comes from a specific region
and usually popular for a long time.
7. _has a strong regular rhythm.
It's originally from Jamaica.
8. _is popular for dancing in
discos.
9. _often played freely, not
following written music.
10._is usually played on the guitar, banjo and violin.
11. The_is a string instrument while the_belongs to wind instruments
and the_to the percussion instruments.
12. The piano and organ are
instruments.
Reading
Te a c h e r. Do you know the fact?
Paganini was the fastest violinist in the world. He could play twelve
notes per second.
A) Read the text.
NICCOLO PAGANINI - THE FIRST POP STAR?
1. In 1782, Paganini was born in a poor Italian family. As a child, he
looked very strange. He had a pale face and was terribly thin. He had bright
eyes, long black hair and incredibly long fingers like bird claws.
2. One day, Niccolo discovered the violin. After that he practised hard
every day, rarely stopping to eat or sleep. When he was nine he gave his first
concert. He played brilliantly and everyone was completely amazed. Then at the
age of fifteen he started planning his own tours. While he was touring, he
wrote his favourite Caprices.
3. His concerts were highly spectacular. He dressed in black and looked
really sinister. Sometimes, while he was playing a difficult piece of music,
he took out a pair of scissors, cut off three strings, and played the same
piece on one string.
4. Paganini became as rich and famous as many modern pop stars. While he
was touring Britain in 1831, he earned 16,000 pounds — that's more than a
quarter of million pounds today! Crowds followed him in the streets. He lived
extravagantly, becoming a passionate gambler and having love affairs all over
Europe. At the height of his fame, he stopped playing the violin and taught
himself to play the guitar. Nobody ever heard him play it, but he wrote some
extremely difficult pieces of music. When he died, in 1840, his violin was
placed in the City Hall of Genoa, and is known as "Paganini widow".
Occasionally it is played by a visiting virtuoso.
B) Read the text again and match these titles with the paragraphs.
• Lifestyles
• Childhood appearance
• Concerts
• Starting off
C) Are these sentences true or false?
1. Paganini came from a rich family. (F)
2. He was living at home when he wrote his "Caprices". (F)
3. His concerts were exciting to watch. (T)
4. He didn't earn any money while he was touring Italy. (F)
D) Copy the table. Put the adverbs in italics from the text into the
correct group.
How something is done hard
How often something is done rarely
With an adjective or another adverbvery strange
Grammar
A) GRAMMAR IN RHYMES Fill in the necessary words.
A_(noun) is the name of anything
As school, Garden or King.
_(adjective) tell
the kind of Noun
As Great, Small, Pretty, White or Brown.
Instead of nouns the_(pronoun) is,
As Mine, Yours, Our and His.
_Verbs tell of
something being done —
To read, Count, Laugh, Carry or Run.
How things are done the_(adverbs) tell
As Slowly, Quickly, 111 or Well.
_(conjunctions)
join the words together,
As Men and Women, Wind and Weather.
The_(preposition) stands before
A noun as In or Through a door.
The_(interjection) shows surprise,
As — Oh! How pretty! Ah! How wise!
Three little words you often see Are_(articles) — A, An and The.
The whole are called Parts of speech Which reading, writing, speaking
teach.
B) Choose the correct adverb to complete the text.
Mozart came from a (very / always) musical family. He could play the
harpsichord (hard / brilliantly) at the age of three. From the age of five he
was writing (sometimes / extremely) difficult pieces of music, and by the time
he was eight he had become (rarely / incredibly) popular all over the world. He
had a strange lifestyle, though — he (really / rarely) slept in the same bed
for more than three nights. He wrote some (highly / strongly) successful
operas, but (never / occasionally) became rich.
Role-play
A) Imagine you are a great musician. Think about these things: Where and
when were you born?
Which instrument did you learn to play?
How did you learn to play it?
Who discovered you?
What were you doing at that time?
What did you do after that?
What are your plans for the future?
B) In pairs, take turns to interview your partner. Use the cues to write
questions foe this interview.
A. Where and when / be / born
B. I was born in Glasgow in 1973.
A. How / become / interested in music.
B. Well, I came from a musical family, I suppose. A. Which instrument /
learn / to play.
B. The piano, and then I taught myself to play the guitar. A. When /
meet / the others in the group.
B. About two years after I left school. A. What / do / at the time.
B. I was working in a club, as a disc-jockey. A. You / like each other
immediately.
B. Yes, we got on really well from the start.
C) Work in groups.
Imagine you are going to interview Sting. Write these questions. Then
read the text and find out the answers.
1. Your real name?
2. Where / when / born?
3. When / start / group / The Police_
4. Leave The Police / act in films?
5. When / group / break up?
STING
My real name is Gordon Summer. I was born in England in 1951.1 took
piano classes as a child but I taught himself to play the guitar. When I grew
up I became a teacher and while I was working, I played in clubs with the group
Last Exit. By 1977, I was working for a better group. One day I met Stewart
Copeland, who was a drummer, and Andy Summers, a guitarist, and in 1978 we
formed a group called The Police. We had some great hits with albums like
Outlandos d'Amour, Zenyatta Mondatta, and in 1984, Synchronicity. I began to
need a change so, while I was working with The Police, I started acting in a
number of films. After a world tour for Amnesty International in 1984 we broke
up. In the 90s I became active in efforts to save the Brazilian rain forest.
Homework
Make up a dialogue: interview a rock star. | 
