July 3, 2025 • 28 mins
Secondary music classrooms are increasingly challenged by student disengagement—especially when traditional models fail to resonate with today’s learners. In this compelling episode, professional bassist and music educator Richard Frank introduces his Unison-Based Content (UBC) approach, a student-centered framework designed to revitalize music programs and re-engage learners of all skill levels.
UBC shifts away from the conventional jazz band structure, offering a more inclusive model that welcomes diverse instrumentation—including non-traditional instruments—and varying skill levels from the start. By blending formal (notation and theory) and informal (playing by ear) learning traditions, Frank creates a “blended space” where all students feel validated and empowered.
Educators will gain practical strategies for:
- Engaging mixed-skill ensembles with adaptable arrangements
- Incorporating tab notation and alternative instruments
- Encouraging improvisation through simultaneous group playing
- Promoting student agency through choice and music analysis
- Supporting SEL through confidence-building collaboration
- Connecting classroom music to real-world performance opportunities
Ideal for secondary educators seeking to refresh their approach or supplement existing programs, this method bridges the gap between traditional music education and contemporary student needs.
Explore ready-to-use resources at PlayTheGroove.com and discover how UBC can transform your classroom into a space where all students groove—and grow.
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Sponsored by Dr. Gregg Hassler Jr., DMD
Trusted dental care for healthy smiles and stronger communities—building brighter futures daily.
If you have a story about what's working in your schools that you'd like to share, email me at lisa@drlisahassler.com or visit www.drlisahassler.com. Subscribe, tell a friend, and consider becoming a supporter by clicking the link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2048018/support.
The music in this podcast was written and performed by Brandon Picciolini of the Lonesome Family Band. Visit and follow him on Instagram.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (00:00):
If your older students are losing interest in
music class, don't give up.
Using a unison-based contentapproach could bring the joy
back.
Music educators are calling ita breath of fresh air.
Welcome to the brighter side ofeducation, research, innovation
(00:24):
and resources.
I'm your host, dr Lisa Hassler,here to enlighten and brighten
the classrooms in Americathrough focused conversation on
important topics in education.
In each episode, I discussproblems we as teachers and
parents are facing and whatpeople are doing in their
communities to fix it.
What are the variables and howcan we duplicate it to maximize
(00:44):
student outcomes?
Student engagement in schoolmusic programs is facing a quiet
crisis.
Over 3.6 million students inthe United States do not have
access to music education, andwhen music programs are
available, student engagementhas become the deeper challenge.
A study led by Dimitra Kokosakiidentified four key attributes
(01:05):
that can dramatically increaseengagement in the music
classroom Autonomy, relatedness,competence and creativity.
When students have more controlover their learning, feel a
sense of connection with others,believe in their own abilities
and have a space to be creative,their motivation and
participation flourish.
This aligns closely with thework of Lucy Green, who
(01:28):
challenged the traditionalteacher-directed model of music
instruction.
Her informal learning theoryemphasized peer collaboration,
experimentation andimprovisation, hallmarks of
genres like jazz and pop.
Green's work reframes musiceducation as something students
actively do, not something theypassively receive.
Music educator and researcher,richard Frank has taken these
(01:50):
principles to heart, creating amusic learning system called
Play the Groove.
Grounded in a unison-basedcontent approach, his work
bridges traditional andnon-traditional music
instruction.
Through this student-led method, secondary students with
varying skill levels andinstruments collaborate to make
(02:11):
modern-day jazzy ensembles thatare re-engaging students around
the world.
Welcome to the podcast, richard.
How are you today?
Richard Frank (02:17):
Doing fabulous.
Lisa, so glad I could join youtoday.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (02:21):
I want to know all about what you're doing in
this field to make music reallyresonate with our students.
So what is UBC?
Richard Frank (02:28):
Well, ubc is short for Unison-Based Content,
and when it comes into the music, it's about playing the melody
in unison, where all theinstruments can play the melody
and the melody is thenaccompanied by a rhythm section,
which is the groove part ofthings.
So this unison-based concept isa unison approach with a groove
(02:50):
component, and any sort ofintermediate secondary group can
experience music this way in amuch more creative fashion.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (03:00):
Right, and so you work mostly with secondary
ensembles.
Richard Frank (03:04):
Yes, secondary ensembles in the jazzy ensemble
world you know, where there'strombones and trumpets and
saxophones and guitar, bass,drums and percussion and all
these different instruments.
That world has been changing alot because the traditional
model has been traditionallyfour trumpets, four trumpets,
four tromb and five saxes and arhythm section.
(03:25):
But that is hard to puttogether often these days.
So this is where the jazzyensemble comes in and this is
where unison, bass content comesin, to be able to work with
those ensembles.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (03:36):
And you yourself are a musician.
What musical instrument do youplay?
Richard Frank (03:40):
I'm mostly known as a bassist.
I play string and electric.
I do play some piano, but justa little.
You dabble.
Nothing professional in thatworld, just bass.
Yeah, very experienced in thatregards as a professional
musician.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (03:57):
And you've done a lot of studies, written a
lot of papers presented aboutthe unison bass concept abroad.
You have quite a large libraryof studies and research that
you've done on this concept forquite a while.
Richard Frank (04:10):
Yes, well, this whole thing started 10 plus
years ago and I just went to aschool that my son was going to
and realized that things havenot changed in like 50 years,
and that was pretty unsettlingbecause there's so much great
creativity going on.
So I undertook this deep dive ineducational matters.
(04:32):
I started taking graduatecourses and got a master's in
educational technology tounderstand a lot of software and
digital applications and also alot of the basis of the
educational modalities that I'mstarting to work with, and I
started reading about all typesof great things happening around
the world in music.
(04:53):
But how slow anything has beenincorporated into the American
scene.
That took me to Finland,because they wrote a tremendous
amount of great material onmodern learning discoveries.
I decided to go to theNetherlands, in Utrecht, and
went to the university inUtrecht for an applied
musicology to continue thatEuropean view of music and how
(05:17):
they teach music there, and tryto incorporate all these
different things into thisunison-based content approach
and also play the groove, whichis where the content actually
comes from.
It's been a great whirlwind.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (05:29):
And so the unison-based content method is
something that you've reallybeen developing over time.
Richard Frank (05:35):
Right.
The challenge that I see isthis changing of the
instrumentation from atraditional jazz ensemble to a
more mixed ensemble with vocalscoming into the picture.
Perhaps there's a violinist ora clarinetist or a French horn
player, or even if it's a smallconcert band that wants to do
(05:58):
modern things.
There's no vehicle for that intraditional music.
It doesn't work as seamlessbecause everyone has their own
individual harmonized part, soyou can't let a student go and
say, hey, how can we do thisdifferently?
How can we bring inimprovisation?
How can we bring in small groupdiscussions?
How can we explore culturaldiversity in different countries
(06:22):
and music from different partsof the world?
These were the questions that Igot in all of my reading and
studies that I wanted to address, and it can be addressed very
smoothly through unison-basedcontent.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (06:34):
What is your approach then?
Richard Frank (06:36):
Well, basically, a teacher will access a piece of
a song and in fact actuallythere's like five or six
different approach steps and Idon't know how many I want to
get into right at the moment.
But, I want to engage studentagency, where the students have
a say in what they do and wherethe teacher becomes a guide in
(06:56):
the process and they facilitatestudents becoming more activated
in who they are and theirindividualism can come out a lot
more.
So once a song is selected,either by the teacher or
preferably by the students, youknow, because that becomes voice
and choice right, the studentscan analyze four to five
different pieces of music andwhen they analyze different
(07:20):
music, they have a chance tothink about the music in
different ways.
Do they like it?
What do they like about it?
Do they like the groove?
Do they like the melody?
Do they like the fact that thisperson's from Africa or India,
or music from Finland or LosAngeles or wherever the choices
are coming from?
Do they like the worldly,global view of things or do they
(07:42):
want to go more traditional?
There's all these approaches andthis analytical thinking is
critical thinking.
So we're starting to bring inthe life skills where there's
communication and collaboration,because you may like a song and
I may like a song, but Susieand Jose may like totally
different songs.
Well, how do we communicate andcollaborate to get to this
(08:06):
point?
So let's say they choose a song, then I have everyone play
rhythm instruments to therecording.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (08:12):
So flexible for multiple skill levels,
bringing them all to that rhythminstrument.
Richard Frank (08:17):
Yes, that's for any skill level.
It gets everyone feeling therhythm and the groove, even if
they don't have much musicalexperience.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (08:26):
Also it reduces idle time, improving
classroom management.
Richard Frank (08:29):
Yes, because what happens is they go from one
thing to another thing, toanother thing to another thing,
so they would go from playingthe rhythm instruments to then
everyone working on the melody.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (08:41):
The traditional people would have
their part, and then they onlyplay that part when their part
would come up, and then for therest of the time they are
sitting and waiting.
And so is this where this isdifferent as well.
Richard Frank (08:52):
They're struggling because they're not
being supported by their part,because there's no doubling or
very, very little doubling.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (08:59):
Okay.
Richard Frank (09:00):
And when you don't get the doubling, you
don't have the support of Susienext to you, that knows it
pretty well, and then Susie canturn towards someone else and
say, hey, try this fingering ordo this or do this.
This peer learning can starthappening.
So when they all learn themelody, then it's like now let's
get the rhythm section to learnthe groove itself.
(09:20):
And through all of these steps,lisa, they're performing to the
recording.
They're performing to that intempo, in intonation, in rhythms
and grooves.
So that becomes more of theteaching tool than a teacher
teaching the rhythm from thestage, from the podium, and
trying to get everyone to playthe specific rhythm.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (09:41):
So how do you support informal learning theory
with collaboration and theimprovisation that can come with
your jazzy ensemble concept?
Richard Frank (09:51):
What we're dealing with is a clashing of
different systems of teaching.
One side of this continuum youwould have the Western approach,
the formal approach, where theyall learn the rhythms and they
all learn the notes that theyhave to play in front of
themselves.
It's traditional Western theory.
It goes back to Mozart.
Now, on the right side is theinformal Musicians don't know
(10:15):
how to read music.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (10:16):
They play by ear.
Richard Frank (10:17):
They play by ear.
They don't understand theory interms of chordalness or melodic
or scales, or how to read notesor a chord chart, even not just
notes itself but chords.
There's a lot of things thisnon-formal side just doesn't
know.
But there's a lot of things onthe formal side they don't know
(10:39):
either, because they don't knowhow to use their ear effectively
and they don't know how tolearn a song without using the
music.
The space between these twosides is called the blended
space, and the blended space isyou would take someone that is
non-formal and try to introducesome note reading, try to
introduce some chords.
(10:59):
They may know how to read tabif they're a guitarist or a bass
player and a drummer can playby ear often.
So they start to get introducedto rhythms on a piece of paper.
On the left side, the formalside I encourage them to move to
the right, so to use their earmore.
Don't rely on the music so much.
Use it as a guide, but use thefeel from the group to drive the
(11:24):
performance.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (11:25):
Is that where groove comes in?
Richard Frank (11:27):
And that's where the groove comes in, because
everything needs to groove, evenMozart needs to groove.
And when it really sits in thepocket, it's beautiful, right.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (11:35):
Yeah.
Richard Frank (11:36):
So I got to find that groove sweet spot.
What we're doing here, though,lisa, is we're not driving
towards a product, but we'reembracing the process.
We're embracing that everyperson in the room is an
individual.
They have their own way oflearning, so this process over
product becomes more of thedrive inside Unison based
(11:58):
content approach, because itgives people the chance to
become comfortable with makingmusic without feeling like they
don't know anything, becausethey can sit in that chair and
not know notes for months andeveryone else may know stuff
around them, and they getfrustrated and, as soon as they
can, they drop out yeah, andthere's a lot of disengagement
in music classes.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (12:19):
That begins very young, and so by the time
they're in high school they'vealready mentally checked out.
So this would then invite themback into that space in a
different way.
A jazzy ensemble might be alittle bit more inviting because
of that diversity of culturethat you're offering more
inclusivity when it comes toskill levels and then being able
(12:39):
to play right away.
Richard Frank (12:42):
I think you're nailing all the great points and
even if someone doesn't playvery well, when it does get to a
performance and they don't wantto, they could always play the
percussion instruments andthey're involved in creating
their sound of the group.
You know, the overall group isvery inclusive of everybody.
One distinction I want to bringout too that with unison-based
(13:03):
content and the play the groovecontent itself, when a music
teacher actually auditionspeople for a jazzy ensemble,
they can try this unison-basedcontent material where a
guitarist can join, where theydon't read notes, because with
play the groove, we provide tabparts so they can get right into
(13:23):
the mix and play and then theteacher can slowly take this
person in the non-formallearning that knows tab.
Okay, now we're going to startintroducing you to some notes
what's tab?
Dr. Lisa Hassler (13:34):
because I don't know.
Richard Frank (13:35):
I don't know what tab is tab is a nomenclature,
which is there's six lines andeach one of the lines represents
a string on the guitar andthere's different notes on the
actual graph of the six strings,plus different things below it
that help a guitarist or bassistlearn that music.
(13:55):
But they're not reading notes.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (13:57):
So this is a way to be getting some of those
nonttraditional instruments thatkids are more inclined to
self-teach.
Richard Frank (14:05):
And this all comes back on the teacher
wanting to say, wow, can Iinclude all these people?
How do I do that?
And it can be very challengingfor a teacher to do that, to
change their modes of teachingand explore all these different
options Definitely.
But that's why I believe thatI'm wanting to make unison-based
content and play the groovekind of a supplemental kind of
(14:28):
approach.
They can still have theirtraditional jazz brand approach
and maybe lay off some of thecompetitions and conferences
which only want you to dotraditional material, but make
it more school oriented orcommunity oriented where the
students can play more in theirschools and more within their
communities.
(14:48):
Include these other playersWith unison bass content.
You can have three or fourguitarists playing or two bass
players.
It sounds crazy but you can.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (14:58):
What band was it that we had spoken about
earlier?
That takes a huge collection ofvaried instruments and they're
playing around the audience andthe audience is set in the
middle.
What band is that?
Richard Frank (15:11):
That's Snarky Puppy.
They're a great band.
Michael League is a tremendousleader.
He's a collaborator.
He's built a collective ofpeople that is generally based
around a core section becauseeveryone does need to learn to
think, to play together.
With the exceptions of bigbands, pretty much every pop
group in the world is consideredunison because you have a
(15:34):
melody, a vocalist and you havea rhythm section.
Now they could have hornplayers back there, right, and
you could have backgroundsingers, but they're not
necessarily needed.
They're just there to augmentthe overall sound.
This is why I find unison basscontent so exciting is because,
regardless of what happens afterhigh school, I would say 95% of
(15:55):
the time they're going to bedoing unison music.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (15:57):
So it's very applicable to the real world.
Richard Frank (16:00):
Where they go.
Yeah, if they want to keepplaying rock, they're going to
be in that unison bass content.
If they're going to go on forcollege, they're going to have
combos and play with buddiesthat are exploring and being
creative with three or fourhorns and generally they'll play
it in unison.
Maybe they'll play it inharmony later, but they'll go to
jam sessions and playtraditional tunes all in unison.
(16:22):
And I just like the idea ofmaking the music much more
modern and current and moreglobal oriented and current jazz
genres versus just traditionalstuff.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (16:32):
What kind of feedback have you gotten?
Richard Frank (16:33):
I have four basic ideas and stories to share,
real briefly, and then onedifferent one.
So the idea that it supportsmixed level groups where shy
students can step up in a safeenvironment is one of the big
pros that I've received.
So when you have a mixed levelgroup, that means you may have a
(16:54):
trumpet player or a drummerthat's really good, but then you
may have a trombonist and aguitarist and bass player that
aren't quite as good.
So how do we challenge thesedifferent people is something a
teacher has to wrestle with,right, because if you don't,
they're going to get bored andthey're going to go do different
things.
So with a trumpet player, youcan actually give them a
different piece of music.
(17:15):
Instead of the B flat part,which is a transposed part for
trumpet, you can give them a Cpart where they have to
transpose in their head.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (17:22):
It's a little more challenging.
Richard Frank (17:23):
That's all they may get on the stage when
they're playing.
After high school is the C part, or you give the trumpet player
no music so they have to learnit by ear.
I see.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (17:34):
Okay.
Richard Frank (17:34):
So you would put them off to the side of the
group and say, okay, great,you're going to learn this by
ear, because everyone over hereis going to learn using the
music.
Okay, learned this by earbecause everyone over here is
going to learn using the music.
So that helps the beginners andthe intermediate players of the
melodic people learn the tune.
When they get challenged, theyget over there, not in a bad way
.
But if they're really moreadvanced too, they can start
(17:56):
writing lines, they can doharmony, they can change the
harmonic structure.
With a bass player, you canalways have another bass player
playing the melody, which is thecool thing.
And this transposition worksthe same thing for trombones as
well as saxophones, and with areally good drummer, you want to
have them learn otherpercussion instruments.
As a beginning drummer islearning, you put them on the
(18:20):
melody, so they have to play themelody in the performance
there's all these different ways.
A teacher can work with thisbeginner group and professionals
.
So we covered the mixed levelgroup with the advanced students
.
Improvisation is a huge thingtoo, because Western
improvisation often teach music,improvisation through Western
(18:41):
theory, learning scales,learning arpeggios, learning
structure and voice leading andall these different types of
things, and in a more jazzygroup that everyone knows the
melody.
So if it's time to solo, youcan start off by playing the
melody by yourself and thatworks just fine.
You are soloing, you're thesolo part.
(19:01):
But when it comes to the rhythmsof the melody, that can be
analyzed in a theoretical way,in a non-formal way, not super
formal, but try to use therhythm of the melody using
simple notes of the chord.
So it's more of a rhythm andgroove and as they become
comfortable knowing that theycan go, more of a rhythm and
(19:22):
groove and as they becomecomfortable knowing that they
can go and feel good about thatand it actually sounds pretty
good.
You know, not just which maynot sound so good, but when you
can get that fluid, then you canbring in different things, the
experienced players.
(19:43):
They can be ripping and doingwhat they do.
You know what I mean.
So this soloing can happen bythe end of the day and it's a
safe environment.
So it's pretty quick.
If you give the students somesimple ways to start doing
things and you let the rhythmsection go, so they're holding
down the groove, you haveeveryone play an improv at the
(20:03):
same time.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (20:03):
Oh wow, how does that not become
overwhelming?
Richard Frank (20:06):
For musicians that have played in a concert
band or symphony orchestrabefore they walk out and bring
everyone to attention,everyone's kind of warming up on
their instrument.
Yes, they are so focused ontheir own performance and their
own playing they hear themselvesjust fine.
It's a cacophony.
It's also a great practice toolin a classroom, because then
(20:30):
I'm not saying Susie, your turnto solo, and it's like no.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (20:36):
Ah, okay, yes.
Richard Frank (20:37):
They're able to play without anybody hearing
them.
Really yeah, but they hearthemselves just without anybody
hearing them.
Really yeah, but they hearthemselves just fine, you see.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (20:45):
Yeah.
Richard Frank (20:46):
And there's a lot of flexibility that can happen
from a teacher point of view.
So let's say a groove is beingheld down.
A teacher doesn't stand up atthe front and conduct, no, it's
all on the rhythm section tokeep it going and it gets
everyone playing.
So you'll start getting somepeople playing.
It's a cacophony, right?
Yeah?
So a teacher walks over to therhythm section and just listens
(21:07):
to the rhythm section and justlocks it in, just keeps everyone
tight.
Then they can walk over to Susieand they don't make any
comments to them like, hey, trythis, try this.
But they just kind of listenand they say, keep going, keep
going, play a little louder.
You can always play louder.
When you can play louder, thatmeans you're more confident.
If you're shy, you're going totalk like this.
(21:30):
Right, you have to encouragethe quiet ones to try and they
can do it in this method.
Then you walk over to anotherperson and say, hey, try this,
you know.
And then you walk over toanother person and this idea of
bouncing back and forth, givingindividualized attention in a
big group of, say, 20 musicianswithin three to five minutes, is
a very motivating thing,because no one's being called
(21:52):
out.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (21:52):
So this is how , then, unison-based content can
then support social-emotionallearning within the classroom
social emotional learning withinthe classroom.
Richard Frank (22:04):
That's right, because there's a couple of key
things, and Scott Edgar, who isthe master of social emotional
learning and music education,brings out that the idea of
confidence, of listening, ofhaving a say in how they learn
and what they learn, anddeveloping a voice.
Because you're giving studentsagency, you're giving them the
(22:24):
opportunities to explore thesetools and making this creative
music on their own.
And this is a major brainexcitement at this point because
, rather than just focusing onyour notes in front of you,
you're wow, I can try these twodifferent things, I can
experiment with this.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (22:42):
Supporting that risk-taking.
What kind of opportunities inthe community have you seen
these jazzy ensembles take?
Richard Frank (22:50):
Steve Holley did some great work with his
students, actually have hisgroup play at different public
performances out in thecommunity.
So the first thing I like tosay for the building the
community performance is, ifthey learn to play the groove
tunes, for example, or even one,they actually hold a noontime
(23:10):
concert or after school, andit's very short, it's very quick
and they invite their friends,or the teacher invites one or
two other administration peopleor teachers.
They play just the one tune,but they're in charge of that.
The teacher's not conducting.
They have to come into the roomand set up, play and tear down
in a very short period.
(23:30):
After they do the first one,they're going to learn from that
.
You can talk about it.
What can we do better?
Letting them choose what to dowith it?
They're collaborating, they'recommunicating.
They may even disagree witheach other.
It may even crash and burn,right, but what is it?
They can learn.
And then the next time they doit again, they deal with those
issues.
Then they learn two songs andmaybe within a month or two
(23:53):
months they could take thosesongs out into the cafeteria and
play for a lunchtimeperformance.
So now they're expanding thecommunity of who they're
performing with as theyreinforce their community of
playing together and workingtogether, because the teacher is
stepping back.
That's the goal guiding themenough but at the same point,
(24:14):
putting it on them, putting theownership, the responsibility on
the students to do these things.
They can still be workingtowards their fall performance,
doing different things, but theycan continue this process when
it comes to the fall performance, and these jazz groups are
being performed in the lobbybefore the actual fall concert
begins.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (24:33):
There's a lot more freedom with this and real
life scenario applications.
Richard Frank (24:38):
That's where I see this can go and where I've
seen other groups go, and thiscame from an academic paper I
read by Cody Gifford on the ideaof doing informal performances
as soon as possible.
So these are ways that I tookthis academic world and brought
it into a structure that canactually be done.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (24:59):
What would teachers do?
How could they access yourresources, and what does that
look like?
How would they get started?
Richard Frank (25:06):
Well, I encourage them to go over to
playthegroovecom and startlooking at the content.
The first two rows of music isgenerally perfect for any
intermediate post-beginner group.
Okay when it gets to the songselection process, and I have a
lot of tutorials to show themhow to do different things, how
(25:26):
to engage voice and choice fromday one in a supplemental way.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (25:31):
You've got a ready-made toolkit.
You have charts, loops, playalong tracks.
You've got teacher guides for aquick setup.
You're providing a lot ofsupport.
Richard Frank (25:42):
Yes, a structured way to approach an unstructured
aspect of music that's notexplored.
So I do provide the sheet musicfor all of these parts.
They have the guitar in tab,there's drum parts, there's
percussion parts, there's bassparts, there's all the other
parts as well.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (25:59):
So go to Play the Groove and access that
student led peer collaborationand creativity that comes with
the UBC method.
Thank you so much for talkingabout what it means from an
education standpoint and how touse that in the classroom.
Richard Frank (26:16):
Well, thank you very much, Lisa, and they can
reach out to me by email atrichard, at richardjfrankcom.
They can find a contact on theplaythegroovecom site.
But you're doing amazing workand thank you very much for
having me a part of your series.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (26:31):
If your teens have lost interest in music
class, try creating a jazzyensemble and use the unison
based content approach tore-engage them.
If you have a story aboutwhat's working in your schools
that you'd like to share, youcan email me at lisa at
drlisahasslercom, or visit mywebsite at wwwdrlisahasslercom
(26:52):
and send me a message.
If you like this podcast,subscribe and tell a friend.
The more people that know, thebigger impact it will have.
And if you find value to thecontent in this podcast,
consider becoming a supporter byclicking on the supporter link
in the show notes.
It is the mission of thispodcast to shine light on the
good in education so that itspreads, affecting positive
change.
(27:12):
So let's keep working togetherto find solutions that focus on
our children's success.
Richard Frank (27:20):
Thank you.
If your older students are losing interest in
music class, don't give up.
Using a unison-based contentapproach could bring the joy
back.
Music educators are calling ita breath of fresh air.
Welcome to the brighter side ofeducation, research, innovation
(00:24):
and resources.
I'm your host, dr Lisa Hassler,here to enlighten and brighten
the classrooms in Americathrough focused conversation on
important topics in education.
In each episode, I discussproblems we as teachers and
parents are facing and whatpeople are doing in their
communities to fix it.
What are the variables and howcan we duplicate it to maximize
(00:44):
student outcomes?
Student engagement in schoolmusic programs is facing a quiet
crisis.
Over 3.6 million students inthe United States do not have
access to music education, andwhen music programs are
available, student engagementhas become the deeper challenge.
A study led by Dimitra Kokosakiidentified four key attributes
(01:05):
that can dramatically increaseengagement in the music
classroom Autonomy, relatedness,competence and creativity.
When students have more controlover their learning, feel a
sense of connection with others,believe in their own abilities
and have a space to be creative,their motivation and
participation flourish.
This aligns closely with thework of Lucy Green, who
(01:28):
challenged the traditionalteacher-directed model of music
instruction.
Her informal learning theoryemphasized peer collaboration,
experimentation andimprovisation, hallmarks of
genres like jazz and pop.
Green's work reframes musiceducation as something students
actively do, not something theypassively receive.
Music educator and researcher,richard Frank has taken these
(01:50):
principles to heart, creating amusic learning system called
Play the Groove.
Grounded in a unison-basedcontent approach, his work
bridges traditional andnon-traditional music
instruction.
Through this student-led method, secondary students with
varying skill levels andinstruments collaborate to make
(02:11):
modern-day jazzy ensembles thatare re-engaging students around
the world.
Welcome to the podcast, richard.
How are you today?
Richard Frank (02:17):
Doing fabulous.
Lisa, so glad I could join youtoday.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (02:21):
I want to know all about what you're doing in
this field to make music reallyresonate with our students.
So what is UBC?
Richard Frank (02:28):
Well, ubc is short for Unison-Based Content,
and when it comes into the music, it's about playing the melody
in unison, where all theinstruments can play the melody
and the melody is thenaccompanied by a rhythm section,
which is the groove part ofthings.
So this unison-based concept isa unison approach with a groove
(02:50):
component, and any sort ofintermediate secondary group can
experience music this way in amuch more creative fashion.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (03:00):
Right, and so you work mostly with secondary
ensembles.
Richard Frank (03:04):
Yes, secondary ensembles in the jazzy ensemble
world you know, where there'strombones and trumpets and
saxophones and guitar, bass,drums and percussion and all
these different instruments.
That world has been changing alot because the traditional
model has been traditionallyfour trumpets, four trumpets,
four tromb and five saxes and arhythm section.
(03:25):
But that is hard to puttogether often these days.
So this is where the jazzyensemble comes in and this is
where unison, bass content comesin, to be able to work with
those ensembles.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (03:36):
And you yourself are a musician.
What musical instrument do youplay?
Richard Frank (03:40):
I'm mostly known as a bassist.
I play string and electric.
I do play some piano, but justa little.
You dabble.
Nothing professional in thatworld, just bass.
Yeah, very experienced in thatregards as a professional
musician.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (03:57):
And you've done a lot of studies, written a
lot of papers presented aboutthe unison bass concept abroad.
You have quite a large libraryof studies and research that
you've done on this concept forquite a while.
Richard Frank (04:10):
Yes, well, this whole thing started 10 plus
years ago and I just went to aschool that my son was going to
and realized that things havenot changed in like 50 years,
and that was pretty unsettlingbecause there's so much great
creativity going on.
So I undertook this deep dive ineducational matters.
(04:32):
I started taking graduatecourses and got a master's in
educational technology tounderstand a lot of software and
digital applications and also alot of the basis of the
educational modalities that I'mstarting to work with, and I
started reading about all typesof great things happening around
the world in music.
(04:53):
But how slow anything has beenincorporated into the American
scene.
That took me to Finland,because they wrote a tremendous
amount of great material onmodern learning discoveries.
I decided to go to theNetherlands, in Utrecht, and
went to the university inUtrecht for an applied
musicology to continue thatEuropean view of music and how
(05:17):
they teach music there, and tryto incorporate all these
different things into thisunison-based content approach
and also play the groove, whichis where the content actually
comes from.
It's been a great whirlwind.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (05:29):
And so the unison-based content method is
something that you've reallybeen developing over time.
Richard Frank (05:35):
Right.
The challenge that I see isthis changing of the
instrumentation from atraditional jazz ensemble to a
more mixed ensemble with vocalscoming into the picture.
Perhaps there's a violinist ora clarinetist or a French horn
player, or even if it's a smallconcert band that wants to do
(05:58):
modern things.
There's no vehicle for that intraditional music.
It doesn't work as seamlessbecause everyone has their own
individual harmonized part, soyou can't let a student go and
say, hey, how can we do thisdifferently?
How can we bring inimprovisation?
How can we bring in small groupdiscussions?
How can we explore culturaldiversity in different countries
(06:22):
and music from different partsof the world?
These were the questions that Igot in all of my reading and
studies that I wanted to address, and it can be addressed very
smoothly through unison-basedcontent.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (06:34):
What is your approach then?
Richard Frank (06:36):
Well, basically, a teacher will access a piece of
a song and in fact actuallythere's like five or six
different approach steps and Idon't know how many I want to
get into right at the moment.
But, I want to engage studentagency, where the students have
a say in what they do and wherethe teacher becomes a guide in
(06:56):
the process and they facilitatestudents becoming more activated
in who they are and theirindividualism can come out a lot
more.
So once a song is selected,either by the teacher or
preferably by the students, youknow, because that becomes voice
and choice right, the studentscan analyze four to five
different pieces of music andwhen they analyze different
(07:20):
music, they have a chance tothink about the music in
different ways.
Do they like it?
What do they like about it?
Do they like the groove?
Do they like the melody?
Do they like the fact that thisperson's from Africa or India,
or music from Finland or LosAngeles or wherever the choices
are coming from?
Do they like the worldly,global view of things or do they
(07:42):
want to go more traditional?
There's all these approaches andthis analytical thinking is
critical thinking.
So we're starting to bring inthe life skills where there's
communication and collaboration,because you may like a song and
I may like a song, but Susieand Jose may like totally
different songs.
Well, how do we communicate andcollaborate to get to this
(08:06):
point?
So let's say they choose a song, then I have everyone play
rhythm instruments to therecording.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (08:12):
So flexible for multiple skill levels,
bringing them all to that rhythminstrument.
Richard Frank (08:17):
Yes, that's for any skill level.
It gets everyone feeling therhythm and the groove, even if
they don't have much musicalexperience.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (08:26):
Also it reduces idle time, improving
classroom management.
Richard Frank (08:29):
Yes, because what happens is they go from one
thing to another thing, toanother thing to another thing,
so they would go from playingthe rhythm instruments to then
everyone working on the melody.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (08:41):
The traditional people would have
their part, and then they onlyplay that part when their part
would come up, and then for therest of the time they are
sitting and waiting.
And so is this where this isdifferent as well.
Richard Frank (08:52):
They're struggling because they're not
being supported by their part,because there's no doubling or
very, very little doubling.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (08:59):
Okay.
Richard Frank (09:00):
And when you don't get the doubling, you
don't have the support of Susienext to you, that knows it
pretty well, and then Susie canturn towards someone else and
say, hey, try this fingering ordo this or do this.
This peer learning can starthappening.
So when they all learn themelody, then it's like now let's
get the rhythm section to learnthe groove itself.
(09:20):
And through all of these steps,lisa, they're performing to the
recording.
They're performing to that intempo, in intonation, in rhythms
and grooves.
So that becomes more of theteaching tool than a teacher
teaching the rhythm from thestage, from the podium, and
trying to get everyone to playthe specific rhythm.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (09:41):
So how do you support informal learning theory
with collaboration and theimprovisation that can come with
your jazzy ensemble concept?
Richard Frank (09:51):
What we're dealing with is a clashing of
different systems of teaching.
One side of this continuum youwould have the Western approach,
the formal approach, where theyall learn the rhythms and they
all learn the notes that theyhave to play in front of
themselves.
It's traditional Western theory.
It goes back to Mozart.
Now, on the right side is theinformal Musicians don't know
(10:15):
how to read music.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (10:16):
They play by ear.
Richard Frank (10:17):
They play by ear.
They don't understand theory interms of chordalness or melodic
or scales, or how to read notesor a chord chart, even not just
notes itself but chords.
There's a lot of things thisnon-formal side just doesn't
know.
But there's a lot of things onthe formal side they don't know
(10:39):
either, because they don't knowhow to use their ear effectively
and they don't know how tolearn a song without using the
music.
The space between these twosides is called the blended
space, and the blended space isyou would take someone that is
non-formal and try to introducesome note reading, try to
introduce some chords.
(10:59):
They may know how to read tabif they're a guitarist or a bass
player and a drummer can playby ear often.
So they start to get introducedto rhythms on a piece of paper.
On the left side, the formalside I encourage them to move to
the right, so to use their earmore.
Don't rely on the music so much.
Use it as a guide, but use thefeel from the group to drive the
(11:24):
performance.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (11:25):
Is that where groove comes in?
Richard Frank (11:27):
And that's where the groove comes in, because
everything needs to groove, evenMozart needs to groove.
And when it really sits in thepocket, it's beautiful, right.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (11:35):
Yeah.
Richard Frank (11:36):
So I got to find that groove sweet spot.
What we're doing here, though,lisa, is we're not driving
towards a product, but we'reembracing the process.
We're embracing that everyperson in the room is an
individual.
They have their own way oflearning, so this process over
product becomes more of thedrive inside Unison based
(11:58):
content approach, because itgives people the chance to
become comfortable with makingmusic without feeling like they
don't know anything, becausethey can sit in that chair and
not know notes for months andeveryone else may know stuff
around them, and they getfrustrated and, as soon as they
can, they drop out yeah, andthere's a lot of disengagement
in music classes.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (12:19):
That begins very young, and so by the time
they're in high school they'vealready mentally checked out.
So this would then invite themback into that space in a
different way.
A jazzy ensemble might be alittle bit more inviting because
of that diversity of culturethat you're offering more
inclusivity when it comes toskill levels and then being able
(12:39):
to play right away.
Richard Frank (12:42):
I think you're nailing all the great points and
even if someone doesn't playvery well, when it does get to a
performance and they don't wantto, they could always play the
percussion instruments andthey're involved in creating
their sound of the group.
You know, the overall group isvery inclusive of everybody.
One distinction I want to bringout too that with unison-based
(13:03):
content and the play the groovecontent itself, when a music
teacher actually auditionspeople for a jazzy ensemble,
they can try this unison-basedcontent material where a
guitarist can join, where theydon't read notes, because with
play the groove, we provide tabparts so they can get right into
(13:23):
the mix and play and then theteacher can slowly take this
person in the non-formallearning that knows tab.
Okay, now we're going to startintroducing you to some notes
what's tab?
Dr. Lisa Hassler (13:34):
because I don't know.
Richard Frank (13:35):
I don't know what tab is tab is a nomenclature,
which is there's six lines andeach one of the lines represents
a string on the guitar andthere's different notes on the
actual graph of the six strings,plus different things below it
that help a guitarist or bassistlearn that music.
(13:55):
But they're not reading notes.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (13:57):
So this is a way to be getting some of those
nonttraditional instruments thatkids are more inclined to
self-teach.
Richard Frank (14:05):
And this all comes back on the teacher
wanting to say, wow, can Iinclude all these people?
How do I do that?
And it can be very challengingfor a teacher to do that, to
change their modes of teachingand explore all these different
options Definitely.
But that's why I believe thatI'm wanting to make unison-based
content and play the groovekind of a supplemental kind of
(14:28):
approach.
They can still have theirtraditional jazz brand approach
and maybe lay off some of thecompetitions and conferences
which only want you to dotraditional material, but make
it more school oriented orcommunity oriented where the
students can play more in theirschools and more within their
communities.
(14:48):
Include these other playersWith unison bass content.
You can have three or fourguitarists playing or two bass
players.
It sounds crazy but you can.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (14:58):
What band was it that we had spoken about
earlier?
That takes a huge collection ofvaried instruments and they're
playing around the audience andthe audience is set in the
middle.
What band is that?
Richard Frank (15:11):
That's Snarky Puppy.
They're a great band.
Michael League is a tremendousleader.
He's a collaborator.
He's built a collective ofpeople that is generally based
around a core section becauseeveryone does need to learn to
think, to play together.
With the exceptions of bigbands, pretty much every pop
group in the world is consideredunison because you have a
(15:34):
melody, a vocalist and you havea rhythm section.
Now they could have hornplayers back there, right, and
you could have backgroundsingers, but they're not
necessarily needed.
They're just there to augmentthe overall sound.
This is why I find unison basscontent so exciting is because,
regardless of what happens afterhigh school, I would say 95% of
(15:55):
the time they're going to bedoing unison music.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (15:57):
So it's very applicable to the real world.
Richard Frank (16:00):
Where they go.
Yeah, if they want to keepplaying rock, they're going to
be in that unison bass content.
If they're going to go on forcollege, they're going to have
combos and play with buddiesthat are exploring and being
creative with three or fourhorns and generally they'll play
it in unison.
Maybe they'll play it inharmony later, but they'll go to
jam sessions and playtraditional tunes all in unison.
(16:22):
And I just like the idea ofmaking the music much more
modern and current and moreglobal oriented and current jazz
genres versus just traditionalstuff.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (16:32):
What kind of feedback have you gotten?
Richard Frank (16:33):
I have four basic ideas and stories to share,
real briefly, and then onedifferent one.
So the idea that it supportsmixed level groups where shy
students can step up in a safeenvironment is one of the big
pros that I've received.
So when you have a mixed levelgroup, that means you may have a
(16:54):
trumpet player or a drummerthat's really good, but then you
may have a trombonist and aguitarist and bass player that
aren't quite as good.
So how do we challenge thesedifferent people is something a
teacher has to wrestle with,right, because if you don't,
they're going to get bored andthey're going to go do different
things.
So with a trumpet player, youcan actually give them a
different piece of music.
(17:15):
Instead of the B flat part,which is a transposed part for
trumpet, you can give them a Cpart where they have to
transpose in their head.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (17:22):
It's a little more challenging.
Richard Frank (17:23):
That's all they may get on the stage when
they're playing.
After high school is the C part, or you give the trumpet player
no music so they have to learnit by ear.
I see.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (17:34):
Okay.
Richard Frank (17:34):
So you would put them off to the side of the
group and say, okay, great,you're going to learn this by
ear, because everyone over hereis going to learn using the
music.
Okay, learned this by earbecause everyone over here is
going to learn using the music.
So that helps the beginners andthe intermediate players of the
melodic people learn the tune.
When they get challenged, theyget over there, not in a bad way
.
But if they're really moreadvanced too, they can start
(17:56):
writing lines, they can doharmony, they can change the
harmonic structure.
With a bass player, you canalways have another bass player
playing the melody, which is thecool thing.
And this transposition worksthe same thing for trombones as
well as saxophones, and with areally good drummer, you want to
have them learn otherpercussion instruments.
As a beginning drummer islearning, you put them on the
(18:20):
melody, so they have to play themelody in the performance
there's all these different ways.
A teacher can work with thisbeginner group and professionals
.
So we covered the mixed levelgroup with the advanced students
.
Improvisation is a huge thingtoo, because Western
improvisation often teach music,improvisation through Western
(18:41):
theory, learning scales,learning arpeggios, learning
structure and voice leading andall these different types of
things, and in a more jazzygroup that everyone knows the
melody.
So if it's time to solo, youcan start off by playing the
melody by yourself and thatworks just fine.
You are soloing, you're thesolo part.
(19:01):
But when it comes to the rhythmsof the melody, that can be
analyzed in a theoretical way,in a non-formal way, not super
formal, but try to use therhythm of the melody using
simple notes of the chord.
So it's more of a rhythm andgroove and as they become
comfortable knowing that theycan go, more of a rhythm and
(19:22):
groove and as they becomecomfortable knowing that they
can go and feel good about thatand it actually sounds pretty
good.
You know, not just which maynot sound so good, but when you
can get that fluid, then you canbring in different things, the
experienced players.
(19:43):
They can be ripping and doingwhat they do.
You know what I mean.
So this soloing can happen bythe end of the day and it's a
safe environment.
So it's pretty quick.
If you give the students somesimple ways to start doing
things and you let the rhythmsection go, so they're holding
down the groove, you haveeveryone play an improv at the
(20:03):
same time.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (20:03):
Oh wow, how does that not become
overwhelming?
Richard Frank (20:06):
For musicians that have played in a concert
band or symphony orchestrabefore they walk out and bring
everyone to attention,everyone's kind of warming up on
their instrument.
Yes, they are so focused ontheir own performance and their
own playing they hear themselvesjust fine.
It's a cacophony.
It's also a great practice toolin a classroom, because then
(20:30):
I'm not saying Susie, your turnto solo, and it's like no.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (20:36):
Ah, okay, yes.
Richard Frank (20:37):
They're able to play without anybody hearing
them.
Really yeah, but they hearthemselves just without anybody
hearing them.
Really yeah, but they hearthemselves just fine, you see.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (20:45):
Yeah.
Richard Frank (20:46):
And there's a lot of flexibility that can happen
from a teacher point of view.
So let's say a groove is beingheld down.
A teacher doesn't stand up atthe front and conduct, no, it's
all on the rhythm section tokeep it going and it gets
everyone playing.
So you'll start getting somepeople playing.
It's a cacophony, right?
Yeah?
So a teacher walks over to therhythm section and just listens
(21:07):
to the rhythm section and justlocks it in, just keeps everyone
tight.
Then they can walk over to Susieand they don't make any
comments to them like, hey, trythis, try this.
But they just kind of listenand they say, keep going, keep
going, play a little louder.
You can always play louder.
When you can play louder, thatmeans you're more confident.
If you're shy, you're going totalk like this.
(21:30):
Right, you have to encouragethe quiet ones to try and they
can do it in this method.
Then you walk over to anotherperson and say, hey, try this,
you know.
And then you walk over toanother person and this idea of
bouncing back and forth, givingindividualized attention in a
big group of, say, 20 musicianswithin three to five minutes, is
a very motivating thing,because no one's being called
(21:52):
out.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (21:52):
So this is how , then, unison-based content can
then support social-emotionallearning within the classroom
social emotional learning withinthe classroom.
Richard Frank (22:04):
That's right, because there's a couple of key
things, and Scott Edgar, who isthe master of social emotional
learning and music education,brings out that the idea of
confidence, of listening, ofhaving a say in how they learn
and what they learn, anddeveloping a voice.
Because you're giving studentsagency, you're giving them the
(22:24):
opportunities to explore thesetools and making this creative
music on their own.
And this is a major brainexcitement at this point because
, rather than just focusing onyour notes in front of you,
you're wow, I can try these twodifferent things, I can
experiment with this.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (22:42):
Supporting that risk-taking.
What kind of opportunities inthe community have you seen
these jazzy ensembles take?
Richard Frank (22:50):
Steve Holley did some great work with his
students, actually have hisgroup play at different public
performances out in thecommunity.
So the first thing I like tosay for the building the
community performance is, ifthey learn to play the groove
tunes, for example, or even one,they actually hold a noontime
(23:10):
concert or after school, andit's very short, it's very quick
and they invite their friends,or the teacher invites one or
two other administration peopleor teachers.
They play just the one tune,but they're in charge of that.
The teacher's not conducting.
They have to come into the roomand set up, play and tear down
in a very short period.
(23:30):
After they do the first one,they're going to learn from that
.
You can talk about it.
What can we do better?
Letting them choose what to dowith it?
They're collaborating, they'recommunicating.
They may even disagree witheach other.
It may even crash and burn,right, but what is it?
They can learn.
And then the next time they doit again, they deal with those
issues.
Then they learn two songs andmaybe within a month or two
(23:53):
months they could take thosesongs out into the cafeteria and
play for a lunchtimeperformance.
So now they're expanding thecommunity of who they're
performing with as theyreinforce their community of
playing together and workingtogether, because the teacher is
stepping back.
That's the goal guiding themenough but at the same point,
(24:14):
putting it on them, putting theownership, the responsibility on
the students to do these things.
They can still be workingtowards their fall performance,
doing different things, but theycan continue this process when
it comes to the fall performance, and these jazz groups are
being performed in the lobbybefore the actual fall concert
begins.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (24:33):
There's a lot more freedom with this and real
life scenario applications.
Richard Frank (24:38):
That's where I see this can go and where I've
seen other groups go, and thiscame from an academic paper I
read by Cody Gifford on the ideaof doing informal performances
as soon as possible.
So these are ways that I tookthis academic world and brought
it into a structure that canactually be done.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (24:59):
What would teachers do?
How could they access yourresources, and what does that
look like?
How would they get started?
Richard Frank (25:06):
Well, I encourage them to go over to
playthegroovecom and startlooking at the content.
The first two rows of music isgenerally perfect for any
intermediate post-beginner group.
Okay when it gets to the songselection process, and I have a
lot of tutorials to show themhow to do different things, how
(25:26):
to engage voice and choice fromday one in a supplemental way.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (25:31):
You've got a ready-made toolkit.
You have charts, loops, playalong tracks.
You've got teacher guides for aquick setup.
You're providing a lot ofsupport.
Richard Frank (25:42):
Yes, a structured way to approach an unstructured
aspect of music that's notexplored.
So I do provide the sheet musicfor all of these parts.
They have the guitar in tab,there's drum parts, there's
percussion parts, there's bassparts, there's all the other
parts as well.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (25:59):
So go to Play the Groove and access that
student led peer collaborationand creativity that comes with
the UBC method.
Thank you so much for talkingabout what it means from an
education standpoint and how touse that in the classroom.
Richard Frank (26:16):
Well, thank you very much, Lisa, and they can
reach out to me by email atrichard, at richardjfrankcom.
They can find a contact on theplaythegroovecom site.
But you're doing amazing workand thank you very much for
having me a part of your series.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (26:31):
If your teens have lost interest in music
class, try creating a jazzyensemble and use the unison
based content approach tore-engage them.
If you have a story aboutwhat's working in your schools
that you'd like to share, youcan email me at lisa at
drlisahasslercom, or visit mywebsite at wwwdrlisahasslercom
(26:52):
and send me a message.
If you like this podcast,subscribe and tell a friend.
The more people that know, thebigger impact it will have.
And if you find value to thecontent in this podcast,
consider becoming a supporter byclicking on the supporter link
in the show notes.
It is the mission of thispodcast to shine light on the
good in education so that itspreads, affecting positive
change.
(27:12):
So let's keep working togetherto find solutions that focus on
our children's success.
Richard Frank (27:20):
Thank you.
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