MUSIC HOME LEARNING: LESSON PLAN (Suitable for all ages)
1. Take a piece of A3 paper and fold it in half longways:
2. Now fold this into 3rds creating a square:
3. Press down firmly on the folds so that when you open it up you have created 6 squares:
YOU WILL NEED: A3 Paper Crayons, coloured pencils, pens or paints A way of playing recorded music
4. Tell your child that they are going to be ‘sound detectives’. They are going to listen to some different pieces of music and think about how the music makes them feel. Young children may find this hard so you could say ‘what pictures it makes you think of’. It helps to close your eyes whilst listening.
5. Pick one of the pieces from this playlist (or choose your own music) to play to your child. Here are some discussion points:
What is the tempo? (speed – fast or slow)
Was the tune high or low in pitch (High or low notes) or in between?
What dynamics (volume – loud or quiet) could you hear?
Was the texture bouncy or smooth?
Did the rhythm have long or short sounds, or a mixture of both?
What instruments can you hear?
Did the music remind them of, or make them think of anything?
If the music was about an animal, what would it be?
Older children can be asked if it reminds them of any other pieces of music, what is the style, genre etc.
You may want to play all or part of the piece again to illustrate some of the above discussion points and to encourage careful listening and thinking.
Your child may know more musical words than are listed above – please see the glossary of musical terms for further vocabulary.
6. You are now going to make your own GRAPHIC SCORES. They are going to draw and mark make to show they think the sounds would look. How, for example, could we draw a very short, quiet sound, compared to a long, loud one?
7. Using one square per piece of music, choose 6 tracks from the playlist (or your own) and, using crayons, pencils, pens and/ or paints, illustrate each piece of music. Keep reminding your child of musical vocabulary such as dynamics, tempo, texture and pitch as well as using adjectives such as bouncy, smooth, gentle, lively etc. It may help to write down a word-bank during your discussion about each piece. Less is more – some children may have a tendency to scribble and colour in the entire square. Encourage careful thinking about shapes, line, shading.
8. Put your finished graphic scores on the wall and send a picture of it to us at [email protected]!
2
Further work: Create a graphic score then try to play it on an instrument or sing it! Can you and someone in your household swap scores and play
each other’s?
EXAMPLES OF GRAPHIC SCORES
3
4
PULSE/ BEAT The ‘heartbeat’ or ‘life of the music’. A regular unit of time like a ticking clock.
RHYTHM The words or the tune. A pattern of sounds made up of long, short or equal length sounds.
DURATION The length of a sound or silence (rest).
PITCH The height of the note – lower or higher notes in a melody.
TEMPO The speed of a piece of music.
DYNAMICS Volume (loud, quiet, in between).
CRESCENDO Getting gradually louder
DIMINUENDO Getting gradually quieter
TEXTURE How ‘thick’, ‘thin’, ‘jumpy’ or ‘smooth’ a piece of music is. This can mean how many ‘layers’ of sound there are (i.e. how many instruments you can hear) OR whether the tune is smooth or bouncing around in pitch and rhythm.
TIMBRE The characteristics and quality of a sound, independent of volume/ pitch. For example a cat’s meow has a different timbre from a doorbell.
OSTINATO A short motive or pattern which is repeated through a piece of music.
5
