Lesson video

Hi there everybody.

Welcome back to our "Compose and create unit, high and low melodic responses." Today's lesson is called composing a simple, high and low melody.

And that means that we are all going to be composers.

We are all going to make some music today.

So let's go.

By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to say, "I can compose a high-low melody and perform it on pitched percussion.

So let's begin by looking at today's keywords.

We'll start with pitch.

And pitch is how high or how low a note is.

Pitched percussion is an instrument that can play musical notes of one or more pitches when we strike it.

Melody.

A melody is a combination of notes that make a memorable tune.

Rhythm.

The pattern of the sounds that we play or sing.

And compose.

To compose is to create music, and that's what we'll be doing today.

Before we do though, we know how important it is to warm up our voices and bodies for each music lesson.

We want to make sure our big muscles in our body have had a nice stretch, but also these tiny ones in our throat too.

We want to keep our bodies and our voices safe and well, strong and healthy.

So please join in with these warmups.

Here they come.

Let's begin by warming up our bodies because we know how important it is to warm up before we start making music and singing.

We'll begin with a stretch, arms high into the air, onto our tiptoes.

Hold onto a monkey bar.

And we are going to not let go of that monkey bar, but we are going to lower our heels to the ground.

So we're going to get taller.

Lowering to the count of four.

Here we go.

One, two, three, four.

Gosh, you're all super tall.

Drop your fingers and your wrists and your elbows and your shoulders.

Relax your knees and go.

(babbling) (children babbling) Very good.

Let's do that one more time.

Stretch up onto your tiptoes.

Hold onto the monkey bar, lowering our heels to a count of four.

Go, in one, two, three, four.

Gosh, you're so tall now.

Drop your fingers and your wrists and your elbows and your shoulders.

Relax your knees and (babbling).

(children babbling) (laughs) Very good.

Now let's take up as much space as we can.

Make a really, really big space, huge shapes.

And we are going to shrink down into a teeny-tiny shape.

Tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, like a little seed.

And we are now going to grow back to a big shape when you're ready, one, two, three, go! Grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, and relax.

Feet slightly apart.

Arms by our sides.

Let's focus on our bodies now.

Wiggle your nose and your knees, fingers, toes, bottoms, ears.

Back to nose, (instructor muttering) and fingers and toes together, and relax.

Really well done.

Time to get out our imaginary plasticine.

Mine is kept behind my ear.

Take yours and squidge it into a ball and make a nice shape.

Let's make a body with two legs, arms, a head, some lovely hair, and a smiley face.

And let's give our character a name.

What should we call them? Bob.

Right.

Now Bob works in the city and lives on the 38th floor of a high-rise flat.

And Bob likes to sing when he finishes work and walks home.

Join in with me and Bob.

♪ Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do ♪ And when he arrives, he needs to call the lift.

♪ Lift ♪ And the lift arrives and the doors open (instructor imitates a door whooshing) And he steps in, reaches up to the 38th button.

Ding! And copy me and Bob as he goes up in the lift.

Ready to join in? (instructor imitates slide whistle whistling) Ding! (imitates a door whooshing) And the door's open.

Out steps Bob.

(gasps) Oh, no.

Someone's left a window open.

And a huge gust of wind blows plasticine Bob out of the window and he goes, ah! Joining in.

Ah! Splat.

(gasps) Let's make him again.

One more time.

Squidge.

Make a body.

Two legs, arms, head, beautiful hair, smiley face.

And let's give it another name.

Who should we have this time? Sue.

Good, right.

Now, Sue works in the city, but she lives over there on the 39th floor of a high-rise flat, friends with Bob, and she likes to sing as she walks home from work.

Join in with Sue.

Here she goes.

♪ Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do ♪ ♪ Do, do, do, do ♪ And she's gonna have to call the lift.

♪ Lift ♪ And the lift arrives.

(instructor imitates a door whooshing) And she steps into the lift and reaches even higher up to the 39th button.

Ding! And join in as Sue goes up in the lift.

Here she goes.

(instructor imitates slide whistle whistling) Ding! (imitates door whooshing) Door's open, and oh.

(clicks tongue) They didn't close the window.

And the gust of wind takes plasticine Sue out of the window as she goes sailing, join in.

(instructor imitates slide whistle whistling) Splat.

Well done.

We are now going to warm up our mouths because this is going to help us sing well.

And we're going to do this with a tongue twister.

And the tongue twister says this.

Cooks cook cupcakes quickly, which is good 'cause I really like cupcakes.

My turn.

Your turn.

Cooks.

<v Children>Cooks.

</v> <v ->Cook.

</v> <v Children>Cook.

</v> <v ->Cupcakes.

</v> <v Children>Cupcakes.

</v> <v ->Quickly.

</v> <v Children>Quickly.

</v> <v ->Cooks cook.

</v> <v Children>Cooks cook.

</v> <v ->Cupcakes quickly.

</v> <v Children>Cupcakes quickly.

</v> <v ->Cooks cook cupcakes.

</v> <v Children>Cooks cook cupcakes.

</v> <v ->Cooks cook cupcakes.

</v> <v Children>Cooks cook cupcakes.

</v> <v ->Cooks cook cupcakes quickly.

</v> <v Children>Cooks cook cupcakes quickly.

</v> <v ->Very good.

</v> We'll try it slowly and then we'll get a little bit faster.

Cooks cook cupcakes quickly.

<v Children>Cooks cooks cupcakes quickly.

</v> <v ->Cooks cook cupcakes quickly.

</v> <v Children>Cooks cooks cupcakes quickly.

</v> <v ->Cooks cook cupcakes quickly.

</v> <v Children>Cooks cooks cupcakes quickly.

</v> <v ->Absolutely wonderful.

Very well done indeed.

</v> Now there are three more chants and songs that you can do where you are.

There are ones that you've done before.

"Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar," "Cuckoo," and "Let's Warm Up." So you can pause the video here and practise those where you are.

If you need to be reminded, there are video and audio clips to guide you.

Off you go.

Good stuff, everybody.

So if we are ready to sing, ready to make music, we've probably warmed up well, which means our body is feeling relaxed, our voice is warm and ready to sing, and we're feeling focused so that we can work together to make some music.

Let's begin by looking at today's learning cycles.

The first one, playing high and low notes, and the second, composing using high and low notes.

So let's begin by playing.

We will start by joining in with Andeep's Shopping Song.

Remember we have our call and our response section.

So half of you will sing the call and half the response.

Then in between each one we have our fruit rhythms. Remember to chant them in time.

Here comes the video.

Be ready to join in.

♪ Ready, steady, off you go ♪ ♪ What has Andeep in his basket ♪ ♪ Tell me, tell me ♪ ♪ Name a fruit that's in his basket ♪ ♪ Tell me, tell me ♪ ♪ Big, green, sweet pear ♪ ♪ Big, green, sweet pear ♪ ♪ What has Andeep in his basket ♪ ♪ Tell me, tell me ♪ ♪ Name a fruit that's in his basket ♪ ♪ Tell me, tell me ♪ ♪ Juicy, round, green grapes ♪ ♪ Juicy, round, green grapes ♪ ♪ What has Andeep in his basket ♪ ♪ Tell me, tell me ♪ ♪ Name a fruit that's in his basket ♪ ♪ Tell me, tell me ♪ ♪ Purple, tangy, small plum ♪ ♪ Purple, tangy, small plum ♪ ♪ What has Andeep in his basket ♪ ♪ Tell me, tell me ♪ ♪ Name a fruit that's in his basket ♪ ♪ Tell me, tell me ♪ ♪ Round, pink, sharp, grapefruit ♪ ♪ Round, pink, sharp, grapefruit ♪ ♪ What has Andeep in his basket ♪ ♪ Tell me, tell me ♪ ♪ Name a fruit that's in his basket ♪ ♪ Tell me, tell me ♪ ♪ Ripe, sweet, yellow melon ♪ ♪ Ripe, sweet, yellow melon ♪ ♪ What has Andeep in his basket ♪ ♪ Tell me, tell me ♪ ♪ Name a fruit that's in his basket ♪ ♪ Tell me, tell me ♪ ♪ Bright, shiny, red apple ♪ ♪ Bright, shiny, red apple ♪ <v ->Well, you are all marvellous.

Well done.

</v> As a recap, we know that pitch is how high or how low a note sounds.

And when we sing our response, ♪ Tell me, tell me ♪ we are singing two different notes.

♪ A high sound ♪ ♪ And a low sound ♪ And we can play high and low notes on our pitched percussion.

There's a whole range of pitch percussion that you can use.

There are those percussion tubes that you can whack.

There are chime bars.

There's glockenspiels.

There's even hand bells.

Let's take a close look at these percussion tubes.

There's a longer one and a shorter one.

And when you stand them both together, one reaches higher up than the other.

So which do we think would make the highest pitch? Well, it's interesting the longer the instrument, the lower the pitch it produces.

So that yellow one there on the left, the longer tube makes a lower pitch.

And the shorter tube, the green one on the right, produces a higher pitch.

Longer, lower.

Shorter, higher.

Looking at this picture of chime bars, they're all different lengths and they go from longer to shorter.

So which do you think has the lower pitch that you could play on those chime bars? Point to where you think is the lower pitch.

And now, which do you think could play the highest pitch? Well done.

The longer bar plays a lower pitch and shorter bars play a higher pitch.

Well done.

Now then tell is our high pitch.

♪ Tell ♪ And it needs a shorter tube because it's the higher pitch.

♪ And me is our low pitch ♪ And me needs the longer tube or bar because that makes a lower pitched sound.

So a quick question then.

True or false? Bigger or longer instruments usually create a higher pitched sound.

Is that true or is that false? Listen again.

Bigger or longer instruments usually create a higher pitched sound.

Is that true or is that false? Point to which one you think is right.

It is false.

Very well done.

And we know that because bigger or longer instruments usually make a lower pitch sound than the smaller or shorter ones.

This is your first task for today.

You are going to split into two groups, a call group and a response group, so that we can sing Andeep's Shopping Song.

And you're going to use your pitch actions to show the high and low notes in ♪ Tell me, tell me ♪ You'll take turns playing, "Tell me, tell me," on your pitched percussion.

There are two notes you need to look out for.

They are ♪ So, mi ♪ and they're very often written on these instruments as a G and an E.

So see if you can find one labelled G and one labelled E to play your ♪ Tell me ♪ pitches your high and your low.

As a recap, we sing the call.

♪ What has Andeep in his basket ♪ And on our pitch actions.

♪ Tell me, tell me ♪ Unless you are playing the pitched percussion.

Then the call is again- ♪ Name a fruit that's in his basket ♪ ♪ Tell me ♪ Show your high and your low with your body actions because then you'll know this is my high note, this is my low note.

And when you have the percussion instrument, you can play the right notes.

Okay, let's pause here.

Practise that where you are.

See you in a moment.

Super duper.

So, how did you do? Let's have a check.

Did you show the correct pitch actions when you were marking the pitch on- ♪ Tell me, tell me ♪ If you did, fabulous.

And did you play that higher pitch for the word tell on the shorter tube or bar on your instrument? If you did, fantastic.

And did you play the lower pitch for the word me on the longer tube or the bar on your instrument? If you got those two pitches right when it was your turn to play, absolutely wonderful.

And I imagine you were in one of the groups, the call or the response group.

So did you sing that call in time with everyone else? That's all the response.

And did you keep the steady pulse as you sang? Did it sound like everyone stayed in time together? And did those musical instruments sound at the right time? If so, that sounds that you are keeping a steady pulse and being fabulous.

Well done.

We are now ready to compose using our high and low notes.

As Alex reminds us, "When we compose, we're creating new music." Now, we've been composers before because we've composed our fruit rhythms. What we're going to do today is put those rhythms into a tune or a melody using our high and low notes.

Here's the rhythm that Sam composed.

It says melon, apple, melon, pear.

And the rhythm will sound like this.

♪ Ta-di, ta-di, ta-di, ta ♪ Great.

What she's now done is place two of the fruits on a higher line and two on a lower line.

So this creates a high-low melody.

So if I still read it from left to right as I should, it still says melon, apple, melon, pear.

Only this time I have a higher note and a lower note so it will stand like this.

♪ Melon, apple, melon, pear ♪ Great work, Sam.

These two lines are called stave lines, and we use them to help us write down our melody.

We are using a high line and a low line.

The high note is placed on the high line and the low note is placed on the low line.

We can now sing Sam's melody showing the high and low notes with our pitch actions.

Let's do it as my turn, your turn.

♪ Ready, steady, off I go ♪ ♪ Melon, apple, melon, pear ♪ ♪ Ready, steady, off you go ♪ Very well done indeed.

Great job.

Jun has composed this rhythm.

His fruits are plum, grapefruit, grapefruit, grapes.

And the sound of that rhythm is ♪ Ta ♪ ♪ Ta-di, ta-di, ta ♪ Very nice sound.

And when he's put them on the two lines of the stave to create a high-low melody, it now says- ♪ Plum ♪ ♪ Grapefruit, grapefruit, grapes ♪ Because ♪ Plum ♪ ♪ Grapefruit, grapefruit ♪ ♪ Are all on the higher line of the stave ♪ ♪ And grapes is the one on the lower line ♪ Lovely tune, Jun.

We can call our higher note so and our lower note mi.

And we're going to place ♪ So on the high line of the stave ♪ ♪ And we're going to place mi ♪ ♪ On the low line of the stave ♪ And if we sang Jun's melody using those words, those names for those pitches, ♪ So and mi ♪ and showed our high-low pitch actions, we would say- ♪ So ♪ ♪ So, so, so, so, mi ♪ Okay? Let's try that all together.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ So ♪ ♪ So, so, so, so, mi ♪ Very good.

Well done.

You are so ready for this task.

Here's what you're going to do.

First of all, practise clapping and chanting the fruit rhythms that you composed last lesson with your partner, okay? Then you use your pitched percussion instruments to play some of your fruits with a high pitch and some with a low pitch.

And the wonderful thing is, because you are the composers, you get to decide which fruits I would like to have a high pitch and which fruits I would like to have a low pitch.

And between you, try different ideas until you find a melody you are happy with.

Do keep your high-low fruit melody safe for next lesson 'cause we're going to use it again.

Here's some ways that you could record your compositions.

You could colour in the beat boxes the same colour as your pitches.

So if you were using those percussion tubes, and one was green and one was yellow, you could colour them green and yellow.

If you had bars that were coloured, again, same colour.

If not, you can move your fruits around high and low.

You could take photos.

You could draw them.

You could stick them in place.

You could draw the actual fruit just on a high and a low line.

That's another way of recording it.

Or you could write s for so which is the higher note and m for mi and that's your low note next to your fruit rhythms. Lots of different ideas so you know exactly which of your ta and ta-dis of your fruits that you're playing at a high pitch and a low pitch.

And then it'd be really exciting to record it, maybe just an audio recording or a video on the class iPad.

Up to you.

And lastly, please don't worry if you can't find your fruit rhythm or you weren't here last lesson.

That's fine.

There is one on the screen for you.

This says plum, melon, grapefruit, grapes, and its rhythm sounds- ♪ Ta ♪ ♪ Ta-di, ta-di, ta ♪ And you can choose which of those fruits to put on the higher line and which fruits to put on the low line.

Okay, it's time for you to pause the video and to go and be composers.

Off you go.

How fantastic.

Really, really good work.

Now, we suggested I think four different ways of how you can record your music, how it's kind of written down.

So we've got it to use again.

The first idea was to colour the boxes the same colour as the instruments you were using.

So if you had a green and a yellow tube, you could use those colours for your higher and lower pitch.

Another idea was moving the fruit around, so you've got the higher and the lower fruits, so you knew just by looking which one were higher and which ones were played at the low pitch.

The other idea was to put them on the stave.

So we've got high notes and our low notes written on the high and low line of the stave.

And the fourth idea was to use the letters s and m.

S for so, m for mi, for our high and low pitches.

However you recorded it, make sure you've got your fruit rhythm as a melody stored for us to use again.

And really well done.

You've composed a piece of music.

Great stuff.

And that is all we have time for today.

So let's have a quick recap on our learning.

Pitch is how high or how low the note sounds.

And we can show different pitches with our actions as we sing and play.

Bigger or longer pitched percussion instruments usually make a lower pitched sound, whereas smaller or shorter pitched percussion instruments usually have a higher pitched sound.

And when we choose rhythms and notes and put them together, we are composing a melody, which you've all done today.

Fantastic.

I look forward to seeing you next time.

Bye-bye.