Lesson video

Hello, and a huge welcome to today's lesson on the features Baroque music.

My name is Miss Charatan, and I'm really excited to be your music teacher today.

Before we start, we need to get a few things ready.

You will need to go and get a piece of paper, something to write with, as well as an instrument, if you have one at home, you can use your voice, or, like me, you can actually use an app on your phone.

I really like the app Virtual Piano, which you can find on an iPhone, but you can also find Perfect Piano, if you have an Android phone.

Pause the video now, go and find those things, and come back.

Okay, we're now going to start with a warmup to get us ready for our lesson.

We're just going to do a simple one at first.

Repeat these rhythms after me.

When I do this, that is your turn to clap, or do what I'm doing.

Okay, have you got that correct? Now we're going to try and make it a little bit harder.

This time, I'm going to use two different sounds.

I'm going to use the clap sound.

And this sound.

You're going to now copy my rhythms, but using these two different sounds.

We're now going to make it even harder for you.

Can you manage that? We are going to do opposites.

So when I do this.

You're going to do this.

And when I do this.

You're going to do this.

Let's try.

You should've just clapped, well done if you did that correctly.

You should have just clicked.

That would have been quite hard, because it's quite difficult to click your fingers that fast.

Let's try a really hard one.

Let's try another one.

Okay, good warmup, you can maybe try that with your family and friends during your free time.

Okay.

I'm now going to tell you about what you're going to be learning about in the lesson today.

We're going to start by learning about the Baroque period, and then we're going to go on to explore the D major scale.

We will compose a short melodic idea using this D major scale, then learning melodies from "Canon in D" by Johann Pachelbel, using that scale.

Finally, you will perform these melodies with me, and potentially you can do it to your family.

Okay, here is my first question to you.

When you listen to a piece of music, what tells you when a piece of music was written, or what part of the world it is from? Have a think about it.

Okay, here are my ideas.

So you can think about the instruments that are used.

Are they associated with a particular place, or even a particular time? How about the harmonies of the chords that are used? The melody and a scales that are used give us a really big clue.

Does a melody or scale sound like this? Or does it sound like this? That could give us a clue.

And lastly, the texture can also give us a really good idea about where something is from.

Some of you might not be sure what texture means.

We're going to go over this now.

Texture is all about the layers in the music.

Does the music sound really busy and full, with lots of things going on at once? Or does it feel really sparse and thin, with only one or two things? How do these layers interact with each other? Is there one that's more important than the other, or are they all equally important? We're going to find out about this now.

Our first type of texture is monophonic texture.

That is texture with just one layer.

Mono means one.

As we know from a monobrow or a monocle.

Monophonic texture would look like this, and it would sound like this.

I'm just playing one layer of music.

What would happened if we added on some other parts? this is called polyphonic texture.

Poly, as we know, means many, such as polygon.

In polyphonic texture, there are many overlapping layers, and they all have relative equal importance.

Polyphonic texture might sound like this.

Okay? Those two layers had relatively equal importance.

That's why it was polyphonic texture.

What happens if we take away these ideas, and we have just one main melody, with some accompanying ideas, such as chords? This is called homophonic texture.

This is when you have one main idea.

With chords, or in accompaniment.

That is homophonic texture.

Let's now check your understanding of these three different types of texture.

Quickfire question.

What texture can you hear me playing now? Have a think.

Choose your answer.

Let's check.

That was monophonic texture, because I was only playing one line, one layer of music.

Let's try this again.

What texture do you hear now? Take a moment to have a think.

Choose your answer.

Let's check.

That was homophonic texture because I had a main melody, which you might know is "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", but had played some accompanying chords with it.

That made it homophonic.

Lastly, what texture can you see below me, just here? Have a think.

That is polyphonic texture, 'cause you can see there are many different layers, and they are all interacting, and of equal importance.

We are now going to move on to do some listening to the piece of music we're going to study today.

Have your piece of paper and your pen in front of you now.

You are going to now listen to this track.

You're going to write down what instruments can you hear.

Your stretch could be, how are these instruments actually played? Then you're going to describe the texture, trying to use our three new words that we have learnt already.

Think about how it changes over the time.

And lastly, you're going to tell me, when do you think this piece of music was written, and could you give a reason why? Let's listen to the piece of music now.

Okay.

If you need more time, pause the video, and write down the answers to your questions.

If you want to listen to it again, you can just rewind me and listen to the piece of music one more time.

Okay, let's go over some of these answers.

So for instruments, you may have heard an instrument called the harpsichord, along with the cello.

These are the basso continuo.

They play a repeated part called the ground bass throughout the piece.

They underpin everything else.

A harpsichord is a type of keyboard instrument really popular in the Baroque period.

It looks like this.

You might notice that the keys are actually a slightly different colour to the piano.

So what would normally be the white keys are black, and the black keys are white.

That doesn't really affect the notes that they play.

The harpsichord is a precursor to the piano, and it sounds quite twangy, like this.

And the strings are plucked, rather than hit with hammers, than is the case with the piano.

You might have also heard some string instruments.

So violins and violas, and these were played with a bow.

So they were playing really legato, really smoothly, with a bow.

As for the texture, later on in the piece, if you hear this for yourself, if you type it into another website, you'll hear that the texture gets really busy and really full.

That is polyphonic texture.

At the beginning, it was less busy.

It was thinner, and it got thicker.

The layers were overlapping, and there wasn't really one layer that was more important than the other.

So even at the beginning, we can say it was polyphonic texture.

So when do you think this piece of music was written, and why? Some of you might have said it was a Classical piece of music, but we need to be really careful when we talk about Classical music, because there were lots of different periods within Western Classical music.

Towards the beginning of the Western Classical music, we have the Baroque period, where we have composers like JS Bach, Handel, and Pachelbel.

They were composing in around the 1600s to the 1750s.

You may have heard some famous pieces of Baroque music.

We've got Pachelbels "Canon", which you've already listened to.

We also have Bach's "Prelude in C." You have may have had that before.

After this, we have the Classical period, where we have composers like Mozart and Haydn.

I'm sure you've heard those names before.

They also created some really famous pieces of Classical music, such as this one by Mozart.

I made a bit of a mistake there, sorry.

And then we have the Romantic period, with composers like Chopin and Brahms. Why do you think Beethoven is in two periods, and his name is in brackets? I'll tell you why.

These periods are not completely fixed.

Some composers started composing in one, and then finished composing in another.

So these dates are a rough guide for us, but then you have some composers composing in the Classical style, even in the Romantic period.

Pachelbel's "Canon" was in the Baroque period.

And we know this for several reasons.

The instrumentation gives us a really big clue as to whether something is in the Baroque period.

We will have a basso continuo, which is basically a group of instruments that play generally a repeating part throughout the piece.

They generally consist of a harpsichord, or an organ, a keyboard instrument, plus a stringed and low stringed instrument, such as a cello or a bass viol, which is a precursor to the cello.

We also have string instruments, such as violins and violas, as well as recorders, flutes, oboes, and trumpets.

You may notice we don't have saxophones or clarinets yet, because they hadn't been invented.

We also didn't have the piano, because it was in the process of being invented.

So it didn't really exist in a form where people could perform on it yet.

For the texture, the most popular texture in the Baroque period was polyphonic texture.

This is as we know, when we have many independent layers, which overlap and interweave, and that they're all of relative equal importance.

Finally, for harmony and tonality, we had very simple harmony.

So we had simple chords like this.

Rather than chords with added notes.

Which we might associate with later genres, like jazz, or even Romantic music.

The Baroque music was composed in major and minor keys, which was unlike music that had been heard before, which was generally composed using modes.

Let's now have a quick quiz.

What can you remember about the Baroque period? What instrument did not exist, did we not find in the Baroque period? Take a moment to think.

Give me your answer.

And check it, well done if you got piano.

Which musical texture is most common in the Baroque period? Take a moment to think.

Say your answer.

It is polyphonic texture.

Well done if you got that correct.

Make sure we're not using words like smooth and rough to discuss musical texture, because these are words that we associate with objects, not music.

Lastly, what were the dates of the Baroque period? Take a moment to read them through.

Say your answer.

Well done if you got this one correct.

1600 to 1750.

Okay.

Let's take a moment to check where we are at.

We have just learnt about the Baroque period, and well and done for answering those questions.

We're now going to go on to explore the D major scale, and we're going to create some of our own melodic ideas using this scale.

Before we go onto scales, though, we need to have a recap about what is major and minor.

These are both tonalities.

A major tonality sounds bright, joyful, and happy.

It might sound a bit like this.

A minor tonality might sound to you a bit dark, a bit mysterious, or maybe a bit sad.

Doesn't matter how fast or slow the music is, it's about the notes that are used, and the mood those notes create.

So, I'd like you to listen again to me playing Pachelbel's "Canon", and I'd like you to identify, is it in a major or is it in a minor key? You may have heard that Pachelbel's "Canon" sounds joyful and bright.

Therefore, we'd say it's in a major key.

We're now going to explore the D major scale.

So Pachelbel's "Canon" is in the key of D major.

That means the D chord is its home chord.

D major has two sharps, F sharp and C sharp.

The sharp sign tells us to raise the note by a semitone, which is one step.

I will show you that now, on the keyboard.

To find an F sharp and a C sharp on the keyboard, we first need to find a C and an F.

We'll start with a C.

You might remember C is to the left of the two black keys, so we find two black keys here.

Here is a C.

To find C sharp, we need to go one step to the right, one semitone up.

This is a C sharp, here.

To find an F sharp, we do exactly the same.

So I find an F, and I go one semitone higher.

That makes an F sharp.

Here's a question for you.

Can white notes be sharps, or can they only be black notes? I'm going to give the answer now.

Whites notes can be sharp, because we just need to go up one step to create a sharp.

So here is an E.

I'm going to move up one step, which in this case is the white note next to E.

That is is E sharp.

E sharp also is F.

So we can have the same note called two different things, depending on the context.

You can find F sharps and C sharps in the key signature.

A key signature is at the beginning of a piece of music, and it tells us what notes are sharp or flat.

In this case, we are in D major.

So the key signature at the beginning of the piece of music tells us that all F and all Cs are sharp.

You can see it on the left hand side of the screen below.

There is also a time signature there.

Four four, that tells us that there are four beats in a bar.

Okay, let's have a quick recap.

What is a scale? I'm going to play one for you now to give you a clue.

A scale is a set of musical notes.

You can have major scales, and you can have minor scales.

The word scale comes from the Latin for ladder, or staircase, because it is like a ladder, steps of musical notes.

La Scala is a famous opera house in Milan.

That also comes from that Latin derivation.

Before we play a scale, let's have a go at singing one.

We start with one.

♪ One ♪ Is our first note.

Then we're going to work up that major scale, all the way to eight, and all the way back down to one.

I'm going to sing first, and then you can join in the second time.

♪ One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, ♪ ♪ Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one ♪ Now you can try.

♪ One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, ♪ ♪ Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one ♪ Now, we can make it harder.

We're now going to go in this pattern.

♪ One, one, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, two, one ♪ Have a go with me.

We're going to do it all the way up to eight.

♪ One, one, two, one, one, two, three, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five, four, ♪ ♪ Three, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five, six, ♪ ♪ Five, four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, ♪ ♪ Six, five, four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, ♪ ♪ Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one ♪ Well done.

We can now have a go at playing that scale.

Pachelbel's "Canon" is in D major.

So therefore, we're going to learn how to play the D major scale.

A scale is a series of notes, just like a ladder.

Going up by step.

Starting with D we have ♪ One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, ♪ ♪ Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

♪ You can have a go at singing that with me now.

♪ One, one, two, one, one, two, three, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five, four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five, six, ♪ ♪ Five, four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five, six ♪ ♪ Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, ♪ ♪ Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one ♪ Well done if you managed to do that with me.

I know it was quite high.

So, we start on number one, which is D.

It's easy to remember, because we also use our number one finger to start the scale.

Let's have a quick recap about what numbers we call our fingers when we play the keyboard.

So, number one finger is our thumb.

Two, three, four, five.

So we put our number one finger on D.

And then we work our way up the keyboard.

The numbers above the notes you can see below, correspond to the fingers that you need to use.

Okay, on the keyboard, I put my thumb on D, so I find C to the left of the two black keys.

Then I find D.

I put my hands like this on the keyboard, to make sure they're nice and curved.

So I just use my one, two and three for the first three notes.

And then I go under with my thumb, to go up rest of the notes.

Like this.

So the most important thing is that after you've used one, two and three, you move your thumb underneath, and play the rest going back down.

When you reach your thumb and run out of fingers, you go over, with your third finger on the F sharp.

Some of you might already know how to play the D major scale on your instrument.

So you should now be pushing yourselves.

You could be trying different rhythms. You could be trying it with both hands.

You could try it in contrary motion.

If you don't have a keyboard at home, you can try a variety of ways to learn this scale.

You might have another instrument to try it on.

That's absolutely fine.

You could do it on the table, using the correct fingers, or you can download an app, like I mentioned at the beginning of this lesson.

So one that I really like to use is Virtual Piano, on an iPhone.

So you've got the piano, mine's now the right way up.

And it's the same thing.

You won't be able to do the same things as me, because it's quite small, but you can again have a go making sure you're remembering the F sharps.

Before you go off and play that scale on your instrument, we're going to learn two different ways to play it, to make it sound a bit more expressive.

My first way is legato.

Legato means playing really smoothly.

That means connecting those notes together so there's no gaps in between them.

For example, I might normally play the keyboard like this.

You can hear there's a little gap in between.

If I pay it legato, that means they are all connected.

And that means I hold down my fingers for a little bit longer.

Legato might be working differently on a different instrument.

The other way we can play is staccato.

That means it's really short and spiky.

That means I don't rest my finger on the keys for very long.

You might want to play it somewhere in between as well.

You are now going to pause the video to complete this practical task.

Using your instrument, a flat surface, or technology, like my app, you're going to play the D major scale five times perfectly.

You might want to start off just playing a few notes.

Have a go at playing it in our two different ways.

Legato, nice and smooth, and staccato.

If it's too easy for you, you can experiment by using different rhythms, playing it in contrary motion, playing it in canon, so having one hand starting after another.

For example.

Pause the video now, and take 10 minutes to experiment with the D major scale.

Well done.

I'm sure there were some lovely scales coming out from your houses.

We're going to have a quick check.

What sharps were used in the D major scale? Say them out loud.

Well done, F sharp and C sharp.

We need to remember those for our next task.

We're now going to compose a short melodic idea, using the D major scale.

When we create a melody, we need to think really carefully about what notes we start and end with.

We're going to today start and end with D, 'cause that is our home note, and we are in D major.

When we write a melody, we also need to think about carefully about how the melody moves.

Does it use notes that are only next to each other? Or does it use a combination of notes that are next to each other, and notes which are far away? The best melodies tend to use a mixture of both.

You will notice on our scale that I have labelled two things, a step and a leap.

When we move by step, we move by the notes which are next to the other note in the scale.

A scale moves by step.

I'm now going to come down.

The last thing I played was a leap, because there was a gap of two notes that I missed out.

See below.

Your challenge is to use a combination of steps and leaps to create a melody using this scale.

In a moment, you're going to pause the video to complete this task.

You're going to do this on your instrument, or using the app.

And you're going to use just four notes to start with.

D, E, F sharp and A.

You can start and end on D.

However, if you want to challenge yourself, think about ending on a different note, and what kind of atmosphere that would create.

We're going to use a combination of steps and leaps.

For example.

So I used a leap here.

'Cause I didn't use notes next to it.

You might want to put your leap in somewhere else.

If this is too easy for you, you can change the rhythm to make it more interesting.

Or, you can add in more pitches, so you're using all the notes from the scale.

Pause the video now, create a melodic idea, and resume once you are finished.

Well done.

I'm sure those melodies were sounding great.

Did any of you try and end on a different note? What kind of mood did that create? It might've made it sound a little bit unfinished.

Because we want to return to our home note.

Which is D.

So, we have learnt about the Baroque period, explored the D major scale, and composed using that scale.

We are now going to play a piece of music, using that D major scale.

We're going to learn melodies one and two, from "Canon in D." I'm going to play to you the first two melodies of Pachelbel's "Canon." You are going to tell me, how do they move? Do they move in steps, do they move in leaps? Are they ascending, going up, or descending, going down? That was melody one.

Melody two is this.

If you need to listen to them again, just rewind me.

If you put that the melody moves by step, you are correct.

There was a tiny leap at the end of melody two.

But mostly they moved by step.

Again, the melodies were mostly descending.

This means that it's a really simple first melody for us to play.

As you can see on the page, the melody is moved almost all by step, except for a small leap at the end of the second melody.

When we play something new on a keyboard or on other instruments, it's really important to write down the fingers that we're going to use, so we can play accurately and fluently.

Take a moment now to write down what fingers you think we need for the last four notes, the missing notes, in each of the melodies.

Remember your D major scale, and the fingers you use for that.

Okay.

So we can see here that is a very similar pattern to the D major scale, except we start on a different note.

We start on three, for our melody one, and we start on five for our melody two.

When we learn a melody, we also need to know what notes we need to play.

Some of you might already know how to read music really fluently, so you can just go ahead now.

If you're not sure, have a go now at labelling the remaining notes on each line.

We're in the treble clef, so you need to use face in the spaces, F, A, C, E, and every good boy deserves football, or every green bus drives fast, whatever method you use.

Take a moment to fill in those missing notes now.

Now check your answers against mine.

You might have forgotten to put on the C sharp.

That is because there was no sharp symbol next to the C.

There was no hashtag symbol.

The reason why that is is because the sharp symbol is already in our key signature.

That tells us that all the Cs and all the Fs are sharp.

That saves us from having to write a sharp symbol before every single C and F in the piece.

Check that you have got your C sharp and F sharp labelled now.

We are also in four four.

How many beats does each note in these melodies last? Think about it now.

Every note is a minim.

That means every single note lasts for two beats.

I'm now going to show you on the keyboard how to play these melodies.

If you're already ready to get started, you can do that now.

You're going to start on an F sharp.

You need to make sure your third finger is ready for this.

Again, make sure your hand's nice and curved, your fingers are curved.

And we're going to start on our F sharp, and we're going to work our way down, just like we did for our D major scale.

So we start with three.

Two, one.

And then we go over, with our fourth finger.

That's melody one.

I'm going to play it for you one more time, in case you'd like to play along.

One, two, three, four.

Now, we're in the right place to actually start melody two.

So you can have a go at playing them one after another.

Melody two starts on D, and it starts with our little finger.

Put your little finger on D now.

Just in the same way, we move down the scale.

No, we go over with our third finger.

So make sure you're going over with that third finger, in order to get your fingers in the correct position, lower down the keyboard.

We're now going to try melody number two, play it with me, I'm going to count you in.

One, two, three, four.

Well done.

Now, you should pause the video to complete this task.

Practising melodies one and two, from Pachelbel's "Canon." Did you practise successfully? Now it's going to be time to put this into practise, for a performance.

So you have some different options.

You can play exactly the same thing as me.

You can play different a part to me.

Ooh.

Did you practise successfully? Great.

Now it's time to have a performance.

You have various options about what to do.

You can play with me the same part.

You can play a different part to me, particularly if you've learnt a more advanced one on the worksheet.

You can begin four beats after me to create a kind of canon effect.

You could play a more complex melody.

And the most important thing is that we all need to end on D together, 'cause that is our home note.

I'm going to count you in, and then play along with me in whatever way best suits you.

You could even perform this to your family.

One, two, three, four.

Great job.

If you want to try it again, you can just rewind, and try it again this time, maybe not making a mistake.

So, we are now going to recap our key question.

What are the musical features of the Baroque period? We're looking at instrumentation.

Can we remember what the instruments were? Have a think.

So we had a harpsichord organ, cellos, violins, violas, and those wind instruments.

What was the most common texture in the Baroque period? If you said polyphonic, you were correct.

For our harmony and tonality, we had really simple harmony, using major and minor keys.

What key was Pachelbel's "Canon" in? It was in D major.

And lastly, what composers have we spoken about today? So obviously our main composer is.

Pachelbel, as well as JS Bach is a really important figure in the Baroque period.

Well done for all your hard work today, you did a great job, and I really hope you enjoyed the lesson.

If you would like to share your work with Oak National, please ask your parent or carer to do so on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

Make sure you're tagging Oak National, and using the hashtag #LearnWithOak.

And lastly, don't forget to complete the quiz to show what amazing learning you have done today.

Take care, and see you soon.