Lesson video

Hi everyone, I'm Ms. Boyd and I'll be your music teacher today.

By the end of today's lesson you'll learn how to recognise contrasting articulations, you'll be able to perform some contrasting articulations, and you'll be able to compose using contrasting articulation.

But before we get started it, should we begin with a Hello Song? ♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Hello hello, it's good to see you ♪ ♪ Hello hello, it's good to see you ♪ ♪ I must say you have made my day ♪ ♪ Hello hello, hello.

♪ So, what is articulation? Now articulation is how clearly a sound is.

For example, you can articulate something really clearly like this, "Hello, my name is Ms. Boyd." Or you can articulate a sound a lot more smoothly.

"Hello, my name is Ms. Boyd." Like this, "Hello, my name is Ms. Boyd." Now in music, we use symbols to represent different articulation, and of course, contrasting different articulation in a piece of music, really makes the music come to life and sound really good.

So, in this lesson, we're going to learn about two contrasting types of articulation.

Firstly, you have legato.

Any piece of music that has that line underneath it, or above it, kind of like an umbrella asks is used to perform those notes with a lot more legato articulation.

Kind of like this, ♪ Ha ha ha ♪ See how those notes kind of merged into each other.

♪ Ha ha ha ♪ Have another listen.

♪ Ha ha ha ♪ There wasn't much of a gap between either of those notes was there? So, that articulation is very legato.

The opposite of legato could be staccato, which is when you play notes really clearly and individually.

Have a listen to this.

♪ Ha ha ha ha ♪ You could hear every single note there couldn't you? Have a listen again.

♪ Ha ha ha ha ♪ Very individual.

Now I'm going to sing these two patterns back to you again.

Have a listen, if you can hear how different they sound.

Legato.

♪ Ha ha ha ♪ staccato.

♪ Ha ha ha ha ♪ I'll try that again Legato, ♪ Ha ha ha ♪ staccato, ♪ Ha ha ha ha ♪ Really different aren't they? Okay.

Let's play a game.

I'm going to sing a few different musical phrases and I want you to tell me which one was song legato, and which one was and which one was sung staccato? Are you ready? ♪ Ha ha ha ha ♪ Staccato.

♪ Ha ha ha ha ♪ You're right, legato.

♪ Ha ha ha ha ♪ Yeah, also legato.

♪ Ha ha ha ha ha ♪ staccato.

♪ Ha ha ha ha ♪ Legato, you're right.

Okay, I'm going to make it harder now.

♪ Ha ha ha ha ♪ Staccato.

♪ Ha ha ha ha ♪ Still staccato ♪ Ha ha ha ♪ staccato ♪ Ha ha ha ha ♪ That's right, that was a long phrase, but it was legato all of the way.

For our performance challenge today, I would like you to try and perform contrasting articulations.

So, this tongue twister, "She sells seashells on the seashore," is a great one for articulating something that's quite legato.

So, I'm going to have a go at turning this into a bit of a melody, but I'm going to make sure that this melody has a legato articulation.

I'll have a go singing at first and then I'd love you to join me afterwards.

Are you ready? ♪ Off I go ♪ ♪ She sells seashells on the seas shore ♪ Your turn.

♪ Off you go ♪ Fantastic! Now thinking about your articulation you are not going to say ♪ She sells seashells on the seashore ♪ Because that's really clear.

Very staccato actually.

We want this to sound really legato, like many of the notes are merged into one, okay? So let's have another go together.

♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ She sells sea shells on the sea shore ♪ Again.

♪ She sells sea shells on the sea shore ♪ Fantastic, or more time.

♪ She sells sea shells on the sea shore ♪ Really good, those notes were not broken up or individually at all were they? They were really merged into one big legato phrase.

Well done! Let's try the same thing again, but this time using different words and staccato articulation.

We're going to use the tongue twister, "Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." And with that tongue twister, I'll add a little melody, and I would like you to learn this melody and really really play around with performing staccato articulation, okay? Have a listen, I'll go first.

♪ off I go ♪ ♪ Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers ♪ Join me.

♪ Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers ♪ Let's try that again.

♪ Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers ♪ One more time.

♪ Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers ♪ Now we're going to make sure that those notes don't merge into each other.

Every single note that you hit I want to be really clearly articulated with that staccato articulation.

Are you ready? ♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers ♪ ♪ Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers ♪ ♪ Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers ♪ Fantastic, well done! I think we've got it.

Now, the fun comes when we start to blend these articulations together and a piece of music has contrasting articulation.

So, for this activity, we're going to use contrasting articulation.

We'll learn a simple melody and we'll make sure it has the staccato articulation and legato articulation.

Firstly, I'll sing the song without any articulation at all, feel free to sing along if you recognise it or just learn the words for this round.

Are you ready? ♪ Off I go ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns, hot cross buns ♪ ♪ One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns ♪ Really easy, okay? So having a look at the music now, can you see it in the first two sections, I've put some dots underneath the words, these dots represent what type of articulation? That's right, staccato.

So similarly to how we sang, ♪ Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers ♪ Anytime you see those dots underneath some notes, it means that your articulation has to be really clear like this.

And if you see a line that goes over a few notes, kind of like an umbrella, you should know that the articulation of those notes need to be played legato, just like ♪ She sells seashells on the seashore ♪ Okay, so for "Hot Cross Buns" we're going to play with this articulation.

Have a look at the music for a minute, can you see where the staccato articulation is, and where the legato articulation is? Okay, so let's have a go singing through this song together with the articulation that's on the screen.

Are you ready? ♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns, hot cross buns ♪ ♪ One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns ♪ Can you see what we did there? The first two lines of the song, ♪ Hot cross buns, hot cross buns ♪ they both have those dots underneath the notes, which means the articulation needs to be really really short, sharp, precise, and clear, so that, that staccato articulation comes through.

♪ Hot cross buns, hot cross buns ♪ When we get to the third line of the song, "One a penny, two a penny," you can see that there's a umbrella-shaped line on top of the notes, that tell us that this part needs to be performed using legato articulation.

Kind of like this, ♪ One a penny, two a penny ♪ Okay, so let's have a go again, and I really want to hear you stressing those different articulations.

Are you ready? ♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ ♪ One a penny, two a penny ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ Well done! One more time? ♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ ♪ One a penny, two a penny ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ Have a look at the music now, I've switched things around.

We going to use the same song, but different lines of this song have different articulations.

So, I'll give you a minute to have a look at the music and see which parts are articulated with legato articulation, and which parts are asking you to perform with staccato articulation.

If you look carefully, the first two lines are asking you to perform third line staccato and then the fourth line back to legato.

Should we have a go at singing with that articulation? ♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ ♪ One a penny, two a penny ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ Did you see how different that sounded to the first time we sang the song? It's really fun when you move the articulation around, 'cause it makes the piece of music sound completely different.

Let's have another go.

We're going to sing through the song two more times, I really want to hear those different contrasting articulations.

Are you ready? ♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ ♪ One a penny, two a penny ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ Good job, last time.

♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ ♪ One a penny, two a penny ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ Now that we've practised legato articulation and staccato articulation, I would like you to try this composing challenge.

For five minutes, pause this video, and I want you to think of a nursery rhyme that you know really well.

I'd like you to add some legato articulation to that nursery rhyme and some staccato articulation to that nursery rhyme.

Experiment with how it sounds, but make sure you have those contrasting articulations all the way through, have fun! Welcome back, I hope your composing went well.

Can you believe we're at the end of our lesson already? You've recognised different contrasting articulations, you've performed contrasting articulations and you've composed some music using some contrasting articulation.

Great work! But before we go, we have to say goodbye properly with our "Goodbye Song." Are you ready? ♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Goodbye, goodbye ♪ ♪ It's time to go now ♪ ♪ Goodbye, goodbye ♪ ♪ It's time to go now ♪ ♪ I must say, you've made my day ♪ ♪ Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye ♪ If you'd like to share some of the music we've made together today, feel free to ask your parent or carer to share your work on social media.