Lesson video

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

For this lesson, we are going to learn about contrasting pitches.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to recognise different pitches.

You'll be able to sing at different pitches and you'll be able to compose using contrasting pitches.

But before we get started 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've made my day ♪ ♪ Hello, hello, hello ♪ So what is pitch? Now pitch is how high or how low a piece of music is.

When you hear music being played or sang, it could be quite high or quiet low depending on the pitch.

So we're going to play a quick pitch game to help us to practise listening out for those high and low pitches.

All you need is your finger.

I'd like you to follow my finger and imagine that you've got a bumblebee at the end of your finger.

When the bumblebee flies high up, we'll create a high pitch out.

And when the bumblebee flies down we'll create a low pitch sound.

Okay, are you ready? Copy me.

Well done.

Feel free to pause the video and have a go at more bumblebee high pitch and low pitch sounds.

Okay, now you're all warmed up and you understand what high pitch and low pitch sounds can sound like.

We're going to play a game to see if you can really recognise those different pitches.

So I am going to sing a melody attuned with my voice.

And I'd like you to give me a thumbs up if you think that the melody is high-pitched or a thumbs down, if you think the melody is low pitched.

Feel free to copy and sing the melody out loud too to see if it's high or low-pitched.

Are you ready? ♪ Off I go ♪ ♪ Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha ♪ That was quite high, wasn't it? Fantastic.

♪ Off I go ♪ ♪ Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-ha ♪ Definitely, well done.

Okay now I'm going to get much harder.

♪ Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha ♪ ♪ Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha ♪ ♪ Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha ♪ ♪ Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha ♪ ♪ Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha ♪ That's a tricky one, isn't it? I sang quiet in the middle there.

Sorry to trick you.

Let's try a few more.

♪ La-ha-ha ♪ ♪ Ha-Ha-Ha ♪ ♪ Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha ♪ ♪ Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha ♪ ♪ Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha ♪ ♪ Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha ♪ Well done.

Okay, our next learning challenge today is to perform using high and low pitch sounds.

So, first of all, I'd like you to copy me.

You may have done this activity before.

♪ Do-do-Do ♪ ♪ Re-re-Re ♪ ♪ Mi-mi-Mi ♪ ♪ Re-re-Re ♪ ♪ Do-do-Do ♪ Well done.

Now some pitches like these, ♪ Do-re-Mi-re-Do ♪ are quite close together, but they are higher and lower than each other, aren't they? So we'll use our hands and those signs to help us to distinguish the difference between the high and low pitches and really know the difference between those.

As the next learning game, I'm going to create a pattern using ♪ Do-re-mi ♪ and I'd like you to copy me.

Are you ready? ♪ Off I go ♪ ♪ Do-re-Mi ♪ ♪ Mi-Re-Do ♪ ♪ Do-do-Do-Re ♪ ♪ Re-Re-Mi ♪ ♪ Do-Do-Do-Mi ♪ ♪ Mi-Re-mi-Re ♪ ♪ Re-Re-Re ♪ ♪ Do-Do-Re-Do ♪ Very good, let's try again.

I'm going to get faster now.

♪ Off I go ♪ ♪ Do-re-Mi-Mi ♪ ♪ Mi-Re-Mi-Re ♪ ♪ Do-Do-Do-Re-Re ♪ ♪ Mi-Re-Mi-Re ♪ ♪ Do-Do-Do-Do ♪ Nice, how about this one? ♪ Do-re-Mi-Re ♪ ♪ Do-re-Mi-Re ♪ Nice.

♪ Do-Do-Do-Mi-Mi ♪ ♪ Do-Do-Do-Re-Re ♪ Good.

♪ Re-Re-Re-Mi-Mi ♪ ♪ Mi-Mi-Mi-Re-Re-Do ♪ Excellent, well done.

Now have a look at this piece of music.

The notes from the page represent how high or low the pitch of this song goes.

Your challenge for this next activity is to follow the pitch of this piece of music using our Do-re-mi sounds.

Sounds a bit tricky but I promise it's really easy.

I'll show you how it goes and then feel free to join in with me afterwards.

Are you ready? ♪ Off I go ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ ♪ One a penny ♪ ♪ Two a penny ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ Did you see what we did there? Those Do-re-mi pitches were the same in this piece of music.

Let's have another go.

Feel free to join in if you think you've got it.

But have a look at the music and follow along.

♪ Off I go ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ ♪ One a penny ♪ ♪ Two a penny ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ Well done, let's try that really strong and together now.

Are you ready? ♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ ♪ One a penny ♪ ♪ Two a penny ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ Excellent, let's try it faster.

♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ ♪ One a penny ♪ ♪ Two a penny ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ Great job.

See, I told you high and low pitches are not that difficult if you use ♪ Do-re-mi-re-do ♪ So your last challenge for today is to pause this video.

I want to go and create a musical pattern using ♪ Do-re-Mi-Re-Do ♪ You can create whatever pattern you like but what I want to see is the difference in those pitches.

So don't keep the pattern just at ♪ Do-do-do-do-Do-Do-Do-Do-Do-Do-do ♪ It's quite boring, isn't it? I want to see a variety of pitches being used, okay? So you have got ♪ Do-re-Mi ♪ to play with.

♪ Mi-Re-do ♪ You can go backwards like that.

You can jump up and down between pitches so you can go.

♪ Do-Mi-Mi-Mi-Do-Mi-Mi-Re ♪ Totally up to you.

Pause this video now and go and compose your own piece of music using Do-re-mi pitchers.

Good luck.

Hey, how did you get on? Fantastic, it's so great to know that you've practised your high and low pitches with someone in your home.

We're at the end of our lesson today and I can't believe we've learned so much.

You can now really easily recognise different pitches.

You can sing at different pitches.

And of course you can compose using contrasting different pitches, well done.

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 you a parent or carer to share your work on social media.