Lesson video

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

In this lesson, we are going to learn about disjunct melodies.

In this lesson, you will learn how to recognise a disjunct melody, you'll have a go at performing using a disjunct melody, and you'll get the opportunity to compose using a disjunct melody.

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 a disjunct melody? Melody is a musical pattern, it can be the main tune of a song or it can just be a musical pattern in a film.

There are different types of melodies which create different types of sounds.

Today we're going to learn about disjunct melodies.

Now, disjunct just means all over the place, quite messy actually.

Have a listen to this example of a disjunct melody.

Did you hear that that melody was all over the place? It didn't go up in steps did it, and it didn't go down in steps.

It jumped up and it jumped down, and there were leaps, and sometimes the notes leaped from one to another with such a range of different notes.

Have another listen to a different disjunct melody.

Now, just because it's disjunct doesn't mean it's not nice or it's not right.

Disjunct melodies are all over the place and that pattern there made perfect musical sense, it sounded good.

Now, what I love about disjunct melody is that you can use it to tell a story.

When composers are creating a film or a cartoon, they often think a lot about the type of music they're going to create, so that the music reflects what's happening in the story.

Have a look at our friends in the image on our screen.

What do you think they're doing? That cat looks too excited to see that mouse, doesn't it? And that mouse is doing its best to run away from the cat.

I wonder if it's going to eat the mouse or just play with it.

Using this picture, why don't we have a go at telling a story about what's happening, using a disjunct melody.

Now, for this activity, we're going to improvise, which means we're going to make something up using our voices.

I would like you to create a short musical pattern that has a disjunct melody.

That means that the notes in your musical pattern do not need to go in order, they do not need to go.

They do not need to go, or downwards.

They can jump around, okay? And that should represent the jumpiness of this cat.

So, I'm going to have a go at improvising a disjunct melody now and then I'd like you to have a go.

Are you ready? Let's have a look at this picture again.

Have a think in your mind about what they might be doing.

And now explain that using music, are you ready? I'll go first.

Do you want to join me with my disjunct melody? Off we go.

So I created that because I wanted to express the idea that they were having fun, I want to express the idea that that cat is playing with the mouse, not about to scare it.

If you want to create something more scary, imagining that they're running around the house and there's things falling over everywhere, why don't you try a disjunct melody that's a bit more messy.

Have a go at this one.

Copy me.

Okay, your turn, I'd like you to pause this video really briefly and have a go at creating some more musical patterns using disjunct melody to represent what's happening between this mouse and cat.

For this third activity, I would like you to pause the video.

You are going to compose your own melody to a musical story.

How else can a disjunct melody be used in the story that we just looked at? Think about what happens next for that cat and the mouse, draw a sketch of what you think might happen next and while you're doing that drawing, sing along, I'd like you to sing a disjunct melody to match the picture.

Feel free to rewind this video to listen back to the musical ideas that we put together before in our performing and listening challenge.

How did you get on? I hope you found an adult in your home to perform your composition to, great work.

Feel free to keep working on your musical story, but we're at the end of our lesson already now and you've covered so much.

You've had a go at recognising what disjunct melody is, you've had a go at performing a disjunct melody, and you've just been working on composing using a disjunct melody, well done! But before we go, we have to say goodbye properly with our goodbye song.

Are you ready? ♪ Off we go, goodbye, goodbye, t'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.