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 high pitches.

In today's lesson you'll learn how to recognise high pitched instruments.

You'll be able to explore high pitched sounds and how they can be used in a musical story.

And you'll have the chance to compose a piece of music using high pitched sounds.

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or a piece of paper and a pencil.

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 are high pitches? Now we should already know that pitch is how high or how low a sound is and today we are focusing on just high pitches.

There are several instruments and voices that can make high pitched sounds.

Should we listen to some? Any idea what that was? That's right.

A violin.

The violin is known to be able to make some really squeaky, high pitched sounds.

Let's have a listen again.

Another instrument that can make a really high pitched sound is the flute.

The flute is a woodwind instrument and when you blow into it, it makes a really high sound.

Should we have a listen? That was really high, wasn't it? The flute is one of the highest instruments in the woodwind family, not the highest but one of the highest.

Should we have another listen? Now, of course, our voices can also make high pitched sounds.

And the singer who sings really high pitched is called a soprano singer.

Shall we see what they can sound like? Wow.

That was really high and beautiful, wasn't it? When you are making a musical story, it's really fun to use high pitched instruments to represent your characters.

So for this listening challenge I would like you to pay attention to the sounds that these two instruments are making.

What type of characters do you think they might be representing? Have a listen.

What kind of mood did that sound like? It sounded really happy to me, like somebody skipping along.

Let's listen to another sound.

What type of character do you think this could represent in a musical story? Ooh, that was really fast and high pitched, wasn't it? It makes me think about something being really naughty, maybe an animal, running around.

What do you think? What I love about high pitched sounds is that they can pretend to be a character in a story.

Have a look at these two characters on the screen here.

The little boy is called Peter and next to Peter, we have this beautiful robin.

Now they didn't say anything but we heard their character, we heard their personality and their energy through the music.

Let's have a listen again.

There's Peter represented by the violins.

And there's that cheeky bird, represented by the flute.

How fun is that? So in this musical story, Peter is represented by the high pitched violin.

And the cheeky little bird is represented by the flute.

Can you have a go, pretending to be a high pitched violin or a high-pitch flute? Go on, have a go.

Excellent.

Now onto our composition challenge.

I'd like you to make up a bit more of a story.

What interactions could happen between Peter and this bird? How can they talk to each other? Remember, Peter and the bird are not allowed to use any words.

In fact, their violin and the flute represents everything they say.

If you'd like to rewind the video again to hear Peter and the bird being performed on the flute or the violin to get some ideas, then go ahead and do that.

But then, I'd like you to pause this video to complete your composing task.

You need to draw a picture of an interaction between Peter and the bird.

What kind of high pitched sounds can you make with your voice to represent their conversation? Welcome back.

I hope you had fun there composing your own piece of music using high pitched sounds.

What was your story about? Amazing.

If you haven't done already, find an adult in your home to perform your composition too.

We're at the end of our lesson already today but you've worked on so much.

You've been able to recognise high pitched instruments.

We've explored how high pitched instruments can be used in a musical story.

And you composed your own piece of music using high pitched sounds.

Great job.

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 ♪ ♪ Good bye, 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.