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 melody and accompaniment.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to recognise a melody and an accompaniment.

You'll have the opportunity to perform a melody with an accompaniment, and you'll be able to describe what melody and accompaniment is.

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 melody and accompaniment? Musical texture describes the different layers that you can hear in a piece of music.

Melody and accompaniment is another type of musical texture.

As you can see from my pasta in the picture, melody represents the main tune, then you have the accompaniment, that could be the band, some chords played on a guitar or a piano, but the key is the accompaniment supports the melody.

Let's have a listen to some examples.

Did you hear those two different parts that I played on the piano? Firstly, there was the melody.

And then there was the accompaniment, the part that was supporting the melody.

The accompaniment was supporting the melody.

Let's have a listen to them together again.

Now it's your turn to perform a melody with some accompaniment.

We're going to sing this song and we're going to sing the melody, the main tune of the song, and the band are going to play our accompaniment.

Let's see how those textures work together.

Have a listen for the first time.

One, two, three.

♪ I woke up this morning ♪ ♪ I put on my shoes ♪ ♪ There was a hole in the toe ♪ ♪ So now I've got the blues ♪ ♪ I woke up this morning ♪ ♪ I put on my shoes ♪ ♪ There was a hole in the toe ♪ ♪ So now I've got the blues ♪ ♪ There's a hole in my shoe ♪ ♪ There's a hole in my shoe ♪ ♪ Now what should I do ♪ Okay, so now you've got the tune, the melody, we're going to sing that together, and we're going to join it with the accompaniment.

Now, the accompaniment there was played on the drums and on a guitar, a blues guitar, and the musical pattern that they was playing was deliberately supporting the melody so that we can sound really good.

Are you ready? Let's give that a go.

One, two, three.

♪ I woke up this morning ♪ ♪ I put on my shoes ♪ ♪ There was a hole in the toe ♪ ♪ So now I've got the blues ♪ Again.

♪ I woke up this morning ♪ ♪ I put on my shoes ♪ ♪ There was a hole in the toe ♪ ♪ So now I've got the blues ♪ ♪ There's a hole in my shoe ♪ ♪ There's a hole in my shoe ♪ ♪ Now what should I do ♪ Great job, again, let's try it again.

♪ I woke up this morning ♪ ♪ I put on my shoes ♪ ♪ There was a hole in my toe ♪ ♪ So now I've got the blues ♪ ♪ I woke up this morning ♪ ♪ I put on my shoes ♪ ♪ There was a hole in the toe ♪ ♪ So now I've got the blues ♪ ♪ There's a hole in my shoe ♪ ♪ There's a hole in my shoe ♪ ♪ Now what should I do ♪ Excellent singing guys, we really sang that melody, and that accompaniment supported us perfectly.

What great musical texture.

For your last activity today, I would like you to pause the video to complete this composing challenge.

Have a go at drawing, painting or even making your own representation of melody and accompaniment, just like my pasta.

Remember to ask an adult if you need some help.

While you're doing that, can you think of any other pieces of music that may have a melody and accompaniment type of texture? We're at the end of our lesson now, but you've covered so much, well done.

We've learnt how to recognise a melody and an accompaniment, you've had a go at performing a melody with an accompaniment, and I think you can describe what melody and accompaniment is.

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.