Lesson video

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

In this lesson, you will learn how to recognise when a piece of music is using mixed musical textures.

You'll have the opportunity to perform using mixed musical textures and by the end of the lesson, you'll be able to describe what mixed musical textures are.

To prepare for this lesson, all you will need is 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 mixed musical textures? When you listen to a piece of music there are often many layers.

Those layers are called musical texture.

And just like cooking or painting, there are loads of different options of combinations of different textures that you can use.

Have a look at the picture on my screen, as an example.

How many instruments can you see? Can you name which instruments are in the picture? That's right, there are loads in this picture.

We've got a guitar, a violin, two singers, a drummer, another guitar, a piano and a saxophone and that's just some instruments.

But if these musicians work together to create a really creative piece of music, their different textures, the different sounds that they make, can create a really interesting mix of textures.

For our first activity today, we're going to listen to a few examples of mixed textures.

For this activity, I need you to switch your listening ears on.

Are you ready? Here's the first example.

♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ Did you hear in that example that there were so many voices singing? Could you hear that all of the singers were singing loads of different notes, at the same time? That's called a homophonic texture and those different notes all sung together is harmony, such a nice texture.

Let's have another listen.

♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ I could hear some violins in there too, could you? Such a nice texture.

Now, let's listen to another part of that same piece of music.

What I love about this part is that there's a mixture of different types of textures.

First of all, we have all of the singers singing the same thing, exactly the same thing.

That's called monophonic texture.

One sound.

Then, they switch and the texture changes and they all start singing different notes, still at the same time but lots of different notes, and that creates homophonic texture.

Lots of harmony being created.

Have a listen.

♪ For the lord God omnipotent reigneth ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ Did you hear it? I loved when the texture changed from monophonic, when everyone sang together, to homophonic, when there was harmony and lots of things happening.

I love that the trumpets played really loudly, to really show us that this was a special moment where the musical texture changed.

Let's hear it again.

♪ God omnipotent reigneth ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ It's kind of like a celebration, isn't it? So cool.

Now let's listen to a different type of music.

We're still listening out for the changes in the musical texture.

Listening ears on.

♪ I can feel it coming in the air tonight ♪ ♪ Oh Lord ♪ ♪ And I've been waiting for this moment all my life ♪ ♪ Oh Lord ♪ ♪ Oh Lord ♪ ♪ I can feel it in the air tonight ♪ ♪ Oh lord ♪ So cool.

Did you hear how that texture changed? What instruments do you think you could hear in that piece of music? Yeah, I heard a guitar, I heard a singer and I heard those drums, so cool.

And the band that plays the music behind the singer is called melody and accompaniment.

It was so interesting, wasn't it? And then, of course, we switched into a much different texture when those drums came in, that accompaniment was so different.

It was really polyphonic.

There was loads of things happening and there was even some harmony in there too.

So much going on, what great texture! Let's listen again.

♪ This moment for all my life ♪ ♪ Oh lord ♪ ♪ Oh lord ♪ ♪ I can feel it coming in the air tonight, ♪ So cool.

Okay, now we've had a listen to some examples of mixed musical texture.

I'd like you to try this next activity.

Pause the video to complete this next task.

I would like you to listen to two or three of your favourite pop songs.

and make a list of the different textures that you hear in each song.

For example, you could make a list of all the different types of instruments you can hear.

Then you can circle the instruments that work together to create texture in the piece of music.

That's the end of our lesson today but well done for working so hard.

You've been able to recognise when a piece of music mixes its textures.

You had a go at performing mixed textures and I hope you had a go, just there, composing using different types of mixed textures.

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.