Lesson video

Hi, everyone.

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

In this lesson, we're going to learn about monophonic texture.

In this lesson, you will learn how to recognise monophonic textures.

You'll have a go performing a monophonic texture, and you'll be able to describe what a monophonic texture is.

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 is monophonic texture? When we are talking about musical texture, we are referring to the different layers of sounds that you can hear.

Now, there are loads of different types of textures, and today we're going to focus on monophonic texture.

Now, monophonic, mono means one, and phonic means sound.

So monophonic means one sound.

So a monophonic texture is when there is just one sound in a piece of music.

Now, the image on the screen tries to reflect this.

You've got one line of pasta.

You haven't got loads.

You've only got one.

And that represents one line of a piece of music.

And that one line represents one sound, one melody, one tune that you can hear in a piece of music.

Have a listen to this example.

Now, as you heard there, there was one tune, one melody played on the piano.

There wasn't other instruments adding to it.

There wasn't any other instruments in there.

There was just one instrument playing one tune.

That is monophonic texture.

Now, to practise performing monophonic texture, one sound, we are going to sing a well-known tune, "Happy Birthday." It's actually my birthday in a few days, so thank you so much for singing this for me.

Now, as you know, there's not usually many instruments for this song.

It's usually one tune that lots of people sing together.

And so we're going to do that now.

Are you ready? ♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ ♪ Happy birthday to Ms. Boyd ♪ ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ Great singing, and thanks for the birthday wishes.

Now, was that a monophonic texture? Yes, it was.

There was one tune that we sang together.

There wasn't any other part to that piece of music.

Great work.

Let's try another song that has a monophonic texture.

You may not have heard of this one before, so I'll have a go singing the tune, and then for the second time, we'll sing it together.

♪ Off I go ♪ ♪ Starlight, star bright ♪ ♪ First star I see tonight ♪ ♪ Wish I may ♪ ♪ Wish I might ♪ ♪ Have the wish I wished tonight ♪ Now, that song definitely had a monophonic texture, didn't it? There wasn't any other pieces of music to go along with it.

There wasn't any harmony when someone sings above or below the notes that I was singing.

It was just that tune.

So therefore, with that one line of music, that one line of melody means that this song definitely has a monophonic texture, one sound.

Okay, let's sing this song together.

We're going to sing with a monophonic texture, which means one sound.

We're going to just sing exactly the same thing together.

Are you ready? ♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Starlight, star bright ♪ ♪ First star I see tonight ♪ ♪ Wish I may ♪ ♪ Wish I might ♪ ♪ Have the wish I wished tonight ♪ Now that you know what monophonic texture is, I would like you to pause this video, have a go at drawing, painting, or making your own monophonic texture.

What's key is that I see that one line that represents monophonic texture, one sound.

And while you're doing that, feel free to sing another song that you know that might have monophonic texture in it.

Remember to ask an adult to help you if you need some help.

We're at the end of our lesson today, but well done.

You've been able to recognise monophonic textures.

You've performed some monophonic textures.

And I think you can describe what monophonic texture is.

What is it? That's right.

One sound.

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.