Lesson video

Hi, everyone.

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

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to recognise thin and rich musical textures.

You'll be able to notice the difference between thin and rich musical textures, and you'll be able to describe what thin and rich textures are.

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 texture? Now when you listen to a piece of music, there are different layers to that music.

Each instrument represents a different layer.

Musical texture is just that: how many layers in that piece of music and what are those layers doing? Have a look at the images on the screen.

If you had a piece of music that has a rich texture, rich meaning full of lots and lots of things, it might look or sound like a burger.

So in a burger, you have many layers.

You have the bread, you have the meat, you might have some tomatoes, some cheese, some lettuce, and then some more bread on top.

And all of those different layers make the burger taste really good, and that's the same in music.

If there are loads of different layers you've got a rich piece of music and it often sounds really good.

Now, thin texture is the opposite.

So just like a piece of toast that's got some egg on it.

There are only two layers to that meal.

And sometimes when you listen to a piece of music, the texture is thin just like that.

There may only be one or even two instruments being used and that's it, and that's all you need for it to sound nice.

Have a look at these images here.

The rich texture is created by lots and lots of musicians, and the thin texture is creative by one singer and their instrument.

Both are creating musical sounds, musical textures, but one is really rich, full of lots of different sounds, and the other is really thin, full of just two sounds.

See my burger and my toast doesn't sound so silly anymore, does it? Those two different textures can both be great but it's important to be able to know the difference.

For this activity, we are going to listen to a few different pieces of music.

I would like you to tell me whether the texture of the music that we are listening to is rich, so full of lots of different sounds and instruments, or quite thin with only a few instruments.

Are you ready? Listening ears on.

What do you think, was that rich or thin texture? That's right.

There were loads of instruments in there, wasn't there? That was definitely a rich piece of music.

Should we listen again? So fun.

Okay, how about this piece of music? What type of texture do you think that was? Yeah, much thinner, wasn't it? Do you know what instruments were playing? A guitar and a singer.

Yeah, let's have another listen.

So cool.

Even though there was a thin texture there, it wasn't boring at all, was it? For this next activity today, I would like you to pause the video to complete this task.

For 10 minutes, I would like you to listen to three of your favourite songs and make a list of which songs have a thin texture and which songs have a thick texture.

Remember to ask an adult to help you with this activity.

That's the end of our lesson now.

You've been able to recognise thin and rich textures.

You've practised noticing the difference between thin and rich textures, and I think you should be able to describe what thin and rich textures are.

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.