Lesson video

Hello everybody! My name is Miss Kilpatrick, and welcome to my music room.

We're going to be covering the final session in this unit of work, and I'm really excited to get going.

So what will we cover in this lesson? For our warmup, we're going to be doing some really good listening to a new piece of music linking musical sounds to written structure.

We're then going to be structuring our own piece of music, based on the Planet Suite by Gustav Holst.

And finally, performing our own planet-inspired piece using our homemade instruments.

In this lesson, you will need; your homemade instruments from Lesson 2 and Lesson 4, you'll need your body, and some paper and a pencil.

If you need to pause the video to go and collect those things, now is the time to do that.

It's also the time to close any apps or conversations you might be having on your phones or tablets, and to find a quiet space where you won't be disturbed.

Let's get on with our warmup.

We're going to be listening to a piece of music, and you're going to need your pencil and paper to take some notes and answer some questions.

This piece of music was written by a composer called Richard Strauss, and it's called 'Also Sprach Zarathustra.

' I won't tell you any more about it, until we've listened to the piece.

But here are some questions I want you to think about and answer as you listen.

How would you describe the pitch of the first note that you hear? You can always go back and listen again to really hear that very first note.

Is it high or low? What instruments play the melody of this piece? It comes in, about 15 seconds into the piece.

Is it flutes or trumpets? How would you describe the dynamics at the start of the piece? That means, was it loud or soft? Forte or piano? What happens to the dynamics as the piece progresses to the end? So does it crescendo, get louder, or diminuendo, get softer? And finally, what percussion instruments can you hear in the music? Are there any instruments from the percussion section of the orchestra that you can name? Let's have a listen.

So, did you get all of those answers? Don't forget, you can always go back and listen to the piece again if you need to.

But let's go through, how would you describe the pitch of the first note that you hear? Was it high or low? Well done if you said, low.

It was indeed a very, very low bass note.

What instruments play the melody of the piece? Did it start with the flutes or the trumpets? Well done if you said, the trumpets.

It was that lovely, brassy timbre that you could hear.

And how would you describe the dynamics at the start of the piece? Piano or quiet? Or forte, loud? Well done if you said piano, or if you wrote down quiet.

It had a lovely soft start, that low bass sound.

But then what happens to the dynamics as the piece progresses to the end? Did it crescendo and get louder, or diminuendo and get quieter? Well done if you said crescendo.

There was a huge crescendo all the way through the piece, to that very wondrous ending.

And I wonder what percussion instruments you heard in the music.

What did you write down? Did you hear the timpani, the huge drums that played all the way through? There were bass drums. There was a triangle ringing away.

Symbols, and also some orchestral bells.

Huge congratulations if you managed to hear all of those, or got some sounds that were similar.

Perhaps you said a metal instrument, because you could hear that metallic percussion timbre and had put drums, because you could hear those timpani tapping away.

Now we're going to do some really sophisticated listening.

I'm going to play the piece of music one more time.

As you are listening, how look at the three graphical scores showing the opening to the piece.

The graphical scores are the music of the piece, but written as images and shapes.

Can you work out, from the position of the shapes in each score, A, B or C, which one matches the timbre of the instruments played and the pitch that they're played at? Which of those scores A, B or C, is the piece that we are listening to? Let's have a go.

If you need to listen again, just to go back and listen for a second time and really see if you can match those shapes to the score that you see.

If you don't need to listen again, if you've made your choice, let's see if you've got the right answer.

Is it A, B or C? Well done if you said, score B.

That's exactly what it is.

You can see it starts with that bass note, the bottom line that goes almost all the way through.

And then the three trumpet notes going up in pitch, with those huge explosive chords going from the top to a step down.

And then the timpani going high, low, high, low, high, low, all the way through to the end of that opening section.

Excellent listening! If you managed to get that correct, well done.

So what is a crescendo? Does it mean gradually getting softer? Does it mean the heartbeat of the music? Is it gradually getting louder? Or is it a repeated pattern or a phrase? Point to the answer you think is correct.

Well done if you said, gradually getting louder.

You're right, that is a crescendo.

And that's exactly what you hear in that piece from beginning to end.

The whole thing is one long crescendo.

And what does timbre mean? I mentioned it a couple of times as we were listening.

Does it mean more than one rhythm played at once? Does it mean the quality of a sound, or how you can distinguish one sound from another? Does it mean how fast or slow the music is? Does it mean how loud or quiet a sound is? Point to the answer you think is correct.

Well done if you said, it was the quality of a sound.

That's exactly what timbre is.

Now, you need a new piece of paper or turn over the paper that you were just using for your listening exercise.

Because I would like you to start thinking about our piece that we're going to compose, or your own piece that you're going to compose based on the Planet Suite by Gustav Holst.

In one of our previous lessons, I talked about the history of the Planet Suite and how Gustav Holst based his suite of pieces on the theme of the planets in the solar system.

And he wrote seven pieces, based around those planets.

He used the characteristics of the gods of Roman mythology to create the theme and the ideas around the sound that he used.

Choosing instruments of particular timbre and using combinations of those things to create the idea, in people's minds, of those characteristics.

We are going to do something very similar.

We're going to take Neptune, The Ruler of the Sea, as our inspiration for the piece that we are going to compose.

Gustav Holst himself calls his piece, Neptune The Mystic.

And he uses very magical sounds.

But we're going to look at the sea mythology as part of Neptune's godlike status.

And that's what we're going to use in our piece.

So I would like you to start thinking about all of the words, that you can, that are associated with the sea or the oceans.

Create a word map or a mind map of all of the things that you can think of, that have to do with the sea.

Pause the video to create your list of words to do with Neptune and the sea.

You can press play once you're ready.

Now you should have your lovely list of words to do with the sea and Neptune himself.

In Holst's Mars piece, he used an ostinato, a repeating rhythmical pattern throughout the piece to create that sense of tension as the piece built towards the ending.

We're going to use an ostinato pattern in our piece too.

I've started putting together some of the words that I used from my mind map, to create a little sentence.

And my sentence is, gentle waves, moving out to sea.

I've then taken those words and created a rhythmic sentence.

So if I set it to a pulse, it's going to sound like this.

Gentle waves, moving out to sea.

Gentle waves, moving out to sea.

Gentle waves, moving out to sea.

Have a go! Gentle waves, moving out to sea.

Gentle waves, moving out to sea.

Gentle waves, moving out to sea.

From there, I thought of the rhythm words that will make my ostinato pattern into a rhythm that I can play.

So I've taken my sentence, gentle waves, moving out to sea, and I found where they fit to the pulse and got the rhythm words.

Ti-ti Ta Ti-ka Ti-ka Ta.

Ti-ti Ta Ti-ka Ti-ka Ta.

Gentle waves, moving out to sea.

Ti-ti Ta Ti-ka Ti-ka Ta.

This is what my pattern would look like, if I wrote it down in music.

You can see the Ti-ti, the Ta, Ti-ka Ti-ka and the Ta that creates my whole rhythm sentence.

Gentle waves, moving out to sea.

Ti-ti Ta Ti-ka Ti-ka Ta.

You're going to have a go at doing the same with your rhythm sentence.

Don't worry if you can't do the notation, but see if you can find those rhythm words to help you put your piece together.

Pause the video now to create your rhythmic ostinato pattern.

Once you're ready, you can press play.

So now you should have your rhythmic ostinato, and that's going to be one of the elements that we're going to use in our composition.

Let's have a look at some of the others.

The first thing that we want to think about is having some soft vocal sounds that imitate a calm, gentle sea.

And we want them really, really soft.

In Holst's piece, it starts very, very softly.

Something like, woosh.

Or you might be able to think of a different sound that creates that same timbre of the gentle sea.

We're then going to add in a change of timbre to an instrument that's going to represent the sea.

But this time, we're going to use our rhythmic ostinato.

So you might want to think about what dynamic you're going to play that at to still represent the sea, even though you're playing on an instrument and it's going to be much a more rhythmical sound.

perhaps the rhythm of the waves going in and out.

Next, we want some sounds that are going to portray a shower of rain over the ocean.

For this, you can use vocal sounds, body percussion sounds or a sound on some of your homemade instruments.

That's up to you.

And finally, we're going to use that ostinato pattern that you've created, again, but we're going to speak it.

So now we're going to look at structure for our piece.

And structure means how a piece is put together, the order of the sounds in the piece that we are creating.

We know what the elements are, we've just been through those.

So now we need to put them in some kind of order to create a full piece.

This is the order that I've chosen, and we're going to have a go at doing this together.

And then later on, you'll go on and structure your own.

We're going to start with the sea sounds.

See if you can just join in with me, as we go through the piece.

As you see the next element coming up, begin to change gently to that new element.

Have your homemade instruments ready, so that you can start straight away.

And we're going to use my ostinato of gentle waves, moving out to sea.

Although, of course, you could at home use your own rhythm sentence at the same time and see what fun textures that might create.

Here we go.

Gentle rain, moving out to sea.

Gentle rain, moving out to sea.

Gentle rain, moving out to sea.

Gentle rain, moving out to sea.

So that's how I've decided to structure it.

But of course, we could add some other musical elements to make our piece more interesting for the listener.

What if we added some different dynamics? The original piece is fairly soft throughout.

In fact, at the end of the piece, Holst even has a choir right at the back of the performance space.

And they close a door, so it sounds as if the choir is moving away.

We can start our piece just as Holst does, piano.

In fact, I think in the score, it even says pianissimo.

So even quieter, two P's together.

But what if we added an idea of becoming forte, of getting louder? Which of course means a crescendo.

And as I happen to show that crescendo throughout the first section of our piece.

Then when we get to the rain section, perhaps wouldn't just be gentle rain in the sea, it would be a storm.

And see if you can use some of your instrumental and vocal sounds together to create a storm sound.

You could also add in some texture.

Perhaps asking somebody else in your house to help you, or by singing and playing or using your voice and playing at the same time.

So here I have added in that fourth section, not only a vocal ostinato but playing the ostinato at the same time so that we can have two sounds together.

That's the texture that I was talking about, those layers of sound.

And if you've got more instruments or you've got more people to help you, you can have even more layers and make your sounds even more interesting.

Pause the video now to structure your own Neptune-inspired piece.

And here are some top tips.

Use blocks, as I did, to show the order of each section so it's really clear.

Consider which instruments or vocals you'd like playing at every time.

Consider using dynamics to enhance your performance and perhaps different texture.

Decide on a signal for changing from one section to another, if you wanted to lead someone else in your household playing alongside.

Once you've finished, you can press play.

So let's have a look at our final question.

What are dynamics? Do they determine the volume of the music? Do they determine the speed of the music? Do they determine how many parts are playing at once? Or are they dancers? Points to the answer you think is correct.

Well done if you said, the volume.

Yes, dynamics determine louds and softs within your piece.

And of course, we were using a crescendo.

We've come to the end of our lesson today, and the end of this unit.

But now I have a challenge, and that challenge involves some listening.

Between now and your next music lesson, find the time to listen to your favourite piece of music or a song.

This could be on the radio, online or on a CD, in the car.

Consider the following, what instruments can you hear? How is the song or piece structured? Can you hear verses and choruses? Can you hear repeated sections of music? Can you hear any ostinatos in the piece at all? Listen particularly, perhaps to a baseline, that might be a repeated pattern.

And then think about, why this is your favourite song or piece? Is it to do with the timbre of the instruments? Is it because the lyrics mean something to you, or does it just make you want to dance? There are no wrong answers there.

So, we've come to the end of the unit.

But I'd really love it if you could share some of your work with me and with Oak National, so I can see how you've been getting on.

Please ask your parent or carer, if you'd like to, to share some of your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, by taking a photograph of the work that you've done.

Or maybe a short recording of any pieces that you've performed, tagging @OakNational, #LearnwithOak.

I'm sure your teachers would love to see any of your work too.

So do drop them an email, asking your parent or carer's permission.

I've really enjoyed going on this musical journey with you, and I hope you've enjoyed it too.

All that's left for me to say is, see you again for another music lesson really soon.

Bye bye!.