Lesson video

Hello.

My name is Ms. Charatan, and I'm going to be teaching you today.

why might you wish to decorate a melody? Before we get started, let's have a quick warmup.

I'm going to clap you some rhythms and I'd like you to clap them back.

And as a stretch, what do all the rhythms have in common? Ready? One, two, three, four.

Great.

What did they all have in common? If you said they all have dotted rhythms, you are correct.

If you don't know what they are, don't worry.

We'll be talking about that today in the lesson.

But if you do, could you have a go at clapping a dotted rhythm now? Great.

You're going to be using that later.

Let's get started and see what equipment that we need.

You will need the following pieces of equipment for today's lesson.

You will need a piece of paper or something to write on.

You will need a pencil or something to write with, and you will need a voice, instrument, or an app in order to take part properly, you can use Virtual Piano on an iPhone, Perfect Piano on Android, or you can type in "online piano" onto Google, and you will find something really good there.

Our agenda for the lesson is as follows.

We are going to start by recapping our understanding of countermelodies.

We will then go on to analyse a new melody.

We will learn more advanced countermelodies on your instrument.

We will learn how and why we decorate melodies.

And lastly, you will create and perform a decorated melody.

So let's have a recap.

Firstly, what is a countermelody? Choose the correct option now.

If you said it was a secondary melody, you are correct.

A countermelody is a secondary melody that goes on top of the main melody or underneath.

You're going to now recap the following symbols and match them to their definitions.

Pause the video while you do that.

Great.

Let's check your answers.

So the first one is playing smoothly and we call that legato.

That is a slur over three notes.

So therefore, second one, those dots, that's telling you to play it in a short and spiky way, and we call that staccato.

Another quick recap.

How long are the notes in melodies one and two, and what are they called? Choose your answer.

If you said two beats, you were correct.

Well done, and we call notes that last two beats minims. And you remember how we described melodies one and two using musical language? Take a moment to have a think.

If you said descending moving only by step, you are correct.

Let's now move on to melody three.

How long are the notes in melody three and what are they called? To stretch yourself, think about how we described melody three using musical language.

If you said one beat, crotchets, you were correct.

Melody three is descending and ascending, almost like in a wave and it moves by steps and leaps.

We're now going to recap some knowledge that you might have had previously.

You're going to match the note values and their names.

Pause the video now and resume when you're ready to check your answers.

Great.

You're now ready to check your answers.

So our first note, lasts for one beat and it is a crotchet.

Our second note lasts for two beats, and these are called minims and these feature in melody one and two.

Our last note is therefore half a beat, and this is called a quaver.

So that is a quaver on their own.

Often, quavers are grouped in two, so we'd have a crotchet, which would last one, one, and a quaver would last half, but often they would be within one beat.

So like this.

So four crotchets would sound like this: one, two, three, four and quavers, splitting that time would be eight quavers and that will sound like this: one, two, three, four.

Let's check where we are at.

We have recapped our understanding of countermelodies and some other things, too.

And we're now going to go and analyse a new melody.

So looking at these three melodies, you have not seen two of them before, probably.

And you might have seen number three before.

Which one is the odd one out and why? Take a look and in a moment, I'm going to play them for you.

So this is melody three.

This is melody four.

This is melody six.

Which one do you think is the odd one out and why? Here are some clues.

What direction do they move in? Do they have any leaps? Did they move by step? So you might think that melody number three is your one out because melody number four and six are really similar in terms of their direction.

Let's now look at melody four in more detail.

I'm going to play it one more time for you.

You're going to write down, is it ascending or descending? Does it move by step or leap? And what rhythms and note values are used in this melody? I will play it for you one more time.

If you need to listen to it again, please rewind me.

If you need more time to write your notes down, pause the video now.

Okay.

Let's analyse the melody.

So we start with a really big ascending leap.

Well done.

If you got that, and then it descends all the way down the melody, and it goes up a little bit towards the end, but it goes back down.

So we've got a big jump and then it descends.

We have some stepwise movement, so we have a big leap at the beginning and then it descends by step.

It starts on an A, and it ends on an A.

So it starts and ends on the same note.

Let's now look at this melody in a little bit more detail.

You may have noticed a little section that goes F-sharp, E, and D.

We know that D and F-sharp are really important notes in a D major scale, because D is the root and F-sharp is the third.

The note that goes in between them is less important.

That note helps us go on a journey in between these notes, because E is between F-sharp and D.

It just goes down by step.

This is called a passing note.

It is a note that is between two other notes, and it helps the melody move really, really smoothly.

Can you see any other passing notes in this melody? I'm going to play the first bit to you one more time.

Well done, if you've noticed the one here, because we're going from D, C-sharp, to B, and C-sharp is my passing note, 'cause it passes in between D and B.

And we've got another one here.

We've got this C doing exactly the same thing.

So it's helping us go from D to B really, really smoothly.

If you're writing your own melodies, it's definitely something to consider, putting in passing notes to make it sound really, really smooth and lyrical.

Let's now look at the rhythm of melody four, we can see that we have got quavers and these quavers are in groups of four.

We have minims, and we know these that last for two beats.

At the beginning of the melody, we've got shorter note values, such as quavers towards the end.

That is where we find our minims. Let's have a look at this rhythm.

Where else in the melody can you see the same rhythm? Well done, if you spotted it there.

The rhythm sounds like this.

I'm going to clap it for you now.

And you're going to clap back.

Your turn.

Again.

Here are some note values that you may have not seen before.

This is called a dotted rhythm.

So we've got one longer note, which in this case is A and one shorter note, which in this case is F-sharp.

How long is the note A with a dot next to it? Let's work this out now.

So when we have a dot next to another note, that tells us to add half of the note onto the note.

So this first note here is one beat.

So we need to work out half of one.

Half of one is a half, and that is a quaver.

So we have one plus a half, and that creates one and a half beats.

Let's look at another example.

Here we've got a minim with a dot.

We call this a dotted minim.

How long do we think this note is? Let's do this together.

So we have a minim.

How long is a minim? How many beats? If you said two, you were correct.

So we have two beats, which is a minim.

Two divided by a half.

So half of two is one beat.

So altogether a minim plus a crotchet is three beats.

So a dotted minim lasts for three beats.

You may have heard dotted rhythms before in many, many different pieces of music.

One of these is Silent Night.

♪ Silent Night ♪ The famous Christmas carol, and that has that sort of lilting feeling.

Dah dut dut dah There are actually two dotted notes there.

We have a dotted crotchet.

How long is the dotted crotchet? One and a half beats, well done.

And we have a dotted minim.

How long is a dotted minim? Three beats.

We've got it in melody four and melody six.

And the dotted rhythm sounds like this.

So it will be like one-two-three four.

So that first note is longer, and the second note is shorter.

When you hear something like that, that is a dotted rhythm.

So let's have a quick recap.

What is a passing note, and can you play or sing an example? Choose your answer now.

A passing note is a note that passes between two other notes.

It will sound like this: That middle one is a passing note, or like this: So passing notes can move up or down.

What is this rhythm called, and how do you clap it? Get ready now and clap it now.

It is called a dotted rhythm and you clap it like this: One, two, three, four.

One-two-three, four, like that.

We have worked really hard so far.

We have recapped our understanding.

We have learnt how to analyse the melody, and now we're going to learn some more advanced countermelodies.

These countermelodies are more challenging to play because they have got shorter note values, more challenging rhythms, and they have got some accidentals.

Before we learn the melody, we need to label the notes.

Don't forget the key signature, which is F-sharp and C-sharp.

So all Cs and Fs, unless they're stated otherwise, are sharp.

Pause the video and label the notes in the last two bars of each melody.

Great.

We should now be ready to check our answers.

So I've got B D D C B C A and the second one here, ending with a C-sharp.

You may notice we've got quite a number of Cs, which are not sharp.

The reason why this is, is because we have a natural sign before the C.

So when we play in D major, normally all the Cs are sharp, but in this case, Pachelbel wanted this C to be natural.

So he had to write a natural sign over it so that the sharp is cancelled out.

This natural sign lasts for the whole bar.

So the second C after the first C, is also natural.

We need to be really careful of this, when we look at new melodies.

I'm now going to show you how to play countermelodies four and six.

You might be worrying that my keyboard's a little bit curved.

It's not like that normally, obviously it's just the webcam, which is making it look a bit curved.

So don't worry if yours doesn't look like that.

We are going to make sure that we start on a correct note.

So we start on A, we need to put our thumb on A.

'Cause that means that we can put our three on F-sharp.

The first rhythm repeats twice, so we have the same rhythm for this bit.

And the rhythm is the same for the next bit.

So together, I'm going to play it slowly.

It sounds like this.

And now I'm going to be on a B, and we know that lasts for two beats.

So for the last one, my thumb is on B first and I move it down to the A.

You might notice I'm actually putting in some articulation.

We can see these two, the lines between the F-sharp and G.

That means I make those two notes quite smooth together, so it doesn't sound like this or this.

I divide them into You might want to try that, too, as a stretch.

I'm going to play the whole of melody four.

You can play with me if you're ready to do so already.

Melody six is actually really similar.

It's the same rhythm until we get to the second, the third bar.

So the first two bars have a very similar rhythm.

I always say, start on the same finger four, but my, my thumb, sorry, and my fourth finger is on the A.

Now, it gets a little bit different.

So I've got a set of four quavers.

You need to be really careful to go over the top with your fourth finger.

I'm going to do that one more time for you.

So I end up on two here.

Now, I'm going to pay the whole thing again for you.

So melody six.

If you're ready to play it with me, do so.

If you need to just watch, that's fine, too.

You now need to pause the video to complete this task, learning countermelodies four and six.

So you can use your voice, your own instrument or technology.

Make sure you pay really good attention to the dotted rhythms. If it's too easy for you, you can play both of the melodies at the same time or try some other melodies.

If you're finding it very difficult, just rewind this video and watch me play them again, and you can have a go at playing them with me, and make sure you play really slowly.

Lastly, as a stretch, make sure you're following the staccato and the legato markings to make it sound really, really musical.

Excellent.

I hope you did some really good practising , and I hope you're feeling really fluent and confident with those melodies.

So let's have a quick recap.

What rhythms are used in countermelodies four and six? If you put dotted rhythms, that was the correct answer.

They're at the very beginning of both melodies.

So where have we got to? We have just learnt some more advanced countermelodies, and we're now going to move on to learning about how and why we decorate melodies.

So I have got a beautiful empty room here.

I've just moved into my new house.

How and why would you decorate a room in a house? Jot down four ideas, pause the video and resume when you are ready.

Okay.

I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas.

So here is a nice decorated room.

You might have put some of the following.

So you might've put obviously some furniture, painting the walls a different colour, putting some pictures on, maybe some ornaments or flowers or objects or musical instruments, if you are into that kind of thing.

To make it look more interesting is why we decorate something, to make it maybe unique and different to other rooms in the house.

For example, you might decorate your bedroom a little bit differently to how the other rooms are decorated in your house.

So how would you decorate a piece of music and why would you do so? Take a moment to think about those two questions.

So we decorate music with ornaments.

These make melodies sound much more interesting when are repeated.

In Pachelbel's Canon, the melodies are repeated over and over again, and it would get a bit boring if you played them the same every single time, so that is why, particularly in Baroque music, we add ornaments to our melodies to make them sound more interesting.

At the end, you can see a T R.

Do you know what that means, and have you seen it on some music before? That is a trill, a trill would sound like this.

When you move very, very quickly from one note to the one above it, in Baroque music, you would generally start the note above it.

So this is an A, I would start the one note above it.

Because that is stylistic for Baroque music.

So we have many different types of ornaments in music, but these are the three main ones that we're going to be looking at today, and these are the most important ones, I think, for Pachelbel's Canon.

So we've seen the first one already.

There are two ways to write it, with "tr" or with that longer squiggly line.

What is that ornament? Can you remember? If you said trill, you are correct.

It sounds like this.

The second ornaments we can see on my page, can you have a guess about what they'd sound like? They look like a very short trill.

These are called mordents.

The first one is an upper mordent, and that is when you go to the note above and back down really quickly.

So I'm going to start on a C and I'm going to go to the note above really quickly and go back down again.

Like that.

If it was a lower mordent, I would start on a C and go to the note below it.

So an upper mordent sounds like this.

And a lower mordent like this.

So, as written there, some of you might be thinking it starts on a D.

It does.

So it would be as written, D like this.

And the C like this.

The last notes look really cute and small.

These are called grace notes and the proper word for them is acciaccatura.

Can you say that after me? Acciaccatura.

Well done if you managed to try that and say it correctly.

It's really difficult.

So grace notes, are like mini little crush notes that happen just before the main note.

So I've got a big C and a small D, so I play the D really, really quickly before it like this.

And the same with the one above.

So on the piano, that can be really, really tricky because you've got to move your fingers really, really fast.

Some instruments, it's easier to play ornaments than others.

You may find different ornaments, so differently, different levels of challenge on your own instrument.

We're going to now have a quick quiz.

What ornament am I playing? I'm going to play one.

You need to say it, and then we'll check our answers.

What ornament was that? I'm going to play it one more time.

That was a grace note or well done if you said acciaccatura.

How about this one? That was a trill.

Well done, if you got that one correct.

Take a moment now on your instruments to try out these three ornaments.

Pause the video and resume when you're ready.

Okay.

Just in time for a new quiz.

So now this time, you need to play or sing what I say.

So when I say trill, you need to play a trill.

Let's try that now.

Play a trill.

Okay.

If you played something that sounded like this.

You are correct.

If you started on the upper note, fantastic, because that's really stylistic for Baroque music.

Play me a grace note.

Excellent.

And you played something like this.

or: That would be correct.

Lastly, play me an upper mordent.

If you played something like this, you were correct.

And now play me a lower mordent.

If you play something like this, you are correct.

If you got them all right, give yourself a prize.

Unfortunately, I can't do that because I'm on a screen, but I hope you can reward yourself in some other way.

So we are now going to play melody four with ornaments.

I have written on top of the ornaments, on top of the melody, some ornaments that you are going to try and play.

Take a moment now on your own to identify what those ornaments are and to have a go at playing them on the melody, without my help.

Pause the video and have a go.

Okay.

I'm now going to play it to you, the correct version that you can check yours against, and then you're going to practise it again.

This time, playing it completely accurately and musically.

So I'm going to pay the first bit of the melody that doesn't have any ornaments on.

And on this D, it is a upper mordent, so it sounds like this.

And this one is a lower mordent, so it sounds like this.

So the first bit would sound like this.

And now we've got a trill.

Did anyone spot the mistake I made in that last little bit? If you did, well done.

I forgot to start on the upper note.

In a Baroque music, it's really important you start on the upper note of the trill.

So I'm just going to go from the first trill on a D, so it should sound like this.

That would make it sound much more stylistic to the Baroque period.

You're now going to pause the video to complete this task.

So you're going to play melody four, adding in the correct ornamentation.

You're first going to play the melody without ornaments, and then the second time you're going to add in ornaments.

If you're finding that too easy, you can try adding your own ones, not the ones that I've written down, and try and play your decorated melody with ornaments, maybe alongside a non-decorated part.

Resume the video when you are finished.

Great.

I hope that we heard some wonderful decorated melodies just then.

Let's have a quick recap.

What are the decorations on a melody called? Say your answer now.

If you said ornaments, you were correct.

Well done.

What ornament am I playing now? If you said a trill, you were correct.

Well done.

What ornament am I playing now? If you said a grace note, you were correct.

Well done.

We are nearly at the end of today's lesson, and what we have got left to do is to create and perform a decorated melody of your own.

You're going to be really creative now and use all the ornaments to make something really special and unique.

So you can use any of these three ornaments that I have taught you today.

So trills, upper and lower mordents, and grace notes.

If you know more ornaments yourself, then use them because this is your chance to show off what you know.

You can use any of the melodies that we have learnt.

If you are at a more basic level on your instrument, it might be good to use melodies one and two, because that means you can really focus on your ornaments.

When I'm using, I'm playing a melody like this.

I would first think really carefully about whereabouts in the melody I would want these ornaments to go.

So sometimes a trill is quite good at the end of a melody.

So for melody one, for example, I might start without an ornament.

And then maybe do a mordent.

And then I can go back to the beginning.

So try and loop these melodies around and around.

That is just one example of what you can do.

Take some time and find something that you're really, really, really happy with.

You can also use any of these melodies here, and these might be better to add in some grace notes in because there's more notes to choose from.

You're now going to pause the video to complete this task, choosing one of the melodies and decorating them yourself.

So using trills, mordents, and grace notes, experiment with different numbers of ornaments.

So try and have a melody where you've got loads in and try and have one melody where you only limit yourself to three.

When you're satisfied, write the ornaments on top of the melody that you have chosen, so you can remember it for future.

If this is too easy for you, create your own melody and decorate it with ornaments.

Fantastic.

I'm sure you had some really great ornamented melodies there.

Let's now think of the following questions before we move on to our performance.

So think to yourself what ornaments did you choose and use? And why did you choose those ornaments? And why did you choose to put them in certain places? Why did you choose to put a trill at the end, for example? What effect do you ornaments have on the music? How does it change it and make it different and more special? And how do you know you can play these ornaments and these melodies fluently? Pause the video, think about the answers to the questions, and then we'll move on to our performance.

Now we are ready to perform your decorated melody.

You have two choices about how to perform it today.

You can either play or record by yourself or play in time with me.

If you're going to play or record it by yourself, the first time you play your melody, don't put any ornaments on, the second time, then you'll put ornaments on.

If you're playing a recording by yourself, pause the video now and resume when you are finished.

If you're going to play it with me, we will continue on our performance.

I'm going to count you in.

The first time we play it, you're not going to put ornaments on it, the second time, you will.

I'm going to play melody one and the ground bass, and that means if you have any of the melody from Pachelbel's Canon, they will fit in really, really well.

Good luck.

Let's go.

One, two, three, four.

Now with ornaments.

Great job.

Well done.

If you made a mistake and want to have a go again, you can just rewind me and have a go again.

Let's now go back to our key question from the beginning of the lesson.

Why might me wish to decorate a melody? Think about the answer now.

You might've been thinking something like this.

We want to make it more interesting.

It's really important in Baroque pieces like Pachelbel's Canon in D because the same melodies are repeated over and over again, and we want to make them interesting.

So our key question again, how do we decorate a melody? Choose the boxes that tell us how we decorate a melody.

Are you ready for your answer? If you need more time, just press pause.

Okay, I'm going to go through them, and I'm going to remove the ones that are not correct, and I'll explain why.

So firstly ornaments, correct.

We use ornaments to decorate the melody.

We do not decorate a melody by playing faster.

We do not decorate a melody using colour because music is about sound, not really about what you see.

We do not decorate a melody using dotted rhythms because dotted rhythms are rhythm and they should be notated already.

We do not decorate a melody with crotchets because crotchets are note values, which are already existing in the melody or rhythm.

So we're left with ornaments, grace notes, and trills.

This is how we decorate a melody.

Well done for your hard work today.

If you'd like to share your work with Oak National, please ask your parents or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging Oak National and using the hashtag #learnwithOak.

And lastly, don't forget to complete the quiz to show how much you have learnt today.

Well done, take care, and see you soon.