Lesson video

In this lesson, you will need a piece of paper and a pencil to make notes with.

You'll also need your voice or instrument, or access to an online app or instrument, or digital audio workstation such as BandLab.

This lesson is better with headphones, but it is not required.

You can use the pause of the video to get any of the equipment you see onscreen or find a quite space to work in.

Please do so now and press play when you are ready to begin.

Using music software.

You can create music using audio mixing software.

The demonstrations in this lesson use a free programme called BandLab.

BandLab is for use by over 13s only and if you are over 13, you still need permission to use it from your parent or carer.

A Perfect Day.

How does Lou Reed create a positive feeling in his song, "A Perfect Day"? When we listen to this song, let's listen out for the tonality, the metre, melody and texture and how they contribute to the positive feeling.

We will listen to the extract three times.

♪ Oh, it's such a perfect day ♪ ♪ I'm glad I spent it with you ♪ ♪ Oh, such a perfect day ♪ ♪ You just keep me hanging on ♪ ♪ Oh, it's such a perfect day ♪ ♪ I'm glad I spent it with you ♪ ♪ Oh, such a perfect day ♪ ♪ You just keep me hanging on ♪ So, let's go through these musical elements then.

What was the tonality of this song? Yes, it was major.

What about the metre? This is a tricky one.

It was in six eighths.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

Sixth-eighth creates that swinging feeling.

Let's listen to part of the song again and think one, two, three, four, five, six.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

You could even sway your body left to right.

How does that affect the mood of the song? ♪ Oh, it's such a perfect day ♪ ♪ I'm glad I spent it with you ♪ And how about the melody? It was stepwise, with short, balanced phrases and it was sung in a very legato style.

This adds to the easy listening, laid back vibe of the song.

And finally, what about the texture? Well done if you've said it was homophonic.

Homophonic means melody and accompaniment.

Can you write the list of all the instruments that you heard in the extract? Let's do the same exercise for "Imagine" by John Lennon.

How is emotion and feeling of hope supported by the music? Again, we'll think of the following elements; tonality, metre, melody and texture.

♪ Only sky ♪ ♪ Imagine all the people ♪ ♪ Living for today ♪ ♪ Aah aah aah ♪ ♪ Imagine there's no countries ♪ ♪ It isn't hard to do ♪ ♪ Nothing to kill- ♪ And for the second time.

This is what I came up with for "Imagine".

Very similar.

In fact, I only got a different answer for metre, because "Imagine" is in four-four, which means four crotchet beats per bar.

Were there any other similarities or differences? Make a similarities and differences table on your piece of paper and come up with at least two similarities and two differences between "Perfect Day" by Lou Reed and "Imagine" by John Lennon.

Write your own lyrics or use existing lyrics.

Your lyrics should be suitable for a song for a better world.

They can be existing lyrics from a previous lesson.

Composing ideas for a story.

Write your own lyrics or use existing lyrics.

Your lyrics should be suitable for a song for a better world.

For example, the "I Have a Dream" speech or a speech by Greta Thunberg.

How can we manipulate the musical elements to create a sense of direction? Structure.

Decide where in the structure the climax of the song will be.

Texture.

The texture should be at its fullest during the climax.

Dynamics.

When will the music be loud? When will the music be quiet? Tempo.

Another way to build is to increase the tempo.

Choose a major chord sequence and read your lyrics over it.

You can find the major chord sequence in the worksheet that is available with this lesson.

How does the mood change when you read it over a minor chord sequence? Similarly, there's a minor chord sequence attached to this lesson in the worksheet as well.

Feel free to use BandLab or an online keyboard if you don't have access to an instrument.

Giving your song a sense of direction.

Analyse your lyrics and identify when you will change the following; Dynamics.

Perhaps you could whisper or shout some of the lyrics.

Texture.

Perhaps you could have the key messages spoken a cappella.

That means with no instruments accompaniment.

Tonality.

Perhaps negative words will be played on minor chords and messages of hope on major chords.

Here I have an excerpt from the "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King.

I will read out the lyrics first and what I would like you to do is think about how you would manipulate the song using the lyrics to create a sense of direction.

"With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day." Again, have a quick think about how you could manipulate the music of a song to go with these lyrics to give it a sense of direction.

I'll share my thoughts very shortly.

With this faith, I would like everybody in the song that I'm creating to sing that part.

And it's going to be loud.

Then there will be a solo person who will say, "We will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope." On the word despair, I would like a minor chord to be played.

And on the word hope, I would like a major chord to be played.

Again, when we have "With this faith", do that part and it's going to be loud.

Back to solo, "We'll be able to transform the jangling discords", that's going to be a minor chord.

"Of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood." It's going to be a major chord.

I also have an idea to put, I also have an idea to use strings for that chord on beautiful symphony as a bit of word paint.

With this faith, again, there's going to be all and loud.

We will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together.

On each together, I want it to gradually get louder and louder.

So, I'm manipulating the dynamics again there.

I would like more layers to add in on each together, as if the band, the ensemble, the orchestra is working together towards one goal.

I've labelled the word free on the last line to be the climax of the song.

So, therefore, it's going to be the loudest parts, the fullest texture.

I also want that to resolve, so all the tension of the minor chords previously are going to be resolved with a big, perfect cadence ending on a major chord.

So, that's my plan and annotation of my lyrics.

Coming over to you, performing your structure.

This will take about 15 minutes.

Annotate your lyrics and write a plan for your song.

Your plan should show where the dynamics change, where the texture changes, where the tempo changes if it does, the tonality and also the climax of the song.

To stretch, perform your song or write it on BandLab.

Pause the video to complete your task and click resume once you've finished.

Well done for all your hard work today.

I hope you've enjoyed this lesson.

I'm looking forward to writing up four songs in lessons to come.

Make sure to do the quiz now and I'll see you in the next lesson.

Share your work with Oak National.

If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.