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New
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Year 1

Identifying the timbre of classroom percussion

I can explore the sounds of our percussion instruments, starting and stopping with a leader.

icon-background-square
New
New
Year 1

Identifying the timbre of classroom percussion

I can explore the sounds of our percussion instruments, starting and stopping with a leader.

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These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. We warm up before singing so that our bodies, minds and voices are ready to sing.
  2. We can sing and move in time to a steady pulse.
  3. We can describe the timbre of percussion instruments.
  4. We can recognise the sound of a selection of percussion instruments.

Keywords

  • Pulse - the regular, steady heartbeat of the music

  • Percussion instrument - a device used to make a musical sound which is played by striking, scraping or shaking

  • Timbre - the way an instrument sounds that helps us identify it

Common misconception

When describing an instrument’s timbre, we can say it is high or low, loud or quiet, fast or slow.

Timbre describes the unique sound of an instrument, not its pitch, dynamics or tempo.


To help you plan your year 1 music lesson on: Identifying the timbre of classroom percussion, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

To encourage creative vocabulary to describe an instrument’s timbre, try to discourage the use of words that can be muddled with other musical elements (high/low - pitch, loud/quiet - dynamics).
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Teacher tip
equipment-required

Equipment

a wide selection of classroom percussion instruments, a box or bag for Timbre Time

copyright

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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4 Questions

Q1.
How is this guiro played?
An image in a quiz
hit or strike
shaken
Correct answer: scraped
Q2.
Which of these percussion instruments is played by shaking it?
claves
woodblock
maracas
Q3.
When we are speaking to the regular, steady pulse, we are .
Correct Answer: chanting, Chanting, doing a chant
Q4.
Match the musical word to the definition.
Correct Answer:pulse,the regular, steady heartbeat of the music
tick

the regular, steady heartbeat of the music

Correct Answer:beat,the playing or showing of the steady pulse like the ticking of a clock
tick

the playing or showing of the steady pulse like the ticking of a clock

Correct Answer:percussion,a musical instrument which is played by striking, scraping or shaking
tick

a musical instrument which is played by striking, scraping or shaking

Correct Answer:instrument,a device used to make a musical sound
tick

a device used to make a musical sound

4 Questions

Q1.
How is this glockenspiel played?
An image in a quiz
Correct answer: hitting or striking
shaking
scraping
Q2.
What type of instrument is played by striking, shaking or scraping?
Correct Answer: percussion, Percussion, a percussion instrument, Percussion instruments, A percussion instrument
Q3.
We can show we have a good sense of the pulse by ...
An image in a quiz
Correct answer: singing at the correct time.
finding lots of different ways to make a sound on an instrument.
deciding how to play an instrument.
Correct answer: doing actions in time to the music.
Q4.
Timbre is...
An image in a quiz
how high or low the note is.
how loud or quiet the sound is.
Correct answer: the way an instrument sounds that helps us identify it.