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Year 1

Responding to tempo changes within a song or piece of music

I can hear tempo changes in a piece of music and can respond by moving in time to the beat.

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New
New
Year 1

Responding to tempo changes within a song or piece of music

I can hear tempo changes in a piece of music and can respond by moving in time to the beat.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Tempo can change within a piece of music.
  2. Movement can help us to feel, show and hear the changing tempo.
  3. We know a piece of music can speed up (accelerando) or slow down (rallentando).
  4. When the tempo changes within a piece of music, it changes how the music feels and helps us create stories in our mind.

Keywords

  • Tempo - how fast or slow the music is played

  • Accelerando - gradually getting faster

  • Rallentando - gradually getting slower

Common misconception

The tempo always stays the same throughout a piece of music.

Although we learn to feel the pulse and follow the steady beat, music can get gradually faster or gradually slower.


To help you plan your year 1 music lesson on: Responding to tempo changes within a song or piece of music, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Try not to model singing louder as the music gets faster and singing quiet as the music gets slower as this can embed another misconception.
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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.
Before singing, it is important to the voice and body.
Correct Answer: warm up, Warm up, warm-up, Warm-up
Q2.
Call and response is a type of musical...
beat
tempo
Correct answer: structure
Q3.
We can describe the tempo of the music as...
An image in a quiz
low or high
Correct answer: slow or fast
quiet or loud.
Q4.
Match the musical element to the definition.
Correct Answer:tempo,how fast or slow the music is played
tick

how fast or slow the music is played

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

4 Questions

Q1.
Tempo is...
An image in a quiz
how high or low the music is.
Correct answer: how fast or slow the music is.
how loud or quiet the music is.
Q2.
True or false, music can speed up and slow down in the same piece.
Correct Answer: true, True
Q3.
When music gets faster, we call this...
higher pitch
Correct answer: accelerando
lower pitch
rallentando
Q4.
When music gets slower, there is a...
Correct answer: rallentando
quieter note
accelerando
louder note