Music Twilight – 17/6/14 Notation and Theory for Beginners Kelly Humphrey – Senior CAL Leader (UCAS)

Elements of music... The essentials for listening! DYNAMICS How loud/quiet the music is TEMPO How quick/fast the music is TEXTURE How many sounds are being played/sung TIMBRE The quality of the sound (soft/harsh etc) PITCH How high or low the sounds are INSTRUMENTATION The instruments that are being played STRUCTURE How the music is organised *Short listening exercise – listen to an extract of classical music and popular music and analyse as a group.

Dynamics p Piano = quiet pp Pianissimo = very quiet mp Mezzopiano = medium quiet f Forte = loud ff Fortissimo = very loud mf Mezzoforte = medium quiet Dynamics describe the volume of a piece of music. In music notation they are written like this;

Dynamics When sounds gradually get louder this is called; < CRESCENDO = GRADUALLY GETTING LOUDER > DIMINUENDO = GRADUALLY GETTING QUIETER *Listen to ‘Atmosphere’ from Music Express year 5

Notes… from the beginning Notation is written to recognise both the rhythm and pitch of the music. The picture below shows the rhythmic values of each note; Notes can also be ‘dotted’. This is then worked out by adding half of its value on to the original note e.g. a dotted crotched becomes 1.5 beats and a dotted minim becomes 3 beats.

Note Values See below – these notes written on the stave… try clapping them! TIP – Try using words with the children to demonstrate these rhthmns…. EGG, BAKED BEANS, CORNFLAKES, SAUSAGES etc.

Note Values… Example

Time Signatures A time signature is written at the start of each piece of music to indicate how many beats there are in each bar. For example, if the music had a 4/4 at the beginning this would indicate 4 beats in a bar. Some examples of common time signatures……….

Pitch Pitch is how HIGH or LOW a particular sound is. This is then notated on the stave (the lines on the music) to identify which notes are being played. See below the C MAJOR scale and where these notes are on a keyboard;

Pitch A good way to remember where the notes sit on the stave is by using the following rhymes. These will then allow you to work out where the other notes go! Remember……. The symbol at the start of the piece is called a TREBLE CLEF and the lines that divide up the different sections are called BARS.

Pitch… Example On the xylophones, lets work out the notes to Twinkle Twinkle – remember to work out and write the notes underneath if you need to!

Pitch… Example Black notes on the keyboard are known as ‘sharps’ and ‘flats’. If they are to the right of the white note they are higher in pitch (# = sharp) and if they are to the left of the white note they are lower in pitch (b = flat). On the stave, these notes are ALWAYS placed before the note! EXAMPLE…….. C# (C sharp) would be the black note to the right of the note C.

Other notation bits! Rests Repeats Clefs

Tempo… descriptions! In written scores, tempo markings are used to advise instrumentalists/singers how quick/slow they should approach playing the piece. These definitions are below……….

Tempo… descriptions! …However, with children… these words would be better to start with!

Texture Texture describes the layers of the music and how many parts occur at one time. Below is a table of textures and their definitions; Monophonic Music that has just one part Homophonic Music played in blocked chords Polyphonic Music that has many parts that weave Call and Response When one part plays and another answers Unison All parts play together Melody and Accompaniment The melody is played by one instrument/voice which another is accompanying

Unity Trust – UCAS