Music Twilight – 17/6/14

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

2. Elements of music... The essentials for listening! *Short listening exercise – listen to an extract of classical music and popular music and analyse as a group.

3. Dynamics Dynamics describe the volume of a piece of music. In music notation they are written like this;

4. 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

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.

6. 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.

7. Note Values… Example

8. 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……….

9. 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;

10. 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.

11. 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!

12. 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.

13. Other notation bits! Clefs Rests Repeats

14. 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……….

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

16. 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;

17. Unity Trust – UCASwww.unitycollaborative.co.uk khumphreyunity@solgrid.org.uk