Year 10 - Music
Texture in pop ballads
Extending understanding of pop music: pop ballads and modern pop
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
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Lesson Summary
You will learn to identify and recreate some idiomatic ways to develop chordal textures.
Key Notes
- Songwriters use various techniques to develop their chord sequences, including voicings and broken chords.
- The voicings of a chord can change how it sounds and create added interest.
- Chords can also be made to sound more melodic through the addition of passing notes.
- Songwriters develop the texture in pop ballads through the use of orchestral instruments, voices and synthesisers.
Vocabulary To Learn
- broken chord: A broken chord is a chord in which the notes are not all played at the same time.
- block chord: A block chord is a chord in which the notes are played together, at the same time.
- voicing: The voicing of a chord is the way that the notes are spread out on an instrument.
- passing note: A passing note is a non-chord note that provides a melodic link between two chord notes.
- arco: Arco is the technique of playing a string instrument with a bow.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Changing the voicing of a chord is the same as changing the chord inversion.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
Songwriters use various techniques to develop their chord sequences, including voicings and broken chords. The voicings of a chord can change how it sounds and create added interest.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'broken chord'
A broken chord is a chord in which the notes are not all played at the same time.
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: Changing the voicing of a chord is the same as changing the chord inversion. Correction: They are not the same thing. The inversion of the chord is determined by which note is at the bottom (the root or a different note). The voicing is how the notes are spread above this - whether they are close together or far apart.
More Lessons In This Unit
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