Year 2 - Music
River soundscapes
Compose and create: soundscapes of the sea
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Study Guides
This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
In this optional unit, water and classical music examples inspire soundscape compositions as we journey from beach, to open water, rivers and stormy seas. Pupils use pitched and unpitched percussion, vocalisations and body percussion to create their soundscapes, recording these using graphic scores.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to layer vocal and body percussion cells to create a river soundscape.
Key Notes
- A soundscape can be created using just vocalisations and body percussion.
- When we structure a soundscape, we think about how to organise the sounds - what comes first, then what comes next.
- A cell is a short musical idea that can be used in a soundscape to help build the piece.
Vocabulary To Learn
- vocalisation: a sound made by the voice, but does not need to be a word
- soundscape: using sounds to create a feeling, place or story, making you feel like you are really there, for example a journey downriver
- structure: the way the music is organised
- cell: short, simple musical ideas
- body percussion: to make a percussive musical sound with the body
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Structure and texture are the same thing.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
A soundscape can be created using just vocalisations and body percussion. When we structure a soundscape, we think about how to organise the sounds - what comes first, then what comes next.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'vocalisation'
a sound made by the voice, but does not need to be a word.
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: Structure and texture are the same thing. Correction: Here, the structuring of the piece does involve a buiding of texture, but it is helpful to think of structure as horizontal - what is happening now and next, and texture as vertical - how many layers are there.
More Lessons In This Unit
Browse all guides in the Year 2 Music guide library.