Year 4 - Music
Building texture with a minor accompaniment
Start with playing: adding layers to major and minor songs
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
This unit explores the different sounds and feelings associated with major and minor tonality explicitly. The pupils sing a variety of songs, some in a major key and some in a minor key. They use pitched percussion instruments to add different accompaniments to these.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to accompany a minor tonality song with a melodic ostinato.
Key Notes
- Folk songs can be accompanied or unaccompanied.
- An ostinato can be rhythmic or melodic.
- Adding an ostinato underneath a song adds another layer of sound to the texture of the piece.
- We need to consider the dynamic balance when adding accompaniments to songs.
- Beats are organised into groups. Rise Up O Flame is in 3-time.
Vocabulary To Learn
- unison: the same tune sung or played at the same time
- accompaniment: a musical part that supports the main melody or chant
- melodic ostinato: a repeating musical pattern that uses notes of differing pitch
- minor pentachord: the first five notes of the minor scale: la, ti, do, re, mi
- 3-time: the organisation and feel of the beats as strong-weak-weak
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- We always count to four in music.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
Folk songs can be accompanied or unaccompanied. An ostinato can be rhythmic or melodic.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'unison'
the same tune sung or played at the same time.
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: We always count to four in music. Correction: Beats can be grouped or organised in any number. 4-time is common, but beats can be organised in an any number with 2, 3, 4 being common and 5, 7 less common.
More Lessons In This Unit
Browse all guides in the Year 4 Music guide library.