Year 5 - Music
Composing and notating a minor melody
Compose and Create: composing a minor melody on a stave
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
In this unit, pupils learn songs and listen to music that has a minor tonality. Pupils learn the toneset for the minor pentachord (la, ti, do, re, mi) and use this to compose a minor melody. An analysis of Benjamin Britten's Old Abram Brown inspires the shaping of the pupils' compositions.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to compose and notate a stylistic minor melody.
Key Notes
- We can compose rhythms by selecting and arranging takadimi patterns.
- We can compose melodies by selecting pitches from the minor scale and assigning these to our composed rhythm.
- Effective melodies move mostly by step, with some leaps.
- We can use question and answer phrases to structure our melodies.
Vocabulary To Learn
- composition: a new piece of music that has been created
- improvisation: creating new musical ideas on the spot
- steps and leaps: melodies can move up or down one note at a time (steps) or jump up or down several notes (leaps)
- question and answer: a melody is often structured with a phrase that sounds like a question and an answering phrase
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- When composing, choosing a wide variety of complicated rhythms is more exciting than using simpler ones.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
We can compose rhythms by selecting and arranging takadimi patterns. We can compose melodies by selecting pitches from the minor scale and assigning these to our composed rhythm.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'composition'
a new piece of music that has been created.
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: When composing, choosing a wide variety of complicated rhythms is more exciting than using simpler ones. Correction: When starting composing it's often good to use mostly simpler rhythms, and to make use of repetition.
More Lessons In This Unit
Browse all guides in the Year 5 Music guide library.