Year 5 - Music
Adding more minimalist cells to create a thicker texture
Compose and rehearse: creating and combining minimalist cells
Study Hub
Study Guides
This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
This unit introduces minimalism with its repetitive, hypnotic, short musical cells. Pupils will use Terry Riley's In C to inspire their compositions. Working in groups, pupils will create short musical cells and decide how to use these to create and rehearse a larger minimalist piece.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to compose, practise and notate a repeating melodic minimalist cell, layering this with a drone and rhythmic cell underneath.
Key Notes
- Music can be notated in many ways. The best form of notation is the most effective for reading.
- Cells can be rhythmic or melodic.
- A drone is a type of ostinato or cell.
- Choosing the order of cells entries and exits creates a structure for your piece.
- When cells are layered, they create a thicker texture and a more complex piece of music.
Vocabulary To Learn
- cell: simple musical patterns that can be rhythmic or melodic (an ostinato in minimalism)
- notation: a way of visually representing and recording music
- stave: lines on which musical notes can be placed
- drone: a constant, pitched sound that continues throughout a piece of music
- instrumentation: the combination of musical instruments used in a piece of music
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- There is a hierarchy in notation - stave notation is always best.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
Music can be notated in many ways. The best form of notation is the most effective for reading. Cells can be rhythmic or melodic.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'cell'
simple musical patterns that can be rhythmic or melodic (an ostinato in minimalism).
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: There is a hierarchy in notation - stave notation is always best. Correction: Notation is only effective when it can be read easily. We can notate in many different ways.
More Lessons In This Unit
Browse all guides in the Year 5 Music guide library.