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Year 6 - Music

Learning a musical theme

Compose and Create: creating melodic variations based on a theme

Unit Summary

In this unit, pupils will compose short variations on a given simple theme using glockenspiels or online keyboards on tablets or laptops. Exploring examples of theme and variations such as 'The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra' will create an understanding of how this structure is formed.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to learn a melodic theme, using notation to support you.

Key Notes

  • You can usually recognise aspects of the original theme when you listen to a variation.
  • When composing variations, composers might change the rhythm, the melody or the tonality of the theme.
  • A glockenspiel is played with mallets and the best sound is achieved when striking the centre of the bar.
  • We can play a theme accurately using pitch and rhythm notation.

Vocabulary To Learn

  • theme: a short, recognisable melody that is the main musical idea for a composition
  • variation: when a musical theme is repeated with changes
  • glockenspiel: a tuned percussion instrument with metal bars. Glocken is a German word that means bells and spiel means to play
  • mallet: the musical name for the beaters with which you play the glockenspiel

Common Mistakes To Avoid

  • Theme and variation structure only applies to orchestral music.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

1. Explain the lesson in two key points.

You can usually recognise aspects of the original theme when you listen to a variation. When composing variations, composers might change the rhythm, the melody or the tonality of the theme.

2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'theme'

a short, recognisable melody that is the main musical idea for a composition.

3. Correct this common mistake.

Mistake: Theme and variation structure only applies to orchestral music. Correction: A musical structure can apply to any style of music.

More Lessons In This Unit

Browse all guides in the Year 6 Music guide library.