Year 6 - Music
Theme and variation as a musical structure
Compose and Create: creating melodic variations based on a theme
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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 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 hear how a theme is altered to create variations and can explain theme and variation as a musical structure.
Key Notes
- Theme and variations is a type of musical structure.
- A theme is a short, recognisable melody that is the main musical idea for a composition.
- Each variation is based on the original theme but changed slightly in one or more ways.
- The orchestra is made up of four main sections: strings, woodwind, brass and percussion.
Vocabulary To Learn
- structure: the way the music is organised
- theme: a short, recognisable melody that is the main musical idea for a composition
- variation: when a musical theme is repeated with changes
- theme and variations: a structure in music where the main theme is stated at the beginning and then repeated throughout, but changed in some way each time
- orchestra: a large musical ensemble, combining instruments from the string, woodwind, brass, and percussion families
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Theme and variations is the same as theme music.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
Theme and variations is a type of musical structure. A theme is a short, recognisable melody that is the main musical idea for a composition.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'structure'
the way the music is organised.
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: Theme and variations is the same as theme music. Correction: Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for video games, or films and is usually played at the beginning, end and at some point during the course of the game or film.
More Lessons In This Unit
Browse all guides in the Year 6 Music guide library.