Year 6 - Music
Syncopated rhythms
Sing, play, perform: accompanying songs with polyrhythms
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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 different rhythm patterns from around the world. Through body percussion pupils play contrasting styles of rhythms and transfer these onto untuned percussion. They play one rhythm against another, building up layers of sound whilst maintaining a secure sense of pulse.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to play a syncopated rhythmic ostinato using body percussion.
Key Notes
- Having a strong feeling of the pulse helps us to perform syncopated rhythms more successfully.
- A syncopated phrase can become a rhythmic ostinato to create interest.
- Adding a rhythmic ostinato creates another layer of sound and a thicker texture.
Vocabulary To Learn
- beat: the playing or showing of the steady pulse, like the ticking of a clock
- rhythmic ostinato: a repeating musical idea created from a rhythmic pattern
- syncopation: rhythms that emphasise the offbeat
- body percussion: to make a percussive musical sound with the body
- texture: the combination of different layers of sounds
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Beat and rhythm are the same thing.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
Having a strong feeling of the pulse helps us to perform syncopated rhythms more successfully. A syncopated phrase can become a rhythmic ostinato to create interest.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'beat'
the playing or showing of the steady pulse, like the ticking of a clock.
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: Beat and rhythm are the same thing. Correction: Whilst syncopated rhythms are connected to the offbeats, this does not mean they are the same thing. Beats occur at regularly spaced intervals, with the rhythm the pattern that fits inside and inbetween these.
More Lessons In This Unit
Browse all guides in the Year 6 Music guide library.