Study Guides

Unit Summary

Pupils learn about programmatic and descriptive music and how music can be used to set the scene. They compose a piece of music to accompany a story that includes a recurring motif and demonstrates an understanding of how key/chromatics and other musical elements can have an impact on the mood.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to identify specific musical features that create suspense in music and can use these features to compose a short piece that suitably reflects a scene or action.

Key Notes

• Music can be used to create an atmosphere and convey a scene.
• Chromatic movement, note clusters and pedal notes create suspense and help to make the music sound scary.
• Appropriate use of pitch, tempo and dynamics can also be used to reflect actions, movement and mood in a scene.
• A successful musical idea is often repetitive and simple, using only a few notes.

Vocabulary To Learn

• chromatic: when a musical idea moves between the black and white notes on the keyboard
• note cluster: a group of notes adjacent to each other, played at the same time
• pedal: a continuous (usually low pitched) note

Common Mistakes To Avoid

• Any pitch and notes can work in a composition.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

More Lessons In This Unit

• Composing music for an extended story Study Guide
• Composing music that doesn't sound scary Study Guide
• Creating a sense of style Study Guide
• Developing a motif Study Guide
• The effect of timbre Study Guide