Year 9 - Music
Improvising around a melody
Understanding samba
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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 introduces pupils to Samba as a type of Brazilian dance and music, including batucada. They learn the context of the style and about the instruments, ensembles and features of the music, including polyrhythm and develop a Samba-style composition.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to improvise around a simple melody.
Key Notes
- Our melody is an unusual length (14 bars), and has an anacrusis. The song is in the key of G major, which includes F#.
- When improvising, we should use notes from the key of the music. In this song, we use the G major scale.
- One strategy for improvisation is to use target notes.
- When we are improvising more freely, we can use other strategies to help us to structure our improvisation.
Vocabulary To Learn
- anacrusis: an anacrusis is when a melody starts before beat 1
- scale: a scale is a set of notes
- G major scale: the G major scale is a scale in the key of G major, including F#
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- There are 'rights' or 'wrongs' in improvisation.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
Our melody is an unusual length (14 bars), and has an anacrusis. The song is in the key of G major, which includes F#. When improvising, we should use notes from the key of the music. In this song, we use the G major scale.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'anacrusis'
an anacrusis is when a melody starts before beat 1.
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: There are 'rights' or 'wrongs' in improvisation. Correction: While there are rules that help us improvise effectively, a big part of learning to improvise is experimenting and seeing what works and what doesn't. Be willing to make 'mistakes' and don't fixate on doing it perfectly first time.
More Lessons In This Unit
Browse all guides in the Year 9 Music guide library.