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Year 9 - Music

Contrast in grunge

The sound of 90s grunge

Unit Summary

This unit introduces pupils to 90s Grunge music, including the context of the style and its other musical influences. Pupils learn about the main musical features and about extended pop song structure, riffs with power chords, harmonic rhythm and phrase structure in melody and lyric writing.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to add contrast to your grunge composition through development of a verse and middle 8.

Key Notes

  • Songwriters create musical contrast by making sections or musical ideas sound different from each other.
  • This is exaggerated in grunge, reflecting the emotional lyrics.
  • We can create contrast through considered use of dynamics, timbre, pitch, texture, rhythm and harmonic rhythm.
  • The middle 8 is a contrasting section, usually 8 bars long, heard in the second half of a song.

Vocabulary To Learn

  • Musical contrast: When two sections or musical ideas sound different from each other, we refer to this as musical contrast.
  • Middle 8: The middle 8 is a section in a song that contrasts with the verse and the chorus. It is often 8 bars long.
  • Harmonic rhythm: The speed at which chords change in a chord sequence is called the harmonic rhythm.

Common Mistakes To Avoid

  • Harmonic rhythm means the rhythm that each chord plays.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

1. Explain the lesson in two key points.

Songwriters create musical contrast by making sections or musical ideas sound different from each other. This is exaggerated in grunge, reflecting the emotional lyrics.

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

When two sections or musical ideas sound different from each other, we refer to this as musical contrast.

3. Correct this common mistake.

Mistake: Harmonic rhythm means the rhythm that each chord plays. Correction: Harmonic rhythm means how often the chords change, not the actual rhythm that the chords play. Show examples of the same harmonic rhythm different rhythms in the chords. Changing the harmonic rhythm is a useful tool to alter the feel of music.

More Lessons In This Unit

Browse all guides in the Year 9 Music guide library.