Year 9 - Music
Writing an instrumental melody
The sound of 90s grunge
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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 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 create an instrumental melody for your chorus through improvisation.
Key Notes
- When writing a melody, we need to use a phrase structure that balances repetition and contrast.
- Some of the most popular phrase structures that achieve this balance are AABB, AABA, ABAB and ABAC.
- The A minor scale is a set of notes that uses only the white notes on the piano.
- This is one of the simplest minor keys to compose in.
Vocabulary To Learn
- Phrase: A phrase is a short section of a melody, normally lasting for two or four bars.
- Phrase structure: The phrase structure is the pattern of phrases in a melody. It should have a balance of repetition and contrast.
- A minor scale: The A minor scale is a set of notes starting on A, that uses only the white notes on the keyboard.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Not everyone can write a good melody.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
When writing a melody, we need to use a phrase structure that balances repetition and contrast. Some of the most popular phrase structures that achieve this balance are AABB, AABA, ABAB and ABAC.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'Phrase'
A phrase is a short section of a melody, normally lasting for two or four bars.
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: Not everyone can write a good melody. Correction: Writing a melody is just like writing a paragraph. Break it into small chunks (phrases). If you are finding it difficult to create a phrase, keep it simple and start by just improvising using 2 or 3 notes.
More Lessons In This Unit
Browse all guides in the Year 9 Music guide library.