Musicroom is dedicated to helping you provide your child with a rich and rounded education, even during school closures. Every week we’ll be providing free outstanding, fun and rewarding music lessons for Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 that can be taught at home. Simple to use and no musical expertise is required!
This week, from Rhinegold Education, a Key Stage 1 (ages 5-7) lesson about musical animals and a Key Stage 2 (ages 7-11) lesson that explores the theory of musical notation!
KEY STAGE 1
Learning Objective: to be able to differentiate between contrasting types of articulation.
Length ½ hour.
1. Hello! Have a listen to this to get you started.
2. Ask your child to think of some animal sounds. Can they make those sounds and then decide whether they are smooth or spiky?
(They will have more practise with smooth and spiky sounds after the next audio, so don’t worry if they find this a little tricky). Have some fun together with the sounds!
3. Now let’s listen to this!
4. Ask your child to experiment with making some smooth and spiky sounds themselves, using their voice.
Join in and make some of your own. Be silly together! But check, does your child understand the difference between the two terms? Can they apply the terms to sounds that you make?
5. Now play a minute or so of the following tracks to your child.
One is smooth, one is spiky and one is a mixture. Ask them to move to the music in a way they think suits it. Can they tell you whether they think the music is smooth or spiky?
Kangaroos:
In The Hall of the Mountain King:
The Swan:
6. If you want to use the correct musical terms for smooth and spiky; smooth = legato and spiky = staccato.
Key Stage 2
Lesson Objective: to know how many beats crotchets, minims and semibreves are worth.
Length: ½ hour
1. To start with, let’s listen to this song.
The words of the song are:
Arthur went to bed at 8
And woke up feeling really great.
He put his clothes on super quick
And ate his breakfast in a tick.
2. Can you remember from previous lessons what a crotchet looks like?
It looks like this:
Remember; a crotchet = 1 beat.
3. Now let’s listen to this.
The words for verses 2 and 3 of the song are:
Arthur went to bed at 9
And woke up feeling less than fine.
He stretched and yawned and scratched his head,
And wished he could go back to bed.
Arthur went to bed at 10
He won’t be doing that again.
He used his socks to comb his hair
And fed the dog his underwear!
4. Here’s what a minim looks like:
A minim is worth 2 crotchet beats. It is twice as long as a crotchet.
5. Here’s what a semibreve looks like:
A semibreve is worth 4 crotchet beats.
6. Now let’s put it all together! Check this out.
7. Let’s finish off with some games!
The brilliant book HOW TO BLITZ! BEGINNER THEORY by Samantha Coates can teach you all about important basics in music theory. There are also some fabulous games! Download this musical Bingo game all about note values from the book. Have fun!
Read a preview of Blitz here!
By Rebecca White for Rhinegold Education