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 3 (ages 11-14) lesson that explores the concepts of ‘major’ and ‘minor’.
Learning Objective: to understand the difference between major and minor sonorities and scales through improvisation, listening and performance.
Length: 45 minutes.
1. In Lesson 2, you improvised music with a drone, using the notes of Rag Jog. Now try improvising with a different drone.
Listen to these instructions.
Use this drone.
Use these notes:
2. Now try improvising over a ‘minor’ chord.
Use this drone.
Use these notes:
3. What’s the difference between major and minor? Listen to this explanation!
4. Play or sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star in a major key:
4b. Now play it in a minor key:
5. The composer Mozart wrote 12 variations on this melody.
Listen to this variation. Now listen to this variation. Which one is in a major key? Which one is in a minor key?
6. To find out if a piece of music is major or minor, follow these steps:
a) Find the keynote (usually, the last note of the music).
b) Starting on the keynote, sing the major scale. If that fits the music, then the music is major.
c) Starting on the keynote, sing the minor scale. If that fits the music, then the music is minor.
Listen to this demonstration of these steps.
7. Listen to these tracks. Using the instructions in Step 6, decide which are major and which are minor.
a) ’Prelude in C’ by J. S Bach.
b) ‘Down, Down, Down’ (Traditional).
c) ‘Variation on Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ by W.A Mozart.
d) ‘‘You Raise me up’ by Josh Groban.
e) ‘Der Leiermann’ (The Organ Grinder) by F. Schubert.
8. Listen to the answers here.
9. Want to find out more? Here are some great music theory resources that you can use to consolidate and extend your understanding of the themes in today’s lesson.
ABRSM: MUSIC THEORY IN PRACTICE, GRADE 1
CHESTER MUSIC: HOW TO BLITZ! ABRSM THEORY GRADE 1 (2018 REVISED)
CHESTER MUSIC: HOW TO BLITZ! ABRSM THEORY GRADE 2 (2018 REVISED)
COLLINS: ABRACADABRA – ABRACADABRA BEGINNING THEORY
EASILEARN THEORY FUNDAMENTALS – GRADE 1
MUSIC THEORY FOR YOUNG MUSICIANS – GRADE 1
RHINEGOLD EDUCATION: STEP UP TO GCSE MUSIC
More information about the difference between major and minor scales is available here. For more information on the different types of minor scales, watch this video.
By Tim Cain for Rhinegold Education