Lesson video

Hello and welcome to today's music lesson.

My name is Miss Al-Hanoush and today we're going to be exploring how composers use balanced melodies.

So let's warm up by doing a keyboard task.

For today's keyboard warmup, we're going to use the F major pentatonic scale.

For that, you will need to put your hands and your fingers in the right position.

Take your right hand and place your thumb on F, your second finger on G, your third on A, and then your fifth finger needs to go onto the top C.

With your left hand, you're going place your thumb on D and then your second finger on C.

Let's play from the C all the way up to the C at the top.

Here we go.

And back down.

Excellent.

I'm now going to play a two bar question and answer phrase for you in F major.

How many beats are going to be in my bar if I'm in 4/4? Wonderful, four beats in a bar.

So if I'm playing two bars, how many beats do you need to count? Eight, fantastic.

I'll put my metronome on to help you.

I will play a question of eight beats, and then you are going to play an answer of eight to beats.

Here we go.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Fantastic if you managed to keep up with that, because I originally only said we were going to do it once, but we did it for two they're so well done.

What about now if I up the stakes a bit and I'm going to play a four bar question? So how many beats do you need to count this time? 16, so it's double.

Okay, so I'm going to play a question worth 16 beats, and you're going to play an answer at worth 16 beats.

We'll only do it the once.

Here we go.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Keep going.

Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Well done if you could manage to keep up with that.

Fantastic.

What about if we do two in a row, do you think you can do it? So, I'm going to play a question, you play the answer.

I'll play a question, you play the answer.

They're going to be four bars each in 4/4.

So 16 beats for each question and each answer.

Challenging.

Here we go.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four, five six, seven, eight.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Well done.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Well done if you manage to keep up with that.

That was quite a long time to play for, excellent.

Did you remember to end your answer on our tonic note of F? If not, maybe have a quick warmup yourself, again, and see if you can do a question that ends on our dominant C and an answer that ends on our tonic F.

Let's see what else we're going to be doing in the lesson.

For today's lesson, you will need a piece of paper, a pencil, an eraser, and a keyboard.

Or if you don't have a keyboard, you will need a virtual instrument app.

So I'm about to use a free virtual instrument app that is called Virtual piano.

And if you would like to use an app with me, please ask your parent or carer to help you find one.

Mine looks like this, and I can play all of the notes on here that we are going to need in today's lesson.

So for example, I can play all of the pentatonic scale.

There we go.

So, that's the equipment you'll need.

You will also need a quiet space to work in and to make sure that you've got any apps or notifications turned off on any electronic devices.

Please pause the video to go and get yourself sorted now, and then resume once you're ready.

Here is the agenda for today's lesson.

You're going to begin by learning what a balanced melody is.

You're then going to explore examples of balanced melodies from a variety of composers, and then compose your own balanced melody.

And finally end with the performance of your balance melody.

Let's begin by learning what a balanced melody is.

I'm going to play you a question and answer melody in 4/4.

I'd like you to count how many bars are in my question and how many bars are in my answer.

Look out for my tonic and dominant notes to help you work out where my question and my answers finish.

Also listen to my metronome to help you.

What was the difference between the phrase lengths? My question was four bars long, whereas my answer was only two bars long.

How did that make you feel? It doesn't feel natural.

It's as if you're not sure where the natural pause should be before you move onto the next phrase.

It's a little bit like reading a sentence with the full stop being put in the wrong place.

If the full stop is in the wrong place, then you're not sure whether the sentence has ended yet, but this is the same in music.

We're expecting something else to complete that answer phrase, just like we expected a full stop at the end of the sentence to complete it.

Take a listen to this example.

Can you count how many bars is in my question and how many bars in the answer? Did you spot the difference between the phrase lengths in that second example? My question was two bars, whereas my answer was three.

How did that make you feel when you listened to it? Personally, I felt like my sentence, my musical phrase, hadn't finished.

Again, it made me feel quite uncomfortable and I didn't know what was going to happen next.

So how do we stop that uneasy feeling happening in our music? This is where balance melodies come in.

Throughout this unit, we have explored question and answer phrases.

We began by creating a two bar question and answer phrase, and then if you were brave enough, you composed your own four bar phrases.

But why did I not say let's create a one bar question and a three bar answer? Well, because it wouldn't be balanced.

So, what is a balanced melody? They're question and answer phrases where both the question and the answer have a similar length and rhythm.

Commonly, composers use two or four bar phrases and sometimes they use eight bar phrases or even 16 bar phrases.

However, 16 bar phrases are only really use at a very fast tempo.

In the classical period, it was very common for melodies to have clear and simple structures, and therefore they favoured balanced melodies.

Here's a quick quiz just to check your understanding of what you've just learned.

Balanced melodies should have a similar length and rhythm.

Is that true or is it false? That one is true.

They're balanced if they have a similar length and rhythm.

What about this? Balanced melodies should contain the same number of bars in the question and the answer.

Is that true or is it false? Again, that one is true.

So we want the same amount of bars in the question as the answer.

And commonly composers use five and seven bar phrases.

Is that true or is it false? That one is false, okay.

So composes usually use maybe four bar phrases, sometimes eight bar phrases and if it's a really fast tempo, 16 bar phrases.

And the last one, 16 by phrases are usually used in slow music.

I just gave the answer away, if you were listening.

That one is false.

They're usually used in really fast music.

Music would a fast tempo.

So now, you know what a balanced melody is.

Let's explore some examples of balanced melodies.

Take a look at the score on screen for Beethoven's "Ode to Joy".

This score is in G major.

Where is the question melody and where is the answer melody? Have a listen.

Well done if you said that you thought the question started here and ended here, and your answer started here and ended here.

Have a listen, here's your question.

Dum da ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra da da da daa ra dum.

And that answer, dun da ra ra da ra ra ra ra ra ra ra raa ra rum.

We have another one.

Here's another question and here's another answer at the bottom.

Dun da ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra, is that question and dun da da ra ra ra ra ra ra dun ra ra ra dun dun, is the answer, but how many bars is each question and each answer? Have a look at the bar lines.

Well done if you said four.

So one, two, three, and four.

We're in time signature 4/4 and it's mainly in crotchets, this piece, apart from the ends of our phrases for our first question and answer.

And what about answers? They're also four bars long each.

So well done if he said that.

Would you say that those phrases are balanced? Yes.

Because the bars in the question and the bars in the answer are the same amount, the same length.

What else is similar about that first question and that first answer? Well, the rhythm and the pitch for the first three bars is exactly the same.

However, the last bar changes and we can see the B goes down to an A and then the As go down to Gs.

But that is the only difference between that question and the answer.

Bear that in mind, when you're composing your own question and answers.

Let's take a look at another example.

This time it's one from Mozart's "Symphony No.

40", and in particular, we're looking at the beginning of the piece of music.

Whilst you listen to the piece, can you hear where the question begins and where the answer begins and where they both end? How many bars is in the question and how many bars is in the answer? Here we go.

This example is slightly trickier because it begins on what we call the upbeat, which is just before the end of a bar and before we start the next bar.

And again, we have an upbeat here.

So our question starts here and then here on our top B flat, and our answer starts here and ends on our C down here.

So overall, these are two bar phrases because we have a full bar here.

We then have another crotchet and a crotchet here, so that's two beats.

We then have a crotchet rest and then we steal the upbeat from the beginning of our question and the same for our answer.

The upbeat here gets added on to the rest of our melody and there should be a crotchet rest over here with the rest of the music that carries on.

Notice how the rhythm of the question and the answer are the same.

So you've got two quavers, crotchet, two quavers, crotchet, two quavers, crotchet, crotchet.

Two quavers, crotchet, two quavers, crotchet, two quavers, crotchet, crotchet.

Let's clap this rhythm together.

So I'll give you a counting of three, one, two, three.

Let's try that again.

One, two, three.

Well done if you got that.

As I play it on the keyboard, can you clap when you think it's the question and then tap your thighs when you think it's the answer? One, two, three.

This time, can you say the pitch names over the top? One, two, three.

Well done if you are able to clap the question and then tap the answer, or if you were able to sing the pitches above what I just played.

Let's listen to one more example.

This one's a little bit trickier.

This is Brahms's "Hungarian Dance No.

5".

I would like you to have a look at the music on the screen and take a listen to the track and tell me how long the question and answer melodies are here.

And I would like you, this time, to also give a reason for your answer.

Let's take one more listen to that.

How long did you say the question and answer melodies were when you listened to the "Hungarian Dance"? Did you say four bars or eight bars each? Well, they could be seen as four bars.

One, two, three, four, so that's my question and then one, two, three, four, my answer.

And again, question, one, two, three, four, there's my question, and then one, two, three, four for my answer.

And you could say that, because actually, the question starts with the very same rhythm and the answers are quite different in their rhythm, or you could see it as eight bars and my phrase marking there shows you how it could be eight bars.

And the reason it could be eight bars is because again, our beginnings of our questions and the beginnings of the answers start with the same rhythm.

Dotted crotchet to a quaver and a dotted crotchet to a quaver.

All three examples that I've shown you have used balanced melodies.

So they've made sure that they've got the same amount of bars in their question and their answer.

Can we play through Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" or Mozart's "Symphony No.

40" or, "Hungarian Dance" if you really want a challenge? Remember to look out for the balance phrases of each piece.

Take 10 minutes to complete this task.

Pause the video to complete the task, and then resume once you're finished.

Now that you've explored some examples of balanced melodies, we're now going to compose a balanced melody.

Before we begin to compose a four bar melody, let's just take a little listen at how long it takes to count four bars in 4/4.

So I'm going to put my metronome on and I'd like you to count out loud.

Here we go.

One, two, three, four.

Two, two, three, four.

Three, two, three, four.

Four, two, three, four.

Okay, so that is the length that we need our questions and our answers to be.

Let's begin by composing a four bar question melody.

Remember to start your melody, we want to start on our tonic note, which, because we're in F major pentatonic, is F and our question should always end on our dominant C.

Anything in between is trial and error until you find something that you are happy with.

I suggest that you keep your rhythm simple to begin with, because you'll want to use the same rhythm to begin your answer as well, just like have in the examples earlier.

Let's have a go and see if I can compose something that I'm happy with starting on F and ending on C, and I'm going to do it for four bars.

Here we go.

Okay, happy with that melody.

Let's see if I can remember it.

Nearly.

When you're composing, it's a good idea to keep repeating things until you're happy with it because we're not improvising, we're actually composing now.

So we need to remember the music that we've written.

So I'm going to try that again.

I'll play my metronome again and see whether I can remember it.

I might add a little bit to it as well.

Here we go.

So that was my four bar question.

What about my answer? Well, I'm going to start it the same, actually.

Just like "Ode to Joy", just like the Mozart.

"Hungarian Dance" starts with the same rhythm so I'm going to start my question with the same rhythm but I will also, this time, start answer with the same rhythm, but this time, what do I need to end it on? My tonic.

Let's see if I can do an answer with the same kind of starting then end it on my tonic note.

Here we go.

There we go, so I ended on my tonic.

The majority of it was the same as my question though, but they were balanced.

So they had the same number of bars in both my question and my answer.

Let's see if I can put them both together now.

So my question first, and then my answer.

Both should be four bars long.

Here we go.

And there you have it.

We have a balanced four bar question and a four answer using pretty much the same rhythm, pretty much the same notes, but ending on my tonic and just changing one or two small ideas in between.

So what can you steal from some of the composers that we've looked at today? For your next pause task, can we compose a four bar or eight bar question and answer balanced melody? If you're finding composing tricky, just begin by improvising with two or three notes, and then listen out for any nice sounding patterns that you create.

You can use those as a starting point.

Remember, that your question should end on the dominant.

If you're using F major, that dominant note is C and your answer should end on the tonic.

In F major, that is F.

If you want to challenge yourself, you can choose at different time signature to work in, it doesn't have to be 4/4, or you could use a different key to working in too.

Doesn't have to also be F major pentatonic.

If you want to be really adventurous, you can try and compose a 16 bar question and answer melody.

And finally, if you play an instrument, can you compose a melody for your instrument? As we are composing and not improvising, you might also want to notate your composition down too.

Take 10 to 15 minutes to complete this task.

Pause the videos to complete your tasks, and then resume once you're finished.

Now that you have composed a balanced melody, you're now going to perform it.

So hopefully by now you have had a go at composing, some balanced melodies yourself.

I'm going to play you a weak performance of my balanced melodies and I'd like you to tell me why you think it's weak.

Here we go.

Why was my performance weak? That's right.

My answer was not balanced with my question at all.

So my answer was definitely shorter than my question.

So it didn't quite feel finished.

What about this time? Sounded okay but what did I end my answer on? That's why I actually ended it on my dominant note.

Where should I end it? On my tonic note.

What about this performance? Is this a strong performance or weak performance and why? Was that a strong performance or weak performance and why? That was a much stronger performance.

I started to actually put in some expression there.

I put in some dynamics, hopefully you heard those.

And also, I had balanced melodies.

So my question and my answer were the same length.

What did I end my question on? My dominant C.

And what did I end my answer on? My tonic note F.

My hands were in the correct position.

I had one finger per note.

They weren't flat down on the keyboard and I was playing in time with my metronome as well.

It's now your turn to perform your balance melodies and take everything that I've just said into consideration whilst you perform.

Now it's your turn to perform.

For your next pause task, take 10 minutes to focus on your performance and perform it to a household member.

Don't forget that you can add in dynamics, articulation, and any other form of expression.

If you really want to challenge yourself, can you add in the left handed compliment? Pause the video to complete your task and then resume once you're finished.

Let's recap, today's lesson agenda.

You began by learning what a balanced melody was.

You then explored different examples of balanced melodies from different composers, and then compose your own balanced melody.

You then ended the lesson by performing your balanced melody.

Well done.

Here's your last pause task.

On your piece of paper, I would like you to write down how you can compose a balanced melody.

Think about what we've done today.

Think about the techniques that you've seen in composers' work and the ones that I've shown you as well during the composition task.

Pause the video, take a couple of minutes to do this, and then resume once you're finished and we'll go through the answers.

How did you find that question? How can you compose a balanced melody? Well, you need a balanced number of bars in both your question and your answer phrases.

It's also really a good idea to repeat melodic pitches or ideas and rhythms too.

You can take inspiration from those classical composers that we looked at.

Like I said earlier, I hope that this lesson has given you lots of composition ideas, and we'll really think about your melody writing in the future.

So the last thing that I need you to do today is to complete the quiz, to show how much you have learnt and to show me how much knowledge you've obtained as well.

If you would like to share your melodies and share your work with Oak National, please ask your parent and carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

We would love to see what you've been up to and what you've managed to compose and before.

That's all from me today.

Hopefully I'll see you in the next lesson.

Have a great day.

Goodbye for now.