Lesson video

Hi everyone.

I'm Ms Boyd, your music teacher, and today we're going to learn how to follow the pitch of a piece of music using our hands.

In today's lesson we will practise singing at different pitches.

We'll see if we can follow the pitch of a piece of music, and we'll see if we can follow it using our hands.

In this lesson, you'll need three things, your singing voice, your bodies, and your thinking brain.

But before we get started, shall we sing a song to say hello? ♪ Off we go, hello, hello ♪ ♪ It's good to see you, hello, hello ♪ ♪ It's good to see you ♪ ♪ I must say you've made my day ♪ ♪ Hello, hello, hello ♪ Now to get us warmed up we are going to play a game called Do Re Mi.

All you need to do is switch on your singing voice and copy me.

Are you ready? ♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Do, do, do ♪ Your turn.

♪ Re, re, re ♪ ♪ Mi, mi, mi ♪ ♪ Re, re, re ♪ ♪ Do, do, do ♪ Well done.

Now these hand signs just represent the pitch of the music going lower, higher and higher, and lower and lower.

So I want you to have a go at practising moving your hands for those different pitches.

Are you ready? I'm going to sing a pattern, and I want you to copy it back.

♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Do, do, re ♪ ♪ Do, do, re, mi ♪ ♪ Do, do, re, mi ♪ ♪ Do, do, do ♪ Well done.

Let's make it a bit harder.

You ready? ♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Do, do, mi, mi ♪ ♪ Mi, re, do ♪ ♪ Mi, re, re, re ♪ ♪ Do, do, do ♪ ♪ Do, re, mi ♪ ♪ Mi, re, do ♪ Well done.

I think we're nice and warmed up for our next activity.

For the next few activities, we're going to practise following the pitch of a piece of music.

Now you don't need to understand all of the notes on the page.

All you need to do is follow the pitch of the music, just like you did for Do Re Mi.

The first time let's just sing it through together.

Are you ready? ♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Cobbler, cobbler mend my shoe ♪ ♪ Get it done by half-passed two ♪ ♪ Half-passed two is much too late ♪ ♪ Get it done by half-passed eight ♪ Great singing.

Should we try that again just so that you've got the tune? ♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Cobbler, cobbler mend my shoe ♪ ♪ Get it done by half-passed two ♪ ♪ Half-passed two is much too late ♪ ♪ Get it done by half-passed eight ♪ Great singing.

Now we're going to have a go following this music again, but this time we're going to use our do, re, mi hand signs to follow the pitch of the music.

Let's have a go.

This song actually starts here.

♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Cobber, cobbler mend my shoe ♪ ♪ Get it done by half-passed two ♪ ♪ Half-passed two is much too late ♪ ♪ Get it done by a half-passed eight ♪ Well done.

It's not that tricky, is it? Should we have another go just a little bit faster? ♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Cobbler, cobbler mend my shoe ♪ ♪ Get it done by half-passed two ♪ ♪ Half-passed two is much too late ♪ ♪ Get it done by half-passed eight ♪ Well done.

Would you like to have a go singing that song by yourself? Great.

Don't forget to use your hand signs.

♪ Off we go ♪ Excellent.

This time let's get really loud and really clear with those hand signs.

♪ Off we go ♪ Now let's try the same thing with a different piece of music.

The first time we'll sing together.

The second time we'll use our hand signs, and the third time you can have a go singing it all by yourself.

♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns, hot cross buns ♪ ♪ One a penny, two a penny ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ Excellent.

Shall we sing that again just so we've got the melody right? ♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns, hot cross buns ♪ ♪ One a penny, two a penny ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ Excellent.

Okay.

Let's try this time with our hand signs.

The pitch of this song starts here.

♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns, hot cross buns ♪ ♪ One a penny, two a penny ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ Great work.

Should we try again? ♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ ♪ Hot cross bun ♪ ♪ One a penny, two a penny ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ Great work.

Okay, have a go singing that by yourself, showing us the pitch by using your hand signs.

♪ Off you go ♪ Great.

And again? ♪ Off we go ♪ Well done.

I hope you've realised that it's not that hard to follow the pitch of a piece of music, is it? Here's one more song for us to practise with, "Mary Had a Little lamb." Let's sing it through together first.

♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Mary had a little lamb ♪ ♪ Little lamb, little lamb ♪ ♪ Mary had a little lamb ♪ ♪ Its fleece was white as snow ♪ Now there's something different about this song compared to the other two we just sang.

Halfway through the song, there's a note that goes higher than our do, re, mi pitch.

It goes even higher.

So for that extra note, we're just going to do another level like this.

Okay? So we've got here, here, here, here to show the high and low pitches of this song.

Let's have a go together.

♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Mary had a ♪ ♪ Little lamb, little lamb ♪ ♪ Little lamb ♪ There it is.

That extra high note.

We're just going to use this sign to show that we're going even higher.

Let's start again.

♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Mary had a ♪ ♪ Little lamb ♪ ♪ Little lamb, little lamb ♪ ♪ Mary had a ♪ ♪ Little lamb ♪ ♪ Its fleece was white as snow ♪ Well done.

Should we try that again? ♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Mary had a ♪ ♪ Little lamb ♪ ♪ Little lamb, little lamb ♪ ♪ Mary had a ♪ ♪ Little lamb ♪ ♪ Its fleece was white as snow ♪ Well done.

Would you like to have a go by yourself? ♪ Off you go ♪ Well done, guys.

That's the end of our lesson today and well done.

You worked so hard to show us those different pitches.

You worked really well using those hand signs, and you were able to follow the pitch of a piece of music.

Before we go, let's close with our Goodbye Song.

Are you ready? ♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ Goodbye, goodbye ♪ ♪ It's time to go now ♪ ♪ Goodbye, goodbye ♪ ♪ It's time to go now ♪ ♪ I must say ♪ ♪ You've made my day ♪ ♪ Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye ♪.