Lesson video

Hello, musicians.

It's me again, Mrs. Steele, and I'm so excited that we're going to be learning together again.

By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to control and change your singing dynamics when you're performing.

Here are the keywords that will be important in our learning together today.

Dynamics, how loudly or quietly the music is played or sung.

Conductor, a person who directs musicians or singers.

Rehearse, to practice in order to improve and prepare for a performance.

And perform, presenting our work in front of others.

Before every music lesson, we know it's important to warm up our bodies, voices, and our minds so that we're ready to move, play, and sing.

Warming up is a great opportunity to practice our other music skills too.

Join in with these warmups so that you're ready to sing.

Here's the video.

<v ->Let's begin by warming up our bodies</v> because we know how important it is to warm up before we start making music and singing.

We'll begin with a stretch.

Arms high into the air, onto our tiptoes, hold onto a monkey bar, and we are going to not let go of that monkey bar but we are going to lower our heels to the ground, so we're going to get taller.

Lowering to the count of four, here we go.

One, two, three, four.

Gosh, you're all super tall.

Drop your fingers and your wrists and your elbows and your shoulders.

Relax your knees and go brr.

<v Children>Brr.

</v> <v ->Very good, let's do that one more time.

</v> Stretch up onto your tiptoes, hold onto the monkey bar, lowering our heels to account of four, going one, two, three, four.

Gosh, you're so tall now.

Drop your fingers and your wrists and your elbows and your shoulders.

Relax your knees and brr.

<v Children>Brr.

</v> <v ->Very good, now let's take up as much space as we can,</v> make a really, really big space.

Huge shapes, and we are going to shrink down into a teeny, tiny shape.

Tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny.

Like a little seed.

And we're now going to grow back to a big shape.

Are you ready? One, two, three, go! Grow, grow, grow, grow, grow.

And relax.

<v ->Let's learn how to breathe like a singer.

</v> I want you to imagine that your body is a balloon.

If you were a balloon, I wonder what color you would be.

What color would you be? <v ->Blue.

</v> <v ->You'd be blue, okay.

</v> So some of you're blue balloons, you might be a different color.

We're gonna blow up our balloons by breathing in like a singer.

Are you ready? (group inhales) And out.

(group exhales) This time, let's see if we can make our balloon even bigger by making sure we get lots of air into our lungs, keeping our shoulders down.

Are you ready? (group inhales) (group exhales) Let's try one more.

(group inhales) Oh no, I've let my balloon go.

(group hisses) (hands clap) Follow me.

(group vocalizing) Let's sing "Che Che Koolay" three times, each time with a different dynamic.

Don't forget to sing the response.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ (instructor singing in foreign language) (instructor continues singing in foreign language) <v ->Let's begin by rehearsing songs with different dynamics.

</v> Let's start by warming up, changing dynamics by playing "Five Fat Turkeys." Choose a cook.

Remember, as the cook moves around the room, if they come near to you, sing softly, and as they move away, sing louder again.

Here comes the music for "Five Fat Turkeys." (bright music) ♪ Five fat turkeys are we ♪ ♪ We slept all night in a tree ♪ ♪ When the cook came around, we couldn't be found ♪ ♪ And that's why we're here, you see ♪ ♪ Five fat turkeys are we ♪ ♪ We slept all night in a tree ♪ ♪ When the cook came around, we couldn't be found ♪ ♪ And that's why we're here, you see ♪ <v ->When we rehearse,</v> we want to stand or sit as if we're ready to perform to an audience.

We want our shoulders to feel relaxed and our feet slightly apart.

Our hands are going to be by our sides and it's great if you can have a smile on your face too.

And you need to make sure that you can see the conductor so that you can follow all of their gestures.

Choosing a conductor to lead each song means we can all sing using the same dynamics.

And remember that when we change dynamics in a song, we can make it sound more interesting.

It's time to set yourselves up ready for singing with a conductor.

Remember to go through the checklist.

Are your feet slightly apart, with your hands by your sides, and is there a smile on your face? Check where the conductor will stand and make sure that everybody's able to see them.

And imagine you're about to sing for an audience.

Will they be able to see and hear you? Press pause to set yourselves up ready to sing with a conductor at the front.

Now it's time for your conductor to lead "Crooked Castle." They'll show you the soft singing gesture to help us make our singing sound spooky and exciting.

And then they'll show you the louder singing gesture at the party bit to make it sound lively and not scary anymore.

Get yourselves ready and meet me back here and I'll play the music.

Here we go, it's time to sing "Crooked Castle" following your conductor.

Here's the music.

(gentle music) ♪ Midnight at the eerie castle ♪ ♪ Whispers start to creep ♪ ♪ Can you hear those crooked creatures ♪ ♪ Stirring in their sleep ♪ ♪ Open up the doorway wide ♪ ♪ What's that going on inside ♪ ♪ Every ghost and every beast ♪ ♪ Phantom friends are having a feast ♪ ♪ Every ghoul, one and all ♪ ♪ Phantom friends are having a ball ♪ ♪ Midnight at the eerie castle ♪ ♪ Whispers start to creep ♪ ♪ Can you hear those crooked creatures ♪ ♪ Stirring in their sleep ♪ ♪ Open up the doorway wide ♪ ♪ What's that going on inside ♪ ♪ Every ghost and every beast ♪ ♪ Phantom friends are having a feast ♪ ♪ Every ghoul, one and all ♪ ♪ Phantom friends are having a ball ♪ (music ends) <v ->It's time for a check-in with our learning so far.

</v> True or false? We only sing quietly when we want the audience to feel calm and relaxed.

Is that the only time we would sing quietly? Press pause to decide if that's true or false.

What do you think? Here comes the answer.

Well done if you spotted that that's false.

We can sing quietly for other reasons.

For example, to make a song feel spooky, exciting, or if we want the louder bit of a song to stand out more.

It's time to rehearse two of our other songs from this unit, "Heno Heno" and "Get Your Body Moving." Remember, we're going to sing "Heno Heno" softly all the way through because it's a lullaby.

We're going to choose a conductor to lead "Get Your Body Moving" and watch that conductor who will give clear gestures for getting louder and quieter, and remember to smile.

Let's take a look at the slides that we're going to need for you to complete this challenge.

First up, let's sing "Heno Heno." We're going to sing the whole song softly and imagine we're gently rocking a baby to sleep.

Here comes the music, shh.

(gentle music) (singer singing in foreign language) (singer singing in foreign language) (singer singing in foreign language) (music ends) <v ->Now it's time for "Get Your Body Moving."</v> Remember to include your actions too.

You need a conductor to lead this one, and they're going to show you when to sing quietly and when to sing in your stronger or louder singing voice.

Here comes the music for "Get Your Body Moving." Remember to watch the conductor.

(bright music) ♪ Step, step, clap and raise your hands ♪ ♪ Stamp your feet and turn around ♪ ♪ Side to side and up and down ♪ ♪ Get your body moving ♪ ♪ Step, step, clap and raise your hands ♪ ♪ Stamp your feet and turn around ♪ ♪ Side to side and up and down ♪ ♪ With this happy song ♪ ♪ When the day is done and the night is young ♪ ♪ And the stars are shining brightly ♪ ♪ When the morning comes and you want some fun ♪ ♪ It's time to sing this song ♪ ♪ Step, step, clap and raise your hands ♪ ♪ Stamp your feet and turn around ♪ ♪ Side to side and up and down ♪ ♪ Move your body now ♪ ♪ Step, step, clap and raise your hands ♪ ♪ Stamp your feet and turn around ♪ ♪ Side to side and up and down ♪ ♪ Get your body moving ♪ ♪ Step, step, clap and raise your hands ♪ ♪ Stamp your feet and turn around ♪ ♪ Side to side and up and down ♪ ♪ With this happy song ♪ ♪ When the day is done and the night is young ♪ ♪ And the stars are shining brightly ♪ ♪ When the morning comes and you want some fun ♪ ♪ It's time to sing this song ♪ ♪ Step, step, clap and raise your hands ♪ ♪ Stamp your feet and turn around ♪ ♪ Side to side and up and down ♪ ♪ Move your body now ♪ (music ends) <v ->Hi, everyone.

How did your singing go?</v> Andeep says, "We faced the same way, which made us look neat and ready to perform." Well done if you did that too where you are.

Aisha says, "We followed the conductor's gestures and changed dynamics all together." Great work.

And Jun says, "We sang 'Heno Heno' softly all the way through, and it made us feel very calm." Sam says, "Changing dynamics brought the songs to life." Now let's learn about performing songs with different dynamics.

Performing is sharing our work with others.

We want the people listening to enjoy our singing and we want to feel proud of our performance.

Changing dynamics keeps our songs interesting and helps us to tell the story to the audience.

How we stand or present ourselves is important when we perform because it supports our breathing and our singing.

To do that, begin with your hands by your sides, your feet slightly apart and your shoulders relaxed.

Try this together.

Put your feet slightly apart, lift up your shoulders, and then let them relax.

Remember to smile too.

Press pause to practice standing correctly and ready to sing.

Breathing well is really important too.

Deep breathing can help us to feel calm and will give us plenty of air to support our singing.

Make sure that when you're breathing deeply, your shoulders don't creep up to tickle your ears.

Keep them nice, relaxed, and low.

Let's practice that by copying these breathing exercises.

Make sure that your shoulders stay relaxed and that they're not rising.

Here comes the video.

Join in with the breathing exercises.

<v ->Join in with these breathing exercises, copy me.

</v> (instructor blowing) (instructor vocalizing) <v ->So this is the order we're going to sing our songs in.

</v> We'll start with "Crooked Castle," then we'll move on to "Heno Heno," and finally, we'll sing "Get Your Body Moving." But first, let's have one final quick check-in with our learning to make sure we all know what to do.

Which is the only song we don't use a conductor to change dynamics? Do you think it's A, "Crooked Castle"; B, "Heno Heno"; or C, "Get Your Body Moving"? Which one of these do we not use a conductor in to change dynamics? Press pause to choose your answer together.

Did you work it out? It's B, well done, it's "Heno Heno." We sing this song very softly all the way through because it's a lullaby.

Our dynamics don't change.

It's the moment we've all been waiting for.

It's time to perform our three songs following the conductors and changing dynamics together.

We're going to start with "Crooked Castle," then we'll sing "Heno Heno," and finally, we'll sing "Get Your Body Moving" with our actions.

You might decide to film this or perform it to a different year group to capture your performance that way.

Press pause to perform each of the three songs.

You could use the piano backing tracks to help you with this or use the audio tracks with the singing.

It's up to you.

Have fun performing and I'll see you on the other side.

Hello again.

If you chose to record your performance, it's a really good idea and great fun to watch the recording back and consider these questions.

Or you might like to ask the audience, if they watched you perform, the questions below.

Press pause to think about these important questions together, or to ask them of your audience.

We've reached the end of our lesson together today and this unit together.

I've had such a lot of fun.

Before we go, let's take a final moment to think about everything we've been learning.

We know that rehearsing helps us remember when to change dynamics, and we know that watching the conductor helps us all keep together and sing with the same dynamics.

We know that we warm up before we perform, so our minds and our voices are ready, and we know that we can share the feeling of a song by how we sing it.

Great work, singers.

I can't wait to see you again sometime soon for another music lesson.

Bye-bye, everyone.