Lesson video

Hello everyone! My name is Mrs. Steele and I'm so excited that we're going to be learning together today.

Today we're going to be learning all about strong and soft singing.

And we're going to have so much fun together.

Let's get started.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to control your loud singing voice and your soft singing voice.

Here are the key words that we'll need in our learning today.

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

Singing, creating musical sounds with our voice that can be a mixture of high sounds and low sounds.

And song, music with words.

Let's start by warming up so that we are ready to make music together.

It's important to warm up our voices and our bodies before every music lesson.

We need to make sure that all of our muscles and even the teeny tiny little ones in our throat are ready to move and ready to sing.

This helps to keep our voices strong and healthy.

Let's start by warming up our bodies.

When we warm up our body, it helps us to connect how we stand to our breathing and to our voice.

Join in with these whole body warm ups.

Here comes 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.

1, 2, 3, 4.

Gosh, you're all super tall.

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

Relax your knees and go blu-blu-blu-blu-blu-blu-blu! <v In unison>Blu-blu-blu-blu-blu-blu-blu!</v> Very good.

Let's do that one more time.

Stretch up, onto your tiptoes, hold onto the monkey bar, lowering our heels to a count of four.

Go in 1, 2, 3, 4.

Gosh, you're so tall now.

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

Relax your knees and blu-blu-blu-blu-blu-blu-blu! <v In unison>Blu-blu-blu-blu-blu-blu-blu!</v> Very good.

Now let's take up as much space as we can.

Make a really, really big space, huge shapes, and we are going to shrink down into a teety-tiny shape.

Tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, like a little seed.

And we are now going to grow back to a big shape when you're ready, 1, 2, 3, go.

Grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow and relax.

Feet slightly apart, arms by our side.

<v ->Next, let's do some breathing warmup exercises</v> to connect our body, breathing and voice.

Breathing exercises help our lungs fill up with air, which helps support our singing.

Join in with these breathing exercises where you are.

Here they come.

Let's learn how to breathe like a singer.

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 Student>Blue.

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

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

Are you ready? (inhaling deeply) And out.

(exhaling deeply) 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? (inhaling deeply) (exhaling deeply) Let's try one more.

(inhaling deeply) Oh no! I have let my balloon go.

(everybody imitating sound of deflating balloon) <v ->Now we are ready to do some vocal exercises.

</v> When we do vocal exercises, we warm up our voice, which helps us prevent it from getting hurt.

Join in with these vocal warmups.

Follow me.

<v In unison>Um-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm!</v> Zz-zz-zz-zz! Aa-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa! <v ->Now it's time for my favorite, a tongue twister.

</v> Tongue twisters help us to chant and sing more clearly, and they also help us learn to control our breathing.

Have a go at this tricky tongue twister.

Listen carefully, then you try.

Repeat after me.

If a dog chews shoes, whose shoes does he choose? When we're warmed up and ready to sing, our body feels tall and relaxed, our chest feels open, our mind is ready to concentrate, and our voice and mouth feel warm and ready.

It's time for a check-in with our learning all about warming up.

Who do you agree with? Laura says, "I should sing as loudly as I can because that will make sure my voice is warmed up quickly." And Lucas says, "We warm up our voices gently because we don't want to hurt the tiny muscles in our throat." Press pause to decide.

Do you agree with Laura or Lucas? Hello again.

Who did you agree with? Well done if you agreed with Lucas.

We warm up our voices gently because we don't want to hurt the tiny muscles in our throat.

We want to make sure that we can sing safely.

Well done, if you agree with Lucas too.

Join in with this warmup song.

It's called "Che Che Kule" and it comes from Ghana.

Watch this video of me performing "Che Che Kule" and join in with the echoes.

Here I come.

Let's sing "Che Che Kule" three times, each time with a different dynamic.

Don't forget to sing the response.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go.

♪ (Mrs. Steele singing in foreign language) Are you warmed up and ready to sing? Remember, you are warmed up when your body is tall, yet relaxed with your feet slightly apart, your face and neck are relaxed too, and your chest feels open and you can take deep breaths.

Your voice feels warm.

Your lips and mouth have had a chance to move like in those tricky tongue twisters and your mind feels ready to concentrate.

Now that we're all warmed up, let's make some music together.

We are going to start by changing our singing dynamics.

Dynamics is the word we use to describe how quiet or loud the music or singing is.

We can sing softly or we can sing loudly.

We can get louder and quieter when we sing and play music.

Changing dynamics can help us to express the feeling of the song or music.

This grizzly bear is going to have a sleep, which is good news because he fierce.

If we sing loudly, we'll wake him up, but if we sing softly, he'll stay asleep.

Listen to the song carefully.

Do you think we'll wake him up? Shh! Listen to the music.

(lively upbeat music) ♪ Grizzly bear, a grizzly bear is sleeping in a cave.

♪ ♪ Grizzly bear, a grizzly bear is sleeping in a cave ♪ ♪ Please be very quiet, very very quiet ♪ ♪ If you wake him, if you shake him, he'll be very mad ♪ <v ->Now it's your turn to sing the song through.

</v> Remember to sing with a dynamic that won't wake up the bear.

Here comes the music.

Join in.

Shh! Don't wake him up.

(lively upbeat music) ♪ Grizzly bear, a grizzly bear is sleeping in a cave ♪ ♪ Grizzly bear, a grizzly bear is sleeping in a cave ♪ ♪ Please be very quiet, very very quiet ♪ ♪ If you wake him, if you shake him, he'll be very mad ♪ <v ->It's time for another check-in.

</v> Who do you agree with Lucas or Sophia? Lucas says, "I don't think singing loudly will disturb the bear because it's a nice song." And Sophia says, "I think singing softly is best because that's how we sing lullabies so it won't wake the bear." Who do you think is right this time? Press pause To decide.

You could point at the person that you agree with.

Who did you agree with? I agree with Sophia this time.

Well done if you did too.

Singing softly is best here.

Lullabies are always sung softly, so we won't wake up the bear.

We can turn our song grizzly bear into a fun circle game.

Sit in a circle and choose someone to be the bear.

Sing the song with grizzly asleep in the middle.

If the grizzly bear wakes up, they then choose a new child and it's their turn to be the bear.

Press pause to organize yourselves into a circle with someone in the middle to be the first bear.

Then meet me back here and I'll play the music for you to sing along.

Are you ready? Here comes the music.

(lively upbeat music) Well, we've had a grizzly bear and now we've got five singing turkeys.

They're singing loudly and boastfully.

I think that's how turkeys always sing.

Listen to the track.

What do you think might happen? Your singing is on.

(lively upbeat 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 ♪ (lively upbeat 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 ♪ Now, let's sing the song.

Here's the music again.

Join in with your singing voices.

(lively upbeat 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 ♪ (lively upbeat 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 ♪ <v ->It's time for a check-in again.

</v> Who do you agree with this time, Alex or Aisha? Alex says, "Singing loudly should still feel like safe singing, and we still want to sing in tune when we are louder." And Aisha says, "Singing loudly means we can start using our shouting voices." Who do you agree with this time? Press pause to point at the Oak friend that you agree with.

Who are you pointing at? Is it Alex? If it is, you're right, well done! Singing loudly should still feel like safe singing.

We want to sing in tune when we are louder.

We don't use our shouting voices.

Well done if you got that right.

We can turn the "Five Turkeys" song into a game.

To play, you need to choose a cook.

The cook should be at one end of the class and is allowed to walk all around the room as everyone sings.

Then we're going to sing the "Five Turkeys" song.

As the cook's walking, if the cook comes near, sing softly, and when the cook goes away, we can return to singing stronger.

You are changing your dynamics to try not to get caught by the cook.

Here's the music.

We're going to sing "Five Fat Turkeys" five times.

Remember, if the cook comes near you, sing softly.

Shh! (lively upbeat music) How did it go? Some of our Oak friends enjoyed playing that game.

June says, "We sang loudly, but we quickly changed to soft singing when the cook came near." Sam says, "When we sang loudly, it felt energetic and fun." And Andeep says, "Quiet singing felt much calmer than our loud singing." I wonder if you spotted those things too.

It's the end of our music lesson today, and I've had so much fun doing some strong and soft singing with you.

But before we go, let's take a minute to think about everything we've been learning together.

We know that warming up our voice helps us to sing safely, and we know that singing loudly doesn't mean shouting.

We know that we can use different dynamics when we sing and that different songs can suit different dynamics.

What great musical learning today, everyone, and I'm already excited to see you soon for another music lesson.

Bye-bye!.