Lesson video

Hello musicians.

It's me again, Mrs. Steele, and in our lesson today we'll be learning about how singing can affect an audience.

But before we begin, there are some listening examples that you'll need today that don't feature in this video, so if you haven't already done so, now's the time to take a moment to find them now.

There's a teacher guidance slide at the beginning of the slide deck to help you with this.

Press pause to find them now.

Great stuff.

Now that we're ready, let's get started together, and learn about how singing can affect an audience.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to perform songs with a clear sense of purpose and conviction to make an audience feel the emotions of a song.

Here are our keywords for today.

Live performance, a work that is presented to an audience in real time, and audience, a group of people gathered to listen to and watch a performance.

Let's start by exploring the impact of live music on an audience.

A live performance is often more powerful than recorded music.

The experience of a live show is often much more immersive for the audience than just listening to a recording.

I wonder if you've ever experienced any live music.

When experiencing live music, we're more attentive, and our emotions are impacted far more when we're in a crowd, listening to live musicians.

This is partly because there's interaction between the musicians and the audience as well as between the audience members themselves.

Think about the times when you've been in an audience, experiencing a live performance.

This might have been at school, at a concert, or at another event.

Press pause to share your experiences of live music.

A live performance creates shared experiences, unity, and connection.

That's one of the reasons it's so powerful.

This is called social bonding.

Attending live performances can give us an overwhelming sense of wellbeing and belonging, and that's because of the endorphins being released in our brain when we sing in unison.

Live performances are exciting and interesting because the performers often make changes to how their music sounds on the recording.

They might improvise, they might make changes to the dynamics, and they may make changes to the tempo too, and they might make changes to the structure of a song.

For example, repeating phrases for a chorus or to include audience participation.

Here's the discussion point for you to check in with our learning.

Discuss the possible impact of the following in a live performance, changing the instrumentation and timbre, for example, playing a quieter or more gentle acoustic version of a song, maybe using guitar and voice only, adding in a repetitive phrase for audience participation, or adding in an improvised section.

Press pause to discuss the possible impact of these three things during a live performance.

Now it's time to find our listening examples.

Listen to or watch these two performances.

As you do, decide what you think the audience might feel listening to and joining in each song at a live event.

Our first example is Coldplay with their song "Fix You" performed live, and the second is Tina Turner performing her song, "Simply the Best" live.

I've got some sentence stems to support your discussion too.

Here they are.

Press pause to find and listen to or watch those listening examples and share how you think an audience might feel listening to or joining in with them.

Now let's learn about preparing for a performance.

It's our turn now.

We're going to perform for a live audience.

We want to perform to our best so that the audience feels the emotional impact we want them to have, and we want the music to unite us in our performance.

We know that when we sing together, we release endorphins, the mood boosting chemicals in our brain, and audiences sharing in our performance release those too.

And we know that we can tell stories, create a mood, and create a sense of community when we sing.

When we prepare for a performance, we can consider the impact we want it to have on an audience.

Audiences want to be engaged in our performance, so we need to think about how to perform and what effect we'd like that to have on our audience.

Sofia wants the audience to feel completely involved, and Andeep wants the audience to follow the story in the song.

It's time to select the songs that you're going to perform.

Consider your set list carefully.

Which song will you sing first and why? And which song will you sing last and why? Press pause to create your set list now.

Now that you've got your set list, let's keep going preparing for our performance.

Audiences can be part of a performance.

They can be invited to sing key phrases, a response, or a whole chorus, and they can be taught a melodic ostinato to sing throughout.

And they might be invited to clap along at key moments.

Let's consider some of the reasons the audience involvement is particularly powerful.

It supports social bonding and creates a sense of wellbeing.

It unites everyone around us and it's possible that it provides an icebreaker too.

It releases those endorphins, the feelgood chemicals in our brain, and it can create a new community, too.

It's time to rehearse your performance with your conductor.

For this live performance, consider, do you want to make some changes that might have an impact on your audience? For example, perhaps you could add a solo or perhaps you'll choose a chorus for your audience to sing with you, or decide when they might be able to clap along with you.

Press pause to start rehearsing with your conductor.

It's time now to make your final decisions and create a live performance for an audience.

Choose a selection of songs either from this unit, your class playlist, or a school playlist.

Choose songs that you love to sing, that you want to share with an audience.

Decide if you're going to make any changes to these for your live performance.

For example, changing dynamics, changing who will sing each part, or changing the tempo.

Remember to choose a conductor to guide the performance, and as you sing, check that your feet are slightly apart, your hands are loosely by your sides, and that you're standing like a singer with correct posture.

And sing your song to convey the meaning and emotion to the audience.

After you've performed, remember to take some feedback from your audience.

You could ask them, "How did the live performance make you feel?" "Was there a particular song that made you feel connected, involved, or gave you an overall sense of wellbeing?" And "Was the live performance impactful and why?" You might decide on some other questions that you wish to ask to get really meaningful feedback.

It's time to press pause and create your live performance for an audience.

Good luck.

Hi everyone.

I hope your performance went well and you're feeling really proud of yourselves.

We've reached the end of this lesson and in fact this unit, but before we go, let's take a moment to think about everything we've been learning.

We know that live performances engage an audience and connect with their emotions more readily than recorded music.

We know that when we perform, we want to know how we'd like to impact the audience, and what feelings and emotions we want to share with them.

We know that we can make changes to a live performance to have a great impact on our audience, and we know that live performances can help audiences feel a sense of wellbeing and belonging.

Thanks so much everyone for joining in with this unit with me.

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

Bye!.