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Lesson 5 of 6
Singing together as a school community
I understand how changing dynamics and using my voice in different ways can help capture the character of the music.
Lesson 5 of 6
New
New
Singing together as a school community
I understand how changing dynamics and using my voice in different ways can help capture the character of the music.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- Singing together as a school community can help everyone to feel a sense of belonging.
- To create an effective performance, it is important to think carefully about the character of a song.
- We can choose dynamics such as piano (soft) and forte (loud) to reflect the character of a song.
Keywords
Dynamics - how loud or quiet the music is
Piano - a musical direction to perform softly, at a quieter volume
Forte - a musical direction to perform strongly, at a louder volume
Crescendo - a gradual increase in loudness or intensity
Common misconception
Singing forte means singing (or shouting) as loudly as I can.
It is important when we are singing forte to use our singing, not our shouting, voices. To do this, think about singing 'strongly' not 'loudly.' Can you make your voice sound confident? Energetic? Powerful?
When you are looking for more volume, don’t ask children to sing “louder.” This can result in shouting and poor technique when singing. Ask for a strong sound or focus on a character word to describe the sound. E.g. “our voices need to sound bold, confident, full of energy, brave, powerful etc.”
Teacher tip
Equipment
Licence
This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2026), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
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4 Questions
Q1.What is body percussion?
What is body percussion?
making a musical sound with percussion instruments
using the voice to create high and low musical sounds
Q2.What is a folk song?
What is a folk song?
a repeating musical pattern that uses notes of differing pitch
creative, in-the-moment musical composition
Q3.What do we mean by character in music?
What do we mean by character in music?
the qualities of a person
a fictional person in a play
Q4.A is someone who uses their creative ideas to create new music.
A is someone who uses their creative ideas to create new music.
Assessment exit quiz
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4 Questions
Q1.Singing together can help us feel part of our school .
Singing together can help us feel part of our school .
Q2.Which words can we use to describe the dynamics of a song?
Which words can we use to describe the dynamics of a song?
fast
slow
thick
Q3.Crescendo means...
Crescendo means...
gradually getting slower
gradually getting faster
Q4.When we need to sing loudly, we can think about these words to help us:
When we need to sing loudly, we can think about these words to help us:
shouting
whispering