Describing the timbre of instruments
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Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can describe the timbre of instruments and understand that an instrument’s materials affect its timbre.
Key learning points
- We warm up before playing so that we can focus our mind and bodies and be ready to play.
- Composers can choose instruments because their timbre helps to tell a story or to represent something, like an animal.
- An instrument’s materials affect the unique sounds it makes.
- We can listen to instruments and identify them by their timbre.
- Timbre is the unique tone an instrument can make.
Keywords
Warm up - a sequence of exercises used to prepare the mind and body for playing instruments
Composer - a person who creates music
Timbre - a description of the sound or tone of an instrument
Material - what an object is made from
Percussion - an instrument played by striking, scraping or shaking
Common misconception
Timbre alone creates a musical story.
All the musical elements need to work together to create a musical story. A glockenspiel can be many things depending on how it is played - not just a polar bear.
Teacher tip
Picture book stories, fact books and video footage about these four animals will help to bring this unit to life and provide pupils with a scaffold on which to hang their future composition ideas.
Equipment
A variety of classroom percussion with boxes and labels to sort these. A box with a lid that can fit multiple instruments inside.
Licence
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