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Singing with character and feeling

Lesson details

Learning outcome

I can respond to and sing songs that have different feelings or moods.

Key learning points

  1. Music can make us feel different emotions and we can show this in our singing.
  2. We can change the character and feeling of our voice to create different moods in a song.
  3. We can use our faces and bodies to emhpasise the mood or character of a song when singing.

Keywords

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

  • Actions - movements and facial expressions to do while singing a song

Common misconception

Singing in a loud or cross tone involves shouting.

You can sing loudly and sound cross without shouting. Think of singing strongly, rather than loud to help you to do this.

Teacher tip

Have plenty of space for pupils to move around during the lesson, encouraging big, exaggerated movements and facial expressions.

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

4 Questions

Q1.
What are the lyrics of a song?

Correct Answer: words, Words

Q2.
How might we sing a song about being tired?

Fast and loud.
Correct answer: Slow and quiet.
Slow and loud.
Fast and quiet.

Q3.
What do we call the sequence of exercises we do at the start of music lessons to prepare singing and playing?

Correct Answer: Warm up, warm up

Q4.
Match these different voices to their description.

Correct Answer:speaking voice,the voice we use when we talk to each other

the voice we use when we talk to each other

Correct Answer:chanting,speaking in time to a pulse

speaking in time to a pulse

Correct Answer:singing voice,the voice we use to create musical sounds

the voice we use to create musical sounds

4 Questions

Q1.
What are actions in music?

the sequence of exercises we do in the warm up
Correct answer: movements and facial expressions to do when singing a song
a way of writing the music down

Q2.
How might you sing a lullaby?

Correct answer: quietly
loudly
fast

Q3.
True or false? We can change our voice to help us tell the story of a song.

Correct Answer: True, true

Q4.
True or false? When we want to sing loudly, we should use our shouting voice.

Correct Answer: False, false

To help you plan your 1 music lesson on: Singing with character and feeling, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...