Major tonalities
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Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can identify a major melody and describe its character.
Key learning points
- It is essential to warm up the voice before singing to keep it strong and healthy and to prevent injury.
- Many songs have a tonal centre, or tonality. Often, this can be described as major or minor.
- Major tonalities are organised around the note 'do' and are often bright sounding.
- When describing the character of a melody, I could mention the tonality, its melodic shape and other musical elements.
Keywords
Warm up - a sequence of exercises used to prepare the mind, body and voice for singing / playing instruments
Tonality - the organisation of notes around a central note, the tonic, which helps to shape the music’s sound and character
Major and minor - the major scale is organised around the note do and can feel bright; the minor scale is organised around the note la and can feel dark
Ascending and descending - a melody could ascend (go up) or descend (go down)
Common misconception
Songs with a major tonality are always happy.
Tonality is one of the elements that gives a melody it's character. While major tonalites often feel bright, it is the combination of how all the elements of music are used that will make a song sound happy.
Teacher tip
Displaying the elements of music is a great way of reminding students of the definitions of common musical terms. In this lesson melody (ascending and descending), tonality, dynamics and pitch are mentioned.
Licence
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