Myths about teaching can hold you back
- Year 5
Identifying major and minor tonalities
I can sing and identify songs in the major or minor key.
- Year 5
Identifying major and minor tonalities
I can sing and identify songs in the major or minor key.
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Lesson details
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.
- Minor tonalities are organised around the note 'la' and are often dark sounding.
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 - the major scale is organised around the note do and can feel bright
Minor - the minor scale is organised around the note la and can feel dark
Common misconception
Songs with a minor tonality are always sad.
Tonality is one of the elements that gives a melody its character. While minor tonalites often feel dark, it is the combination of how all the elements of music are used that will make a song sound sad.
To help you plan your year 5 music lesson on: Identifying major and minor tonalities, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 5 music lesson on: Identifying major and minor tonalities, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
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The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 2 music lessons from the Compose and Create: composing a minor melody on a stave unit, dive into the full primary music curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
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