Myths about teaching can hold you back
- Year 6
Composing a further variation to a theme
I can make further changes to a theme to create a variation, changing the sound, mood and feel of the music.
Copyrighted materials: to view and download resources from this lesson, you’ll need to be in the UK and
- Year 6
Composing a further variation to a theme
I can make further changes to a theme to create a variation, changing the sound, mood and feel of the music.
Copyrighted materials: to view and download resources from this lesson, you’ll need to be in the UK and
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Lesson details
Key learning points
- Composers use the elements of music to vary the theme in lots of different ways.
- A composer might alter the pitch, rhythm, tonality, timbre, dynamics or tempo in a variation.
- Tonality is the organisation of notes around a central note, the tonic, which helps to shape the music’s sound.
- These changes affect the sound, mood and feel of the music in each variation.
Keywords
Timbre - a description of the sound or tone of an instrument
Tonality - the organisation of notes around a central note, the tonic, which helps to shape the music’s sound and character
2-time, 3-time - the organisation and feel of the beats, beginning with a strong beat
Tempo - how fast or slow the music is played
Dynamics - how loud or quiet the music is
Common misconception
Changing the tonality from major to minor will automatically make the music sound sad.
This is an oversimplification. All of the musical elements work together to create the character or mood of a piece of music.
To help you plan your year 6 music lesson on: Composing a further variation to a theme, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 6 music lesson on: Composing a further variation to a theme, 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.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
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.
Explore more key stage 2 music lessons from the Compose and Create: creating melodic variations based on a theme unit, dive into the full primary music curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
Class set of glockenspiels or other tuned instruments.
Licence
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