Controlling our voice to convey the feeling of a song
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can identify the musical choices a composer has made and control my singing voice to convey the intended mood.
Key learning points
- Composers carefully use dynamics, texture, and articulation to create the mood and feeling of a piece of music.
- Quiet, legato playing and singing can give music a sense of peace and calm.
- We can control our breathing so that we have enough air for singing long sustained lines of a song.
- We can look at the melodic shape and the phrasing of written music to help us to sing a legato melody.
Keywords
Dynamics - how loud or quiet the music is
Legato - performing in a smooth way
Melodic shape - the up and down movement of pitches in music
Articulation - how individual notes or groups of notes should be played or sung
Common misconception
If we don't read music fluently, there's no point in looking at the written music of a song. We should just use the lyrics.
We can build on our understanding of pitch by identifying 'melodic shapes' or 'melodic contours' in the music. We can also find clues in the music to help us know how to sing each part of the song.
Teacher tip
This lesson needs an amount of space for pupils to explore the music using their bodies. This part of the lesson helps explain the story as well as give a physical representation of what the music is doing.
Licence
Lesson video
Loading...
Prior knowledge starter quiz
4 Questions
Q1. is the musical term for how loud or quiet the music is.
Q2.A combination of notes to make a memorable tune is called a ...
Q3.What is a phrase in music?
Q4.Match these words to their definitions.
Assessment exit quiz
4 Questions
Q1.Articulation means ...
Q2.The up and down movement of pitches in music is called the shape.
Q3.True or false? If we can't read the music, we should just follow the words.
Q4.What does legato mean in music?
To help you plan your 6 music lesson on: Controlling our voice to convey the feeling of a song, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 6 music lesson on: Controlling our voice to convey the feeling of a song, 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. 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 Singing for performance: conveying emotion and character through performance unit, dive into the full primary music curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.