The importance and power of songs from the past
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can understand how music can connect us emotionally to others and to the past.
Key learning points
- Singing songs about the past can help us connect emotionally with others and keep cultural traditions alive.
- Composers manipulate the elements of music such as timbre and texture, to achieve particular effects.
- We can add different layers of music to our piece to create different textures.
Keywords
Partition - to divide into parts
Score - original music composed specifically to accompany a film
Indigenous - the original inhabitants of a place
Timbre - the description of the sound or tone of an instrument
Texture - the combination of different layers of sounds
Common misconception
Music and songs written a long time ago aren’t relevant to us now.
Music and songs from the past can help us to connect with, and better understand many people, both at home and abroad.
Teacher tip
Encourage the pupils to improvise different notes over the backing track to create their texture. They could do this in different group sizes or on their own. Encourage them to experiment with dissonant as well as consonant harmonies.
Equipment
Tuned instruments with the notes DEFGA.
Content guidance
Depiction or discussion of discriminatory behaviour
Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
4 Questions
Q1.Which musical element describes the sound or tone of an instrument?
Q2.What does texture in music mean?
Q3.Which musical element describes the volume of the music?
Q4.A long held note throughout a piece of music is called a
Assessment exit quiz
4 Questions
Q1.Why doesn’t music always have to sound “nice”?
Q2.Why might group singing be more powerful than singing alone?
Q3.What is a film score?
Q4.When music gradually gets louder, we call it a ...
To help you plan your 6 music lesson on: The importance and power of songs from the past, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 6 music lesson on: The importance and power of songs from the past, 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 together: music that comments on social change unit, dive into the full primary music curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.