Myths about teaching can hold you back
- Year 9
Action in early movies
I can explain how music was used in early movies, and can create music for a typical chase scene in a silent movie.
- Year 9
Action in early movies
I can explain how music was used in early movies, and can create music for a typical chase scene in a silent movie.
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Lesson details
Key learning points
- The silent movie era was between the 1890s and 1920s.
- In this period, film music was performed live by a solo performer (often improvised) or a group.
- The performers tried to capture and exaggerate the mood of scenes.
- Chase scenes were common in silent movies.
- The music often used a fast tempo, fast rhythms and scalic runs to create a sense of excitement.
Keywords
Silent movie - a film that has no recorded sound, common between the 1890s and 1920s
Chase scene - a scene in which a character is chased
Scalic - a melody that uses segments of a scale
Common misconception
Music for films is always recorded and played through speakers.
Before technology existed to do this, film music was played live by performers in the room. It would often be a solo piano/organ player, who would improvise along with the film. Sometimes, ensembles such as orchestras would play music live instead.
To help you plan your year 9 music lesson on: Action in early movies, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 9 music lesson on: Action in early movies, 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 3 music lessons from the Film Music unit, dive into the full secondary music curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
File needed for this lesson
- Chase scene clip 7.78 MB (MP4)
Download this file to use in the lesson.
Equipment
DAW and MIDI keyboards, or live keyboards/pianos
Licence
Lesson video
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