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Lesson 4 of 6
  • Year 9

Scoring a silent movie

I can combine different elements to create a live musical accompaniment for a silent film.

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View unit
Lesson 4 of 6
New
New
  • Year 9

Scoring a silent movie

I can combine different elements to create a live musical accompaniment for a silent film.

Download all

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

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These resources were created for remote use during the pandemic and are not designed for classroom teaching.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Music in silent movies has to transition seamlessly between different scenes and moods.
  2. Many performers played popular songs and used musical clichés in their musical performances.
  3. One famous example is the ‘misterioso’ musical cliché.
  4. To transition between scenes, performers often played a vamp, a repeated pattern based on chords.
  5. Composing music using a D minor vamp.

Keywords

  • Musical cliché - a musical idea that is well-known and used often

  • Vamp - a repeated musical pattern, often based on chords

  • D minor - a set of notes starting on D which includes Bb as the flattened sixth

Common misconception

When a piano player plays music with a silent movie it is always completely improvised.

While they improvise many aspects, they often use specific musical ideas to create specific effects. This includes vamps, certain chords (e.g. diminished 7th for tension) and musical clichés like the misterioso that create certain effects.


To help you plan your year 9 music lesson on: Scoring a silent movie, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

To extend learning, challenge pupils to play along with famous scenes. Charlie Chaplin's 'Lion's Cage' scene is ideal - pupils can use the tools they have developed - mickey-mousing, different moods and chords - to improvise along with the scene in the manner of traditional silent movie musicians.
Teacher tip

Equipment

Keyboards/pianos/MIDI keyboards

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Prior knowledge starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Which technique involves synchronising notes with the movement of characters on-screen?

Correct Answer: mickey-mousing, mickey mousing

Q2.
Which of these is not an example of mickey-mousing?

notes playing in time with footsteps
a chord playing every time a character falls over
Correct answer: a minor melody playing in an emotional scene
a descending scale playing when a character hops down some stairs

Q3.
What type of chord is particularly effective for creating dramatic moments?

major chord
minor chord
major seventh chord
Correct answer: diminished seventh chord
pwoer chord

Q4.
Which two statements are true about the notes in a diminished seventh chord?

Correct answer: the pitches are evenly spaced
Correct answer: the chord can be based on any note
the notes are two semitones apart
it uses the notes of a minor chord, with one note added

Q5.
Adding __________ notes into a scale can be very effective to create suspense.

high-pitched
Correct answer: chromatic
loud
brassy

Q6.
Why were silent movies silent?

Suitable instruments hadn't been invented yet.
The directors of the films preferred not to use sound.
Correct answer: The technology to record sound didn't yet exist.
It was cheaper not to use sound.

Assessment exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
What is a musical cliché?

Correct answer: a musical idea that is well-known and used often
a musical idea that is original
a musical idea that is repeated throughout a piece
a musical idea that represents a character

Q2.
What do we call a repeating musical pattern, often used to transition between scenes?

champ
Correct answer: vamp
lamp
ramp
stamp

Q3.
Which of these can easily be changed when playing a vamp? (Choose all that apply)

Correct answer: tempo
Correct answer: key
Correct answer: dynamics
instrumentation
timbre

Q4.
A __________ seventh chord is a four-note chord typically used at dramatic moments.

Correct Answer: diminished

Q5.
You would expect music in a chase scene to have a _________ tempo.

moderate
Correct answer: fast
slow
changing

Q6.
When was the end of the silent movie era?

1900s
Correct answer: 1920s
1940s
1960s