Myths about teaching can hold you back
- Year 10
- AQA
Using film music to establish mood
I can explain the purposes of film music and create a simple piece of music to establish an appropriate mood.
- Year 10
- AQA
Using film music to establish mood
I can explain the purposes of film music and create a simple piece of music to establish an appropriate mood.
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Lesson details
Key learning points
- Film music is used in a variety of ways to support the action on screen.
- These include establishing the mood, setting the scene and creating tension and excitement.
- Using leitmotif to represent particular characters or ideas is another effective technique.
- Composers use the musical elements to create appropriate atmospheres, including careful use of tonality.
- We have composed a short piece of film music using a repeated ostinato.
Keywords
Leitmotif - a recurring musical idea that represents a specific character, place or idea
Tonality - the key that the music is in, such as major or minor
Ostinato - a repeated pattern that forms the basis of a composition
Common misconception
Using chords from within a minor key creates a dark mood.
It's more complex than that - it is important to carefully choose which chords within the key you emphasise to create a dark mood. Emphasising chord i and other minor chords helps to make it feel dark and ominous, rather than any chords from the key.
To help you plan your year 10 music lesson on: Using film music to establish mood, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 10 music lesson on: Using film music to establish mood, 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 4 music lessons from the Introduction to film music unit, dive into the full secondary music curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
DAW, keyboard or other suitable instrument as a composition tool.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What is one of the main purposes of film music?
Q2.__________ tonality is generally felt to sound most positive.
Q3.The 19th-century genre that most influenced film music was .
Q4.Put these tempi in order from slowest to fastest.
Q5.Match the musical element to its description.
how sounds are organised in time
how loud or soft the music is
the unique quality of a sound
how sections are arranged