Myths about teaching can hold you back
- Year 10
- Edexcel
Creating a musical melody
I can explore creative processes to compose short melodies as starting points for free compositions.
- Year 10
- Edexcel
Creating a musical melody
I can explore creative processes to compose short melodies as starting points for free compositions.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.
These resources were created for remote use during the pandemic and are not designed for classroom teaching.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- Good melodies use some repetition and have a distinctive shape and can use conjunct and disjunct intervals.
- Melodies all have rhythm. There are a variety of rhythmic choices that can be used to reflect the character of a melody.
- A melody can be expressive with appropriate tempo, dynamics and articulation.
Keywords
Disjunct - Movement by leaps in a melodic line is disjunct.
Conjunct - Conjunct describes movement by steps in a melodic line eg. tones and semitones.
Interval - An interval is the distance between two notes.
Articulation - Articulation is how the note is played eg. legato, staccato or accented.
Common misconception
Using disjunct intervals in a melody means the notes can be placed anywhere.
Disjunct intervals need a sense of order to the music and should be used in some sort of pattern in the same way that conjunct intervals should.
To help you plan your year 10 music lesson on: Creating a musical melody, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 10 music lesson on: Creating a musical melody, 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 4 music lessons from the Free composition: Creative starting points unit, dive into the full secondary music curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
A keyboard (or other suitable instrument) or DAW/notation software
Licence
Lesson video
Loading...
Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What is a melody?
Q2.Which word means soft or quiet dynamics in music?
Q3.Match the note name to the note length.
4 beats
2 beats
1 beats
half a beat each
quarter of a beat each