- Year 10
- Edexcel
Fundamentals of rock
I can describe the key features of rock and can create and develop a riff.
Copyrighted materials: to view and download resources from this lesson, you’ll need to be in the UK and
- Year 10
- Edexcel
Fundamentals of rock
I can describe the key features of rock and can create and develop a riff.
Copyrighted materials: to view and download resources from this lesson, you’ll need to be in the UK and
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Lesson details
Key learning points
- 1960s rock built on the foundations of rock 'n' roll and blues.
- British bands were key to the growth of 1960s rock, including The Beatles and Rolling Stones.
- Key features include riffs and instrumentation featuring distorted electric guitars, vocals, bass guitar and drum kit.
- Riffs and melodies are often based around the blues scale and played in a unison texture.
- We can extend riffs by using transposition.
Keywords
Rock - Rock is a broad category of music that developed since the 1960s.
Riff - A riff is a short recurring or repeated musical idea that forms the basis of a pop or rock song.
Unison - When in unison, instruments play the same rhythm and pitches together (this can be in different octaves).
Transposition - Transposition is a group of notes up or down in pitch so the intervals between the notes are the same but the pitch is different.
Common misconception
Unison and homophonic textures are the same thing and unison parts have to be played in the same octave.
In a unison texture, both the pitch and rhythm of the part must be the same. In a homophonic texture, only the rhythm needs to be the same - the parts can play different notes or chords. Parts played in octaves are also classed as a unison texture.
To help you plan your year 10 music lesson on: Fundamentals of rock, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 10 music lesson on: Fundamentals of rock, 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.
Explore more key stage 4 music lessons from the Developing understanding of pop music: rock, blues and rock 'n' roll unit, dive into the full secondary music curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Files needed for this lesson
- Rock riff template 6.66 MB (ZIP)
- 10POP2L3 85 BPM rock drum kit backing track 1.09 MB (MP3)
Download these files to use in the lesson.
Equipment
DAW and MIDI keyboards
Licence
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