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- Year 10
- OCR
Understanding Greek folk music
I can identify key instruments in Greek folk music and perform the basic 7/8 rhythms of ‘Thalassaki Mou’.
Copyrighted materials: to view and download resources from this lesson, you’ll need to be in the UK and
- Year 10
- OCR
Understanding Greek folk music
I can identify key instruments in Greek folk music and perform the basic 7/8 rhythms of ‘Thalassaki Mou’.
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
- Greek folk music includes both folk songs and music for dance.
- It uses a mix of common Western instruments and traditional Greek instruments, including the bouzouki and defi.
- Much Greek folk music uses irregular time signatures such as 5/8 and 7/8.
- Kalamatianó is a type of Greek folk dance which is based in 7/8.
- Usually 7/8 is counted as a 3-2-2. 5/8 is counted as 3-2.
Keywords
Bouzouki - a traditional Greek stringed instrument
Defi - a type of tambourine, a small hand drum with bangles
Irregular time signature - a time signature in which the number of beats cannot be divided by two or three (e.g. 5, 7, 11)
Kalamatianó - a type of Greek folk dance which is based in 7/8 metre
Common misconception
Music for dance must have a regular pulse (in 2, 3 or 4).
While most Western dance music has a regular time signature, in other parts of the world it is common to dance to music with irregular time signatures, such as 5/8 and 7/8.
To help you plan your year 10 music lesson on: Understanding Greek folk music, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 10 music lesson on: Understanding Greek folk music, 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 Eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern music unit, dive into the full secondary music curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
DAW and/or class percussion instruments.
Licence
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