Key Stage 3 Music - Folk Music

Lesson Objectives

• Learn how to use our listening skills.
• Learn how to listen for musical devices within a piece of music.
• Learn how to describe what we hear using the correct musical terms.

Starter

In groups, recap the features of Folk music that you can remember from previous lessons.

When listening to music, what can we listen for?

• Tempo (speed of the music)
• Timbre (the unique sound of each instrument)
• Instruments (strings, woodwind, percussion, brass, vocals)
• Melody (the main tune)
• Harmony (2 or more notes played/heard at the same time)
• Tonality (major, minor, dissonant, modal)
• Articulation (how the notes are played/sung - smooth or detached)
• Rhythm (a regular, repeated pattern)
• Dynamics (volume - quiet, loud)
• Pitch (high pitch, low pitch)
• Structure (the order of a piece of music, e.g. verse, chorus)
• Texture (layers in a piece of music - thick/thin, unison, melody and accompaniment)
• Harmony (Major/Minor)

In order to explain music properly, you must be able to use key vocabulary to help describe what you hear.

• An easy way to remember this is MADTSHIRT

M - Melody/pitch

A - Articulation

D - Dynamics

T - Texture

S - Structure

H - Harmony

I - Instrumentation

R - Rhythm

T - Tempo/Time signature

Performance Task

• 
  
—In your groups, choose 3 elements from the MADTSHIRT list.

—

You are then going to change this element in “Wild Rover” e.g. change the dynamics.

—You will perform your new version of “Wild Rover” to the class.  —We will then guess which 3 elements you have used to change the song.
• 
  

Use Your Initiative!

Are there still some key words that you are unsure about? There are loads of music theory websites online and video tutorials on YouTube that can help you with any key words you are stuck on. Complete some research and discuss it with your music teacher next lesson to demonstrate your understanding to gain a commendation.