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GM 2019

Term 3

Grade 6

Music Literacy

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GM 2019

Contents The Stave .............................................................................................................................. 3

The Treble clef ...................................................................................................................... 3

Note values ........................................................................................................................... 3

Tempo ................................................................................................................................... 4

Pitch ...................................................................................................................................... 4

Dynamics .............................................................................................................................. 4

Canon ................................................................................................................................... 4

String instruments ................................................................................................................. 4

Musical elements .................................................................................................................... 5

Rhythm .................................................................................................................................. 5

Musical alphabet ................................................................................................................... 5

Scales ................................................................................................................................... 5

Letter names ......................................................................................................................... 6

Unison ................................................................................................................................... 6

The letter names on the keyboard ......................................................................................... 6

ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTS .............................................................................................. 7

What is a symphony orchestra? ............................................................................................ 7

PERCUSSION FAMILY: ........................................................................................................... 8

Benjamin Britten: ................................................................................................................... 8

Two–part harmony .................................................................................................................... 9

Repetition................................................................................................................................ 10

Contrast .................................................................................................................................. 10

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GM 2019

The Stave

The stave is the 5 lines and 4 spaces that music notes are written on.

The Treble clef

The purpose of the treble clef is to show the person playing or singing music, that

the pitch will be high. The treble clef is mostly played with the right hand on a

piano as the higher pitches on the keyboard are situated on the right hand side.

Note values

Semi-breve Minim

Crotchet

Quaver

Semi- Quaver

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GM 2019

Tempo

The tempo of music is how fast or how slow the music is being played or sung.

Pitch

Pitch is how high or how low a sound is.

Dynamics

Dynamics, in music, is how loud or how soft a sound is.

If music should be played loudly, then the symbol will be used to indicate it.

The letter ‘f’ stands for forte which means ‘loud’.

If the music should be played softly, then the symbol will be used.

The letter ‘p’ stands for piano which means ‘softly’.

Canon

A canon is a piece of music in which two or more voices (or instrumental parts) sing or play

the same melody, but start at different times.

String instruments

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GM 2019

Musical elements

Rhythm

It is the pattern of regular and irregular pulses or beats in music.

Musical alphabet

The musical alphabet consists out of the first seven letters of the alphabet.

Scales

A scale is a sequence of 8 consecutive notes which progress in ascending order (going

higher) or descending order (going lower). The word scale means ladder.

Mandolin

Acoustic guitar Electric guitar

Banjo

Ukulele

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GM 2019

Letter names

These are the letter names of the notes written on the

lines and in the spaces of a music stave in the treble

clef:

Each line and space on the stave has a letter name. The spaces can be remembered as

“FACE” and the lines can be remembered by the rhyme “Every Good Boy Drinks Fanta”.

Unison

To perform musical parts at the same pitch or in the range of an octave. This means to play

or sing a piece of music on the same note.

The letter names on the keyboard

A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent levers or keys on a musical instrument. Keyboards

typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a

combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, shorter keys that repeats at the interval of

an octave. This is what the piano keyboard looks like:

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GM 2019

ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTS

What is a symphony orchestra?

A symphony orchestra can boast more than 100 players, who are divided into strings,

woodwinds, brass, and percussion.

An orchestra is made up of 4 families of instruments: String family, Woodwind family,

Brass family and Percussion family

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GM 2019

PERCUSSION FAMILY:

The percussion family is the largest in

the orchestra and includes any

instrument that makes its unique

sound when it is hit, shaken or

scraped. Some instruments are

tuned and can sound different notes,

like the XYLOPHONE, TIMPANI and

PIANO, and some are untuned, with

no definite pitch, like BASS DRUM,

CYMBALS and CASTANETS.

Percussion instruments are used to keep the rhythm, make special sounds and add

“excitement” and colour. Some common instruments include: CYMBALS, TRIANGLES,

SNARE DRUM, BASS DRUM, TAMBOURINE, MARACAS, GONGS, CHIMES, CELESTA,

PIANO and more.

Benjamin Britten:

Benjamin Britten was born on 22 November 1913 in Lowestoft,

Suffolk, England. He became one of the greatest opera

composers of the last century. Before him, there had been no

good operas written in Great Britain for about 250 years. He

brought opera back to life! “The Turn of the Screw” and “A

Midsummer Night’s Dream”, are two of the operas that he wrote.

Britten went to America at the beginning of World War 2, but returned to England in 1942 and

became a “conscientious objector” (someone who refuses to fight because he believes

fighting is wrong). He wrote the “War Requiem” for the new Coventry Cathedral, which was

bombed during the War. Britten wrote music for a short film called “Night Mail” (this film

includes a poem by W.H Auden)

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GM 2019

Britten started the annual Aldeburgh Festival with his partner Peter Pears. This festival is

famous all over the world. The main events of the festival take place in an old malt house (a

building which was used to turn barley into malt beer). In 1976 he was made Baron Britten for

his contribution to music in England. Benjamin Britten died on 4 December 1976 in

Aldeburgh, Suffolk and is buried in the St. Peter and St. Paul’s Churchyard.

YOUNG PERSON’S GUIDE TO THE ORCHESTRA: Benjamin Britten.

In 1946, Benjamin Britten wrote a musical composition using a theme by Henry Purcell. It was

what brought British opera back to life. This work is often associated with 2 other works in the

context of children’s music education, i.e. Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens and Peter

and the Wolf by Prokofiev.

Two–part harmony

Two-part music is when a piece of music has two different melodies that are sung or played

on an instrument at the same time. When we look from a technical point,

this means simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches (tones, notes), or chords. A very

popular example of a two-part song is “Something Stupid” by Robbie Williams and Nicole

Kidman (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtrXxgtYGUw). The two-part invention below is a

good visual example. There are only two melodies and they are different from each other.

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GM 2019

Repetition

Repetition in music is when a section, phrase or part of a song is sung or played again,

exactly the same as the first time. A literal repetition of a musical passage is often indicated

by the use of a repeat sign, or the instructions da capo or dal segno.

Repetition may be used as part and parcel of symmetry. This is a technique that may help to

unify a melody, theme or rhythm. If one finds a melodic or rhythmic figure that you like, and

one repeats it throughout the course of the melody or song, one must be careful not to repeat

it too much, as it may bore the listener.

Contrast

In music and musical form, contrast is the difference between parts in a song/composition or

different instrument sounds. There are different types of contrast that one can apply in music,

contrast in tempo, rhythm, pitch, melody, harmony, metre, dynamics and more. Contrast in

music is to play or sing the opposite of that in the first theme, phrase or section.