Music has its own special words
Every subject has special words. Football has "goal" and "offside". Maths has "add" and "subtract". Music has its own too.
Today we'll meet six big music words. Once you know them, you can talk about ANY piece of music.
1. PULSE — the steady beat
Pulse is the steady beat that keeps going. Like your heart. Like footsteps. Like a clock ticking.
When you tap your foot along to a song, you're feeling its pulse.
Try it: right now, tap your foot in a steady rhythm. Slow, slow, slow, slow. That's a pulse.
2. RHYTHM — the pattern of sounds
Rhythm is the pattern of long and short sounds that play ON TOP of the pulse.
If the pulse is the heartbeat, the rhythm is what your favourite song is doing. "Twin-kle Twin-kle Lit-tle Star" — that's a rhythm!
Music people use simple words for rhythm: ta for one beat, ti-ti for two quick beats. So "kitten" is ti-ti and "cat" is ta.
3. PITCH — high & low
Pitch is how HIGH or LOW a sound is.
LOW 🦁 — a lion's roar, thunder, a tuba
Songs are made of pitches going up and down. That's called a melody.
4. TEMPO & 5. DYNAMICS
Tempo = how FAST or SLOW the music goes.
A lullaby is SLOW. Dance music is FAST.
Dynamics = how LOUD or QUIET.
A whisper is quiet. A shout is loud. Music can do both.
Try it: sing "Happy Birthday" first slow + quiet (like a lullaby), then fast + loud (like a celebration). Same song, two completely different feelings!
6. TIMBRE — the SOUND of an instrument
Timbre (say it: TAM-ber) is the special SOUND each instrument has.
A guitar sounds completely different from a trumpet — even when they play the SAME note. That's timbre.
You probably know lots of timbres already. Your mum's voice sounds different from your dad's. A piano sounds different from a violin. Cars sound different from bicycles. Every sound has its own timbre.
Three real composers — listen with a grown-up!
These three composers wrote music KS1 children all over the country love. With a grown-up, search for ONE of these on YouTube (it's free):
Try "The Aquarium" (high & sparkly) or "The Elephant" (LOW and slow). French composer, 1886.
🪐 Holst — "The Planets"
Try "Mars, the Bringer of War" (LOUD & scary!) or "Jupiter" (big & majestic). English composer, 1916.
🌸 Vivaldi — "The Four Seasons"
Try "Spring" (fast, like birds singing). Italian composer, 1723.
BBC Ten Pieces (free at bbc.co.uk/teach/ten-pieces) has child-friendly versions of all of these.
Well done!
You finished this lesson. You worked hard and learned something new today. 🎉
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