Year 10 Film MUSIC UNIT

Cashmere High School

Teacher: Grant Bartley
Year Level: 10
Number of Lessons: 16-18 hours

Curriculum Level: 5

Aims:

Pre-requisite knowledge and skills expected:

Resources required:

Strands/AOs covered in this unit

UC, PK, CI, DI - Level 5

Embedded Key Competencies :

Thinking; Making meaning; relating to others; managing self; participating and
contributing.

Teaching and Learning Sequences

Focus questions:
Lesson 1
Focus questions:
Listen to the
music first, what
type of mood do
you think it
creates? For
example how
does the music
make you feel,
how would you
describe the
music? What
does it make you
think of?
Students are to
focus on the
mood music
creates and the
effect tempo
has on this

Start: Introduce fantasia- focus questions

I want you to imagine a scene in your head when you listen to this.

Lesson 2
Focus: the
relationship
between
dynamics and
tempo

Recap on previous lesson- tempo

Introduce students to new element dynamics. Volume of piece,
how it changes either gradually or suddenly( advanced- the
Italian words for these, could ask just to assess where
everyone is)

Ask students
whether they
see a
relationship
between
dynamics

Students to share their ideas with a peer, and then peers can share
with class

Show student the YouTube clip. Brief background on fantasiapictures created for music( usually other way around)

Introduce the elements of music main ones. Focus on Tempo,

dynamics, pitch, timbre ( tonality advance)
Explain that many of these elements help to create the mood in a
piece of music.
Begin with tempo, explain concept in music. What is it about the
speed of this piece that makes it an urgent sounding piece or
mischievous? (class mind map or group)
Activity:
Teacher can demonstrate how the theme would sound if the tempo
was changed
Various examples played, In peers, students asked to write down and
describe how the change in tempo affects the mood.

basic introduction to pp p f ff and sfz

Play Fantasia again (soundtrack only), stopping and starting and asking
students whether they thought the piece was getting louder or softer
Activity: game- dynamics on board, class split into two groups.
Each group member has a turn at coming up to circle correct
dynamic, fastest group wins.

(volume) and
tempo (speed) in
the piece. eg
often when the
music gets
faster it also
gets louder
which helps
create the
urgency in the
piece.

Lesson 3

Students have a go at playing Fantasia theme on piano or guitar

by ear, and experimenting with tempo and dynamics.
Advanced students can notate if they wish.

For homework students are to find a piece of horror theme music

from a movie and write down one way to describe the tempo, one way
to describe the dynamics, and how the two work together to help
create the mood of the scene. Students are to reference song if
from YouTube so that teacher can find it.

Collection of homework- students to put in box to be marked by

teacher

Focus question
Is this piece high
Introduction to element-Pitch ( high and low pitch) teacher
or low? Or both?
demonstrate on the piano
Does it change? Play A Night on bold Mountain- students to discuss focus questions in
How do you think pairs and then share with the class.
the pitch helps
create the mood
Introduction to the Last element we are going to look:
of this piece?
Timbre( sound quality and instruments)
Different instruments have different sounds eg a flute is quite light
high but hollow sounding,Violins can be screechy
Play sugar plum fairy. What is the Timbre? Does anyone know what
instrument is playing the main tune? do as class
group activity/ competition,
Match the sound description to the sound heard.
Lesson 4

Music is often used in movies to help establish a characters

personality.
Students to listen to music from Lord of the rings scene and are to
guess what could be happening in the scene, as well as describing what
mood the scene creates.http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=kHJDhPVpI1s
Teacher to then play YouTube clip- singing represents orcs/mordor
theme.

Recap of elements looked at: Tempo, dynamics, pitch, timbre

Activity: Students to get into groups, jigsaw task- four groups each
focusing on an element within lord of the rings example. Group to
discuss/write down how their element helps to compliment the scene.
Gollums song played from Lord of the ringshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Hmt82NFhYk
Teacher to ask students to describe mood of song and how this
conveys character Gollum.
What could we do to make this a happy song?
Play students an example of theme on Sibelius that has had elements
changed to make it happy. Ask student to pick out the elements that
have been changed

Lesson 5

Introduction to Sibelius- how to write, how to find things

Teacher to give students main theme of Sugar plum fairy to write out
on Sibelius to practice using the program( students can work in
groups)
Student are to then experiment with changing the elements/ effects
around this theme to see if they can create a different mood.students work from instruction sheet. Can try different instruments,
Dynamics, tempo etc, dynamics and tempo given on sheet to refer to.
Advanced students can try working with tonality and changing key or
major to minor etc

Lesson 6
Focus:

Finishing off theme on Sibelius

Students to share their piece with another group and talk about how
they changed the theme and what new mood they created

As above.

one or two pairs can share their work to the class- pieces to be saved
on to computers for marking.

Lesson 7

Introduction to Silent films and the importance of the music

Lesson 8
What happens if
we only have the
music to tell a
story without
the pictures?
What would be
an effective way
to play to show
with an
instrument
someone is
creeping away?
What would we
do with the pitch
do you think? or
the tempo?
Dynamics?

Groups chosen and instructions given for role play task.

Groups to brainstorm ideas and to be checked over by teacher.
Students beginning to look at creating their own silent role play to a
small theme composed.
Can first choose the mood of the theme and work with the elements
to create a piece of music on any instrument of their choice. or they
can create the role play first and the music to go along with it after.
Students to work in groups of 4 or 5. Students can choose groups
provided there is a mix of abilities in each group and the teacher may
make adjustments depending on numbers etc.
They can choose to either record their composed piece and practise
it, learning it by ear and remembering if from the recoding, or for
more advanced students, they may wish to write it up on Sibelius. One
to two people in the group will play the music while the others take
part in the role play. Groups need to find their own space away from
others because at the end of the unit the groups will perform and the
class will have to guess what the role play is about and what mood the
music creates.
Teacher to show Peter in the woof- opposite to a silent movie in a
sense. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB66bInIXAY
Listen to about 15-20 minutes.

Teacher to stop and start when needed to ask questions.

Look at Timbre- how different sounds of instruments are used.
Teacher to inform the students that this can give them some ideas
for their performance if they wish to represent a certain character
or personality with
1: an instruments sounds,
2: the way a instrument is used. ( give them examples)
Students continue to work on role plays and develop ideas
by end of this lesson all students could have a clear idea what they are
going to do and a plan written

Lesson 9

Teacher to discuss assessment criteria for the group performances

A section of criteria will be based on how effectively they convey
their intended mood or character or emotion based on how well the
rest of the class can guess what it is.

Other marks will be given for participation, working well together as a

group( everyone playing their role) - marks will be given to individuals
not groups.
Students can either be involved in creating music or involved in the
role play, or they can do both.
Brief recap of all the film sip pits looked to help give students ideas
for what they can do.

Lesson 10

Students being to work on their pieces.

Teacher spends time with each group to see where they are at, and
help with any problems.
Groups can share with the teacher in small interviews what is going
well, what they need help with etc, and the teacher can offer
suggestions, can offer suggestions or ask questions to help their own
Students continue to work on their piece,
Students who have come up with ideas for music are able to record
their ideas so that they can remember what they created and rehears
Students who wish to write/notate can do so on Sibelious.

Lesson 11
Focus:
As above.

Students spend lesson rehearsing for their performance.

Lesson 12-15

Groups perform their Silent role plays with music.

Performances to be videoed.
At the end of each groups performance the class has to guess
what mood/character type the group were trying to convey, what
effects they used with the instruments and how they used the
elements. What they could improve on, and what they liked.teacher to write up class comments for group as well as her own.

Lesson 16-17

Lesson 18

Extension Ideas:

Specific Learning Outcomes

The student is able to:

Lesson/s in
which SLOs
are covered

Assessment Methods

Where to Next:

Evaluation of the Unit: