Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← Music
MusicMusic through time and place25 min★★ difficulty

Describing music from different times and places

'I like it' is a start. Musical vocabulary turns it into something you can explain.

Part of your national curriculum
  • Listening and appraising: Identify and describe music from different times, places and traditions, using appropriate musical vocabulary

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Identify and describe music from different times, places and traditions, using appropriate musical vocabulary

Key learning points

  • • Listening for the dimensions
  • • Clues to time and place
  • • Writing a comparison

This lesson at a glance

  • 25 minutes
  • 13 parts to scroll through
  • 3 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

placestraditionsappropriatemusicalvocabulary

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 13 · Discover8%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 13

Watch first

Describing music from different times and places

An English teaching video on this topic from Enjoy Classical Music. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Identify and describe music from different times, places and traditions, using appropriate musical vocabulary

2

Learning cycle

Part 2 of 13

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 · Listening for the dimensions

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

3

Explore the idea

Part 3 of 13

Learn

Listening for the dimensions

Describe pitch, tempo, dynamics, timbre, texture and structure separately. Doing that stops every description turning into 'fast and loud'.

4

Explore the idea

Part 4 of 13

Learn

Clues to time and place

Instrumentation, scale and rhythm often identify a tradition: a gamelan's tuned percussion, a Baroque harpsichord continuo, the offbeat emphasis of reggae.

5

Quick check

Part 5 of 13

Quick check

Which are inter-related dimensions of music?

6

Reset break

Part 6 of 13

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
7

Quick check

Part 7 of 13

Quick check

Which instrument suggests Baroque music?

8

Learning cycle

Part 8 of 13

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 · Writing a comparison

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

9

Explore the idea

Part 9 of 13

Learn

Writing a comparison

Compare two pieces one dimension at a time rather than describing each in turn. That is what makes a comparison rather than two descriptions.

10

Quick check

Part 10 of 13

Quick check

How should you structure a comparison?

11

Challenge round

Part 11 of 13

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

12

Mastery quiz

Part 12 of 13

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Describing music from different times and places

3 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Which are inter-related dimensions of music?

  2. 2. Which instrument suggests Baroque music?

  3. 3. How should you structure a comparison?

13

Lesson round-up

Part 13 of 13

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 3 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Article

How a song builds

Most popular songs are built from a small number of sections: an intro, a verse that tells the story, a pre-chorus that raises tension, a chorus that lands the main idea, and a bridge that changes direction before the last chorus.

Writers control energy with texture and range, not just volume. Stripping the drums out for four bars makes the next chorus feel twice as big. Lifting the vocal melody a few notes higher makes the chorus feel like the roof coming off.

Listen for what disappears, not only for what arrives. The quietest bar is often the one doing the most work.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Listen to a song and write down its sections in order, with rough timings.
  2. Describe two moments where the texture changes and what effect each has.
  3. Plan your own 16-bar section, saying which instruments enter and where.

  • Listening notes

    Writing

    Write what you hear: instruments, tempo, mood, and how the piece changes.

    6 sentences

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 13 · Watch & discover

How this is going

  • Not looked at yet

    Identify and describe music from different times, places and traditions, using appropriate musical vocabulary

Good Learning Co. — personalised UK curriculum learning, built around what each learner loves.