Master the Melody

Summary

In this lesson, students will explore the characteristics of a melody by listening to a popular song or by practicing it. They will learn to describe, analyze and compare different melodies. Students will also develop their personal musical expression and improve their ensemble singing and/or playing skills.

⏰ Time: 50 min

🎓 Grades: 5-12

🎯 Objective(s): As a result of this lesson students will be able to...

• Understand different musical elements and building blocks;
• Understand what melodic contour, range, dynamics and timbre are;
• Express the melody visually by drawing a melodic contour;
• Analyze and compare different melodies;
• Sing and play melodies of a popular song.

💡 Required Prior Knowledge and Skills:

• Basic notation;
• Basic rhythm.

💻 Materials:

• Solfeg.io app best used with Chrome browser
• Projector or computer and access to Wi-Fi
• Simple melodic instruments, for example, metallophones, keyboards etc. (optional)
• Simple percussion instruments (optional)

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Inspiration

🕐 5 min - 7 years, 1 chorus

• Choose '7 Years' by Lukas Graham from the Song library.
• Set Chorus 1 on repeat using the loop function.
• Sing the repeated section yourself, and then have the students sing back to you.
• Continue with call and response until the students can sing the melody on their own.

Warm-Up

🕐 20 min - The melodic theory

• Discuss with the class what a melody is. (An arrangement of pitched sounds following one after the other that is musically satisfying. It's a complete entity, comparable to a finished spoken phrase.The word 'melody' originates from the Greek 'melos' which means 'song'.)
• Ask the class how they would describe the melody they sang previously.
• Relating to the students' answers, explain the key characteristics of a melodic line:
• Shape or contour: a line that represents the movements between individual notes of a melody - the rises, falls, arches, undulations etc. Melody may move by steps (when the pitches are close to each other) or by leaps (when the pitches are wider apart), melody can contain repeated notes too.
• Play Chorus 2 from '7 Years'. You can isolate the vocal track using the volume controls.
• Ask students to listen carefully to the movements of the melody, follow the notation and draw the melodic contour using a single line.
• Compare the different drawings.
• Now, listen to Verse 2.
• Are the melodic contours of the Verse 2 and Chorus 2 different? (Chorus contains more leaps and reaches higher and lower pitches than Verse where there are more repeating notes.)
• Range: the distance between the highest and lowest note sung or played in a melody.
• As you already found out, Chorus 2 contains higher and lower notes than Verse 2. It means Chorus 2 has a bigger range than Verse 2.
• Play Chorus 7 and ask students to focus on the notation of the vocal part.
• Do you notice anything different from the previous choruses you heard? (The lyrics are different, as well as there is a melodic variation in the end.)
• What is the lowest note sung? (G3)
• What is the highest note sung? (Bflat4)
• How would you describe the melodic range of Chorus 7? In your opinion, is it big, medium or small?
• Dynamics: the loudness of the sound.
• What are the dynamics of Chorus 7?
• Are there any dynamic variations?
• Timbre: the tonal quality of the sound. For example, this song is sung by a male vocalist with a rather high-pitched voice.

Practice

🕐 15 min - Exercise 1 - 7 years, 9 choruses

• Now, have a look at the song structure (right above the vocal line).
• How many Choruses are there? (9)
• Divide students in 9 small groups. They can be of different sizes, for example, some students may choose to be on their own, while others may prefer to work in bigger groups.
• Each group should have access to a computer with Solfeg.io.
• Each group chooses a different chorus to practice. They can either play a set of simple melodic and/or rhythm instruments available or sing. Beware: melody contains B flat, so you'll need an instrument on which you can play this note!
• Let each group practice their chorus.
• When the groups are ready, perform the entire song together - each group only plays and/or sings their assigned chorus!

🕐 5 min - Exercise 2

• Play Pre-Chorus 1 and Chorus 1 from 'There For You' Martin Garrix & Troye Sivan followed by Verse1 from 'Hallelujah' by Leonard Cohen.
• Ask students to compare both melodies.
• What do the melodies have in common?
• What makes them different? (Think of the range, breaks between the phrases etc.)

Reflection

🕐 5 min - Discussion

• Which one of the melodies you heard in this lesson you liked the best? Why?
• What, in your opinion, makes a melody catchy?

Beyond the Lesson

Challenge students to go beyond the lesson by…

• Practicing different melodies from the Song library.
• Finding three catchy melodies in the Song library, writing down their own descriptions of these melodies trying to explain why they are catchy, and sharing their findings with the class.
• Composing a melody of their own. They can use a song of choice as a backing track.

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