Download Episode 3 - Quaver Music

Unit 1 Music Theory
Episode 3
Tempo
The speed of the beat
1
OVERVIEW
Tempo is the speed at which music is played. The use of different tempos produces different feelings in music. Quaver is writing theme music
for Frankie –Hyperspeed Hamster and International Super Rodent– but
can’t find the correct tempo. This launches an exploration of three fundamental tempo words: largo, moderato, and presto. Along the way,
Quaver encounters Troy the violin player, three trombonists, and a metronome. This episode explores several different tempos, and illustrates
why tempo is important for music as well as musicians.
LESSON OBJECTIVES
Students will learn:
• How tempo is an essential part of music.
• How to spot three fundamental tempos: largo, moderato, and presto.
• How tempo affects the feel of a piece.
• How a metronome displays the speed of the beat.
Vocabulary
Tempo
Largo
Moderato
Presto
Molto Presto
Metronome
© Quaver’s Marvelous World of Music •
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Unit 1 Music Theory
MUSIC STANDARDS IN LESSON
2: Performing alone and with others a varied repertoire of music*
5: Reading and notating music
6: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music
7: Evaluating music and music performance
8: Understanding the relationship between music and the other arts
Complete details at QuaverMusic.com
Key Scenes
What they teach
Music
Standard
1
Quaver scores the Frankie
Hyperspeed Hamster and
International Super Rodent
movie
Tempo affects the feel of music.
6
2
The Tempo Words Come From
Italy Show
The terms largo, moderato, presto, and molto are used to
describe specific tempos.
6
3
Taking tempo to the track
The tempos covered in the lesson are made more memorable with these visual representations.
6
4
Troy tries various tempos on
the violin
Various tempos are demonstrated on the violin.
6
5
The trombone trio gets in
time with a tempo by using
a metronome
Using a metronome helps musicians play at the same
tempo.
6
2
LESSON INTRO Introducing the episode
Challenge students to name something that is really slow (examples: an elephant, a slug, or grandpa); something that travels at medium or walking pace (a dog, carrying a lunch tray, painting a fence); and something
that goes really fast (cheetah, race car, or runner).
Ask students to recall events of their day and have them assign a speed (slow, medium, or fast) to each activity:
Brushing teeth
Getting dressed
Eating breakfast
Music is played at different speeds. In this episode, students learn the vocabulary and effective use of tempo.
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• QuaverMusic.com
* concepts included in the Teacher Guide, but not in the DVD
Tempo
3
Discussion Points
• What do we call speed in music?
PLAY EPISODE
tempo
• What are the three main tempo words we learned and what do they mean?
largo - slow
moderato - medium or walking pace
presto - fast
• What does molto mean in music?
very
• What device did the trombonists use to play at the same tempo?
metronome
4
CLASS ACTIVITIES
Lullaby Versus March
Materials
Needed
- Beat-keeping instruments
Tracks 1, 2, 3 & 4
Purpose: How tempo affects the feel of music
Demonstrate how the tempo affects the feeling of the music by
playing the following lullabies and marches. Have students mime
movements to accompany the pieces.
Track 1
Track 2
Track 3
Track 4
Bananas
Tears of Joy
Sousa’s Washington Post
Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, 1st Movement
Then split students into pairs and direct them to mirror movements
of each other. Observe with them how movements change to reflect the tempo.
Tempo Variations
Track 5
Purpose: How tempo can add excitement and color
Play the recording of Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite, In the Hall
5), which repeatedly uses the same
of the Mountain King (Track 5)
rhythm pattern, but gradually gets faster (accelerandos) until it
ends. Before listening, familiarize students with the story:
moun
Peer Gynt finds himself imprisoned inside the castle of the evil mountain troll king for refusing to marry the king’s daughter. When night
falls, he escapes but is chased by evil trolls. As they catch up with him,
he fights them off. Finally the sun rises, the trolls run away to keep
from turning to stone, and Peer Gynt is freed.
Have students move to the feel of the music, and act out
what they think is happening. Use this activity to help them
see how a composer uses variations in tempo to express action musically.
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Unit 1 Music Theory
Freeze-y Tempo
Purpose: Keeping a steady tempo at different speeds
Using drums, bongo drums, or any non-pitched percussion instrument, play (or
have students play) a pattern in any given tempo while other students move
to the beat. Incorporate the game of Freeze by having everyone freeze when
the beat stops. Variations could include students freezing in a “low,” “high,” or
“like the first letter of their last name.”
Taxi and Driver
Track 6
Purpose: Moving to a steady beat
Pair up students by placing one in front of the other. The front student is the taxi, and the back student is the
driver. Instruct drivers to gently place their hands on the shoulders of the taxi in front of them. The driver will
steer the taxi in an open area in a taxi-trot to the feel and tempo of the music, being careful not to bump other
taxis or objects. As the police officer, direct traffic with a whistle: two short whistles mean go and one long
whistle means stop. Any time-outs should be short. As a sound track, play Keystone Cops Rag (Track 6) or
other uptempo pieces.
Tempo Rap
Tracks 7 & 8
IWB 1
Purpose: Memorization, and sticking to a set tempo
Using the lyrics below, have students rap to the tracks provided: Moderato (Track 7) and Presto (Track 8).
Discuss the pros and cons of performing the rap at different tempos. Make up a dance and turn it into a performance. Challenge students to write additional verses.
T-E-M-P-O
How fast or slow those beats can go
T-E-M-P-O
How fast or slow those beats can go
L-A-R-G-O
Moderato, Presto.
T-E-M-P-O
How fast or slow those beats can go
VIDEO REPLAY
Tempo Song
Track 9
IWB 2
Purpose: Listening skills and tapping a steady beat
Play the Tempo Song (Track 9), and instruct students to click, pat,
and chant along to the various tempos as the music changes
speed.
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• QuaverMusic.com
Another way of saying very fast or molto presto is by adding -issimo to the end of the phrase, making it prestissimo! Likewise,
instead of describing a very slow piece as molto largo, it can be
expressed as larghissimo.
Tempo
5
WEB ACTIVITIES
QGrooves
In QGrooves, music can be written using three different tempos. By combining
tiles, students can create their own backing tracks at these three tempos.
IWB
6
QBackBeat
Students can play a variety of games that
allow them to experiment with the varying tempos covered in this episode.
Play activities on your
INTERACTIVE White Board
HOMEWORK
Tempo Wheel
Worksheet # 1
Purpose: Learning to be aware of tempo in the world around them
PRINT
PRINT
WORKSHEET
WORKSHEET
Encourage students to identify things in their everyday world that have
different tempos. For example, a parent may drive a car molto presto.
Tempo Zoo
Worksheet # 2
Purpose: Associating tempo words with physical movement
Using the worksheet provided, instruct students to write tempo words
on the metronome in order of speed and suggest an animal whose
movement matches that tempo.
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Unit 1 Music Theory
Additional session activities
7
ASSESSMENT
Tempo Assessment
PRINT
PRINT
WORKSHEET
WORKSHEET
8
Math
Tracks 10, 11, 12, 13 & 14
Worksheet # 3
Play the following tracks and have students circle the
correct tempo on their worksheets.
Track 10 Oompah - presto
Track 11 Quack - largo
Track 12 Rabbit Trail - molto presto
Track 13 Wanderbar - moderato
Track 14 Thunder - molto largo
CROSS-CURRICULUM ACTIVITIES
Tracks 15 & 16
The metronome has been used to regulate tempo for hundreds of years. It is designed so that a setting of 60 means 60 beats per minute. Listen to any track from this episode and calculate the BPM
(Beats Per Minute). To do so, instruct students to count how many beats are in one minute. Their
answer will be the metronome mark for that piece. For practice, play Burglar Boogie (Track 15) –85
bpm– and T-Boss (Track 16) –130 bpm– and have students work out the BPM for each.
Note: Beats can also be calculated by counting the beats in 10 second increments and multiplying by 6.
Social Studies
IWB 3
In addition to the many musical innovations that have come from Italy, the world has been shaped
by other notable inventions traced to brilliant Italian thinkers. Alessandro Volta invented the battery. Aldus Manutius developed cursive writing. Galileo Galilei invented the telescope. Although
most famous as an artist, Leonardo da Vinci was responsible for pioneering many new ideas including the parachute, armored car, and flying machines.
Assign students to research these inventions and place their introductions on a timeline. Discuss
the impact each had on the world.
Materials
Needed
- Metronome
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• QuaverMusic.com
Tempo
9
Vivaldi’s Tempos
DIGGING DEEPER
Tracks 17, 18, 19 & 20
Purpose: Basic music analysis
The gifted composer and master of the violin, Antonio Vivaldi was employed as a composer from 17031740 by an orphanage for girls. In addition to spending time with students, he composed many of his
greatest works at the orphanage.
Listen to these snippets from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons: Spring (Track 17), Summer (Track 18), Autumn
(Track 19), and Winter (Track 20). How do the different tempos relate to the seasons of the year? Explore
with students other techniques Vivaldi uses to illustrate the contrasting seasons. What seems fast, moderate, or slow about a specific season?
Sonata Form
Tracks 21, 22 & 23
Purpose: The beginning of sonata form, a three-movement piece of differing tempos
Just as architecture of the Classical Period was simple and symmetrical, so was the music. Sonatas were
three-movement pieces of differing tempos balanced with fast first and third movements and a second
movement that was slow. Listen to Beethoven’s Sonata in F Minor, 1st Movement (Track 21), 2nd Movement (Track 22), and 3rd Movement (Track 23) and discuss how the tempos are different. This led composers to write symphonies in sonata form with three distinct movements.
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Unit 1 Music Theory
TEACHER NOTES
Featured
Instruments
Trombone
Violin
Keyboard
Drums
1-8
• QuaverMusic.com