Download Year 7 Revision Guide

Year 8 Revision Guide
1. Instruments of the Orchestra
String
Violin
Viola
‘Cello
Double Bass
Harp
Guitar
Woodwind
Flute
Oboe
Clarinet
Bassoon
Piccolo
Recorder
Saxophone
Brass
Trumpet
French Horn
Trombone
Tuba
Instrumental Techniques:
Pizzicato = plucked strings
Arco = bowed strings
Glissando = sliding up or down notes e.g. on trombone or piano
2. Elements of Music
Pitch
Tempo
Dynamics
Texture
Timbre
Duration
Attack and Decay
How high or low the
sound is
The speed of the music
The volume of the music
How many layers of
sound
The type of
sound/instrument
The length of the notes
How the piece begins or
ends
HIGH/LOW
FAST/SLOW
LOUD/QUIET
THICK/THIN
WIND/STRING/SKIN
etc
SHORT/LONG
SUDDEN/GRADUAL
3. Pitch
4. Rhythm
= quaver = ½ beat
= crotchet = 1 beat
= semibreve = 4 beats
= 2 quavers = 1 beat
= minim = 2 beats
Percussion
Timpani
Snare Drum
Xylophone
Tambourine
Cymbal
Triangle
Maracas
5. Theme and Variations
You will be asked to describe how the same melody/tune is changed in different ways. Use your understanding of the musical
elements to indicate similarities and differences between different versions/variations.
Musical Element
What it Means and Vocabulary to Use
Melody
Pitch
Chords/Harmony
Rhythm
Tempo
Texture
Tune.
Notes/melody/accompaniment. High, low pitched.
Happy sounding = Major, sad sounding = Minor
Short notes, long notes. Sustained notes (held on).
Speed of the music. Fast, moderate, slow.
How many instruments playing. Thin texture = only a few instruments, Thick texture
= lots of instruments. Getting thicker, getting thinner.
Volume of the music. Loud, quiet/soft. Getting louder, getting softer.
Family of instruments, main instruments used. Woodwind, brass, percussion & strings.
How is the music put together? Sections of the piece of music. Section A, B, etc.
Instruments/other parts other than the melody. Broken chords (each note of a chord
played one after the other), block chords (all notes of a chord played at the same
time).
Dynamics
Timbre
Structure
Accompaniment
6. Latin American Music
Types of dance:
Tango = dance of Argentina and Uruguay
Bossa Nova and Samba = carnival music of Brazil
Salsa and Rumba = uses exciting rhythms from Cuba
Instruments:
Panpipes = hollow pipes of various lengths made of bamboo, each producing a different pitched note.
Charango = like a mandolin (a little guitar).
Guitar
Harp
Drums/percussion = bombo (low pitched drum), cabasa, claves, guiro and maracas.
Vocabulary:
Ostinato = short repeating rhythm or accompanying melody.
Syncopated rhythm = melody or rhythm which has notes which are ‘off beat’, played on the ‘ands’. 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
7. The Blues
Blues is a type of Jazz music which began in America in the early 20th century. It is a mixture of African Music (brought over by the
slaves and sung in the fields whilst they worked) and Western music.
The 12 bar blues – a chord structure used in the blues which is repeated. It consists of 3 chords played in a set pattern:
C = CEG(Bb)
F = FAC(Eb)
G = GBD(F)*
C
C
C
C
F
F
C
C
G
F
C
C
A chord is 2 or more notes played at the same time. The chords used most often have 3 notes and are called TRIADS.
*The fourth note in brackets can be added to make the chord sound jazzy.
Musicians would use the BLUES SCALE to improvise (make up on the spot, without rehearsal) over the chord pattern.
Call and response is a technique often used in Blues music where one singer/instrument plays a phrase and another
singer/instrument responds.
8. Impressionism
A movement beginning in the late 19th century, Paris with composers like Debussy. Composer chose notes and melodies for colour,
which did not always fit within a key which we typically use.
Vocabulary
Cluster chords = notes played very close together
Chromatic = notes played in half steps e.g. C – C# - D
Pentatonic scale = a five note scale
Drone = continuously repeated note, often low pitched.
Graphic score = music notated using symbols to be interpreted by the musician.
Free rhythm = music played without a strict sense of pulse or rhythm.