Music teaching Program for Beginners

Making a sound start

Music is not just noise.
Music is made using times of sound and times of no sound.
Another word for ‘no sound’ is silence.
Silence can be short in time or long in time. So can sound.
But sound has other attributes that silence does not have.

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Mac the Farmer from the 'Not Just Noise' Quest pantomime

Session One: Attributes of Sound

Attributes

What are Attributes?

All things have what can be called ‘attributes’ (features or aspects).

Some attributes of
an ORANGE are:

It’s shape is round.
It is the colour orange.
It has juice.
It grows on a tree.

Some attributes of
a CAT are:

It is an animal.
It has four legs.
It is furry.
It can climb trees.

Some attributes of
a NAIL are:

It is made of metal.
It has a sharp end.
It can be hammered.
It can be long or short.

Exercise / Activity
You could make lists of attributes of other things in the world.

Sound Attributes

(features or aspects)

Dynamics

A sound can have DYNAMICS,
which means it can be LOUD or SOFT.
‍
The Woof of big dog is LOUD.
The Squeak of a mouse is SOFT.

Duration

A sound can have DURATION.
‍It can last a LONG time or a SHORT time.

The Mooooooooooo of a cow is LONG.
One Yap of a pup is SHORT.

Pitch

A sound can have PITCH.
‍It can sound HIGH or it can sound LOW.

The Miaow of a cat is HIGH-pitched.
The Grunt of a pig is LOW-pitched.

Timbre

A sound can have TIMBRE (rhymes with amber).
It can be HARSH or CLEAR.

The Squawk a cockatoo is HARSH.
The Warble of a Magpie is CLEAR.

Exercise / Activity
You could try making sounds that have these attributes.
You could try and draw an image of each type of sound.

Make a sound and draw an image for each sound attribute

Loud / Soft

Long / Short

High / Low

Harsh / Clear

> Next Session : Session Two - Sound Patterns > Part 1 : Extensions - Expand your Musical abilities