GRD 7 Music T1 2018 Approved
GRD 7 Music T1 2018 Approved
GRD 7 Music T1 2018 Approved
Music
Grade 7
Term 1
Contents
REVISION................................................................................................................................................. 2
The Treble clef .................................................................................................................................... 2
Pitch .................................................................................................................................................... 2
The Semi-breve ................................................................................................................................... 2
The Semi-breve Rest ........................................................................................................................... 2
The Minim........................................................................................................................................... 2
The Minim Rest................................................................................................................................... 3
The Crochet ........................................................................................................................................ 3
The Crochet rest ................................................................................................................................. 3
The Quaver ......................................................................................................................................... 3
The Quaver rest .................................................................................................................................. 3
Note Values and Rest Values .................................................................................................................. 4
The Semi-quaver: British name .......................................................................................................... 4
Letter names of the treble clef ............................................................................................................... 5
Solfa notation ......................................................................................................................................... 5
Time signatures ...................................................................................................................................... 6
Mood in music ........................................................................................................................................ 7
Families of Instruments .......................................................................................................................... 8
Woodwind .......................................................................................................................................... 8
Strings ................................................................................................................................................. 9
Brass ................................................................................................................................................. 10
Percussion......................................................................................................................................... 10
The Djembe drum ................................................................................................................................. 11
Some drumming terms and techniques ........................................................................................... 12
GM 2018
2
REVISION
The Treble clef
• The purpose of the treble clef is to show the person playing or singing
music, that the pitch will be high.
• The treble clef is mostly played with the right hand on a piano as the
higher pitches on the keyboard are situated on the right hand side.
Pitch
Pitch is how high or how low a sound is. Women usually have high pitched voices
whereas men usually have low pitched voices
The Semi-breve
(Whole Note. taa-aa-aa-aa)
A semi-breve indicates that a continuous sound must be made for a period of four
beats.
The Minim
(Half Note. taa-aa)
A minim indicates that a continuous sound must be made for a period of two
beats. Minims are made up of a ‘hollow’ head and a stem. The stem can face
up or down. The direction of the stem does not change the pitch (highness or
lowness) of the note.
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3
The Crochet
(Quarter Note. taa)
A crochet indicates that a continuous sound must be made for a period of one beat.
Minims are made up of a ‘solid’ head and a stem.
The Quaver
(Eighth Note. Ta or ta-te when there are 2 quavers)
A quaver indicates that a continuous sound must be made for a period of a half beat.
Quavers are made up of a ‘solid’ head, a stem and a flag.
When two or more quavers are joined then they are called ‘beamed’ quavers.
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4
Challenge
Can you work out how many semiquavers there are in each of the following notes?
A quaver A crochet
A minim A semi-breve
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5
Each line and space on the stave has a letter name. The spaces can be remembered
as “FACE” and the lines can be remembered by the rhyme “Every Good Boy Drinks
Fanta”. The whole musical alphabet consists only of the first seven letters of the
alphabet – A, B, C, D, E, F and G. On the keyboard of a piano the letter names of the
notes are:
Solfa notation
Time signatures
A time signature is the sign in music notation that shows a musician the time/timing
(pulse) of a piece of music. The top number shows “how many” beats there will be in
one bar/measure and the bottom number shows you “what kind” of note value you are
working with. The only number that concerns us, for now, is the top number that
indicates how many beats there will be in one bar/measure.
GM 2018
7
Mood in music
What is mood in music? When one listens to music it provokes a certain mood. For
example, fast and loud music will be associated with a happy mood, whereas slow and
soft music will be associated with a sad mood. Thus, tempo (speed), dynamics
(volume), timbre (unique quality of a sound), tonality (harmonies), pitch (highs and
lows), instrumentation, rhythm and metre are most of the musical elements that will
contribute to the “mood” of the music.
GM 2018
8
Families of Instruments
Instruments are usually divided into four main groups/families: Woodwind, Brass,
Strings and Percussion.
Woodwind
Woodwinds are a type of musical instrument that make their sound when a musician
blows air into or across the mouthpiece. They get their name from the fact that most of
them were once made of wood. Today many are made of other materials such as metal
or plastic.
There are many types of woodwinds including the flute, piccolo, oboe, clarinet,
saxophone, bassoon, bagpipes, and recorder. They all look somewhat similar in that
they are all long tubes of various sizes with metal keys that cover the holes when
played to make different notes. The bigger the woodwind instrument the lower the pitch
sound they make.
Woodwinds can be divided up into two main types of instruments. Flute instruments and
reed instruments. Flute instruments make sound when the musician blows air across an
edge in the instrument while reed instruments have a reed, or two, that vibrate when the
air is blown.
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Strings
Stringed instruments make sound by the vibration of strings. There are a large variety of
stringed instruments, from guitars to violins to zithers to harps.
String instruments have been a part of music history since ancient times. We know the
ancient Egyptians played the harp as far back as 3000 BC or 5000 years ago!
All stringed instruments make sounds by vibrating strings. How the musician causes the
strings to vibrate can differ based on the instrument. One way to make strings vibrate is
to pluck them. This is how the guitar makes sound when the musician uses his/her
fingers, hands, or a pick to pluck the string and cause it to vibrate. Other instruments
that are played this way include the harp, banjo, lute, and sitar. Other names for
plucking include strumming and picking.
Many stringed instruments are played by moving a bow across the strings. The bow is a
long stick with some sort of material, often horse hair, stretched across it. The material
is moved along the string to create a vibration and sound. Bow instruments include the
violin, cello, and fiddle.
GM 2018
10
Brass
A major family of instruments is the brass instrument family. It includes the trumpet,
tuba, trombone, French horn, bugle, and cornet, just to name a few. Most brass
instruments are made out of brass.
The main difference between brass instruments and other instruments is how the
vibration to create the sound and notes is made. With a brass instrument the vibration is
created by the lips of the musician. By pressing the lips up against the mouthpiece and
blowing, a vibration is created. The rest of the instrument helps to amplify (increase) the
noise and create different notes. This is different from the woodwind family where air
blowing across an edge or reed causes the vibrations.
Percussion
The percussion family is believed to include the oldest musical instruments, following
the human voice. The percussion section of an orchestra usually contains instruments
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such as timpani, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle and tambourine. Percussion
can also be made with the human body, as in body percussion.
Percussion instruments are usually divided into two groups: Pitched percussion
instruments, which produce notes with an identifiable pitch, and unpitched percussion
instruments, which produce notes or sounds without an identifiable pitch.
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drum, with 4 fingers held firmly together. Strike the skin of the drum, not just the rim.
The bass is the lowest sounding note. It is played by the whole hand, on the centre
of the drum skin. Let your hand bounce off as it hits, so that the sound can vibrate.
The slap is a sharp note, played nearer to the rim of the drum than to the centre. You
keep your wrists relaxed and a slight hollow under the palm of your hand.
Before we do any work on the Djembe, let us listen to various kinds of drums from
around the world.
Tabla (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn0ccxr8tPk)
Kit drums (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUA-66bhN5s)
Djembe (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMpilW4Sqjg)
Steel pan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woBZME7sN3E)
Bongo drums (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9gzjPLh-IA)
The lead hand is the hand that plays the first beat of a rhythm. Take turns using your
right and left hands to lead so that you can develop even strength in your hands. When
you first play African drums, you will find that one hand is stronger than the other.
Ghosting is a technique where you lightly pretend-play the gaps in the rhythm. In other
words, you move your hand, but you don’t actually play the note. This helps to keep
your hands moving in a steady rhythm to the beat.
Repetition is the repeating of a rhythm over and over. In drumming, we usually learn a
rhythm and repeat it. It may be repeated in sets of 4,8,16 or other sets.
Question and answer is when the leader plays a rhythm and the rest of the group
repeats it. Or the leader may play one rhythm and the rest of the group replies with a
different rhythm. These are both known as question-and-answer.
GM 2018