How music can paint pictures

Hello and welcome to today's lesson entitled "Using Music to Paint a Picture. My name is Mr. Norris. I'm gonna take you through today as we look at some of the ways that we can use music to create images and tell stories. Our outcome is that I can compose a piece of music with appropriate use of the elements of music to represent a chosen stimulus. Here are our keywords. Elements of music, these are important aspects of music, such as pitch, tempo and dynamics, which can be used to help us understand music. Structure, this is the different sections of a piece of music and how it is organized. Motif, this is a short musical idea that recurs throughout a piece of music. And finally, ostinato, which is a short repeated pattern. First part of today's lesson is focused on painting pictures with music. We can use the elements of music to help us discuss and understand the music we are listening to. Can you think of any of the elements? Pause my video while you have a think. So you might have thought of some of these: pitch, which means how high or low at note is, tempo, which is how fast or slow the music is, dynamics, how loud, soft the music is, texture, how the layers in the music work together, timbre, which is the sound of an instrument or rhythm, which is a pattern of sounds. And there are different ways of remembering these, and trying to have the different elements as a sort of checklist in your head when you're thinking about describing music can be a real useful thing to be able to do. I'd like you to listen to these three clips and tell me what feelings are created by these pieces of music and what story might they be trying to tell or represent? I'd also like you to have a think about how the elements of music are used to tell those stories. So how do they help to make it feel like it's creating a particular image or story? So you can pause my video while you listen to these three clips and come up with your answers. So for the first one, you might have described this as something like a peaceful dawn. The music is quiet and slow. It's got a high-pitched melody and soft-sounding instruments that help to create this feeling of calm and peace. The music, builds getting slightly louder and higher as the sun starts to rise. So that's what that is designed to represent. But you might have come up with a different story that suits that music as well. The second one represents a battle or war. The music is louder and fast, which helps create the feeling of action and excitement in a battle. The repeated rhythm gives a feeling of action and there are lots of low-pitched instruments and brass and percussion timbres. The texture is quite thick and all of these together create a feeling of lots of things going on, lots of action, excitement and drama. And then the third example creates a feeling of something quite creepy and mysterious. This one actually tells the story of the character Death who emerges and plays his violin to bring all the skeletons up to dance. So it's quite creepy and weird and quite dark as well. And the music's quite dance like, so that suits what's going on in this scene, which is all the skeletons dancing around. It starts quite loudly with jumpy pitches and rhythms. Then with the contrasting smoother melody in the violin. And those jumpy pictures and rhythms create a feeling of something a bit weird and unusual, like skeletons dancing. The tempo is quite fast and exciting, and the texture is thin to start with only a few instruments and layers playing there. So there's lots of different ways we can look at these piece of music and describe how they suit different scenes. And while there's no necessarily wrong or right answer, we can see how some of those elements have been used to try to represent those different images and stories. Part of the beauty of music is how it can help to create different moods. Let's have a look at this image here. What do you think of when you see this? What kind of mood would you say this presents? Pause my video and just have a quick think. Now we're gonna add some music to that image. How does this music change the way that we see that image? Here's the first one, (dramatic music) And here's the second one. How does this change the way we see that image? (happy light music) So the first piece has quite a dark mood, a dark feeling, and it creates suspense as if something sinister is about to happen. The second piece makes the scene seem much more carefree, lighter, and more positive. So simply by changing the music, we can totally change the way that we view this image. Let's check your understanding. What is texture? Is it the sound of the instrument, the layers in the music, and how they interact or a pattern of sounds? I'll give you a few seconds. And the correct answer here is it's the layers in the music and how they interact. Now I'd like you to watch this video of creating a rainstorm with body percussion. How are the elements of music used to create the effect of a big rainstorm with thunder and lightning and heavy rain? Let's have a look. (fingers clicking) (hands tapping) (wind blowing) (hand banging) (hands tapping) (wind blowing) (hands banging) (hands tapping) (fingers clicking) So you might have picked up on some of these. The dynamics start quietly and get gradually louder, and then in the end, they get quieter again and that sort of mimics the way a storm works, which is it gradually starts, then it gets intense, and then it disappears as well. There's some sudden loud sounds in the middle which create that feeling of the intensity of the climax of the storm, maybe some thunder and lightning going on. The rhythms are all quite fast to mimic the rain falling. Different timbres created by the body imitate the rain getting heavier. They imitate the wind and they imitate thunder as well. And then the texture gets thicker as more sounds and parts are added towards the climax of the storm. Then it gets thinner to finish. And again, that's sort of simulating the gradual increase in intensity of the storm and then it gradually fading out as well. So all these different elements are used to create that image of a thunderstorm. As we've said there, this piece is in a structure which mirrors the path of a storm as it builds and then it dies away again. Structure is a really important element of music and it refers to how a piece of music is organized and the different sections within a piece of music. This rainstorm uses an ABA structure where it starts and finishes with the same section of music, the A section at the start and the end, and then it has something different, which is our B section in the middle. So we've got A, and then B, and then A. Let's check your understanding. What is structure in music? I'll give you a few seconds to have a think. And the correct answer is it structures the different sections of music and how they're organized within a piece. Well done if you got something close to that. For task A, you're gonna use the elements of music to create the impression of a rainstorm with body percussion and vocal sounds. Here's some success criteria. The performance starts quietly, gets louder and finishes quietly. It starts with a thin texture, then has a thicker texture in the middle section, before finishing with a thin texture. You've planned when performers do the same thing and do different things in the performance. So you've planned it out beforehand. You've chosen a leader to direct the changes in the performance. So one person will need to direct different people when to change what they're doing. And you've decided how the leader will show when to move on to the next section. So how are they gonna indicate that it's time for people to change the sounds they're creating? Here're some sounds that you might wanna use. Rubbing hands together to create the sound of the light rain, finger clicking and vocal pops, which create the feeling of heavier rain, knee and thigh pats, which creates even heavier rain, vocal shushes and light airy whistling to simulate wind, very fast knee and thigh pats and light footsteps, which creates the effect of thunder, and heavier footsteps and claps together, which creates the effect of lightning. So you can pause my video now and give this task your best shot. Now it's time to reflect on your performance. Here are a few questions to think about. How did you create an impression of a rainstorm? What dynamics, textures, and timbres did you use? Did you use any different sounds or effects to those that were suggested? And did you change patterns at the right time? If so, how did you do that successfully? I'd like you to pause my video, have a reflection on your performance. The second part of today's lesson is looking at using the elements of music. We're gonna compose a piece of music to depict one of the following images. How would you describe each image and what descriptive words do you think of? So pause my video while you're looking at the image of the deep sea, the fiery volcano and unknown galaxy. Think about what descriptive words would describe the mood or the feeling of each image. Pause my video now. So here are some of the words you might have used. You might have said the deep sea has a feeling of sort of blue, calm, cold, still, empty or lonely. The fiery volcano scene, some descriptive words might be red, angry, explosive, emotional, dangerous, powerful or majestic. And for the unknown galaxy, you might have used words like dark, mysterious, colorful, exciting, distant, dazzling or vast. And there's lots of other words that would've worked there as well. Those are just some examples of the kind of words you might have chosen. Now I'd like you to have a think about how music can match up to descriptive words. So I'm gonna listen to these three clips of music, and what I'd like you to do is match up each musical idea with the most suitable description. So we've got cold, explosive and distant, and now I'm gonna play the first clip. Which of those words do you think best suits this clip? (tranquil piano music) So choosing your answer. Now let's look at the second clip. Which word best suits this? (twinkling tranquil music) And now the third one, which word best suits this? (dramatic organ music) So there's no necessarily right or wrong answer for this. However, there are some musical features that help these musical ideas suit some words better than others. So we'd probably have said that that first one we'd describe as suiting the word distant, the second one suiting the word cold, and then the third one suiting the word explosive. So because of the musical features that are used, they suit those words better than they might others. I'd like you to look at these three words, still, majestic and exciting. I'd like you to think about the musical choices you might make if you're trying to create those moods in music. Try and think of some ways you might use the elements of music for each of those words. You can pause my video while you're doing that. So here're some of the things you might have come up with. You might have said for still, you might have a slow tempo, maybe quiet dynamics, perhaps a thin texture. For majestic, you'dprobably go for some loud dynamics, maybe also a slow tempo because you want to feel grand and majestic and maybe a thick texture to create a sense of power and excitement. And then for exciting, you'd probably go for a faster tempo. Again, probably louder dynamics to create a sense of something exciting. And you could use things like short notes, for example, to help create viewing of their action and excitement. So those answers there are just a few examples. You might well have suggested some different musical features that would suit those words as well. But this is just to get us thinking about how we can use different musical features and use the elements of music to represent different moods effectively. For this task, you're gonna choose one of the following scenes as a stimulus. We've got the deep sea, the fiery volcano, and the unknown galaxy. For whichever one you choose, you're gonna list your most important descriptive words for that scene. So for you, what are the descriptive words that best suit that scene? Once you've done that, I'd like you to have a think about how you might use the elements of music to appropriately reflect that scene. Think in particular about pitch, tempo, dynamics, texture, timbre, and rhythm. So starting to plan out different musical elements and how they would suit those descriptive words for your scene. So you can pause my video now and have a go at this task. Now I'd like you to reflect on your composition plan. Why have you chosen that particular scene, and what did you like about it? What important descriptive words have you chosen to help describe your scene? And how will you use the elements of music? Why are your chosen elements suitable for portraying those descriptive words? So pause my video while you're having a reflection on your composition plan. The final part of today's lesson is looking at composing an initial idea. When we're composing, we need a musical starting point. We can then adapt and shape that idea with the elements of music, but we need something to begin with. We can choose any notes as the basis of our composition, but some musical ideas work better than others. I'd like you to listen to these three motifs. Motifs are just short musical ideas. What do they have in common? Here's the first one. (happy piano music) Here's the second one. (lively piano music) And here's the third one. (joyful piano music) So trying to work out what those three have in common. Pause my video while you're doing that. Okay, let's pick up on some of these points. So a strong musical idea, like these motifs, is usually simple in that it only uses a few notes. And all of those did that. It uses notes which are relatively close together, so not jumping from opposite ends of the piano, but using notes that are quite close together on the instrument. And it repeats or recurs at some point in the music. So generally we want some repetition of musical ideas because it helps embed them, make them memorable for the listener. Now, a pattern that repeats throughout a piece of music is called an ostinato, whereas a musical idea that recurs is a motif. So if we have an idea that comes back lots of different times, but not necessarily repeating constantly, we call that a motif. If we have a pattern that repeats constantly, we'd call that an ostinato. Now remember, these are just a guide. So it's important to listen to your ideas when you're creating your musical ideas and consider the following: did this sound interesting and memorable? That's really key. Do they create an appropriate character and mood for the music? How does the mood of the music change by just changing one or two of the notes? So experiment with making little tweaks to see how it changes the mood. We're gonna have a look at these two versions of the same motif. How does the feeling of the mood of the motif change with just a small change in the pitches? Here's the first example. (tranquil piano music) And here's the second example. How does this change the feeling? (tranquil piano music) So you might have said there that the second example feels less finished, less resolved, maybe a bit more mysterious or it sort of raises an unanswered question at the end, whereas the first one definitely had a feeling of completion and sort of peace. Let's check your understanding. Which two do most effective musical ideas have? Lots of different notes, only a few notes or notes that are close together? I'll give you a few seconds to choose two. And the correct answers here are only a few notes and notes that are close together. That's not to say that an effective musical idea can't have lots of different notes, but generally a good guide is to use only a few notes and ones that are relatively close together on the instrument. Why is repetition important in music? Pause my video while you work this one out. And here we would say that repetition is important because it makes the music memorable. So it creates something familiar that when we hear it again, we recognize it and know we've already heard it. For task C, you're gonna compose a starting musical idea for your scene composition. Here're some success criteria. The notes are close together. You only use a few different notes. You repeat your idea as an ostinato or a recurring motif, and you shape your musical idea with your chosen elements of music. So, for example, maybe you'll play at a fast tempo, maybe you use loud dynamics or choose a certain timbre. And whichever decisions you're making there, make them based on the scene. So make them suit those descriptive words that you've chosen for your scene. But you pause my video now and on you go. To finish off this task, I'd like you to reflect on your composition. How does your musical idea meet the success criteria? What musical choices have you made to reflect your chosen scene? And here are a few questions that might help you reflect really precisely. Are the notes close together? Is it simple? So is it short with only a few different notes? Does it repeat? Then think about how have you used the elements to reflect your scene? So you can pause my video and reflect on your composition. Let's summarize today's lesson. Using the elements of music appropriately can help us depict an image or tell a story with music. Structure is an important element of music that refers to how the sections within a piece of music are organized. We've composed a musical idea as a starting point for a composition which depicts a scene. And it's important that a musical idea recurs like a motif, or it repeats like an ostinato to ensure that the piece is memorable. So that's the end of today's lesson. I hope you're feeling inspired to do a little bit more composition and have got really creative with your musical ideas today. I look forward to seeing you in another lesson. Thank you.