Brass Instruments

These are brass instruments. Trumpets, French Horn, Trombone, Tuba (in the middle). Tuba has the lowest pitch. Get used to the sound. Oh, and this is a brass quintet (5 brass instruments).

Brass instruments might use a mute to change the sound. Watch this to see how they work, and how the sound (or timbre) is different.

String instruments

So, here are the main string instruments. Violin, Viola and 'Cello. There is also the double bass, but not in this extract.
This film features pizzicato (plucking), tremolo (that suspense effect) and arco (with the bow). Oh, and homophonic music, imitation and much more.

Violin and Cello

Now if you skip through to 2 mins into this video, you will see a violin (Nigel Kennedy playing) and a cello on their own. They are playing some Bach inventions, but it is a great way to hear the difference in sound and see what the instruments look like and how they are played. They are both string instruments.

The flute, Baroque music and jazz

Now, have a look at this. Fantastic.  Jiří Stivín, an amazing flute player who is performing two pieces: a baroque piece with a string orchestra, with homophonic texture. The second is Jazz, with improvisation and all those instruments. He then moves onto the saxophone. I challenge you not to be amazed by this.

Cadences

If you are unsure about cadences, a basic but informative video to help.
Perfect, Plagal, Interrupted, Imperfect are the keywords.

Tonality

Here is something about tonality, if you need help understanding it. From a school in Slough, but well worth watching. Looks at the keywords of major and minor, plus others.

Melody

Here are the presentations from the lessons Mr Thomas prepared, giving descriptions of the keywords.

Presentation 1

Presentation 2

Use to check that you have the correct definitions of the keywords.

The following sheet and podcast will test your knowledge. You can also use the podcast on its own. Click on the sheet to make it bigger and print from here.

 

Melody

The melody (or tune) is one of the most important parts of music. This podcast covers the keywords diminution, sequence, inversion, glissando, portamento, ornamentation, ostinato, riff, methods of articulation, pitch bend and improvisation.

Also listen to this. It starts with diminution.

Tonality

Here is the podcast for Tonality, looking at the keywords major, minor, modal and modulation.