A Journey Through Space – Teacher Notes
Mission: To create a musical journey through space.
Learning Objectives
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To be able to compose music with a structure to represent a journey (programme
music.)
To be able to choose sounds and use their voices to create space effects
To be able to layer sounds to use a different effect.
The PowerPoint and notes here will take you through a complete Rondo composition,
however you can dip in and out of the composition. You might just want to create one of the
adventures for example and create Alien Conversation Compositions which would be standalone compositions rather than part of a bigger composition. There are opportunities for
using voices, and body percussion as well as whatever instruments you have available, if
you have access to a tablet or ICT, you will be able to record your compositions or have fun
with some of the voice changers that you can download.
The composition will use one of the following structures:
Ternary Form
A
First section
B
A
Contrasting middle section
Repeat of the first section
Rondo Form
A
First section
B
A
C
A
Contrasting section
Repeat first section
Different contrasting section
Repeat first section
Represents a spaceship flying through
space
The spaceship has an adventure
The spaceship flies off again
Represents a spaceship flying through
space
The spaceship has an adventure
The spaceship flies off again
The spaceship has another adventure
The spaceship flies off again
A countdown could form an introduction.
This composition could be done in a number of different ways e.g.
1) As a class with everyone playing the space theme and different groups taking on
adventures – the Rondo form could be extended to take this into account.
2) In groups, coming up with their own spaceship theme and adventures.
Warm ups
There are four warm ups at the beginning of the powerpoint. Select them as appropriate for
the part of the power point you are using.
Magic Finger
LO: For pupils to be able to follow directions and make appropriate sounds according to the
directions.
Ask the pupils to hum or sing a note and as you move your finger up or down they need to
respond by moving their voices up or down in pitch. You can vary the speed and range of
the pitch. You could also dot your finger around so that they have to make shorter sounds or
suddenly jump in pitch.
You can ask a member of the class to take over the magic finger.
Space Beam
LO: For pupils to follow direction and understand that they can vary the amount of
instruments sounds playing at once. (Texture.)
Make sure each pupil has a sound or an instrument, this could be body percussion, vocal
sounds or different sounds on an instrument.
Your arms are the beam and those pupils within the beam need to play. (Extend your arms
in a V, and vary the size of the V. Experiment to everyone playing to just a narrow beam with
a few. You can also ask a member of the class to take over the beam.
Extension: Separate the class into different sound groups e.g. those with vocal sounds,
those with hitting sounds.
Space Switch
LO: For pupils to learn to multi-task and to play one sound whilst concentrating ready to
replicate another one.
This can be done with movements e.g. clicking, stamping, clapping, tapping, waving, sound
effects.
Composing the Space Theme
LO: To create music that represents a space ship flying.
There are many different ways of creating the space ship depending on the resources you
have available. This could be vocal or using instruments.
Example: There is an audio example of a space theme. This consists of 4 parts:
1) A repeated C in the piano
2) A held on C in the bass
3) Cymbals on a fast rhythm
4) A very slow violin note going gradually upwards.
It has been put together with parts 1, 2 and 3 starting, then two repeats with all four parts
before finishing with the violin part.
If you are using tuned instruments then the pentatonic scale is a good place to start:
CDE GA
If not, layer the rhythms with any instruments or sounds that you have.
The rhythms are:
Play the rhythms first to the class and get them to repeat them back to you, once you are
sure that they are secure then ask them either to find different pitches or sounds to play on
the rhythms.
Then decide on a structure as above.
The “What went Well” and “Even Better If” sections allow you to do some evaluation of the
work. This could be play it through and then make improvements and then play it through
again. Or record the composition and then listen to it back, discuss the “What went well” and
“Even better if” sections and then act upon the even better if.
Extension
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Pupils could compose their own rhythms or melodies – extending to 8 bar ostinatos
(repeated patterns.)
Use of chords if they have learn them on their instruments.
Use of a drone – 2 notes C to G.
The Adventures
The pupils will almost certainly come up with a wide variety of adventures, just some of the
more common ones are listed here. If you are confident, then there is no reason why the
pupils can’t compose their own adventures with your guidance. However here are some
suggestions for the most popular ones.
Conversation with Aliens
This is very easy to do and makes excellent use of the voice if you do not have many
resources. If you have access to an Ipad or tablet there are some excellent programmes that
you can download to change your voice. (Garageband has an alien voice changer for
example.)
Start with planning sections on the PowerPoint as this will give you some starting points for
their compositions. Encourage use of the voice, e.g. changing the pitch, or different sounds
for the voices. This could be done in pairs.
The example
The example uses questions in English, with then a mixture of sounds for answers. The
Alien voice has been modified on using Garageband on an IPad. Some of the questions
have layered voices in the answers so more than one person has answered. This could be
done very effectively. This example assumes that the Aliens have an automatic translator
and can understand us.
Spaceship Battle
To create a space ship battle in space generally needs either sound effects or lots of
rhythms.
The example uses call and response rhythms to show firing and a space ship being hit. It
also layers rhythms to show that the two space ships are firing at each other at once. There
are the layers to start with then two call and response sections before ending with both
space ships firing at each other, before it fades out.
Ask pupils to come up with a rhythm and then respond to it. Make sure that they stick to the
same number of beats. Each one has four beats to play with – they don’t have to use them
all. This will make the sections more effective.
Landing on a foreign planet
This is an opportunity for pupils to create a soundscape. What noises are they going to
hear? The sounds then need to be layered together. You could put the pupils in groups e.g.
some come up with bird sounds, weather sounds, talking, trees. You could easily use the
Space Beam warm up to help with putting the soundscape together. This suits body
percussion and vocal sounds, although you can experiment with creating lots of different
sounds on instruments if you wanted to.
The example has lots of different sounds that are layered together and ends with the same
sounds that it started with. You could structure this as a walk through a different planet and
what would they hear on their walk.
Evaluation Sections
Throughout the composition, there are opportunities for the pupils to evaluate their own work
– what went well and even better if. This works best if done before the end of the session so
the pupils have some time to act upon their “even better ifs”. On each evaluation slide there
are the elements that should be included so encourage the pupils to use these in their
feedback to each other.
Differentiation
There are a number of ways to differentiate the tasks:
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Ask a pupil to be the conductor in a warm up.
With the rhythms ask them to extend to 8 beats or longer or give one of the easier
rhythms at the top.
Ask pupils to layer their sounds in groups.
Modify the space ship theme when it returns e.g. slow it down if it is damaged after a
battle.
Adding repeated sections in the structure of each adventure rather than just a
beginning, middle or end.