A LEVEL MUSIC COMPOSITION Harmonising a Melody AQA Edexcel OCR Eduqas

This is an Introduction to 4-part harmony. It is a full and comprehensive topic that would fit nicely into 3 x 1-hour lessons, but could be squeezed into 2 x 1-hour lessons with a gifted A-Level Music class if the final task was also set as homework.

The content is based around an introduction to Bach Chorales. There are 4 tasks in total.

Task 1 is: choosing chords to harmonise a melody. This is based on identifying the key , drawing out triads, and matching given melody notes with the triads/ chords, leading to a 4-part arrangement of the chord progression they have chosen, applying the techniques that are introduced throughout.

Task 2 is: Arranging for 4 parts. Students are given a fixed chord progression with which to harmonise the melody from task 1. Meanwhile the PowerPoint will take them through the following: Note Doubling; Consecutive 5ths ; Consecutive 8ves ; Consecutive Unisons ; Chord Spacing ; Six-Way check (SA; ST; SB; AT; AB; TB) to prevent banned consecutives.

Task 3 is: Using passing notes to create momentum. Students will be shown a model answer on the PowerPoint to Task 2, which then becomes the starting point for Task 3. The PowerPoint takes students through passing notes (what they are, what they do, and pitfalls of using too many at once) and then students are to add passing notes to the given arrangement.

Task 4 is: Working in a minor key. Students use the tonic minor to largely transfer their arrangement from the major, but new concepts are introduced for them to think about: melodic augmented 2nds (and using the melodic minor scale to avoid them); Tierce de Picardie cadence (where, how, and why it’s used); the tricky Mediant in minor keys.

From a teaching perspective, you have a full 20-slide Powerpoint making delivery of content easy, MP3 audios of the model answers so students can hear how nice good 4-part writing really sounds, Sibelius 5, 6, 7, and 7.5 templates if you want to use Music ICT to complete the tasks, 4 x PDF worksheets (that you’ll want to hand out one at a time because model answers become the next worksheet!) in case you don’t have/ don’t wish to use Music ICT.

I take great care to ensure my resources are of the highest quality – both in content and in presentation – and I wholeheartedly recommend them to both you and your students. I welcome feedback and enquiries from my colleague-customers the world over, and I can be contacted directly at rainynightmusic@hotmail.com. I would be delighted to hear from you, and I thank you for considering this resource for your classroom.