GCSE Music MODES and POP CHORDS

This topic builds upon prior knowledge of chords and scales. There is a dual focus in this topic on modes and added and suspended note chords as found in Pop Music, including how they are labelled and inverted.

Students are introduced to the Ionian mode which they identify as the Major scale. They are then taken through the Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian modes, focusing on how each of these modes are simply rearrangements of the Ionian about different notes. Students are taught how rearranging the notes (and therefore chords) of the Ionian change the sound because it changes the tonality of strategic chords – most notably the Primary chords. Activities follow to transpose and identify modes using their unique fixed-interval semitone (half-step) patterns.

Students are then introduced to added-note chords, specifically the added 2nd, 4th, and 9th chords – all chords that will be found in any study of The Beatles. Students are taken through how major, minor, augmented, and diminished chords are written in pop music, and how the notes can be worked out using scales and the intervals between the 3 basic notes of the triad. From this point they are shown how to add the 2nd and 4th and how the 2nd becomes a 9th – and plenty of activities follow to consolidate the learning. Following this, suspended-note chords are introduced using similar techniques and, again, plenty of activities follow to consolidate learning – all with detailed answers. The conclusion is to briefly look at Power Chords and inversions of basic pop chords – again, with activities.

All of this comes with a 34-slide animated and beautifully-presented PowerPoint, annotated with detailed teaching guidance notes, to make delivery of the topic smooth and efficient – plus a 6-page student information sheet, 4-page activity sheet, and 3-page detailed answer sheet. With regards to the listening questions, MP3s are provided (and they are always my own compositions), and you may well want to insert the audios into the slide rather than use media player.

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