A. Dance / C. Music · Music and Dance

Music: Getting Louder, Smooth or Bouncy, and Tone Colour

C1.2 C2.1 C2.2About 35 minutes

Learning goals

I can sing and play getting louder (crescendo) and getting softer (decrescendo).
I can sing and play smoothly (legato) and short and bouncy (staccato).
I can sort instruments into groups by listening to their sound (tone colour).
I can describe how a piece of music makes me feel, and how the composer used the elements of music to do it.

Words to know

dynamics
How loud or soft music is.

forte (f)
Loud. The symbol is f.

piano (p)
Soft. The symbol is p. (A piano is also an instrument!)

crescendo
Getting louder little by little. The symbol is an opening shape like <.

decrescendo / diminuendo
Getting softer little by little. The symbol is a closing shape like >.

legato
Smooth and connected, with no gaps between notes.

staccato
Short and detached (separated), bouncy. Shown with a dot above or below the note.

timbre (tone colour)
The special sound of a voice or instrument that makes it sound different from others.

A thunderstorm in your kitchen

Rub your hands together softly... tap your fingers... pat your knees... stomp your feet! Now go backward: knees... fingers... hands... silence.

You made a storm that got louder and then got softer. In Grade 1 you learned loud and soft. This year you will learn to change little by little.

Dynamics: changing little by little

piano (p) = soft
forte (f) = loud
crescendo = getting louder, little by little
decrescendo (also called diminuendo) = getting softer, little by little

Crescendo opens wider as the sound grows. Decrescendo closes as the sound shrinks.

Articulation: smooth or bouncy?

How you start and join notes changes the feeling.

Legato = smooth and connected, like a skater gliding on the ice. Sing "Laaa-laaa-laaa" with no breaks.
Staccato = short and detached, like popcorn popping or a bouncing ball. Sing "La! La! La!" with tiny gaps. A dot over a note means staccato.

The same four notes played two ways. A curved line (a slur) means legato: smooth and joined. A dot over each note means staccato: short and detached.

Timbre: every sound has a colour

Close your eyes. Can you tell your mom's voice from your grandpa's? You can, because every voice and instrument has its own timbre (say TAM-ber), or tone colour.

We can sort instruments by how they make their sound:

A guitar, a hand drum, a pair of maracas, a recorder, a triangle and a tambourine on a classroom floor. — Each of these instruments has its own tone colour. Which ones make sound by plucking strings, which by shaking or striking, and which by blowing air? AI-generated image

Family	How the sound is made	Examples
Woodwind	blowing air across or through a tube	recorder, flute, clarinet, oboe, saxophone
Brass	buzzing your lips into a metal tube	trumpet, trombone, French horn, tuba
Stringed	plucking, strumming or bowing strings	violin (fiddle), cello, guitar, harp, sitar (India), erhu (China)
Membrane (drums)	hitting a skin stretched over a frame or pot	snare drum, djembe (West Africa), tabla (India), frame drum (Inuit), powwow drum
Pitched percussion	hitting bars or metal that play different pitches	xylophone, glockenspiel, steel pan (Trinidad and Tobago)
Electronic	made or changed with electricity	synthesizer, electric keyboard, drum machine

Instrument families. Woodwind and brass are both wind instruments.

Instruments as characters

In Peter and the Wolf (1936), the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev gave each character its own instrument: the bird is a flute, the duck is an oboe, the cat is a clarinet, the grandfather is a bassoon, the wolf is three French horns, and Peter is the string instruments. Listen and see if you can hear the different tone colours!

Worked example

Example: How a composer uses the elements

A lullaby is meant to help a baby fall asleep. What dynamics, articulation and tempo might it use? What tone colour?

Purpose: help a baby relax and sleep.
Dynamics: piano (soft), maybe a decrescendo at the end so it fades away.
Articulation: legato (smooth), like rocking.
Tempo: slow.
Tone colour: a gentle voice, a soft flute or a quiet guitar, not a loud trumpet or drum set.

A lullaby is usually soft, smooth and slow with a gentle tone colour, because that matches its purpose: calming a baby.

Just for fun

Why did the musician whisper in the library?

She was playing piano!

Worked example

Example: Responding to music

Listen to the beginning of "Winter" from The Four Seasons, written by the Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi about 300 years ago. The violins play short, repeated notes that get louder. How does it make you feel, and why?

My feeling: "It makes me feel cold and shivery, like waiting for the school bus in January."
Why (articulation): the notes are short and repeated, like teeth chattering.
Why (dynamics): it gets louder (crescendo), like the cold getting stronger.
Why (timbre): it is played by stringed instruments.

A good response gives a feeling and a reason using music words.

Hands-on activity

Sound sorting and storm music

You need: things from around the house: a pot and spoon, a box with elastic bands stretched over it, a bottle to blow across, a set of keys, a toy keyboard or a phone keyboard app (optional).

Sort your sounds into families: Which ones are strings (elastic bands)? Wind (blowing across the bottle)? Membrane or drum (the pot, or a box)? Something else?
Close your eyes. A grown-up plays one sound. Guess which object it was by its tone colour.
Storm music: Start piano with fingers tapping, crescendo to a loud thunder on the pot, then decrescendo back to silence.
Play it again, once staccato (short taps) and once legato (long rubs and swirls). Which sounds more like rain? Which like wind?
Tell your family how your music made you feel.

Your turn

What does crescendo mean?

Sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" with a decrescendo.

Sing "la la la la" staccato, then legato.

Which family is a trumpet in?

Which family is a violin in?

What symbol means soft?

Listen to any song. Tell how it makes you feel and one music reason why.

More practice: warm-up

What does f mean?

Is a ball bouncing more like legato or staccato?

Is a skater gliding more like legato or staccato?

Which family is a drum in?

What word means the special sound of an instrument or voice?

More practice: on your own

A marching band gets closer and closer down the street. What happens to the dynamics? What is the music word?

Sort these: flute, tuba, guitar, xylophone.

Why might a song about a mouse tiptoeing use staccato and piano?

In Peter and the Wolf, which instrument plays the bird? Why is it a good choice?

How is a steel pan different from a djembe?

Challenge

Plan music for a snowball fight. Choose dynamics, articulation and an instrument family. Explain.

Why might a composer use a tuba (low brass) for a bear and a flute for a butterfly?

The same song is sung once legato and piano and once staccato and forte. How do the feelings change?

Check your understanding

Quiz

Getting louder little by little is called ___.

Short, detached, bouncy notes are ___.

Which instrument is in the brass family?

The symbol p means ___.

Which would best fit a lullaby?

A xylophone and a steel pan both belong to ___.

Timbre means ___.

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Grade 2 students explore gradual changes in dynamics (crescendo, decrescendo/diminuendo), articulation (legato, staccato), classify instruments by their sound (timbre), express personal responses to music, and describe how composers use the elements for different purposes.

How to help:

Listen to Peter and the Wolf (Prokofiev), The Carnival of the Animals (Saint-Saëns) or "Winter" from The Four Seasons (Vivaldi); all are easy to find online and in public libraries.
Play "Guess the instrument" with music on the radio.
Ask "How does this music make you feel? What in the music makes you feel that way?"

Common difficulties:

Jumping from soft to loud instantly. Practise counting 1 to 8 as you grow louder step by step.
Confusing staccato with fast. Staccato can be slow too; it is about short notes with gaps.
Thinking all drums are the same family as xylophones. Both are percussion, but only pitched percussion plays melodies.