Mix and match activities to create a fun lesson on recognizing different voice timbres. Integrate solfeg.io in teaching your students to learn about timbre, pitch, range, to describe vocal qualities, to listen and analyze them in a song.
🎲 What’s included in the activities:
💻 Materials:
🕐 Time: 10 min
🎯 Objectives:
🎲 Activity:
How would you describe your voice? What about the voices of your friends or your teacher?
How would you describe the voice of your favourite singer?
What kind of voices you don't like?
Try using objective descriptive adjectives instead of subjective evaluations (for example, soft instead of beautiful) - focus on perception, not evaluation.
What do different voices remind you of?
How does singing feel to you?
What other things can you do with your voice? (Talk, whisper, scream, roar, rap, breathe, beatbox…)
🕐 Time: 15 min
🎯 Objectives:
🎶 Recommended Songs:
🎲 Activity:
-Shortly explain what timbre is. (A term describing the tonal quality of a sound. Timbre is a more complex attribute than pitch or loudness, which can each be represented by a one-dimensional scale (high–low for pitch, loud–soft for loudness); the perception of timbre is a synthesis of several factors. - Grove Music Online)
-You can mention that timbre is a unique set of characteristics that makes the voice distinctive. The timbre can be described, using adjectives from students' 'Voice Maps'.
-Talk about the pitch. Female voices are usually higher than male voices. Both can be high-pitched or low-pitched.
-Follow the notation of the song excerpts.
-Ask your students:
🕐 Time: 15 min
🎯 Objectives:
🎶 Recommended Songs:
🎲 Activity:
-Shortly explain what range is. (The extent of an instrument or voice, from the lowest to the highest note; the interval between those notes. - Grove Music Online) The vocal range can be wide/big or narrow/small.
-Follow the notation of the song excerpts.
-Ask your students:
🕐 Time: 10 min
🎯 Objectives:
🎶 Recommended Songs:
🎲 Activity:
-Shortly talk about vocal characteristics of different musical styles or genres. For example, vocals in rock music can sound 'crunchy', 'forced' etc.
-Follow the notation of the song excerpt.
-Ask your students:
-Besides singing, other vocal techniques and effects can be used in songs, for example, indeterminate pitch, rapping, speech, screams, grunts etc.
-Follow the notation of the song excerpt.
🕐 Time: 15 min
🎯 Objectives:
🎶 Recommended Songs:
🎲 Activity:
Is it a man or a woman singing?
Is there just one person singing or more?
Is the voice high or low?
What's the highest and the lowest note sung?
How would you describe the range of the melody?
Are there any other vocal effects used besides singing?
What is the style of this song?
What adjectives would you use to describe the vocal part?
What did you like about singing in this song? What did you not like?
Students practice for 30 seconds. (Optional)
🕐 Time: 5 min
🎯 Objectives:
🎶 Recommended Songs:
🎲 Activity:
🕐 Time: 5 min
🎯 Objectives:
🎲 Activity:
🕐 Time: 5 min
🎯 Objectives:
🎲 Activity:
Challenge students to go beyond the lesson by...
In this lesson, students will learn to recognize different vocal timbres. Listening to different songs, they will expand the vocabularies they use to describe voices. They will study the basics of vocal techniques, characteristic of different musical styles. Students will learn to analyze the vocal part of a song, following the notation.
The timing and pacing of the exercises in this lesson plan example are approximate and will differ depending on your students' skill level. If the pace of this lesson plan is too fast for you, divide it into several lessons and add additional activities (see 'Activities' section). If the pace of this lesson plan is too slow for you, explore the 'Beyond the lesson' chapter at the end of this lesson plan for additional activities.
⏰ Time: 50 min
🎓 Grades: 5-12
🎯 Objective(s): As a result of this lesson students will be able to...
💡 Required Prior Knowledge and Skills:
💻 Materials:
🕐 10 min - Voice map
How would you describe your voice? What about the voices of your friends or your teacher?
How would you describe the voice of your favourite singer?
What kind of voices you don't like?
Try using objective descriptive adjectives instead of subjective evaluations (for example, soft instead of beautiful) - focus on perception, not evaluation.
What do different voices remind you of?
How does singing feel to you?
What other things can you do with your voice? (Talk, whisper, scream, roar, rap, breathe, beatbox…)
🕐 20 min - Theory
-Shortly explain what timbre is. (A term describing the tonal quality of a sound. Timbre is a more complex attribute than pitch or loudness, which can each be represented by a one-dimensional scale (high–low for pitch, loud–soft for loudness); the perception of timbre is a synthesis of several factors. - Grove Music Online)
-You can mention that timbre is a unique set of characteristics that makes the voice distinctive. The timbre can be described, using adjectives from students' 'Voice Maps'.
-Talk about the pitch. Female voices are usually higher than male voices. Both can be high-pitched or low-pitched.
-Follow the notation of the song excerpts.
-Ask your students:
-Shortly explain what range is. (The extent of an instrument or voice, from the lowest to the highest note; the interval between those notes. - Grove Music Online) The vocal range can be wide/big or narrow/small.
-Follow the notation of the song excerpts.
-Ask your students:
-Shortly talk about vocal characteristics of different musical styles or genres. For example, vocals in rock music can sound 'crunchy', 'forced' etc.
-Follow the notation of the song excerpt.
-Ask your students:
-Besides singing, other vocal techniques and effects can be used in songs, for example, indeterminate pitch, rapping, speech, screams, grunts etc.
-Follow the notation of the song excerpt.
🕐 10 min - Exercise 1 - Radio-analyze
Is it a man or a woman singing?
Is there just one person singing or more?
Is the voice high or low?
What's the highest and the lowest note sung?
How would you describe the range of the melody?
Are there any other vocal effects used besides singing?
What is the style of this song?
What adjectives would you use to describe the vocal part?
What did you like about singing in this song? What did you not like?
Students practice for 30 seconds. (Optional)
🕐 5 min - Exercise 2 - Radio-active!
🕐 5 min - Discussion
Challenge students to go beyond the lesson by...
