Students will learn:• How tempo is an essential part of music.• How to spot three fundamental tempos: largo, moderato, and presto.• How tempo a�ects the feel of a piece.• How a metronome displays the speed of the beat.

LESSON OBJECTIVES

Tempo is the speed at which music is played. The use of di�erent tem-pos produces di�erent feelings in music. Quaver is writing theme music for Frankie –Hyperspeed Hamster and International Super Rodent– but can’t �nd the correct tempo. This launches an exploration of three fun-damental tempo words: largo, moderato, and presto. Along the way, Quaver encounters Troy the violin player, three trombonists, and a met-ronome. This episode explores several di�erent tempos, and illustrates why tempo is important for music as well as musicians.

VocabularyTempoLargoModeratoPrestoMolto PrestoMetronome

Episode 3

Tempo

1OVERVIEW

Unit 1 Music Theory

© Quaver’s Marvelous World of Music • 1-1

The speed of the beat

1 Quaver scores the Frankie Hyperspeed Hamster and International Super Rodent movie

Tempo a�ects the feel of music. 6

2 The Tempo Words Come From Italy Show

The terms largo, moderato, presto, and molto are used to describe speci�c tempos.

6

3 Taking tempo to the track The tempos covered in the lesson are made more memo-rable with these visual representations.

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4 Troy tries various tempos on the violin

Various tempos are demonstrated on the violin. 6

5 The trombone trio gets in time with a tempo by using a metronome

Using a metronome helps musicians play at the same tempo.

6

Music StandardWhat they teach

MUSIC STANDARDS IN LESSON2: Performing alone and with others a varied repertoire of music*5: Reading and notating music6: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music7: Evaluating music and music performance8: Understanding the relationship between music and the other arts

Complete details at QuaverMusic.com

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Challenge students to name something that is really slow (examples: an elephant, a slug, or grandpa); some-thing that travels at medium or walking pace (a dog, carrying a lunch tray, painting a fence); and something that goes really fast (cheetah, race car, or runner). Ask students to recall events of their day and have them assign a speed (slow, medium, or fast) to each activ-ity:

Brushing teethGetting dressedEating breakfast

Music is played at di�erent speeds. In this episode, students learn the vocabulary and e�ective use of tempo.

2LESSON INTRO Introducing the episode

MUSIC STANDARDS IN LESSONMUSIC STANDARDS IN LESSON2: Performing alone and with others a varied repertoire of music*5: Reading and notating music6:6: Listening to, analyzing, and describing musicListening to, analyzing, and describing music7: Evaluating music and music performance8: Understanding the relationship between music and the other arts

Unit 1 Music Theory

1 Quaver scores the Frankie Tempo a�ects the feel of music.

Key Scenes

* concepts included in the Teacher Guide, but not in the DVD

• What do we call speed in music? tempo• What are the three main tempo words we learned and what do they mean?

largo - slow moderato - medium or walking pace presto - fast

• What does molto mean in music? very• What device did the trombonists use to play at the same tempo? metronome

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Discussion Points

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Lullaby Versus MarchPurpose: How tempo a�ects the feel of music Demonstrate how the tempo a�ects the feeling of the music by playing the following lullabies and marches. Have students mime movements to accompany the pieces.

Track 1 BananasTrack 2 Tears of JoyTrack 3 Sousa’s Washington PostTrack 4 Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, 1st Movement

Then split students into pairs and direct them to mirror movements of each other. Observe with them how movements change to re-�ect the tempo.

Tempo VariationsPurpose: How tempo can add excitement and color

Play the recording of Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite, In the Hall of the Mountain King (Track 5), which repeatedly uses the same rhythm pattern, but gradually gets faster (accelerandos) until it ends. Before listening, familiarize students with the story:

Peer Gynt �nds himself imprisoned inside the castle of the evil moun-tain troll king for refusing to marry the king’s daughter. When night falls, he escapes but is chased by evil trolls. As they catch up with him, he �ghts them o�. Finally the sun rises, the trolls run away to keep from turning to stone, and Peer Gynt is freed.

Have students move to the feel of the music, and act out what they think is happening. Use this activity to help them see how a composer uses variations in tempo to express ac-tion musically.

Tracks 1, 2, 3 & 4

MaterialsNeeded- Beat-keeping instruments

3PLAY EPISODE

Track 5

Purpose: How tempo can add excitement and color

Play the recording of Play the recording of of the Mountain King (Track 5)rhythm pattern, but gradually gets faster (accelerandos) until it ends. Before listening, familiarize students with the story:

Peer Gynt �nds himself imprisoned inside the castle of the evil mountain troll king for refusing to marry the king’s daughter. When night falls, he escapes but is chased by evil trolls. As they catch up with him, falls, he escapes but is chased by evil trolls. As they catch up with him, he �ghts them o�. Finally the sun rises, the trolls run away to keep from turning to stone, and Peer Gynt is freed.

Tempo

4CLASS ACTIVITIES

Freeze-y Tempo Purpose: Keeping a steady tempo at di�erent speeds

Using drums, bongo drums, or any non-pitched percussion instrument, play (or have students play) a pattern in any given tempo while other students move to the beat. Incorporate the game of Freeze by having everyone freeze when the beat stops. Variations could include students freezing in a “low,” “high,” or “like the �rst letter of their last name.”

Taxi and DriverPurpose: Moving to a steady beat

Pair up students by placing one in front of the other. The front student is the taxi, and the back student is the driver. Instruct drivers to gently place their hands on the shoulders of the taxi in front of them. The driver will steer the taxi in an open area in a taxi-trot to the feel and tempo of the music, being careful not to bump other taxis or objects. As the police o�cer, direct tra�c with a whistle: two short whistles mean go and one long whistle means stop. Any time-outs should be short. As a sound track, play Keystone Cops Rag (Track 6) or other uptempo pieces.

Tempo RapPurpose: Memorization, and sticking to a set tempo

Using the lyrics below, have students rap to the tracks provided: Moderato (Track 7) and Presto (Track 8). Discuss the pros and cons of performing the rap at di�erent tempos. Make up a dance and turn it into a perfor-mance. Challenge students to write additional verses.

T-E-M-P-OHow fast or slow those beats can goT-E-M-P-OHow fast or slow those beats can goL-A-R-G-OModerato, Presto.T-E-M-P-OHow fast or slow those beats can go

VIDEO REPLAY Tempo SongPurpose: Listening skills and tapping a steady beat

Play the Tempo Song (Track 9), and instruct students to click, pat, and chant along to the various tempos as the music changes speed.

Track 9

Another way of saying very fast or molto presto is by adding -is-simo to the end of the phrase, making it prestissimo! Likewise, instead of describing a very slow piece as molto largo, it can be expressed as larghissimo.

1-4 • QuaverMusic.com

Track 6

Tracks 7 & 8

Using drums, bongo drums, or any non-pitched percussion instrument, play (or have students play) a pattern in any given tempo while other students move to the beat. Incorporate the game of Freeze by having everyone freeze when the beat stops. Variations could include students freezing in a “low,” “high,” or the beat stops. Variations could include students freezing in a “low,” “high,” or

Pair up students by placing one in front of the other. The front student is the taxi, and the back student is the driver. Instruct drivers to gently place their hands on the shoulders of the taxi in front of them. The driver will

IWB 1

IWB 2

Unit 1 Music Theory

1-5

WEB ACTIVITIES5

Tempo WheelPurpose: Learning to be aware of tempo in the world around them

Encourage students to identify things in their everyday world that have di�erent tempos. For example, a parent may drive a car molto presto.

Tempo ZooPurpose: Associating tempo words with physical movement

Using the worksheet provided, instruct students to write tempo words on the metronome in order of speed and suggest an animal whose movement matches that tempo.

6HOMEWORK

PRINTWORKSHEET

PRINTWORKSHEET

PRINTWORKSHEET

Purpose: Associating tempo words with physical movement

Worksheet # 2

Purpose: Learning to be aware of tempo in the world around them

Worksheet # 1

QBackBeatStudents can play a variety of games that allow them to experiment with the vary-ing tempos covered in this episode.

QGroovesIn QGrooves, music can be written us-ing three di�erent tempos. By combining tiles, students can create their own back-ing tracks at these three tempos.

Play activities on your INTERACTIVE White Board

IWB

Tempo

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MathThe metronome has been used to regulate tempo for hundreds of years. It is designed so that a set-ting of 60 means 60 beats per minute. Listen to any track from this episode and calculate the BPM (Beats Per Minute). To do so, instruct students to count how many beats are in one minute. Their answer will be the metronome mark for that piece. For practice, play Burglar Boogie (Track 15) –85 bpm– and T-Boss (Track 16) –130 bpm– and have students work out the BPM for each. Note: Beats can also be calculated by counting the beats in 10 second increments and multiplying by 6.

Social StudiesIn addition to the many musical innovations that have come from Italy, the world has been shaped by other notable inventions traced to brilliant Italian thinkers. Alessandro Volta invented the bat-tery. Aldus Manutius developed cursive writing. Galileo Galilei invented the telescope. Although most famous as an artist, Leonardo da Vinci was responsible for pioneering many new ideas includ-ing the parachute, armored car, and �ying machines.Assign students to research these inventions and place their introductions on a timeline. Discuss the impact each had on the world.

CROSS-CURRICULUM ACTIVITIES

Tracks 15 & 16

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MaterialsNeeded- Metronome

7 ASSESSMENT

Worksheet # 3

PRINTWORKSHEET

PRINTWORKSHEET

PRINTWORKSHEET

Tempo AssessmentPlay the following tracks and have students circle the correct tempo on their worksheets.Track 10 Oompah - prestoTrack 11 Quack - largoTrack 12 Rabbit Trail - molto prestoTrack 13 Wanderbar - moderatoTrack 14 Thunder - molto largo

Tracks 10, 11, 12, 13 & 14

Additional session activities

IWB 3

Unit 1 Music Theory

Vivaldi’s Tempos Purpose: Basic music analysis

The gifted composer and master of the violin, Antonio Vivaldi was employed as a composer from 1703-1740 by an orphanage for girls. In addition to spending time with students, he composed many of his greatest works at the orphanage.Listen to these snippets from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons: Spring (Track 17), Summer (Track 18), Autumn (Track 19), and Winter (Track 20). How do the di�erent tempos relate to the seasons of the year? Explore with students other techniques Vivaldi uses to illustrate the contrasting seasons. What seems fast, moder-ate, or slow about a speci�c season?

Sonata Form Purpose: The beginning of sonata form, a three-movement piece of di�ering tempos

Just as architecture of the Classical Period was simple and symmetrical, so was the music. Sonatas were three-movement pieces of di�ering tempos balanced with fast �rst and third movements and a second movement that was slow. Listen to Beethoven’s Sonata in F Minor, 1st Movement (Track 21), 2nd Move-ment (Track 22), and 3rd Movement (Track 23) and discuss how the tempos are di�erent. This led com-posers to write symphonies in sonata form with three distinct movements.

9 DIGGING DEEPER

Tracks 17, 18, 19 & 20

Tracks 21, 22 & 23

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Tempo

TEACHER NOTESFeatured

Instruments

Trombone

Violin

Keyboard

Drums

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Unit 1 Music Theory