成人快手

How do we make music?

Cartoon Tchaikovsky with some written music

Music is mostly made from two things: and .

Let's see how we can rhythms to use in our piece of music and have some fun along the way!

Cartoon Tchaikovsky with some written music
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Watch: Pulse and rhythm with composer Anna Meredith

'There are no rules, just rhythms!'

Lightning Jelly explore and rhythms with , Anna Meredith.

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What is a rhythm?

A cartoon of a young girl playing the drums

A rhythm is a pattern of sounds of different lengths.

Rhythms are everywhere in music.

Drummers use lots of different rhythms to create and .

A cartoon of a young girl playing the drums

Watch: Patterns of different lengths

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Watch: Compose your own rhythm

Now you know what rhythms are - let's have a look at composing some of our own.

  1. Tap on your shoulders for two beats.
  2. In the gap, try saying apple pie or cheese pizza.
  3. Keep tapping your shoulders.
  4. Now have a go at saying your favourite food in the gap.
  5. Try clapping your favourite food rhythm out.

You can explore different rhythms by .

A cartoon of Anna Meredith smiling and pointing to text that says "Remember"

Remember to keep the pulse going all the way through.

You are on the way to becoming a great composer!

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How do rhythms make us feel?

Rhythms are very important when composing melodies too.

We can make sections of music feel different by the rhythms we use.

A rhythm with lots of quick sounds might make us feel excited while rhythms with longer and slower sounds might make use feel calm, sad or sleepy!

Ruby and Ben learning about rhythms
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Activities

Keep the beat

Lottie and Hasan playing instruments

With a friend or family member, ask them to keep the pulse by marching on the spot and counting one, two, three, four in time with their marching.

Now as they keep the pulse, see if you can come up with some rhythms that fit in those four beats.

You can try repeating them or you can leave pauses to make it exciting!

Instead of marching, you could try patting your knees or clicking your fingers.

Lottie and Hasan playing instruments
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Quiz

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Bitesize Primary games. game

Play fun and educational primary games in science, maths, English, history, geography, art, computing and modern languages.

Bitesize Primary games
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More on Creating Music

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