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Lesson · Grade 3 · Arts Education

Pitch, Dynamics and Timbre: How High, How Loud, What Kind of Sound

  • Grade 3
  • Arts Education
  • 1 min 25 s
  • British Columbia
  • BC3-AR-04

A card asks three questions about a note (how high, how loud, what kind of sound) and names them pitch, dynamics and timbre. Beside it a note is drawn as a wave over time, and a short tone plays for each example: lower and higher notes with waves farther apart or closer together, soft and loud notes with small or big waves marked p and f, and a smooth and a buzzy note with the same pitch and loudness but differently shaped waves, ending on a one-line recap.

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In one sentence

The question this lesson answers

Ask three questions about a note: how high, how loud, and what kind of sound?

Musicians call these pitch, dynamics and timbre.

Transcript

What the lesson says

Ask three questions about a note: how high, how loud, and what kind of sound?

Musicians call these pitch, dynamics and timbre.

A note is a vibration, and we can draw it as a wave over time.

Pitch is how high or low a note sounds.

A lower note vibrates more slowly, so its waves are farther apart.

A higher note vibrates faster, so its waves are closer together.

Dynamics means how loud or soft the music is.

A soft sound has small waves and is marked p, for piano, meaning soft.

A loud sound has big waves and is marked f, for forte, meaning loud.

Timbre is the kind of sound, also called tone colour.

This note sounds smooth, and its wave has rounded curves.

This one sounds buzzy, with the same pitch and the same loudness.

Its wave has a different shape, so it has a different timbre.

Pitch is how high, dynamics is how loud, and timbre is what kind of sound.

Curriculum

Where this fits

British Columbia, Grade 3

Arts Education, Music: music: beat/pulse, duration, rhythm (music), tempo, pitch, timbre, dynamics (music), form textureBC3-AR-04

Previous: Beat, Rhythm and TempoNext: Writing Sounds Down: High and Low on a Staff

British Columbia, Grade 4

Arts Education, Music: music: beat/pulse, duration, rhythm (music), tempo, pitch, timbre, dynamics (music), form (music), textureBC4-AR-04

Previous: Beat, Rhythm and TempoNext: Reading Music: The Staff, Notes and Rests

British Columbia, Grade 5

Arts Education, Music: music: beat/pulse, metre, duration, rhythm (music), tempo, pitch, timbre, dynamics (music), form (music), textureBC5-AR-04

Previous: Beat, metre and rhythm: how music moves in timeNext: Reading Music: The Staff, Notes and Rests

British Columbia, Grade 6

Arts Education, Music: music: beat/pulse, metre, duration, rhythm (music), tempo, pitch, timbre, dynamics (music), form (music), textureBC6-AR-02

Previous: Beat, metre and rhythm: how music moves in timeNext: Reading Music: The Staff, Notes and Rests

British Columbia, Grade 7

Arts Education, Music: music: beat/pulse, metre, duration, rhythm (music), tempo, pitch, timbre, dynamics (music), form (music), texture, notationBC7-AR-04

Previous: Beat, metre and rhythm: how music moves in timeNext: Reading Music: The Staff, Notes and Rests

This lesson is also listed in Grade 4, Grade 5, Grade 6 and Grade 7.

The outcomes and strands follow the British Columbia curriculum.

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