Music Dance and Drama

Objectives
By the end of this unit, I will able to:
⦿ Differentiate a tone from semitone.
⦿ Explain different accidentals.
⦿ Identify the roles of accidentals in music.
⦿ Sing sol-fas respecting tones and semitones.
⦿ Listen attentively to altered notes.
⦿ Sol-fa respecting the accidentals.
⦿ Appreciate the use of major and minor scales.

Introduction
In your study of how to read and write music, you need to know the
various signs and the meanings. However, let us first sing the song
Baby Jesus.

Lesson 1: Tone

Baby Jesus

Activity 1
1. Sing the song Baby Jesus.
2. Say what you know about Jesus.
3. Sing other songs in Kinyarwanda about Jesus.

On the keyboard you saw that it has tones and semitones. The
Semitones appear between E and F and then B and C, the rest are
Tones that is C to D, D to E, F to G, A to B.
In the song you have just sung, the first words “Baby Jesus” have the
notes C D E C. (in sol-fas d r m d) which have full tones.

The words “I love you” in the song Baby Jesus have notes EFG (sol-fas:
m f s) whereby from E to F is a semitone and then from F to G is a tone.

Activity 2
1. Observe the next phrase “you are my savior” and find out where
we have tones and semitones.
2. Compose your own melody and create for it the lyrics (words)
about baby Jesus.

Activity 3
1. Sing the major scale from d to d upwards and down words.

Note that, you have sung big and little steps. The step you made from
one note to another is what is called a tone. When you move a step
from one note to the next on a music scale you get a tone. For example
D to R, R to M etc.

Activity 4
1. Look at the key board buttons below and see where the tones
and semi tones are placed.
2. Write in your books the tones using letters that you can see
below.

Semi tones
A half of a tone is called a semitone.
For example C to C sharp, D to D sharp, E to F

Activity 5
The major scale is made up of tones and semi tones.
1. Listen to the played major scale from either a keyboard or a
recording device and sing it.
2. Listen to the following played semitones and sing them that is
E to F and B to C.

Activity 6
1. Draw a key board diagram and show with arrows the semi tone
buttons.

Activity 7
1. Look at these music melodies. Write them in your books and
put a tick on the pairs that are semitones.

Lesson 2: Accidentals
An accidental is a note of a pitch that is not a member of the scale
indicated by a given key signature. They are either flattened or sharpened
notes as you are about to learn them using the activities below.

In music, the unexpected notes which are not the normal ones are
called accidentals. They are marked by the following signs.
Sharps ( ),flats ( ) and natural ( )

Sharps
Look at the notes below and listen to them being played on a piano or
recorded device then do the following.

Activity 8
1. Tell the sharpened note and explain why?
2. Look at the notes again and identify the flat sign on the staff.
3. Draw the sharp sign on a piece of paper.
4. Discuss with the class your answers and find out whether you
got the tasks above right.

The sign that raises a note half step higher is known as a sharp. It
looks like this ( ).

Activity 9
1. Observe the staff and identify the position of the sharp sign on
the line and in space.
2. Draw it in correctly in your exercise book.

Activity 10
1. Use your knowledge from senior one to name the spaces and
lines where the sharp signs are.

Activity 11
1. Draw a sharp in front of these notes.

Lesson 3: Flats
Look at the notes below and listen to them being played on a piano or
recorded device then do the following.

Activity 12
1. Tell the flattened note and explain why.
2. Look at the notes again and identify the flat sign on the staff.
3. Draw the flat sign on a piece of paper.
4. Discuss with the class your answers and find out whether you
got the tasks above right.

When you are singing some songs usually you find flats in music.
The sign that lowers a note half step is known as a flat. It looks like
this ( ).

Activity 13
1. Observe the staff again and identify the position of the flat sign
on the line and in space.
2. Draw it in correctly in your exercise book.

Activity 14
1. Use your knowledge of Senior One to name the spaces and
lines where the flat signs are.

Activity 15
1. Draw a flat in front of each of these notes.

Lesson 4: Natural
Look at the notes below and listen to them being played on a piano or
recorded device then do the following.

Activity 16
1. Tell the naturalised notes and explain why.
2. Look at the notes again and identify the natural sign on the
staff.
3. Draw the natural sign on a piece of paper.
4. Discuss with the class your answers and find out whether you
got the tasks above right.

The sign that restores a note that was previously raised or lowered to
its normal position is known as a natural. It looks like this ( ).
Look at the following staff and do the activity that follows.

Activity 17
1. Observe the staff and identify the position of the natural sign on
the line and in space.
2. Draw it correctly in your exercise book.

Activity 18
1. Restore the raised notes in the staff below using natural signs.

Activity 19
1. Naturalise the sharpened notes on the staff.

Lesson 5: Keys and Key Signatures
A key in music like the one for house doors is the starting note that
guides us on to find the doh (starting note) on staff. Its what we call a
key. Keys are represented by symbols known as key signatures. They

are placed at the beginning of a piece of music like this. For a student
to identify the key, they have to look at the signs ()

Activity 20
1. Place a sharp sign and a flat sign on each of the staff below.

Lesson 6: Construction of Keys
In order to construct keys you need to know what a scale is.
A scale is a series of notes arranged in alphabetical order from a given
note to its octave. A scale can be started from any note from the staff.
For our study we will start from the scale of C.

Look at this scale

Activity 21
1. Now construct your own scale of C.
A scale can be divided into two equal parts of four notes each.
Each of these parts is called a tetra chord (tetra to mean 4 notes).

The order of tones and semitones in a scale has to be like this:
1st to 2nd is a tone
2nd to 3rd is a tone
3rd to 4th is a semitone
4th to 5th is a tone
5th to 6th is a tone
6th to 7th is a tone
7th to 8th is a semitone.

This is represented on the staff like this

T = Tone
ST = Semitone
Hence C D E F G A B C

Sing the scale you have drawn in ascending and descending
order.

Activity 22
1. Draw a on a treble clef and write a scale showing the two tetra
chords as the above.
From the second tetra chord you can form a new scale by just
adding four notes to make a whole scale. Like this;

Then you only need a sharp sign on the third note of the new
tetra chord to make the semitone occur in the proper place. i.e
the semitones has to be between the 7th and 8th notes of the
scale.
Like this;

When we are writing the scale we put the sharp sign at the
beginning of the staff like this:

What we have constructed is now called key G major.

Activity 23
1. Draw the staff with a scale G major.
You can use the same procedure to form another scale

3.2 Formation of major scales with Flats
For the scales with flats, you take the fourth note of the first tetra chord
as the starting note for the new scale and put a flat on the seventh note
counting from the previous scale or the fourth note of the new scale.
Like this

Activity 24
1. Draw the staff with scale of F major.

Activity 25
1. Put key signatures needed to make the scales below F and G.

When you listen to the scales played in the two different keys of F and
G, they will sound the same but with different ranges.

Activity 26
Listening and sol-fa singing
1. Listen to the scale played in Key F and sing after it.
2. Listen to the scale played in Key G and sing after it.
3. Of the two scales which one sounded higher/had a higher
range?

End unit assessment
1. Draw the accidental signs you have learnt in this unit.
2. Name each of them and state their roles in music compositions.
3. Explain the meaning of a key when studying music.
4. Construct a major scale of G on a music staff.
5. Construct a major scale of F on a music staff.

Glossary
An accidental: is a note of a pitch that is not a member of the
scale indicated by a given key signature. They
are either flattened or sharpened notes.
Flats: is a sign which flattens/lowers a note.
Key signature: is a set of sharps, flats and natural signs
placed together on the music staff
to determine the notes that are to be
sung or played higher or lower than the
corresponding normal notes
Music Key: this is a group of pitches or scale upon which
a music composition is made. It may be in a
major or minor with a starting note (tonic) of
either Doh in the major keys or La in the minor
keys.
Music note: is a sign used in staff notation to represent
relative rhythm and pitch of sound.
Natural: is a sign which normalises a raised note.
Sharp: is a sign that raises a note.
Tone: is a steady periodic sound.