Essential UK - Music - British Council

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	Essential UK provides lesson plans, materials, activities and useful links based on contemporary United Kingdom topics and issues

Music
By Jo Budden

Theme: Music
Lexical area: Types of music

Instructions for language assistants in Italics

Classroom materials

Introduction
This lesson offers a variety of activities based on the topic of music. Task 1 is a simple vocabulary building task where students think of words within the theme of music starting with each letter of the alphabet. Task 2 is a ‘Find somebody who..’ whole class mingle to get the students asking each other questions connected to music. Task 3 gives the students an opportunity to listen to different types of music and comment on them and Task 4 is a reading text for higher levels on the topic of UK ‘grime’ music. Task 5 is a role play about the topical issue of whether downloading music from the internet should be allowed and Task 6 is a DIY music quiz for the students to produce and do in teams within the class. It will also give you an insight into the world of music in the country you are in.

1. Music A – Z
Write the whole alphabet down the side of the board and write Music at the top. Ask students to think of words associated to the theme of Music that begin with the different letters of the alphabet. Students could work in teams and the team with the most at the end of five or ten minutes wins. You could pool all the teams’ answers to see if between the whole class you get one word for each letter.

Example:

Acoustic
Beat
CD
Drums
Evanescence
Funky
Garage
Hip hop…..

Task 1 Music A – Z
Think about words connected to Music.

Try to write one word beginning with each letter of the alphabet. You could use musical instruments, types of music, singers, bands etc.

Music A - Z

A –
B –
C –
D
etc.

2. Music find somebody who…
Before starting this whole class mingle activity ask the students to write two more statements in the blank spaces at the end of the table. Insist that all students stand up and move around to speak to different people. They should get as many different names as they can and mustn’t use the same two or three classmates for all questions. Give some examples of the extra information they could ask for and check the group are confident with the question forms they need before starting.

E.g. “Have you been to a concert recently?” “Yes”

“Who did you see?” – for the extra information.

Task 2 Music find somebody who…
Before you start, complete the two blank spaces in the table with something you want to find out about your class mates.

Find somebody who…	Name	Extra information
… has been to a concert recently
… plays a musical instrument
… listens to music on a walkman / discman / mp3 player
… has a favourite band or singer
… downloads music from the internet
… would like to be in a band
1.
2.

What did you find out about your class mates?

3. Music clips
This activity takes a bit of preparation on your part but a lesson on music without actually listening to any would be a shame. Most students would really appreciate the change in dynamic of the lesson so your preparation time should pay off! You will need to bring to the class a mixture of different types of music. (pop, classical, punk, reggae, hip hop etc) If you don’t have a big collection maybe you could borrow from friends / students or record snippets from the radio.

Students listen to your clips and write their comments – try to encourage them to think about how they feel when they’re listening to the different music type. The table provided is a basic guideline. If you need to adapt it, put one on the board and ask students to copy it into their notebooks.

Task 3 Music clips
You are going to listen to some different types of music. Complete the table with your comments.

ClipType of musicYour opinion (do you like it / hate it?)How does it make you feel?

Clip	Type of music	Your opinion	How does it make you feel?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Which of the different types of music would you prefer to listen to in the following places:

At a party?
In a supermarket?
In a restaurant?
At home when you’re studying?

At home when you’re relaxing?

Do you think your taste in music will change in the future?
Is music an important part of your life?

4. A New teenage sound
This is a text from the Trend UK website. The level is quite high – upper intermediate and above. You could divide your group into 3 and each group reads one paragraph and then tells the rest of the class about what they’ve read.

Answers:

1) How long does it take to produce a song and hear it on pirate radio nowadays? A few hours

2) Where did Dizzzee Rascal produce his first album? At home

3) What computer game makes it possible for young people to make their own music? Playstation’s Music 2000

4) What sort of music do the Animaniacs make? Eightbar

5) Why does the writer compare ‘grime’ to ‘punk’? Because of the mix of drive, independence and DIY ambition.

Task 4 A New teenage sound
Read the article and then answer the following questions:

How long does it take to produce a song and hear it on pirate radio nowadays?
Where did Dizzzee Rascal produce his first album?
What computer game makes it possible for young people to make their own music?
What sort of music do the Animaniacs make?
Why does the writer compare ‘grime’ to ‘punk’?

A New Teenage Sound
Grime
Technology has made it possible to compose and record a song on a standard PC, or a Sony PlayStation gaming console, burn the track on to a rewritable CD, pass it to a DJ and hear it played on a pirate radio station within hours. This process would have taken months not that long ago. Those that make the music define themselves as 'street', anti-fake and pro-'real'. 'Grime', the most prominent form, is multi-ethnic and, invariably, young and inner-city.
Dizzee Rascal
Last year’s Mercury Music prize winning album Boy in Da Corner was produced by 18-year old Dylan 'Dizzee Rascal' Mills on his home computer, and his top-30 debut single. I luv U took just half an hour to record.
There is a big shift in British music and it’s becoming a lot more accessible for more people to make it.
Making the most of these new opportunities is the younger generation, the people who were the first to grow up surrounded by digital technology. It is a game that has made this all possible, Playstation’s Music 2000. It contains samples of drumbeats, basslines and strings sequenced across a number of recording tracks.
Animaniacs
MCs D-Dan, Tails, Skimzee, Gambles, Sway Kid, Teacher, Chaos, Mac B, Ripper, Trigger and DJ Klass-E are Tottenham’s answer to the So Solid Crew. They are, however, pupils at a North London Community School. Made possible by the group’s music teacher, the Animaniacs meet every lunchtime. There is great dedication, teacher, Greg Parker, states that there could easily be 100 pupils meeting but there are not enough resources. The music they produce is called ‘eightbar’, so called because each MC takes the mic, says his rhymes for eight bars then passes it on. Enthusiasm reigns, ‘we do it to earn respect’ says D-Dan, ‘you look at Dizzee and think If I could do that, I’d be proud of myself’.

It is the mix of drive, independence and DIY ambition that equate ‘grime’ with the UK’s last great youth music revolution, punk.
This text is from the TrendUK website.

Now discuss these questions:

Had you ever heard of ‘grime music’ before reading the article?
Do you know any of the artists mentioned in the text?
Do you think music is getting better or worse in general?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a really famous pop star?

5. Role play
This role play looks at the topical issue of downloading music for free from the internet or burning CDs to make copies. Depending on where you are teaching the students’ attitudes towards this may vary but it could make for an interesting discussion. If you are in a place where pirate copies of CDs are readily available you could use that as a starting point. Ask your students if they’ve ever bought CDs from the vendors on the street / in the market (wherever they operate in your city) and if so if they’ve ever thought about the artist losing out. Give your own view on the topics that arise.

If the students will need a lot of help to prepare for this, you could put half the class together as As and half as Bs and they could gather their thoughts as a group before splitting them off into pairs of one A and one B to actually do the role play.

Task 5 Role play
You are going to do a role play with a partner. Read your role card and prepare your thoughts before you begin.

A – You are a teenager who loves music but you don’t have much money to buy CDs. Downloading music for free from the internet is your favourite hobby and you now have an amazing music collection. You think that singers and bands are all millionaires already so they don’t need the money from selling CDs.

B – You are a famous singer. It makes you angry that people can steal your music by downloading it from the internet. You believe that the artists are losing out and that anyone who downloads music should be treated like a thief and put in prison for their crime.

6. Music quiz
Revise ‘wh’ question words before you start this activity with lower levels. Put the students into teams and ask them to each prepare ten questions about music. They must know the correct answers themselves. Go through the meaning of the ‘wh’ question words first (who, what, when, why, which) and encourage them to use a variety of them in their quiz. Give some examples of questions before they start. E.g. ‘Which group was Robbie Williams in originally?’ ‘Who is number one at the moment?’

When all groups have ten questions ready you can use them however you like. The typical pub quiz format is the most simple. Each team reads out their questions and the other teams write the answers on a piece of paper. After each round swap the papers and mark them and add up the points as you go along.

Task 6 Music quiz
You are going to write a music quiz in a team. You must know the answers to the questions in the quiz. Write the ten questions here:

Music quiz
1.	6.
2.	7.
3.	8.
4.	9.
5.	10.

Internet links
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A3299204 This site has information about Grime music with links to listen to some tracks on line (with Real Player)
http://brits.co.uk/index.jsp This is the home page of the Brit awards. Lots of information about Britain’s favourites
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/ This is a link to an article from the Guardian about the state of British pop
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/profiles/dizzeerascal.shtml This site has information about Dizzee Rascal – with links to listen to some tracks on line.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/multimedia/ This site has an archive of songs with online activities from the BBC.
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/songlyrics_frame.html This site has more online songs, videosand interactive activities from the British Council.