A. Dance / C. Music · Music and Dance

Music: Music Symbols, Soundscapes and How Instruments Make Sound

C1.2 C1.5 C2.1 C2.2About 40 minutes

Learning goals

I can read music symbols for soft and loud (p and f), getting louder and softer, staccato and legato.
I can invent my own symbols and use them to write a soundscape.
I can sort instruments by how they make sound: strumming, striking, shaking or blowing (and others, like bowing).
I can share my response to music and explain how the elements helped create it.

Words to know

dynamics
How loud or soft music is.

articulation
How notes are started and joined: short and detached (staccato) or smooth and connected (legato).

timbre
Tone colour: the special sound of each voice or instrument. Say "TAM-ber".

soundscape
A piece made of sounds (not always a melody) that paints a picture of a place, like a forest or a busy street.

invented symbols
Your own drawings or marks that show how to make sounds.

sound production
How an instrument makes its sound, such as by being struck, shaken, blown, strummed or bowed.

Remember from Grades 1 and 2

You already know forte (loud) and piano (soft), crescendo (getting louder), decrescendo (getting softer), legato (smooth) and staccato (short and bouncy). In Grade 2 you sorted instruments by listening to them.

This year you will read the symbols for these ideas in music, invent your own, and sort instruments by how they make their sound.

A guitar, a hand drum, maracas, a triangle, a recorder and a colourful xylophone on a classroom table. — Classroom instruments make sound in different ways: plucking strings, hitting, shaking and blowing. How would you sort them? AI-generated image

Music symbols: p, f, a staccato dot, a legato slur (curved line) and a crescendo sign.

Symbol	Name	What to do
p	piano	play or sing softly
f	forte	play or sing loudly
< (opening wedge)	crescendo	get louder little by little
> (closing wedge)	decrescendo	get softer little by little
a dot above or below a note	staccato	make the note short and detached
a curved line over notes	legato (a slur)	play the notes smoothly, connected

Standard music symbols for dynamics and articulation.

Inventing your own symbols

Composers sometimes invent symbols, especially for sounds that are not regular notes. You can too!

A big circle could mean a loud drum hit; a tiny dot, a soft tap.
A wavy line could mean a shaker or a whooshing sound.
A line that gets thicker could mean getting louder.

The only rule: include a key that explains what each symbol means, so others can play your music.

How instruments make their sound

Every instrument has its own timbre (tone colour), and part of that comes from how it makes sound:

Strumming: brushing fingers across strings: guitar, ukulele, banjo.
Plucking: pulling one string: harp.
Bowing: drawing a bow across strings: violin (fiddle), cello.
Striking: hitting: drums, xylophone, triangle. (A piano is struck too: pressing a key makes a small hammer hit the strings!)
Shaking: rattles, maracas, shakers, bells on a strap.
Blowing: flute, recorder, trumpet, saxophone, bagpipes.

Many cultures have instruments in each group. A Haudenosaunee horn rattle is shaken; an Inuit frame drum is struck on its rim with a stick; a wooden flute made by many First Nations makers is blown; the Métis fiddle is bowed; a Japanese koto is plucked.

How it makes sound	Instruments	Kitchen version
Strumming / plucking	guitar, ukulele, harp, koto	elastic bands stretched around a box (strum or pluck)
Bowing	violin, fiddle, cello	(hard to make at home!)
Striking	drums, xylophone, triangle, piano, frame drum	pot and wooden spoon; tapping glasses
Shaking	maracas, rattles, shakers, sleigh bells	dry rice in a sealed container
Blowing	flute, recorder, trumpet, bagpipes	blowing across the top of an empty bottle

Sorting instruments by how they make sound.

One instrument from each group. How an instrument makes its sound is part of what gives it its timbre.

Worked example

Example: Writing a soundscape of a Canadian thunderstorm

Let's write a soundscape of a summer thunderstorm, using standard and invented symbols.

Section 1, light rain: fingertips tapping a table, p, getting louder <. Symbol: rows of small dots ∙ ∙ ∙.
Section 2, wind: a shaker swirling, legato. Symbol: a wavy line 〰.
Section 3, thunder: a pot struck with a wooden spoon, f, staccato hits. Symbol: a big filled circle ●.
Section 4, storm passes: back to fingertip rain, getting softer >, until silence.
Key: ∙ = fingertip tap, 〰 = shaker, ● = pot hit.

Our soundscape uses dynamics (p, f, < and >), articulation (legato wind, staccato thunder) and timbre (struck, shaken sounds), plus a key so anyone can perform it.

Just for fun

Fun fact: A piano has strings, but you never touch them! Pressing a key makes a tiny hammer strike the strings, so a piano is a bit of a string instrument and a bit of a striking instrument.

Worked example

Example: Responding to music

Ava listens to a short piece. It starts with soft, smooth flute, then a loud drum enters with short, sharp hits. How can she respond?

Feeling: "At first I felt calm, like I was floating. Then I felt excited and a little surprised."
Elements: "The flute was piano and legato (smooth). The drum was forte and staccato."
How it made the feeling: "The soft, smooth sound made it calm; the loud, short drum hits made it exciting."
Other ways to respond: she could draw a picture with soft, curvy lines for the flute and big, spiky shapes for the drum, or move to it.

Ava shared a personal response, named the elements, and explained how they created the mood.

Hands-on activity

Kitchen orchestra soundscape

You need: a pot and wooden spoon, dry rice in a sealed container, elastic bands around an open box, an empty plastic bottle, paper and markers.

Sort your kitchen instruments: struck, shaken, strummed or plucked, blown.
Choose a place: a forest at night, a hockey game, a winter blizzard or a busy city street.
Write a soundscape with at least 3 sections. Use p, f, <, > and at least two invented symbols. Draw a key.
Perform it with your family as the orchestra. You are the conductor: point to each player when it's their turn.
Ask your audience: "What place did you imagine? Which sounds helped?"

Your turn

What does f mean? What does p mean?

What does a dot above a note mean?

What does a curved line over several notes mean?

Sort: guitar, maracas, drum, recorder. How does each make sound?

How does a piano make its sound?

Draw an invented symbol for a soft shaker sound. Explain it.

Listen to any piece of music. Tell how it made you feel, and name one element.

More practice: warm-up

What is timbre?

Is a triangle struck or shaken?

Is a fiddle bowed or blown?

What does < mean?

What is a soundscape?

More practice: on your own

Why must a composer include a key with invented symbols?

Which symbols would you use for a mouse tiptoeing, then a cat pouncing?

Name one instrument from a First Nations, Métis or Inuit community and how it makes sound.

Make a sound by blowing across the top of an empty bottle. What happens if you add some water?

Two pieces are both about the ocean. One is p and legato; one is f and staccato. What different oceans might they show?

Challenge

Write a short soundscape of a hockey game with 3 sections. Include dynamics, articulation and timbre.

The bagpipe and the recorder are both blown. How can two instruments made to sound in the same way still sound so different?

A composer marks a melody p with a crescendo to f as the melody goes up. Why might she do this?

Check your understanding

Quiz

What does p mean in music?

A dot above a note means ___.

Which instrument is shaken?

How does a piano make sound?

Why should invented symbols have a key?

Timbre means ___.

The Métis fiddle is ___.

For parents and teachers

Big idea: In Grade 3, dynamics and expression include standard symbols for soft and loud (p, f), invented symbols, and articulation and expression marks such as staccato, legato, crescendo and decrescendo. Timbre is now classified by how sound is produced (strumming, striking, shaking, blowing, and others). Students use standard and non-traditional notation such as soundscapes (C1.5), apply the elements (C1.2), express personal responses (C2.1) and describe how elements are used (C2.2).

How to help at home:

Look at printed music or song books together and hunt for p, f, dots and slurs.
Make kitchen instruments and sort them by how they make sound.
When listening to music, ask: "How does it make you feel? What in the music makes you feel that way?"

Common difficulties:

Confusing staccato with fast. Staccato is about short notes; music can be slow and staccato.
Confusing the piano (instrument) with piano (soft). Explain the piano's full name, pianoforte, means it can play soft and loud.
Forgetting a key. Invented symbols need one!

Safety: keep rice containers sealed tightly (small items are a choking risk for younger siblings), and supervise bottle and glass use.