ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES

THE ORCHESTRA
Please select and/or adapt any of the following suggested activities to suit the needs of your
children as the children’s experiences will vary from school to school.

1. Instruments of the orchestra

An orchestra is a large group of musicians who play different instruments. Together they can
create lots of different music but they have to all work together to create this great sound.

If possible ask older children and/or peripatetic music staff to come and
demonstrate any orchestral instruments they play.

Instrument Families

Play the children sound bites of orchestral instruments: https://www.mydso.com/dso-

kids/learn-and-listen/instruments

Ask them to think of words to describe the sounds, and what they think the instrument looks
like (is it big/small? Is it wood or metal? Is it blown or plucked?); then show them the name
and picture of the instrument.

Use the following resources for this activity, from Meet the Orchestra Additional Resources:
 Photos of Orchestral Families
 Instrument Cards
 Orchestral Families Card
 A Teacher’s Guide to the Orchestra

Explain to the children that each of the instruments in the orchestra belongs to its own
family, just like we do. Remind the children of the pictures they saw of the whole orchestra,
and that they saw lots of instruments that could be played in lots of different ways.

The instruments are split into families according to how they are played and what they are
made of. Show them the four instrument family pictures with players from the Royal
Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. The orchestra members will be wearing their coloured T-
shirts at the concert to help them identify each family.

Select one instrument from each family: e.g. cello, trumpet, clarinet and timpani: all the
information you need is on the back of the card.
Select one of your four chosen instruments. e.g. clarinet:
Q. Ask the children how they think that instrument might be played. A. Blowing it.
Q. Now ask what is it made of? A. Wood.
Now go through the rest of the cards chosen and discuss how each one makes a sound, and
what it is made of. Reinforce by playing the clip of the instrument.

Using the orchestral families worksheet and a selection of the instrument cards, as a whole
class put the instruments into family groups.
NB Not all woodwind instruments are made of wood!

Instrument Game (photocopy and cut up 2 sets of Instrument Cards)

 Matching pairs in a small group (or as a collaborative activity with the whole class
where children have to walk around the classroom looking for their matching pair).
ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES
THE ORCHESTRA
When the children find their matching pair they need to add them to the right
orchestral family.

2. The Conductor

Show the children the photograph of the orchestra and explain the person who stands in
front is called the conductor. Vasily Petrenko is the Chief Conductor of the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic Orchestra. (However, Alasdair Malloy will be conducting at the schools’
concerts).

The conductor is the person who directs all of the musicians to play together. They do this by
giving the orchestra different signals: this makes them play faster, slower, louder, quieter –
in fact anything the conductor wants to do. Sometimes they use their hands and often they
use a stick called a baton.

Conductor Game

Explain to the children that they will have the opportunity to be the conductor of the class.
They are going to instruct the class to do four things without speaking, just doing an action.

• Stand up
• Sit down
• Hands on heads
• Shake your arms

Demonstrate this to the children yourself: you will need one physical action for each
direction e.g. for ‘stand up’ slowly raise your hands towards the ceiling. In pairs ask the
children to think of a direction for each action. Invite children to come and ‘conduct’ the
class. This could be extended by splitting the class into groups. Everyone sings a well-known
song or nursery rhyme together; when the ‘conductor’ points at a group they stop singing.
Keep starting and stopping different groups.

Cross-Curricular Activities

Literacy Activity: Make a class orchestral instruments Information Book

 Print out the Instrument Picture Cards. (Some children may like to draw instruments
too).
 In pairs/individually choose an instrument card, cut it out and glue it on to a sheet of
paper.
 Write a caption to go with it. Some children may be able to add some more
information.
 Add to the correct section in class book – headings:
strings/woodwind/brass/percussion.
 Add a contents page.
 Design a front cover with title, author.
 Add a blurb on the back.
 Make an index of all the instruments in alphabetical order.
ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES
THE ORCHESTRA
Science Activity: What is it made of and how do you play it?

 Explore lots of instruments from the music trolley.

 Sort and categorise a selection of instruments from the music trolley. Can you name
them? (e.g. wood block, triangle, tambourine).
 What is it made from? (e.g. wood, metal, skin, plastic).
 How do you play it? (e.g. pluck, hit, shake, blow).
 How many ways can you change the sound? (e.g. loud, quiet, short, long, smooth,
jerky etc).

DT Activity: Make your own musical Instruments

How does your new instrument make its sound? Shake, tap, pluck or blow?

Web resources

BBC Ten Pieces

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/Ql028Dg3k9v3Cck38nkPYL/ten-pieces-
guide-to-the-orchestra-free-ebook
Guide to the Orchestra ebook (aimed at KS2 but some good examples of the sound each
instrument makes and how that sound is produced)

Dallas Symphony Orchestra

https://www.mydso.com/dso-kids/learn-and-listen/instruments
Audio examples of each instrument

BBC Bite Size: Let’s play with the orchestra

https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/clips/z9fkq6f
Short clips about different sections of the orchestra

Pictures of the Liverpool Philharmonic and different orchestral instruments can be found in
Additional Resources.