Take to the Air

School Radio > Music > Join in with Music

A quaint, lilting piece about birds, balloons, planes and all things that fly.

The video

Take to the Air

This gentle, lilting piece gives pupils an opportunity to think about birds and the history of flight and to reflect on the impact of flying machines around the world. The music waltzes along in a quaint, Edwardian music hall style.

Here are some tips:

• 'Take to the Air' will work well as a sing along song with a catchy chorus which comes six times.
• Alongside lyric words in the video there are arrows and graphics which will help pupils quickly learn the ups and downs of the tune, going higher and lower. As well as singing the words, they can try humming and whistling along.
• In the backing track, the chorus features melody on glockenspiel, recorder, clarinet, keyboard and guitar, with a tuba playing an ‘oom-pah’ bass. Kazoos could join in quietly with this bass line and ukuleles can strum the chords, which are C, Dm and G, shown in red.
• There are also four verses, each going gradually up a C major scale, about hot-air balloons in Verse 1 (xylophones might join in with this); kites, gliders and plane wings in Verse 2 (string instruments can join in with this); propellers and noisy plane engines in Verse 3 (keyboards and tuned percussion might join in with this); and jets zooming around the world in Verse 4 (steel pans and panpipes could join in with this).

Follow-up ideas can include having a competition to design the best paper planes; birdwatching in your school grounds; and experimenting with sticks, fabric and strings to make kites that fly. You could create some colourful kite designs together.

Resources

School Radio > Music > Join in with Music