Lesson video

Hello, My name is Ms. Charatan, I'm a head of music at a school in North London.

I am so excited to be teaching you this unit about band musicianship, because I love playing in bands myself.

We're going to start today by looking at chords, which are so important in popular music and all types of music.

So we're going to be exploring those in great depth today.

Let's begin with a warmup to get us ready, getting to play with other people.

So this work is something that you might have done with Ms Ahanish in previous units.

So it might be familiar to you.

Don't worry.

This is going to be really useful for your work later in the lesson.

And if you don't know, then this is a chance to learn.

So this note here last before beats, and it's a semi breve.

So when we count the beats in the bar one and two and three and four, and this note goes through the whole thing.

This here is a time signature.

So we have four beats at the top that tells us there are four beats in a bar.

So you're not going to have a good clapping along with the track on the first beat of every bar to really identify that.

I'm not going to do it with you because it's going to be after time with the track.

So you're on your own, but you'll be fine.

Are we ready? Two, three four.

So you should have signed this in like this one, two, three, four.

one, two, three, four.

Probably quite easy, let's make it harder.

So can we cup on every single beat? So it should sound like one, two, three, four, these are one beats and they are called crotchets.

I think that was too easy for you.

And I think we need something even harder.

Aren't going to play the track, but this time I'm going to remove some of the beats.

For example, there we go.

So I'm going to remove some of these, and you'll need to be really watching out as you hear the track to make sure you're clapping on the right beats.

I trust that you're going to need this accidentally.

Let's try.

We're going to start with four beats in the bar.

Excellent work.

Which one did you prefer? I really liked the one, two, three, four, 'cause it got a lot of energy to the, boatload of energy to the music.

Great.

Let's move on.

In this lesson, you will need a piece of paper, a pencil, and a voice instrument or app.

So in terms of instruments today, it will be really useful if you could have a keyboard or virtual piano, which you can find on your phone.

It's great.

that would be really useful.

If you have a guitar or ukulele at home, it'd be great idea to get that now because we're going to be learning some chords on it.

And it'll be really great for you to have a go at playing it, but you also have a ukulele kind of app that would also be great too.

So any of those things will be very useful.

Pause the video, get the things that you need and come back when you're ready.

Great.

So today we're going to be learning all about the different roles in a band, and why each role is so important.

We're going to then focus in on chords and how to build chords.

You will learn how to pay A minor E minor chords on an instrument.

So I will teach you how to do that on the keyboard, as well as the ukulele and guitar.

We will learn how to read charts.

These are chord charts for ukulele and guitar, and we're going to explore how you can play a chord in different ways to make it sound more interesting.

Let's begin by learning about the different roles in a band.

So what are the different layers in a song? I'm going to play you a track now.

What layers can you identify? ♪ I was born strong ♪ ♪ I was made for this ♪ ♪ See I met so many hard times ♪ ♪ When I thought I couldn't make it ♪ ♪ See I had my trials when my ♪ So it's a great song by an artist called Etana.

Called 'I Rise', and she's a reggae artist.

So what were the different layers in that song? What could you hear? I could hear these main parts.

So we could hear vocals.

We could hear a bass part, bass guitar part.

We could hear a drum kit.

And we could also hear guitars and other things paying chords.

So what did they play? They played melody, chords, a bass line and the rhythm.

So how do these layers fit together? So on the top we had our melody and that was somebody singing it obviously.

We then had chords played often by the guitar, but these can also be played on the keyboard.

We had a bass line.

So these were the three kind of melodic parts of the song.

So separate from it all, we have the rhythm, and that's done by the drum kits.

And I put that aside your set bit because the rhythm is not directly related to the melody chords and bass line, even though it's cost a very important role.

Let's now listen to two versions of the track.

What is the difference? So that was our lovely warmup track, kind of, very similar to.

And what would happen then if I took the chords away? How would that sound? so it actually sounds quite empty without the chords there.

The chords really fill out a piece of music and make it complete.

So that's why today we're going to really focus in on the chords.

I'm now going to introduce you to Patrick, who is going to be taking us three a bit more about chords.

How many different songs do you do here? What do they all have in common? Do you think playing so many songs is difficult? Why or why not? Watch the video and answer these questions? Hello, my name is Patrick Stockbridge, and I'm a composer and musical director for theatre shows.

And I'm here to show you some songs that you can make just using the chords one, five, six, and four.

I'm going to choose a key that suits my voice, but for you, you might be doing it in C major.

So you'd have.

Chord one being C, Chord five being G, Chord six being A minor, and chord four being F.

So we always picking key that suits your voice when you're writing a song.

So let's start with a bit of Lewis Capaldi.

Let's do it.

♪ Now the day bleeds ♪ ♪ Into nightfall ♪ ♪ And you're not here ♪ ♪ To get me through it all ♪ ♪ I let my guard down ♪ ♪ And then you pulled the rug ♪ ♪ I was getting kind of used to being someone you loved ♪ Now, Adelle.

♪ Never mind, I'll find someone like you ♪ ♪ I wish nothing but the best for you too ♪ ♪ "Don't forget me I beg ♪ ♪ I remember you said ♪ ♪ Sometimes it lasts in love ♪ ♪ But sometimes it hurts instead ♪ A bit more upbeat, that'd be Train.

♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Your lipstick stains ♪ ♪ On the front lobe of my left side brains ♪ ♪ I knew I wouldn't forget you ♪ ♪ And so I let you go and blow my mind ♪ on the same quote.

Ben old school eighties, Take Me On ♪ Take on me take on me ♪ ♪ Take me on take on me ♪ ♪ I'll be gone ♪ ♪ In a day or two ♪ Then we have some songs that have the same chords.

To solve rhythm they changed the chord up it in the second half to make it more interesting.

So we have Justin Bieber.

♪ 'Cause if like the way you look that much ♪ ♪ Oh baby you should go and love yourself ♪ Or Bob Marley.

♪ No woman no cry ♪ ♪ No woman no cry ♪ Or the Beetles ♪ When I find myself in times of trouble ♪ ♪ Mother Mary come to me ♪ ♪ Speaking the words of wisdom ♪ ♪ Let it be ♪ And if you've got a bit Disney.

♪ And can you feel the love tonight ♪ ♪ It is where we are ♪ Or Frozen.

♪ Let it go ♪ ♪ Let it go ♪ ♪ Can't hold it back anymore ♪ ♪ Let it go ♪ ♪ Let it go ♪ ♪ Turn away and slum the door ♪ ♪ I don't care what they're going to say ♪ Ten changes.

♪ Let the storm rage on ♪ ♪ The cold never bothered me anyway ♪ I finally I've got The Greatest Showman.

♪ Where it's covered in all the coloured lights ♪ ♪ Where the runaways are runnin' the night ♪ ♪ Impossible comes true, it's takin' over you ♪ ♪ Oh, this is the greatest show ♪ ♪ We light it up, we won't come down ♪ ♪ And the sun can't stop us now ♪ ♪ Watchin' it come true, it's takin' over you ♪ ♪ Oh, this is the greatest show ♪ Excellent.

So that's a great songs that you can sing or one, all using those same chords, one, five, six, and four.

Enjoy writing your own songs.

Great, thanks Patrick.

So many different songs.

I think I counted nine, but may, maybe were even more.

They all have the same chords and the same corporation, which is absolutely amazing.

So do we think that it's easier to put a play, but I think it was challenging 'cause Patrick just have to practise for that, but actually they all use the same chords.

So it wasn't potentially as challenging as doing some other sets.

So we've been talking a lot about chords.

So what is a chord? Think about these three questions in front of you.

Lovely, I'm going to go over the answers now.

If you need more time, then pause the video.

So can you sing a chord by yourself? The answer is no, because he cannot sing two notes at the same time.

You can only sing one note at a time.

However, if you've got someone else's to sing different notes, then yes, you could sing a chord by, with another person.

What instruments can play Chords? Many instruments can play chords such as keyboard instruments, like the piano or organ, the guitar and the ukulele.

And what do we think accord is then? So what is a chord? A chord is two or more pitches played at the same time.

So chords are the basis of harmony.

So to build a chord, I would need to add more pictures to the first note.

So example I've got C here.

A chord is adding note C.

So this is a chord.

Triads are the most common type of chord.

How many notes do we think are in triad? Looking at the words, Abe, you said three, you were totally correct.

So a chord is more than one note at the same time So two or more pitches this is a chord this is a chord this is a chord, but just one pitch.

One note on its own, is not a chord.

So how can we work out triads on the keyboard? So to work out many triads on a keyboard you can just follow this pattern, which is press one, miss one press one, miss one then press one.

And you can make triads very easily in this way, with all the white notes on the keyboard.

So to work out a C major triad, you first need to find the tonic note, which is the first note.

And that is C.

And then to find the other notes, you follow the same method.

So press one, miss one, press one, miss one and press one.

So the first note you see major tried with B, C absolutely.

And I do the same thing.

So I miss out D, I press E, I miss out F and I press G.

I'm going to show you how to do that on the keyboard.

And then the virtual keyboard.

On my virtual keyboards, I do as follows, I do the same thing, but I need to just play with your finger.

So C, so on my virtual keyboard, I do similar.

So on my virtual keyboard, I do similar.

So I just Press C, miss D press E, miss F press G.

and you can play with these three fingers here.

You are not going to work out these triads and play them on your real or virtual keyboard using the press one, miss one, press one, miss one, press one technique.

Pause the video, take two minutes and resume when you have done the four questions.

Lovely.

Let's now check our answers.

So your F major triad needed to have F on the button.

We play one miss one, et cetera.

And that was FAC G major GBD, E minor.

EGB, A minor ACE.

Give yourself a tick because it's correct.

Well done.

So we're now going to play them.

So you need to play with the correct fingers.

I am going to show you on the video, how to play with these fingers.

If you can play with both hands do so.

On a virtual keyboard, this may look a little bit different because it's generally going to be a bit too small to play with the correct fingers now.

So to play with the correct fingers, I use one, three.

So to play with the correct fingers I had to number them.

So this is one, two, three, four, and five.

And I need to just put them with my thumb on the first note of the chord.

So which is C in this case, put them up like this, make sure I'm nice and curved.

Now play with one, with three and with five.

And that means it's very easy to meet between the chords.

Another way is using one two and four, that mean, I have my one of my first notes, my two here and my four here.

And that can be helpful when moving between other chords.

Actually I would say one, three and five is the way to go.

That's also the same with the left hand.

So I always say, use one on the top note, three and five.

So the root note, C, my five used to be on there.

Pause the video to complete your task.

Take about three minutes and resume when you're ready.

Lovely.

So let's recap our learning from today.

What is a chord? Choose the correct answer.

And I'm going to reveal it.

It's two or more pitches played at the same time.

Well done.

Which of these instruments can play a chord? Flute, trumpet or piano? Yes, it is a piano, you were absolutely correct.

Well done, flute and trumpet you can only play one note at a time.

How many notes are in a triad? Correct answer is three.

Excellent work, you got that one right.

And how do you back out to triad on a keyboard? Read them carefully.

I'm going to give you a little bit more time.

The correct answer was a blue box, press one, miss one and press one.

What are the pictures in a C major triad? Work them out now.

Okay, by using the press one, miss one, press one technique.

It is C E and G.

So make sure you're starting on that C.

Excellent work.

We have lent all about what chords on how to build them.

And we're now going to learn how to play A minor and E minor chords on an instrument.

So I'm going to play you a major triad and a minor triad.

What is the difference between the major and the minor triad? So here's a major triad.

Here's the minor triad.

What is the difference between them? You might think that major sounds kind of bright or joyful.

Some say it sounds quite happy.

The most important thing is that's really bright sounding.

A minor triad sounds darker.

Sounds more mysterious.

And some people say it might sound a bit sadder.

We are going to be learning two triads today.

E minor and A minor.

And they are both minor triad.

So it will be sounding dark mysterious.

So to work out to A minor triad you will need to use the following technique that we practised earlier.

Pause video workout in an A minor triad.

This should take you about 30 seconds.

Lovely.

So your A minor triad is A, C and E.

'Cause it starts on that A.

You're going to use the same fingers as we used before.

So one, three and five.

You are going to practise this now on your keyboard or device.

Take two minutes to make sure you compare competently, and then we're going to play it with a backing track.

Okay.

We're now going to play the triad with a backing track.

So play it in time with the track so you can play it for maybe one.

One chord per bar if you're feeling more confident, you could play it with more chords per bar.

For example, like this, if you're feeling more confident you could try if you're feeling really comfortable with it, you could experiment the rhythm.

Bass the backing track.

Excellent work there, if you want to try again you could just rewind the video.

So that's A minor.

Let's have a look at E minor.

Pause the video, work it out in exactly the same way as before.

Remember to start with that E.

Lovely, let's not check our answer.

So you should have had E G and B.

We're going to now do exactly the same thing.

So pause the video, play it on your instrument and then resume it and play with the backing track.

Okay.

I'm going to play with the backing track now.

For more excellent work, well done.

Again, if you want to try again, just rewind the video and do it again with the track.

You are now going to play the chords one after another, in a chord progression.

A chord progression is a pattern or sequence of chords.

So look at the two arrows below.

What are they pointing to? What about the green arrow? How long is that note? So that note lasts for four beats and that's called a semibreve, well done.

And the 404.

What does that mean? What is it? So that's a time signature.

And that tells us our four beats in every bar.

So we're going to play the A minor and E minor chords, one after another, for four beats each.

So it's going to look and sound a bit like this.

So we're going to have E minor one, two, three, four.

And A minor.

one, two, three, and four.

I'm going to play these chords in a sustained way.

That means I'm holding down the note.

one, two, three, four.

one, two, three, four.

We need to practise looping them around, shifting from one to another and back.

one, two, three, four.

one, two, three, four.

one, two, three, four.

If you're finding this too easy, then you can always change the rhythm.

Or add a root note.

So that's E and a in your left hand.

Pause the video, practise the A minor and E minor chords.

And perform them to the previous backing tracks.

So you can rewind the video to find that if you need or look on the worksheet.

Take about 10 minutes for this task and resume when you are ready.

well done.

Let's move on.

So let's have a quick recap.

What are the notes in an A minor triad? Correct answer was ACE, well, then you've got that one correct? How about E minor? Yes, it was EGB, great job.

What are sustained chords? Are they short? And they triad or do we hold them on? Yes, we hold them on, good job.

And we are now going to learn how to read chord charts, which is going to be a really exciting new language for you if you haven't played the ukulele and guitar before.

So look at these chord charts here.

What do you think needs show? My hint for you is that they're part of an instrument.

Yes.

So that shows the neck of the guitar, and the frets and the strings.

And this shows the neck, the frets and the strings of the ukulele.

And this one, we can see the guitar has six strings, one, two, three, four, five, six.

And the strings are the lines going down.

The frets, which are these buds here are the ones going across.

The same with ukulele, four strings.

And obviously it needs other frets.

So the frets are telling you where to put your fingers.

So these are the frets.

And the blod here, what would we think they are? Yes, holding your fingers.

That tells you where to put your fingers.

These are really useful charts because you don't have to go to read notation in order to learn the chords on the guitar or the ukulele.

However, we need to be really, really careful when we read these charts, because actually we don't play our ukulele or guitar upright like this.

I would look pretty strange.

So we need to convert it in our heads to something different.

So E minor chord on the guitar looks like this.

Maybe it's that way.

But realistically, we play the guitar and ukulele to the side.

So obviously I'm sort of backwards.

So it looks like this, okay? So unlike the ukulele the E minor chord looks like this.

So you need to make sure your finger at me is on the second fret down.

So I've put that first fret here, the first box, then I moved down, across and across like this.

So that means if you copy my fingers on the diagram, that will be much easy for you to see.

I need to hold down the strings pretty hard.

If you never pay the ukelele or guitar before, hold them down much harder than you think.

Because if you hold them down really gently, it's not going to make a very good sound.

So holding down nice and firmly is going sound much better, my ukulele's a little bit out of tune.

If you need yours tuning by the way, you can find a free tuners online.

So if you have a guitar and ukulele, absently go away and have a go with these chords.

If you don't, it's still important for you to be knowing how should to read them, because who knows one day in your life, you might be faced with something like this.

So you are now going to read the chord charts and play them on your instrument.

If you don't have a guitar or ukulele at home, don't worry.

Let's move on and learn some other chords.

Okay? We're now going to do the same thing with A minor.

So what if you work on E minor.

Again, if you have a guitar and ukulele, pause the video and work it out.

If you don't, let's move on with me.

When we strum on an instrument, that's when you sweep your fingers or plectrum which is that little thing across the strings.

rather than playing them one by one.

So you can do both, but we're going to be strumming today on our instruments.

What other instruments do you think you can strum on apart from the guitar and ukulele? So actually you can strum on the banjo, which is very similar to guitar, in a way.

You can strum actually on a violin.

I don't do it very often, but you can.

So any string instrument, you can actually run your hands across it.

The hart you can sort of strum as well.

So there are many different ways you can strum.

And this makes them really exciting rhythms. The two main ways to strum.

Are literally up, see you move your hand up across the strings, and down across the strings.

And that creates different rhythm depending what way you're going.

So you are going to try these patterns with me.

You can do this on your instrument, or if you don't have an instrument, do it on an app.

There's many apps out there.

Otherwise just copy my hand movements.

So let's do this on an A minor chord.

like this.

So we're going to first practise just going down together.

One, two, three, four.

Keep going.

I like to do it with my finger, just like this.

You might want to do it like this, up to you.

The next way is down, up, down, up.

So you do that more quickly.

And to get up, I like to use my thumb, like that, and down, my index finger.

And this one that's tried down, up, down, up.

down, up, down, up, down up.

I did that wrong.

down, up, down, like this.

And another one.

down, down, up, down, Have you noticed that all of these start with down? Why is that? Which one is stronger? That's down.

That's up.

The down is much stronger.

That's why it's good to start with it on the first beat of bar.

So you can also create your own strumming pattern.

So pause the video, try these strumming patterns out for about five minutes, and resume when you're ready and confident.

Lovely, let's move on.

So what instrument does this show and how do you know? Clue, look at the strings? Yes, it is ukulele because it's only got four strings.

You're not going to match the chord charts and photo.

If you have not played, these chords when you're playing guitar.

You can still do this.

Because you need to look at the strings, how many there are and where the fingers are.

Excellent.

So let's check your answers.

If you need more time, pause the video now.

So A minor is this one and E minor is this one.

So another quick quiz, what is the strumming? Strumming is when you sweep your fingers or plectrum across the strings, for example, up and down.

So we've explored how to read chord charts.

And now we're going to explore how you can play a chord in many different ways.

So I'm going to play the chords on the keyboard because that's my first instrument.

Actually, I'm more comfortable with that one.

So how am I varying the way I play the chords? So I'm going to play the chords on the ukulele.

Which is going to play long chord, actually.

How am I varying the way I play it? And I'm going to do the same thing on the keyboard.

what am I doing.

What have I changed? Yes, I've changed two things.

I've changed the strumming pattern on the ukelele and that changed with the rhythm.

So I change the rhythm on the keyboard at all as well.

Why is that a good idea to vary the way you play the chords? Yes, is to add more interests.

Otherwise your peace and your pace and your play is going to sound a bit boring and static.

So we're going to cut these rhythms together, going on from our warmup.

So the first two, clap them with me, ready? One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

Second one.

One, two, three and.

Great.

How about these with them? Two, three, go.

Again.

Let's do that second one, one more time.

Two, three, four.

Excellent.

How about these ones? This is a bit more tricky.

So these are dotted with them.

You may not have seen them before.

Look really carefully at where it matches up with the and.

one, two, three, four, one, and two, and three and four.

Excellent.

And second one, one, two, three, four, one and two and three and four and.

What happened there? So we've got some new things to look at.

We have got a tie underneath, and that means that those notes are joined together.

So it sounds like this one and two, three and four at, so here are a whole variety of items for you to choose from.

So you can scroll back to the video or look at the worksheet for them.

You're going to practise going up into practise playing an E minor and A minor.

in a variety of rhythmic patterns.

So on any of the following instruments, and work through those things, we just fit together until we can play them really fluently.

If you find this easy, make up your own rhythmic pattern.

Pause the video, take five minutes and resume when you're finished.

Excellent work in that practise there.

We're now going to perform our chords in time with the backing track.

So there's a few questions that we need to think about first.

Pause the video, look at those three questions, check that you're ready to move on.

And then resume when you're ready.

Lovely.

You are now going to do the same thing with earlier.

with the two chords, but this time with the rhythm of your choice.

So for example, my rhythm is going to be like this, so you can copy my rhythm, or you can do one of your own.

And remember if you're playing on a guitar or you played it, it might be sensible to vary the strumming pattern as well.

So you are now going to pause the video to have a final pat test doing this in your own rhythm.

When you are ready, you're then going to move on and we're going to perform it with the backing track at the end.

Great.

So we're now going to perform it with the backing tracks.

So maybe even try and get an audience together.

I'm going to play the backing track now.

You can come in when you're ready and when you got the beat, and remember we are, each chord has four beats.

You're going to start with E minors, so get E minor ready now.

Are you ready? Let's play.

Excellent work just done.

If you want to try this again, that's great.

Just rewind the video and have a great performing it again.

This now brings us back to our key question.

What is the role of chords? Pause the video, fill in the blanks for the words at the bottom of the screen and resume when you're ready.

Great, let's check our answers.

So chords are like that glue in music, they hold it together.

Melodies and bass lines all come from the chords.

Instruments such as the piano, ukulele and guitar can play the chords.

A triad as a chord made from three notes.

And lastly, major chords sound bright and minor chord sounds dark.

Great job if you've got all of that correct.

Great work today.

Take care.

Go and explore those chords.

Be curious until next time.

Bye.