Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to your music lesson today.

My name is miss Al-Hanush.

And as you can see, I am super excited about today's lesson because we are going to be singing an awesome song, which is in a different language.

It's so cool.

And I am so excited for you to hear and learn it.

But first, because it's in a foreign language, we need to make sure that we can pronounce all of our vowels and our consonants correctly so that we are able to pronounce those lyrics spot on in the song that we're about to sing.

So firstly, we're going to warm up all of the muscles in our face.

So I'd like you to pretend that you're chewing a piece of gum and it's just going to get bigger and bigger in your mouth.

Here we go.

Stretch that jaw out.

I can't get any bigger.

Brilliant.

Okay.

And now I would like you to give me the most over-exaggerated yawn that you can do, Ready? Well done.

And now can you stick your tongue out as far as you can.

Brilliant.

And now see if you can pretend that you're sucking in a long strand of spaghetti like this.

Excellent.

Well done.

Okay.

Now our face muscles are nice and warmed up.

What about our brains and our voice? So let's warm up with some tongue twisters.

Repeat this after me.

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood Ready? How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood how fast can you say that? Have a go.

I can't hear it very fast.

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood That's probably about as fast as I can go.

Can you go faster? How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood Whoa! I surprise myself there.

Okay.

What about this one? Give Papa a cup of proper coffee in a copper coffee cup.

I'll do that again.

Give Papa a cup of proper coffee in a copper coffee cup.

That's a little bit harder.

See if you can have a go.

Here we go.

Give Papa a cup of proper coffee in a copper coffee cup.

Can you repeat that on a loop? Give Papa a cup of proper coffee in a copper coffee cup, Give Papa a cup of proper coffee in a copper coffee cup.

Gets a little bit harder when you have to do it on a loop What about this one? Which witch switched the Swiss wrist watches.

That one is really hard.

Have a go, Which witch switched the Swiss wrist watches.

How fast can you say that? I'm not even going to attempt it because I don't think I can.

And the last one, see how fast you can do this.

I like this one.

Yellow butter purple jelly.

Red jam, black bread.

Are you ready? Yellow butter purple jelly.

Red jam, black bread.

How fast can you do it? Yellow butter purple jelly.

Red jam, black bread.

And see if you can go even faster and see if you can do it on a loop too, Yellow butter purple jelly.

Red jam, black bread.

There we go.

Okay.

So there are some tongue twisters that you can practise to make sure that you're pronouncing all of your syllables, your vowels, your consonants correctly.

Let's crack on with the lesson and see what you'll need.

In this lesson, you will need a piece of paper, a pencil, your body, and some water, because you're going to be doing lots of singing.

You will also need a quiet space to work in and to make sure that any apps or notifications are turned off on any electronic devices so that you are undisturbed whilst you're working.

If you need to pause the video now to go and get any of that equipment or find yourselves a quiet space, please do that now and then resume the video once you're ready to start.

Let's take a look at today's lesson agenda.

You're going to begin by learning the context of the song Elefantea Nun Da and you're then going to sing the first verse of the song.

You're then going to compose a body percussion part to fit with the song and then you're going to finally perform the lyrics and body percussion together to end the lesson.

So let's begin by learning the context of Elefantea Nun Da, What do you think this song is about? From looking at that title? Did you guess that it might be an elephant? This song is in Euskara, a language which is spoken in the Basque country.

It's in an area that's located near the Pyrenees in Northern Spain and the South of France.

Take a look at the map.

It's one of the oldest languages in Europe and it's thought that nearly 1 million people speak Basque.

The song is composed by a Venezuelan composer called Alberto Grout.

And he's a contemporary core composer.

Before we hear the song, I would like you to take a look at the lyrics.

Now, even though you might not know how to speak the Euskara language, you might be able to spot some words that are similar to our English words.

Take two minutes to see if you can work out what you think the song is about.

Do you recognise the word dantzan? What do you mark it could be? Okay.

So here is the translation for you.

Where is the elephant? They say it's in the circus, a horse runs in the circus, when people clap, the elephant dances.

So it's about an elephant dancing.

Let's see if we can pronounce each phrase clearly.

Let's call in a response, El-a-fan-tey-a noon da El-a-fan-tey-a noon da Zear-ko-a-men da-go Zear-ko-a-men da-go Hort-say da-bill zear-ko-an Hort-say da-bill zear-ko-an Da-do ba-ten ga-nay-an Da-do ba-ten ga-nay-an El-a-fan-tey-a dan-say-an El-a-fan-tey-a dan-say-an Well done.

When singing in another language, we must make sure that our pronunciation is correct.

And if you have a native speaker of that language around, make sure that you ask them.

For your first pause, task, pause the video and spend 10 minutes.

Just learning to pronounce those lyrics correctly.

You can rewind the video to help.

And if you speak another language, can you translate them into your language.

As an extension, you could compose a five phrase verse of your own in a language that you've learned at school.

Pause the videos, complete your task and then resume once you're finished.

Before we start to learn the song, a quick quiz for you just to check how much you've learnt.

So what language are the lyrics Elefantea in? Are they Spanish? Euskara, Portuguese or English? Well done if you said Euskara.

where is the Basque country? Is it Northern Italy in Southern Spain, Southern Portugal in Northern France, East Venezuela in West Columbia or Southern France and Northern Spain.

Well done if you said Southern France and Northern Spain, and the last question, What is Elefantea about? a monkey, a hippo, an elephant or a tiger.

It is of course an elephant.

Well done.

Now you've learned the context of elefantea.

Let's see if you can sing the first verse.

The following is a performance of the Unison parts of elefantea.

But at the end of this lesson, we are aiming to be able to sing the melody line and put in the body percussion.

How cool was that performance? For the next part of the lesson, I'm going to introduce you to my friend Camillo who is a Colombian guitarist, singer and choir leader who is going to help us to learn how to sing and pronounce elefantea correctly.

I'd like you to watch the following video and I'd like you to copy what Camillo.

Pay particular attention to the detached staccato accompanying sounds in this performance.

Okay So we are going to learn the words by call and response.

I say something and you repeat it.

Okay, well do you go Dilin dalan dulun da Here you go Dilin dalan dulun da Elefantea nun da My turn Dilin dalan dulun da Elefantea nun da All right carry on Dolin dalin dolon do Here you go Zirkoa omen dago Zirkoa omen dago My turn Dolin dalin dolon do Zirkoa omen dago Here you go Very good That happens twice.

Now with the music, This song is in two-part harmony, but at the beginning we started in unison.

So same melody for everyone.

So I sing you repeat ♪ Dilin dalan dulun da, ♪ ♪ elefantea nun da.

♪ There you go.

♪ Dilin dalan dulun da ♪ ♪ Elefantea nun da ♪ My turn ♪ Dolin dalin dolon do ♪ ♪ Zirkoa omen dago ♪ ♪ Dolin dalin dolon do ♪ ♪ Zirkoa omen dago ♪ So that is the unison section.

Okay.

How cool is that unison part? So it's now down to you to see if you can learn that with Camillo.

For your second pause task, I'd like you to rewind the video and rewatch Camillo's performance.

Make sure that you're able to sync in time and in tune with him.

This unison part is really, really important in the song.

Pause the video to complete your tasks and then resume once you've nailed that unison part.

Now that you are able to sing the first verse confidently, you're now going to compose a body percussion part to fit with elefantea.

Elefantea is unique, as it also contains a super cool body percussion part.

Camillo is going to demonstrate this to us now; And I would like you to join him with his demo.

This body percussion part fits with the whole of the units and section.

Here we go.

Something very particular about this tune, is the body percussion pattern that is originally part of it.

Singers are supposed to, in the original version to play the pattern and sing at the same time.

in here, we can do it separately.

Some people will just play these body percussion and some others can sing.

It goes like this, With your feet, You're going to stump on right and left and right and left.

Mirror, the video.

Right and left and right and left and right and left and right and left.

Okay? So there is one pattern for the verse and one pattern for the chorus.

The one on the verse goes like this.

All right, left legs and stomp.

And again, So in this rhythm.

Stomping is doom, doom, doom doom, and then the pattern on the legs, So, doom, doom ta ta ta doom, doom ta ta ta so he's playing with the strong beat and the off beat all the time.

Strong, strong off ta ka ta.

Yeah? That is the pattern for the verses.

Let's try that again.

One, two do with me and, you see the posture on the legs you do with, with the one that you just stumped.

So start that very good.

So there you have that syncopated body percussion rhythm.

And once you've learned the first pattern, all it does is repeats as an ostinato.

So for your next pause task, I would like you to rewind the video and perform that body percussion part along with Camillo.

As an extension, can you put the body percussion and the lyrics that you learned earlier together for verse one.

You could always ask somebody at home to keep a steady pulse for you as you perform.

Pause the video to complete your task and resume, once you've mastered the body percussion.

Now you've practised the body percussion part with Camillo, having a look at it, written out on screen.

Can you tell me which body part is playing on the beat? That's right it's stamp.

It's keeping our pulse for us.

And then which ones are playing off the beat? Well done our thigh slaps and our finger click.

So how does the body percussion part add energy to our song? Well, it includes short notes, off beats and syncopated rhythms and energetic stamp and a pulse that is driving that song forward.

Have a think about what you can use when you go on to compose your own body percussion piece next.

Here is an empty body percussion grid; And now that you've seen and felt, the body percussion part for elefantea, I would like you to see if you can compose your own body percussion parts fit with the unison section.

Think about which body part will keep the pulse.

And can you create any syncopated rhythms? I would stick to three body parts, but if you really want to challenge, you can go for it and add more.

See what you can come up with in your next pause task.

Take five minutes to see if you can compose a body percussion part to accompany the unison section.

Ask somebody at home to keep a steady pulse for you.

So you can stay in time and feel free to draw it out, the rhythm grid is in the downloadable resources.

Pause the video to complete your task and then resume once you finished your body percussion piece.

In the next day of the lesson, Camillo is now going to demonstrate how the body percussion fits in with the unison melody.

I'd like you to watch his video and join in with his demonstration.

It would be something that is et cetera.

Yeah? So those are the parts for the verse.

And then the one for the chorus is the same but instead of producing these sounds on your legs, you do it on your chest.

So it goes, same thing.

You see this, there is a different quality in the sound.

Compare this one, With the chest This one is a little bit more resonant.

So we are going to practise to do four of the legs one and then change to the chest.

One, two with me and two, three, four, Now chest two, three, four.

Here we go.

One, two, and start with this one.

Snap snap, snap Now chest.

Last one on the chest.

Back to the legs.

As you notice, the stumping on the feet never stops.

Never stops.

Always keeps.

Even when we change from the sound in the chest to the sound in the legs, okay? let's do two, two, two, and two.

And we live with that.

Then you will be ready to play along with the song.

Here, we go and Now chest back to legs one two with the chest finish here.

Excellent.

Hopefully that was really clear for you.

So, for your next pause task, can you rewind the video and perform alongside Camillo again.

As an extra challenge, can you put your body percussion parts and the lyrics together for the unison section.

Ask somebody at home to keep a steady pulse for you, as you perform, take five, 10 minutes, do this task and then resume.

Once you've got that body percussion section absolutely nailed.

Now you've sung the unison parts of elefantea, and you've composed a body percussion parts of fits with it.

You're now going to see if you can put the whole thing together to round off the lesson with a performance.

You're now going to perform alongside Camillo.

The first time you perform, I would like you to concentrate on singing that unison part.

The second time that you perform, I would like you to concentrate on the body percussion part.

And the third time you perform, I would like you to see whether you can do both together.

Here we go.

Singing in unison part.

How was that? this time, See if you can perform the body percussion part.

Now you've performed the unison melody, and you perform the body percussion.

Let's see if you can do them both together.

Here we go.

How did your body percussion and unison section go together? Well done.

If you managed to do all of that in time, Your next pause task.

See if you can rewind the video and have another go.

And can you add any extra, further expressions? So think particularly about your phrasing and adding in some dynamics.

And again, you can ask somebody at home to keep a steady pulse for you as you perform.

If you're finding this difficult.

Pause the video to complete your task and then resume once you're finished.

How were your performances? I would have absolutely loved to see them.

I hope you enjoyed that and had some fun whilst doing that as well.

So your final course task board today is on your piece of paper, I just want you to answer the following question.

How can melody and rhythm communicate a language that we don't necessarily understand? Take a couple of minutes to have a think about it, pause the video, to complete your tasks and then resume once you're finished and we'll have a chat about it.

What did you come up with? So the melody of this piece, is really catchy and it's quite repetitive and the rhythm is upbeat.

It's got some syncopated parts in there as well.

How we've got that marching feel with our stamp on beats one, two, three, and four.

So it gave us that marching feel of an elephant.

It also gave us that kind of fun, loving fearless while with the syncopated rhythms and that catchy melody line as well, made it a happy song.

So we knew we were singing something that was meant to be happy and joyful to sing.

So we didn't necessarily have to know the lyrics or what the lyrics meant to get that across.

And that came through that unison section.

Everybody seemed together at the same time and that syncopated upbeat with them.

So that is all for today's lesson.

However, please tune into the next lesson because in the next lesson, you'll be continuing to learn different parts of this song.

So you will learn in the next lesson, a beatboxing part that goes with it.

And you're going to be looking in particular at two-part harmony, which is super cool.

So please make sure you go and check that lesson out.

So you get the full units and section to this piece.

That's all for me today.

Don't forget to go and check out the end of lesson quiz as well and make sure you completed that so you can check your understanding for today's lesson.

And then I will see you hopefully in the next lesson.

So goodbye for now and enjoy your day.