Lesson video

Hello, My name is miss Charatan, I'm going to be your music teacher today.

Let's begin with a warm up.

So get on your feet.

You might have been sitting down for quite a long time.

Roll your shoulders back, shake out your hands.

And you're going to copy me.

I say give me one, and you do this.

Give me one.

When I say, give me two, you double your thigh taps give me two.

And now I'm going to say, give me three.

Can you guess what you're going to do? Yes.

Okay? Then you need to do that three times, so, one, two, three okay? So I'm going to do them in different order now to make it harder for you.

Give me one, give me three, give me two, give me one, give me two, give me three, Well done, let's begin.

In this lesson, you will need a piece of paper or something to write on, a pencil or pen or something to write with, as well as a voice, an instrument, or an app.

I really like virtual piano on the iPhone.

You can search for that, download it, and that will be really, really great for you to use today.

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

Lovely, let's move on.

So we've got a really exciting lesson today.

We're going to recap our knowledge of Baroque instruments.

We are going learn about the role of the basso continuo, learn how to read bass clef notation, and recap that if you already know how, we're going to analyse and learn how to pay a ground bass, and then you're going to perform a ground bass with some other parts, a virtual ensemble.

Let's make a start by recapping our knowledge of Baroque instruments.

Let's have a quick recap, which of these instruments were played in the Baroque period? Pause the video, choose your answers and then resume when you're ready.

If you're not sure what these instruments are, here they go.

Okay, are we ready to reveal your answers? So we lose the clarinets and the piano 'cause they had not been completely invented yet and of course we had the harpsichord, recorder, violin, cello, and trumpets, all existing in the Baroque period.

Let's now deepen our knowledge.

Order the instruments from the lowest to the highest in pitch.

Here are the instruments.

I'm going to put the lowest on the left side and the highest on the right hand side.

Pause the video, do that now resume when you're ready.

Great, let's see what you got.

So the lowest end we had the cello, followed by the trumpet, which sits somewhere in the middle, the violin, the recorders, so some recordings, you can see a smaller, so there would be even higher, but they're roughly in the same area pitch range as the violin.

And we've actually got an instrument, which I didn't put on the earlier slide, but we had a viola, a viola sits somewhere in between the violin and the cello and is a really beautiful instrument with a really beautiful mid range.

So it's called that middle range between the cello and the violin.

The harpsichord is over here.

Why did I put the harpsichord all the way over, away from the other instruments? Tell me now.

The harpsichord is a different one and it's a funny one because it's got a really wide range.

So some harpsichords could actually go lower than a cello and higher than a violin.

Some of them were a little bit smaller, so it couldn't have such a wide range, but they can play both quite low pitches and high pitches.

So they don't really fit into our neat little diagram of lowest to highest in pitch.

This has implications as to what the harpsichord can play in an ensemble.

Wow, we've recapped our knowledge of Baroque instruments already.

So let's now learn about the role of the basso continuo in Baroque music.

Before we do that, let's now think about the main layers in a piece of music.

There are two main layers.

Can you tell me what they might be? If you said melody and accompaniment, you would be correct.

So what do these words mean? A melody or melodies are the main musical ideas in a piece of music.

They are the musical ideas that you'd probably get stuck in your head when you're thinking about a certain song or piece.

They are the ideas that help us recognise a piece of music.

The accompaniment is basically everything else.

So that's really important because otherwise music with sound quite empty and it would just be monophonic melodies.

Accompaniment could be some chords to create a harmony, a bass line to create deeper and thicker texture, as well as that rhythm.

So a drum kit is part of the accompaniment when you're playing in a rock or pop band.

So what instrument would you choose for which role? Which of these instruments would play melody and which of these instruments would play accompaniment in an ensemble? Pause the video, sort them out, and resume when you're ready.

Great, let's see what you got.

So for melody, the best instrument for that would be violins and recorder, and for accompaniment, the best instrument will be cello and harpsichord.

Of course, all of these instruments can play melodies and can play accompaniment, but in the Baroque period, this was the main division of instruments.

Nowadays, if you go to a concert and see a symphony orchestra, you're going to see cellos doing some amazing, beautiful melodies, but back in the Baroque period, cellos and bass viol were mainly accompaniment instruments.

The harpsichord as well had lots of solar works written for it, so it could play melodies, but in an ensemble it would often play the accompaniment role, unless it had a particularly special solo moment.

The accompaniment in the Baroque period is called the basso continuo.

So it's the word for the two instruments, the three instruments that play the accompaniment and it's also the name for the accompaniment itself.

I'm going to unpack, pick that a little bit further.

So we have a Baroque ensemble here.

It's a slightly blurry picture, but we can still see what these people are doing and who they are.

So we have the ripieno, which is the main group.

So there'll be playing kind of a mix of melody and accompaniment, they wouldn't all play all the melodies, all of the time, but they would generally play melodic ideas.

We'd have the Basso continuo so they would pay the bass line and the chords, so the accompaniment, as I said earlier.

Which instruments would play in the basso continuo? Think back to my previous slide.

If you said harpsichord and bass viol, or cello, you are correct.

Can we spot them in the picture? So we got our bass viol player here, while cello is so difficult to see, 'cause it's quite blurry, and then we've got the harpsichord player here.

So the harpsichord was often sitting quite in the middle of the ensemble.

Sometimes people would lead from the harpsichord.

So I've mentioned two instruments in the past few slides.

I've mentioned the bass viol, and I've mentioned the cello and they're both relations, so they're not exactly the same, they've got some key differences, but they are vaguely related to each other.

So their bass viol has six strings, The cello has four, they were slightly different shapes.

We can see the cello has a slightly flatter back if we turned it on its side, and the cello has a spike, and the viol has frets like a guitar.

So this meant that bass viol could play chords a bit more easily than a cello and also have six strings.

So it was much easier, almost more like a guitar than a cello.

They both had a very similar range, and a very similar role.

Today, the bass viol is not as widely used as the cello.

So there will be many cases where cello isn't a Baroque ensemble and is taking part in the basso continuo.

So I will use bass viol and cello fairly interchangeably, even though we know that bass viol is a Baroque instrument and the cello was a more modern instrument.

So let's now have a look and see who plays what.

So we've got the chords, we've got the ground bass, which is a bass line.

Which instrument would play what? What would the harpsichord play? Think about it now, and then I'm going to share my answer.

The harpsichord would play the chords.

The harpsichord would also pay the ground bass, a lot of the time.

This is because you could play with two hands, just like you can with a piano.

So you wouldn't generally just play with one hand.

The bass viol, even though I said it could play chords, would generally play the ground bass, the bass line.

When we listen to Pachebel Canon, Pachebel's canon in previous weeks, you will be able to hear the bass viol or the cello playing that bass line.

So now let's have a quick quiz about what we have learnt so far.

So we've got melody and accompaniments, and we had a few blanks here for you to fill in.

Pause the video, write down the definitions to these words, and examples of accompaniments and resume when you are ready.

Great, let's check your answers.

So the melody is, the main musical ideas in a piece of music, well done if you got that one correct.

Green penate, give it a tick.

The accompaniment is everything else and to be more specific, the chords, and the bass line, well done if you put down rhythm as well, 'cause that's actually really important, not so important in Baroque because we didn't have a drum kit playing or much percussion, but particularly in later music and pop music, the drum kit and the rhythm is a really, really important part of the accompaniment.

What is the accompaniment chord in Baroque music? Is it a bass file? A basso continuo? Or a basso repeato? Choose your answer now,.

If you put basso continuo, you are correct.

Well done, give yourself a big pat on the back.

What instruments form the Basso continuo group? Read carefully and choose the correct answer.

I'm giving the answer in three, in two, and in one, the correct answer is the bass viol or cello and harpsichord.

Okay, what role does the basso continuo play? Is it the melody and chords, the melody and bass line or the bass line and chords? Choose your answer now.

Correct, if you put bass line and chords, well done.

Let's move on.

Okay, we're now going to look and learn how to read bass clef notation.

You might know how to do this already.

Please just bear with me and you can either skip ahead if you're really confident or watch this bit for a quick refresher.

So we can see two lines of music.

What is the difference between them? Think about this now.

So the difference is, they've got different pitches.

This is because there are two clefs, which tell us there are different pitches.

We've got the bass clef here and we've got the treble clef above it.

The treble and bass clef, tell us what pitches to play.

Treble clef is when notes above middle C.

So if you're playing the piano or the harpsichord, that will be for your right hand, the bass clef is for the notes below middle C.

So generally for the piano's left-hand and for low pitched instruments.

The treble clef is used for many instruments, such as a violin, recorder, trumpet and the harpsichord right hand.

What do we think the bass clef would be used for? The bass clef would be used for the cello, bass viol, tuba, the harpsichord left hand, and many other lower pitched instruments.

So how do you remember the notes in the bass clef? You see a lovely cow here that is eating grass.

And that reminds me of our rhyme, all cows eat grass for the notes in the spaces of the bass clef.

How do you remember the lines in the bass clef? You might have a different way that you already know.

The way I use is this, grizzly bears don't fly aeroplanes.

So we can see from the lowest to the highest line, we've got grizzly bears, don't fly aeroplanes , pause the video now, label the notes on the stave below and resume when you're ready.

Great, let's check your answers.

So some of you might have been a bit confused by this note here.

This is because some of the notes that this ground bass, this bass line is so low, they don't fit on the stave.

You might have seen that with other music you've seen.

So when this happens, rather than having them just floating around underneath, we use ledger lines, so ledger lines are a tiny, little line, which basically extends the stave.

The easiest way to remember them is just to memorise what the notes look like.

If you know what a middle C looks like, you are memorising a ledger line.

So this is a D, and then the other notes are here.

Check your answers now.

Great.

So why is it always important to look at the clef? Why do we need to check whether it's the bass or treble clef when we label the notes? The reason is, if I labelled them thinking it was a treble clef, the notes will be totally different.

So that first note in a treble clef, would be a B, not a D.

So that means it's so important when we are learning a new piece of music to look at the clef first, before we label the notes.

What other thing is really important to look at? You're correct.

It's really important to look for the key signature.

You can see it as an F-sharp there, it's not an F because the key signature tells us that it's an F-sharp.

We can see there are two sharps written down.

The first sharp is on the F line.

So that tells us that all Fs, no matter how high or low are sharp.

The same with the C, whether or not the C is that particular C, or the C in octave above or below, it is still sharp.

So correct now, correct your work now and check that you have got an F-sharp written in.

Great, once you've done that, let's move on.

So let's remember, how do you remember the notes in the spaces in the bass clef? Choose the correct answer now.

If you put all cows eat grass, you were correct and the hint was a lovely green box, like grass.

If you put face that is incorrect because that is for the spaces in the treble clef.

So make sure you're not getting confused between them.

How do you remember the lines in the bass clef? The correct answer is, grizzly bears don't fly aeroplanes.

So don't get confused with the lines in the treble clef.

You will use a different rhyme to remember that We have sped through this lesson.

We're now going learn how to analyse and we'll learn how to play a ground bass.

That's why we practise the bass clef because the ground bass is written in the bass clef.

So before we go into analyse the ground bass , what are the four questions we always ask ourself when we analyse a melody or a musical idea? Think about it now.

And let's check our answers.

So we think about, does the melody or the bass line, does it move in step or leaps? Does it ascend or descend? What pitches does it start or end on? And how long is it? So you're now going listen to the ground bass.

Does it move in steps or leaps? And read the other questions.

Listen to it, pause the video to note down your answers, and then we will check them.

Let's go over the answer to our first question.

Does a ground bass move in steps or leaps? Say starting from the first note, that is a leap.

And that moves by step.

And you might have spotted a pattern.

So we have leap, step, then a leap, then a step, then a leap, then it goes out.

Then we end with a step, back to the the beginning.

So it moves by a combination of steps and leaps.

Let's now think about, does it ascend or descend? And how long is it? So we can see first, it descends, then it ascends a little bit and descends by a lot more ascends for a little bit, descends by a lot more, ascends and ascends.

So it's not just about ascending or descending.

You can ascend by a tiny amount like this.

So just one step or you can ascend by actually more of a leap.

So to push yourself further, you should now be thinking about how much does it ascend.

How much does it descend? How long is it? So we can see in terms of bars, one, two, three, four, so it's four bars long, and each note is a minute, lasting two beats.

Let's now move on to analysing what pitches the ground bass starts and ends on.

So when we think about pitches, we need to be really careful of the clef.

What was this clef called? Can we remember? If you said bass clef, you're correct.

And it's useful notes below middle C.

What instruments would play in the bass clef and why? Have a quick recap, think about those answers.

If you said any of these instruments, you are completely correct.

So this would be generally played by the harpsichord left hand and the bass viol in a Baroque ensemble.

So now let's think about the pitches it starts and ends on.

So we don't just want to label the pitches, we need to think about what degree of the scale does it start and end on.

So the first note is a D, the last note is an A, what degree of the scale does the ground bass start and end on? Tell me now.

If you said the root note to number one, you're correct.

So it starts in a root note and it ends on the? Fifth, well done, if you got those two correct.

So let's now listen to this ground bass in Pachelbel's Canon itself, a real performance.

You're going listen to it and write down the answers to these questions.

The one I'm particularly interested in is, can you come up with a definition for a ground bass? Listen to the music now, and then pause the video to complete your answers.

If you need more time to write it down, pause the video now and resume when you're finished.

Great, let's go over the answers now.

So the instruments playing ground bass, the harpsichord left hand, and the cello and the bass viol, so together they make the basso continuo.

Well done, if you wrote down basso continuo, a really bit of brand new vocabulary from today.

Does the ground bass change in any way? Correct answer was no, it repeats again and again and again, it doesn't really change at all.

So therefore, what is our definition of a ground bass? Oh, it's just going to go back actually, forgot about this bit.

So we can see in the Canon, this is a lovely diagram of it.

We've got the ground-bass repeating in the cello where the bass viol doesn't change at all.

They only play the ground bass.

The other instruments they fit around, so they'll play melody one, then melody two, then melody three, in a Canon.

So let's now think about this ground bass.

So it's the bass line that repeats over and over again.

It is typically used when we talk about Baroque music.

So you wouldn't really talk about ground bass in pop music.

A bass line is basically the same as a ground bass, it's the lowest part of a piece of music, it's often repeated and at the simplest, it is the root note of the chord.

So the ground bass started on D, which is the root note.

We're now going to play the ground bass.

We're going to learn how to play it on your instrument.

So you can use the keyboard, so you can use an app, or an instrument of your choice.

So if you're playing on the keyboard, what hand should you use for the bass clef? And what fingers should you use for this ground bass? So you should be using the left hand and we will talk about the fingers in a moment.

If you're paying another instrument, what parts of your instruments range will you play it in? So what kind of pitch? If you are thinking the lowest part of my instrument, you're correct, because the ground bass is a bass line.

So it needs to be played low down in the range.

How long is each note of the ground bass? If you said two beats, that's correct.

They are.

So let's now have a look at the fingers we're going to use.

So I'm going to suggest you use just fingers number one and finger, number two, you don't have to do it this way.

This is not going to be the typical way a harpsichordist would play, but it will be a really quick way to learn it.

And particularly for a beginner keyboard player, this will be really, really useful.

So I'm now going to show you how to play the ground bass on the keyboard.

If you're playing it in another instrument, that's fine, you might want to listen to me play on the keyboard anyway, so you know what it's meant to sound like.

Okay, I'm now going to show you how to play the ground bass.

So you need to make sure you use your left hand and start with your thumb on D.

So you need to be doing a D quite low down your keyboard, I suggest, here's my middle C.

And you go for the D below that one here.

So it should sound like this.

So my keyboard is curved, that's because of this webcam.

Don't worry, it's not curved in real life.

So I'm going to start with my D on one, and then I move to A on two, then B on one, F-sharp on two G on one, D on two, then G on one again, the A on two.

If you want to play with me now, go ahead, I'm going to count you in, one, two, three, four.

That leads us back to the beginning.

So get in a habit of repeating this over and over again, because you don't just play it once and stop.

Remember to have two beats on each note, if you are a more advanced keyboard player, you want might want to do in a different way.

So this is what I would suggest if you're feeling more advanced to using a lot of one and four.

So start on one, and four on the eighth, then probably one, then two, then one, then four, then one, then probably two, then back.

I don't know actually, maybe one and two is better here.

So one, two, one, two, one, four one, two.

So there's lots of different ways, there's not a perfect way to do it.

So totally up to you.

Read these instructions carefully, particularly if get you through this really quickly, and want something a bit harder to do.

Resume the video when you have finished.

Excellent work on your ground-bass just then, really exciting that you're going to be paying it later, where the bass viol Baroque ensemble.

So let's have a quick recap, what is a ground bass? What have you just been playing? If you put a bass line that repeats over and over again, you are correct, it is not a bass viol and harpsichord The bass viol and harpsichord combo are the basso continuo not the ground bass.

How long is each note in each Pachobel's ground bass? Choose your answer.

And it's two beats, well done, if you got that one correct.

So we have done so much already today.

Our final thing we're going to do is you're going to perform the ground bass with the other parts because the ground bass on its own is not very exciting.

The ground bass grounds the music, it keeps everything going, 'cause it repeats again and again and again.

So therefore, we need to play it with everyone else.

So you've got various options.

You could perform the ground bass in your left hand, any other melodies in your right hand.

So that's particularly good if you are a pianist or a keyboardist, 'cause that means you can do both things, you can perform with a member of your household.

So if you've got someone else who plays another instrument and couldn't play the other melodies for you, go and get them to do that.

I'm sure they'd love to get involved.

Or if you are only managing to do it with one hand on the keyboard, or if you're playing another instrument and don't have anyone to play it with, perform with my backing track.

Make up your mind now, and if you're going to perform with my backing track, stay with me.

If you're doing it by yourself, pause the video, if you're doing it with the backing track, let's carry on.

If you're going to play with my backing track, now is your chance to get ready.

So the backing track will begin with the ground bass so you know what time to play it in, but then it's going to drop out.

So you need to make sure you keep your part going underneath all the other parts so the ensemble sounds really, really good.

Good luck.

Get ready, I'm going to count you in, before I press play.

One, two, three, four.

Excellent work, I hope you're giving yourself a big round of applause, well done.

If you want to have another go again, of course you can just rewind the video.

If you're ready to move on, stay with me.

So now I want you to reflect on your role in this performance, by reading these three questions, pause the video, reflect and resume when you're ready.

Great, for the second two questions, you need to make sure, it should have stayed the same because you're playing the ground bass all the way through.

What role should have been the ground bass And why do we have bass lines in music? To ground it.

So let's not recap who plays what? So the basso continuo is the ground bass and chords in Baroque music, and it's the group that play the ground-bass and chords.

So it's actually means two different things.

Which of these instruments plays the chords and which plays the ground bass? Take a moment to have a think.

So the harpsichord would play the chords and the ground bass and that bass viol or cello, would play the ground bass.

Well done if you've got those correct.

So the final thing we need to do is fill in the blanks.

How does it bass line ground the music? What does it do? And what is it for? There are some words underneath the title that you're going to use to fill in the blanks, pause the video and resume it when you're ready.

Great job, let's go over these answers.

So, A, bass line is the lowest part in a piece of music.

A ground bass is the word for a repeated bass line in Baroque music that goes underneath changing melodies.

This helps to ground the music and keep it stable.

The ground bass is played by the basso continuo, typically a bass viol and harpsichord.

Well done if you got all of those words, correct.

If you want to have another go at this, you can just rewind the video to get full marks next time.

You have done some amazing work in today's lesson, you should feel really proud of yourselves, that's it for today, but don't forget to click on and complete the quiz to show off how much you've learnt.

All that's left for me to say is well done.

Take care and see you next time.

Bye.