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Hi there, everybody.

Welcome to this lesson on layering simple accompaniments to create a thicker texture.

This is from our Playing Together unit where we are creating texture with melody, drone, and ostinato.

My name's Mr. Croughan, and I'm looking forward to helping you build a thicker texture around our music today.

Here we go.

In this lesson, we're learning to add texture to a song by playing a simple ostinato.

Let's look at our keywords for today.

We'll begin with texture.

This is what we're looking at throughout this unit, that combination of different layers of sound.

Then the pulse, the regular steady heartbeat of the music.

A riff.

A riff is a word we use in pop and rock music, and it describes a repeating musical pattern.

Timbre is that description of the sound or tone of an instrument or voice.

And then ostinato, a repeating musical pattern that could be rhythmic or melodic.

We know how important it is to warm up, and we're not just warming up our voices, we're warming up our minds, our ears, and ourselves to be focused and ready so that when we sing together and we we play together, we're singing in tune, singing in time, and singing safely, and our playing as an ensemble will sound neat.

I would like you to follow these warmups so that you are ready for singing and playing.

Here we go.

This is a game called don't clap this one back.

You'll hear me clapping different rhythms, like this one.

(Mr. Croughan clapping) And that rhythm is actually our secret rhythm that we are never going to clap, because that rhythm says (clapping) don't clap this one back.

So if you hear it, you do nothing.

Any other rhythm you hear, we all clap together.

Let's try a couple.

(Mr. Croughan clapping) (Mr. Croughan clapping) (Mr. Croughan clapping) Very, very good.

Now you're going to listen super carefully, because if you hear (Mr. Croughan clapping) we don't clap that rhythm back.

Okay, let's play.

(Mr. Croughan clapping) (Mr. Croughan clapping) (Mr. Croughan clapping) (Mr. Croughan clapping) Did I get any of you out? Let's try one more time.

Here we go.

(Mr. Croughan clapping) (Mr. Croughan clapping) (Mr. Croughan clapping) (Mr. Croughan clapping) (Mr. Croughan clapping) Very well done.

Now you can practice that where you are.

(bright piano music) ♪ One ♪ ♪ One, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five ♪ ♪ Four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five, six ♪ ♪ Five, four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five, six, seven ♪ ♪ Six, five, four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight ♪ ♪ Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ Eight, eight, seven, eight ♪ ♪ Eight, seven, six, seven, eight ♪ ♪ Eight, seven, six, five, six, seven, eight ♪ ♪ Eight, seven, six, five, four, five, six, seven, eight ♪ ♪ Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, six, seven, eight ♪ ♪ Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two ♪ ♪ Three, four, five, six, seven, eight ♪ ♪ Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight ♪ ♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ (upbeat percussion music) ♪ Senwa dedende, senwa ♪ ♪ Senwa dedende, senwa ♪ ♪ Senwa dedende ♪ ♪ Senwa dedende ♪ ♪ Senwa dedende, senwa ♪ ♪ Senwa dedende, senwa ♪ ♪ Senwa dedende, senwa ♪ ♪ Senwa dedende ♪ ♪ Senwa dedende ♪ ♪ Senwa dedende, senwa ♪ ♪ Senwa dedende, senwa ♪ ♪ Senwa dedende, senwa ♪ ♪ Senwa dedende ♪ ♪ Senwa dedende ♪ ♪ Senwa dedende, senwa ♪ <v ->Super duper.

</v> Now then, there are two learning cycles in today's lesson.

The first one is hearing texture build and feeling the steady pulse.

And then the second part of the lesson is where we are going to add two ostinati to build texture.

Let's begin by hearing some texture build and feeling that steady pulse.

We'll continue, throughout this unit, exploring different ways to accompany songs.

In this piece of music we're going to listen to, which is by British band, Public Service Broadcasting and is called "Spitfire," we get a bit of a history lesson.

"Spitfire" tells the story of the design and construction of the Spitfire, an aircraft that helped the Royal Air Force win the Battle of Britain in 1940.

While we listen, I would like you to listen out for the following layers of sound buildup.

You'll hear these instruments.

There are guitars, drums, and keyboards and synthesizer sounds.

Over the top of this is the spoken word, and there's sound effects too.

I would like you to pause, have a listen to the track, and see how many layers pf sound you can identify.

Off you go.

Nice.

Did you hear the two guitar riffs? Now remember, a riff is that repeating musical pattern in pop music, so it's a bit like an ostinato, that repeating pattern.

Now the first guitar uses two notes.

That first riff goes.

♪ Dun, dun, dun, dun ♪ ♪ Dun, dun, dun, dun ♪ ♪ Dun, dun, dun, dun ♪ And the second part you hear coming in later is.

♪ Ding, ding, ding, ding ♪ That second guitar riff just using one note.

And when these parts start to layer up, we're starting to get a thicker texture, and they work really well together.

Now, we can layer our ostinato riffs to accompany our songs to make our texture thicker, too.

I'd like you to listen again to "Spitfire" by Public Service Broadcasting and see how many layers of sound can you hear.

Just count them on your hands as you're hearing a new instrument or voice or sound come in, and are they being played at the same time? As you listen, tap the steady pulse on your legs.

Does that tempo feel slow, medium, or fast to you, or somewhere in-between? So pause here, listen again, and answer those two questions, and we'll catch up with the answers in a moment.

Super.

So how did you do? How did you get along with that first question? We're asking how many layers of sound can you hear.

Now, what I did was I tried to listen to how many layers of sound I could hear at the same time, and this is what I got.

I got sound effects, guitar, voice, drums, and synthesizer.

So at the texture's thickest, I think there were five layers of sound.

It's also true to say that there were some parts where there were a thinner texture because there were fewer layers of sounds layering up together.

And then the second question, that tapping the steady pulse on your legs, do you think that tempo is slow, medium, fast, or somewhere in-between? Now, I came up with between medium and fast.

It certainly wasn't a slow tempo.

I've heard quicker ones, but it kicked up a pace, so I'd say between medium and fast.

When we layer up instruments that have different timbres, we can make them musical texture more interesting.

We can recreate a version of "Spitfire" using the following.

We can use two different drums, some handheld percussion, perhaps a tambour and a tambourine.

And a pitched percussion instrument like a keyboard, or a string instrument like a ukulele.

We are going to use a rhythm grid to help us build our riffs.

You'll see on the rhythm grid there's a symbol.

This one's a purple circle, and we've got empty boxes for when we are not making any sounds in our offbeats.

So if I was to clap this, I would say, (clapping) one and two and three and four and.

And if we're going to be layering parts to build texture, we need to keep a steady pulse.

It's very tempting to get quicker, it's very easy to get quicker, but if we keep a steady pulse, we all stay in time.

So we're going to practice this.

On the grid are two symbols.

We've got a purple symbol, which is for a stomp, (stomping) and a green for a clap.

(clapping) And I'd like you to practice playing this on your body percussion.

We are going to go slowly.

We have one and two and three and four and.

So I'm going to say ready, steady, off you go.

Stomp, (stomping) clap, (clapping), stomp, (stomping) clap, (clapping), rest, rest.

stomp, (stomping) clap, (clapping).

You can see in the empty boxes there are no symbols, so we rest for those ones.

Pause here and practice playing that on body percussion, not getting quicker.

Good luck.

See you in a moment.

Now let's add some instruments.

We can see on our rhythm grid, our purple circle is showing beats on one, two, three, and four, so let's play that on a tambour or a similar instrument.

So we have (upbeat tambour music) one and two and three and four and.

Okay.

Then we can look at playing on the in-between notes, on the and.

So I'm going to add a tambourine to this one, (tambourine jingling) and we will have a one and two (upbeat tambourine music) and three and four and.

So the tambour is playing on the one, two, three, four, and the tambourine in-between, so we get a (imitating percussion instruments) sound.

I would like you to pause here and take it in turns with different instruments in your classroom, I'm suggesting a tambour and a tambourine or similar, and play those parts.

Some of you play the purple, some of you play the green.

How neatly can you stay in time? It will help you if you count that one and two and three and four and, and don't go too quickly.

Pause here and try that where you are.

How was that for you? That can be quite a challenge when we're playing at the same tempo, adding layers together.

Did you achieve that (imitating percussion instruments) sound without getting quicker? With practice, we'll be doing it really well, because we're all concentrating on feeling the steady pulse.

What we're going to do now, if you look at the grid, you can see I've added a note in.

This is going to represent that guitar riff that we heard in the track, and it happens on the in-between beats.

So if we clap, we get one and (clapping) two and three and four and.

So we're clapping in-between.

Let's count and clap all together.

Ready? Ready, steady, off we go.

(clapping) One, two, three, four.

Let's try that together so we're definitely clapping in-between our counting.

I'd like you to count and sing, or count and clap.

Are you ready? Ready, steady, off we go.

One and (clapping) two and three and four and.

Well done.

So we can choose an instrument to play that note on.

You might want to play it on a xylophone, or a glockenspiel, or a chime bar.

I brought a ukulele.

And it can be played on the A string.

That's the thinnest string, and the one if you're holding it right is nearest to your feet.

So this would sound like this, one and (soft ukulele music) two and three and four and.

So your task then is to put these layers of sound together to build texture.

You're going to be keeping a steady pulse while you do.

This doesn't need to be super quick.

What I'd like you to do is either work in groups or as a whole class, and decide who is following which symbol on the rhythm grid.

If you're following purple, you are playing on the (clapping) one, two, three, four.

If you're following green, you are playing on the ands.

(clapping) One and two and three and four and.

And the same if you're playing the note, perhaps on a xylophone, or chime bar, or ukulele, or similar, maybe even a percussion tube.

you are playing on the one and two and three and four and.

Your top tip, count in before you go.

Make sure that you can all feel the steady pulse before you start.

Like this, one and two and three and four and.

One and two and three and four and.

There's a track there to help you if you'd like to use it.

I would like you to practice as slow as you need to and get slowly quicker each time you rehearse until you are confident that you've got a lovely sound that can represent the sound of "Spitfire" that we listened to before.

Off you go.

How did it go? Did you manage to keep that tempo steady? Could you play to the steady pulse without getting quicker? Andeep says, "We did this in table groups.

Two of us played the tambour, two of us played a tambourine, and two of us played the A string on a ukulele.

And the different instruments, that timbre, made it sound interesting.

And Sam says, "Our group kept speeding up, so we stopped and we clapped the rhythms first.

Then we tried again with one of us counting the beats," the one and two and three and four and, and that worked for them.

I hope you were able to make it work where you are, because it's now time to move on to the second part of our lesson.

We are adding two ostinati to build texture, so we're going to be playing two at the same time.

In a moment, I'm going to play the "Abiyo, Abeyo" track, and I would like you to work in two groups.

One of you will sing the call, and one of you will sing the echo.

Remember that we hold the notes under the echo as they are happening.

That almost creates a drone-like sound.

♪ Abiyo ♪ ♪ Abeyo ♪ As the other part comes in, okay? Pop yourself into two groups, pause the video if you need to to just establish those two groups, and then the track will come on.

Are we ready? Here it comes.

(upbeat percussion music) ♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ Abiyo ♪ ♪ Abiyo ♪ ♪ Abeyo ♪ ♪ Abeyo ♪ ♪ Abio, bio, bima, ma ♪ ♪ Abio, bio, bima, ma ♪ ♪ Abio, bio, bima, ma ♪ ♪ Abio, bio, bima, ma ♪ ♪ Abiyo ♪ ♪ Abiyo ♪ ♪ Abeyo ♪ ♪ Abeyo ♪ ♪ Abio, bio, bima, ma ♪ ♪ Abio, bio, bima, ma ♪ ♪ Abio, bio, bima, ma ♪ ♪ Abio, bio, bima, ma ♪ <v ->Very nice.

</v> Now, the echo song itself creates two lines of texture, because we've got the echoes being held so we can have two voices happening at the same time.

And we can create a thicker texture and make it more interesting, more complex by adding some ostinati underneath.

Remember, one, ostinato, more than one, ostinati.

Let's start then with a simple rhythmic ostinato.

This is a ta rhythm, and we can play it eight times under singing and echoing our "Abiyo" song.

So I'm gonna sing the call and the response, so you'll hear.

(Mr. Croughan tapping) ♪ Abiyo ♪ ♪ Abiyo ♪ And I'm tapping in time underneath on each of the beats, if you hear a.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ (Mr. Croughan tapping) ♪ Abiyo ♪ And the first clap is on the bi.

You're all going to join in together now.

Are we ready? Ready, steady, off we go.

(Mr. Croughan tapping) ♪ Abiyo ♪ ♪ Abiyo ♪ Very good.

Now what's gonna happen is the track will come on, and I would like you to clap in time to the track.

Remember which syllable of the word abiyo do we start tapping? We start on the bi, the second syllable, so abiyo.

So, ready, steady, off we go.

(Mr. Croughan tapping) ♪ A bi ♪ Okay? Here comes the track.

Be ready to clap along.

</v> Now, I did say there will be two ostinati, so here comes the second one.

This is called ta-di ta.

And this fits under our song, too.

Have a listen.

♪ Ready, steady, off I go ♪ (Mr. Croughan tapping) ♪ Abiyo ♪ ♪ Abiyo ♪ Okay? I would like you to join in with those claps too with our ta-di ta, ta-di ta.

Ready, steady, off we go.

(Mr. Croughan tapping) ♪ Abiyo ♪ ♪ Abiyo ♪ Very good.

Now then, quick check, which syllable of the word abiyo do we start tapping? Is it a, or bi, or yo? We start tapping on the bi.

So we hear ready, steady, off we go, (tapping) a bi, okay? So let's now pop on the track, and we're going to clap our ta-di ta rhythm ostinato along to it.

Here it comes.

</v> Now we can layer up our ostinati using two percussion instruments with different timbres.

So for example, I've chosen perhaps a djembe and maybe some claves.

Choose a small group who's going to play the ta-di ta rhythm, and then choose a small group who's going to play the ta rhythm.

So the ta-di ta is our (upbeat percussion music) one and two, three and four, one and two, three and four.

And then with our claves we've got the (upbeat percussion music) ta, ta, ta, ta, one, two, three, four.

When you've done that, we can then check that we are staying in time by playing along to the track.

So what we'll need is just a small group of the ta-di ta players, and then a small group of the ta rhythm ostinato players, and then everybody else will be singing.

Now don't worry if you don't have an instrument straight away.

We can swap around so different people get a turn, and singers can play and players can sing.

If you need to pause the video now, you can.

In a moment, the track will come on and you will play along and sing along.

So if you're singing, make sure you are hearing the pulse, and if you are playing, make sure you're feeling that pulse too, and listening to each other to keep in time.

Are we ready? Here comes the track.

</v> I'm sure it's sounding neater and neater every time.

Now, as your final practice task for the day, you are going to be in four groups to add these ostinati layers to our song and making the texture thicker.

Group one will sing the call, group two will sing the echo, group three will play the ta-di ta on their instrument, and group four will play the ta ostinato on their instrument.

Remember, if there's time, you can swap around.

What we're after here is that we are feeling the steady pulse and playing all together.

Use the track to keep in time.

Group one is singing the call, group two is singing the echo, and also, we have the rhythmic ostinati that are joining in to layer up and thicken that texture.

Remember, feeling the steady pulse and not getting quicker are really going to help you.

Good luck, and I'll see you when you're done.

So how did it go? How did you get along thickening your song with two layers of percussive rhythmic ostinati? Aisha says, "The more we felt all the pulse, the easier and the neater it got." So feeling that pulse was really important.

"I just needed to remember to listen to the track because that helped me play at the right tempo and to the same steady beat." So good attention required it sounds.

And Lucas adds, "Saying the ta-di rhythms to myself helped me play in time." And watching everyone else, looking around as well as listening, helped keep him in time, too.

Well, I hope you had much success where you are.

That's really good.

Really well done today.

You're exploring more ways of thickening the texture by adding simple accompaniments, and we're listening together and staying in time.

Great job.

Recapping on our learning from today, we can hear the texture become thicker as a layer of sound is added at a time.

And we heard that in the example "Spitfire" today.

Adding instruments with different timbres can make the texture more interesting.

We can layer rifs or ostinati to make the texture thicker as accompaniments to our songs.

And you did that well in the second half of today's lesson.

And feeling that steady pulse, that's what helps us to play different layers of sound in time.

Really well done for today, and I look forward to seeing you next time.

Bye for now.

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