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Hello, my name's Mr. Pate, and I'm looking forward to making some great music with you today.
This unit is called Compose and Create; Composing a minor melody on a stave.
And this lesson is called Minor Melodies and the Minor pentachord.
By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to read, sing, and play the minor pentachord, and know that it uses the first five notes of the minor scale.
Here are some of the keywords that you're gonna come across in today's lesson.
The minor pentachord is the first five notes of the minor scale, la, ti, do, re and mi.
A scale is a group of notes used to create melodies.
We'll be using the words ascending and descending.
Ascending is a melody that goes up and descending is a melody that goes down.
Finally, we'll use the words, steps and leaps.
Melodies can move up or down one note at a time, which is called a step, or they can jump up or down several notes, which is called a leap.
So before every music lesson,\ it's important to warm up our bodies, voices and minds so that we're ready to make some music.
Warming up our Bonnie helps us stand correctly and at ease when singing.
It helps us with our posture, our breathing, and more.
We need to gently warm and then stretch our vocal chords to protect our voices from injury.
Follow these warmups so you're ready for singing.
Let's warm up our bodies.
We're gonna start with shrug, shrug, shrug.
And shimmy, shimmy, shimmy.
Ready?
Here we go.
Shrug, shrug.
Shrug.
And a shimmy, shimmy, shimmy.
And again.
Shrug, shrug, shrug.
And a shimmy, shimmy, shimmy.
Shrug, shrug, shrug.
And a shimmy, shimmy, shimmy, one more time.
Shrug, shrug, shrug and a shimmy, shimmy, shimmy, Great, well done.
Now let's with our shoulders, try and do a nice little working, rolling them forwards like this.
There we go.
Rolling those shoulders forwards.
Lovely.
Very good.
And then back the other way.
There we go.
Lovely.
Excellent.
Now with your head, we're gonna go round in a circle like this, just a gentle circle.
Round and round and round.
There we go.
And then back the other way.
Good stuff.
Great.
Give everything a bit of a shake.
Shake it out.
Shake it out.
Lovely.
And then finally, let's have a big cartoony yawn.
Here we go.
Ready?
Let's start by warming up our face.
We're gonna start by imagining we're chewing a big tasty toffee.
So in goes the toffee, and then we're gonna chew it.
Really exaggerated, big chews, and it's delicious.
We're gonna go.
Mm.
Here we go.
Mm.
Good.
Really feel that jaw working.
Mm.
Lovely.
Now I want you to imagine you've just seen something amazing and you're gonna go, wow.
With a big wide open mouth.
So ready.
Here we go.
Wow.
And again, it's really amazing.
Here we go.
Wow.
Now we're gonna do some breathing exercises.
First, let's practice breathing in really deeply.
And when you breathe in deeply, I want your shoulders to stay where they are, but it wants to feel like your tummy is inflating.
So shoulders stay level, tummy inflating.
Ready?
Nice deep breath and.
And then breathing out.
Lovely.
And again.
And in and out, lovely.
Now this time when we breathe out, we're gonna try saying the letters S, F, and then we're gonna blow, like we're blowing out the candles on a birthday cake.
So we're gonna go, ssss, ssss, ffff, ffff.
Ready, here we go.
So breathing in And ssss, ssss, ffff, ffff.
Lovely and again, and breathing in.
ssss, ssss, ffff, ffff.
now let's try a tongue twister.
We're gonna say nice and slowly.
She threw three free throws.
Try it with me.
She threw three free throws, and again.
She threw three free throws.
And one more time, she threw three free throws.
These next songs will help us warm up further, getting us moving our bodies and using our voices in lots of different ways.
Sing along with this song.
900 miles.
♪ I am walking down the track ♪ ♪ I got tears in my eyes ♪ ♪ Trying to read a letter from my home ♪ ♪ If that train runs me ride, I'll be home tomorrow night ♪ ♪ Because it's 900 miles where I'm going ♪ ♪ I am walking down the track.
♪ ♪ I got tears in my eyes ♪ ♪ Trying to read a letter from my home.
♪ ♪ If that train runs me right ♪ ♪ I'll be home tomorrow night.
♪ ♪ 'Cause it's 900 miles where I'm going.
♪ Now join in with this warmup song.
"My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean.
" Let's sing the song, "My Bonnie Lies over the ocean.
" It sounds like this.
♪ My Bonnie lies over the ocean ♪ ♪ My Bonnie lies over the sea ♪ ♪ My Bonnie lies over the ocean ♪ ♪ Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me ♪ Should we give it a try?
Here we go.
Ready, and.
♪ My Bonnie lies over the ocean ♪ ♪ My Bonnie lies over the sea ♪ ♪ My Bonnie lies over the ocean ♪ ♪ Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me ♪ Very good.
Well done.
Now the game we're gonna do with this one is we are going to clap on every word that begins with B.
So it's gonna go, ♪ My Bonnie lies over the ocean ♪ ♪ My Bonnie lies over the sea ♪ Should we give it a try together?
Here we go.
Ready?
And.
♪ My Bonnie lies over the ocean ♪ ♪ My Bonnie lies over the sea ♪ ♪ My Bonnie lies over the ocean ♪ ♪ Oh, bring back my to me Bonnie to me ♪ There's a few more at the end there.
Should we try that one more time?
Ready?
And.
♪ My Bonnie lies over the ocean ♪ ♪ My Bonnie lies over the sea ♪ ♪ My Bonnie lies over the ocean ♪ ♪ Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me ♪ Very good.
Now the next thing we're gonna do is on every word that begins of the letter M, we're gonna tap our shoulders like this, and we're gonna have the claps for bee as well.
So it's gonna go, ♪ My Bonnie lies over the ocean ♪ Okay, and when we get to the end, ♪ Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me ♪ Let's give it a try, shall we?
Nice and slow.
Ready?
And.
♪ My Bonnie lies over the ocean ♪ ♪ My Bonnie lies over the sea ♪ ♪ My Bonnie lies over the ocean ♪ ♪ Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me ♪ For the last one.
For every word that begins with O, we're gonna add in a little wave, a little swoop, like the waves on the ocean and the claps and the taps.
And altogether it'll look like this.
♪ My Bonnie lies over the ocean ♪ ♪ My Bonnie lies over the ocean ♪ My Bonnie lies over the sea And when we get to the end, ♪ Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me ♪ Let's give a try.
Here we go.
Ready?
And.
♪ My Bonnie lies over the ocean ♪ ♪ My Bonnie lies over the sea ♪ ♪ My Bonnie lies over the ocean ♪ ♪ Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me.
♪ Very good.
Finally join in with this warmup.
Copy me.
♪ Ready, steady.
Off we go ♪ ♪ Copy me.
Copy me.
You can do it to ♪ ♪ Copy me.
Copy me.
then I'll copy you ♪ One, two, three, four.
<v Students>One, two, three, four.
</v> ♪ Copy me.
Copy me.
You can do it too ♪ ♪ Copy me.
Copy me.
Then I'll copy you ♪ One, two, three, four.
<v Students>One, two, three, four.
</v> ♪ Copy me.
Copy me.
You can do it too ♪ ♪ Copy me.
Copy me.
Then I'll copy you ♪ One, two, three, four.
<v Students>One, two, three, four.
</v> ♪ Copy me.
Copy me.
You can do it too.
♪ ♪ Copy me.
Copy me, then I'll copy you.
♪ One, two, three, four.
<v Students>One, two, three, four.
</v> <v ->Are you warmed up and ready to sing?
</v> If you are, then your muscle should feel nice and relaxed.
Your throat should feel warm and you should be concentrating and ready to learn.
So here are the learning cycles for today's lesson.
We'll start by singing songs using the minor pentachord.
Then we'll look at playing songs using the minor pentachord.
Let's listen to a Russian folk song called, "Little Birch Tree.
" ♪ See the little birch in the meadow ♪ ♪ Curly leaves all dancing when the wind blows ♪ ♪ Loo-Li-Loo, when the wind blows ♪ ♪ Loo-Li-Loo, when the wind blows ♪ ♪ See the little birch in the meadow ♪ ♪ Curly leaves all dancing when the wind blows ♪ ♪ Loo-Li-Loo, when the wind blows ♪ ♪ Loo-Li-Loo, when the wind blows ♪ Now let's sing the song together.
♪ See the little birch in the meadow ♪ ♪ Curly leaves all dancing when the wind blows ♪ ♪ Loo-Li-Loo, when the wind blows ♪ ♪ Loo-Li-Loo, when the wind blows ♪ ♪ See the little birch in the meadow ♪ ♪ Curly leaves all dancing when the wind blows ♪ ♪ Loo-Li-Loo, when the wind blows ♪ ♪ Loo-Li-Loo, when the wind blows ♪ The song, "Little Birch Tree," has a minor tonality.
This means the notes are organized around the notes la.
When something has a minor tonality, it uses the minor scale, which is a group of notes starting on the notes la.
The first five notes of the minor scale is called the minor pentachord.
And these notes are la, ti, do, re and mi.
You can see the minor pentachord and the notes of the minor pentachord on your screen now.
Let's try singing this scale up and down and adding in the Solfege hand symbols.
♪ La, ti, do, re, mi ♪ ♪ Re, do, ti, la ♪ And again.
♪ La, ti, do, re, mi ♪ ♪ Re, do, ti, la ♪ The first line of "Little Birch Tree," uses the minor pentachord.
We can see the notes written out here as well as the sulfur hand symbols.
So when we sing the line, ♪ See the little birch in the meadow ♪ The notes we're singing are, ♪ Mi, mi, mi, mi, re, do, do, ti, la ♪ Let's sing the first line slowly together while doing Solfege hand symbols.
♪ See the little birch in the meadow ♪ And again, ♪ See the little birch in the meadow ♪ Now with the Solfege note names.
♪ Mi, mi, mi, mi, re, do, do, ti, la ♪ And one more time.
♪ Mi, mi, mi, mi, re, do, do, ti, la ♪ The notes of this melody descend, which means they go down.
If we were to write these notes out on a musical stave, we would see those notes getting lower one note at a time, just like this.
We call this moving in steps where the notes are right next to each other, moving one note at a time.
Let's sing the melody one more time.
Noticing the pitch descending in steps.
♪ See the little birch in the meadow ♪ Try it with me.
Ready?
And here we go.
♪ See the little birch in the meadow ♪ Now, what are the first five notes of the minor pentachord.
Can you remember?
Could they be A, do, re, me, fa, so?
Or maybe B, fa, so, la, ti and do.
Or could it be C, la, ti, do, re, mi.
Which do you think?
The answer is C.
The notes of the minor pentachord are organized around the note la.
So that's the first note.
The notes are la, ti, do, re and mi.
If we look at this melody on a musical stave, as well as seeing the pitches of the notes, that means how high or low they are.
We also see the duration of the notes, which means how long or short they are.
We can see here the melody written out again.
The rhythms that we can see go like this.
♪ Ta-di, ta-di, ta, ta-di, ta, ta ♪ Try clapping those rhythms with me.
Ready?
And off we go.
♪ Ta-di, ta-di, ta, ta-di, ta, ta ♪ Should we try that one more time?
Ready and off we go.
♪ Ta-di, ta-di, ta, ta-di, ta, ta, ♪ Now, in the second line of our song, we've got a new rhythm.
It looks like this.
You can see the first note has a little dot after it.
So we call this a dotted rhythm.
The first note is longer than the second.
Let's see how that sounds.
I'm gonna tap the beat as I sing the phrase from Little Birch.
This is the second line, it goes, ♪ Loo, li-loo, when the wind blows.
♪ Try that with me.
Ready?
And here we go.
♪ Loo, li-loo, when the wind blows.
♪ Now that new rhythm is on the first two notes of this phrase.
And as Laura's noticed, the li from loo-li comes after the beat.
♪ Loo, li-loo ♪ Did you hear how that beat was on its own before the li came in?
Listen one more time.
♪ Loo, li-loo ♪ And that's what a dotted rhythm sounds like.
Try clapping and chanting the Takadimi rhythms along with this stave notation.
It'll sound like this.
♪ Taa, di-ta, ta-di, ta, ta ♪ Try that with me.
Ready?
And here we go.
♪ Taa, di-ta, ta-di, ta, ta ♪ One more time.
Ready?
And here we go.
♪ Taa, di-ta, ta-di, ta, ta ♪ Well done.
That's our new rhythm, the dotted rhythm.
Let's have a listen to another song.
Listen to the American folk song, "Wayfaring Stranger.
" ♪ I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger ♪ ♪ I'm traveling through this world below ♪ ♪ There is no sickness, toil, nor danger ♪ ♪ In that bright world to which I go ♪ ♪ I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger ♪ ♪ I'm traveling through this world below ♪ ♪ There is no sickness, toil, nor danger ♪ ♪ In that bright world to which I go ♪ Now we've had a listen to "Wayfaring stranger.
" Let's sing it together.
Join in with me.
♪ I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger ♪ ♪ I'm traveling through this world below ♪ ♪ There is no sickness, toil, nor danger ♪ ♪ In that bright world to which I go ♪ ♪ I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger ♪ ♪ I'm traveling through this world below ♪ ♪ There is no sickness, toil, nor danger ♪ ♪ In that bright world to which I go ♪ The song, "Little Birch Tree," uses a dotted rhythm.
And this song, "Wayfaring Stranger," uses one as well.
It happens on the phrase, ♪ Poor wayfaring stranger.
♪ And you can hear that distinctive sound of a dotted rhythm where the first notes longer than the second on the phrase poor and then way.
With the beat you'll hear the word way slightly afterwards.
Like this, ♪ Poor wayfaring stranger ♪ If we were to do that, chanting the Takadimi patterns, it would sound like this.
♪ Taa, di, ta-di, ta-di ♪ Try that with me.
Ready?
And here we go.
♪ Taa, di, ta-di, ta-di ♪ Try that one more time.
Ready?
And here we go.
♪ Taa, di, ta-di, ta-di ♪ Well done.
The song "Wayfaring Stranger<" also uses the minor pentachord.
Again, you can see the notes written out on the screen with the Solfege hand symbols.
So when we sing the phrase, ♪ I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger.
♪ The notes we're singing are, ♪ La, la, mi, mi, re, mi, re, do, la ♪ Try joining in with these first two lines slowly using Solfege hand symbols.
♪ I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger ♪ ♪ I'm traveling through this world below ♪ And again.
♪ I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger ♪ ♪ I'm traveling through this world below ♪ Now let's look at what the melody for "Wayfaring Stranger," would look like written out on a stave.
It looks like this.
Here's a question for you.
Do the notes in this song ascend, which means go up.
Or descend, which means go down.
And does it use mostly steps, which means moving up or down one note at a time?
Or does it use leaps, which is jumping up or down several notes.
Pause the video now and think about do the notes ascend or descend, and do they use steps or leaps?
Hopefully you've had some time to think about it.
Here are the answers.
The melody starts by ascending.
The notes go up.
♪ I'm just a poor ♪ But from there it descends.
The notes go down.
♪ Wayfaring stranger ♪ So the melody ascends and then descends.
The melody starts and ends with leaps.
So that first few words, ♪ I'm just a poor ♪ ♪ There's a big leap upwards ♪ And the end for stranger, also uses a leap.
But the rest of the melody in the middle uses steps.
So the melody starts and ends with leaps and in the middle uses steps.
Let's now have a go at playing some songs using the minor pentachord.
We're going to be learning to play the songs that we've been looking at today using the minor pentachord on pitched percussion.
You can use any pitched percussion instrument for this, a xylophone, a glockenspiel or chime bars.
We're gonna start by playing the song Little Birched, using our pitch percussion instruments.
You are gonna need the notes of the minor pentachord.
And for this song, we are gonna be using the notes D to A, that's D, E, F, G and A.
See if you can find those notes on your pitched percussion instrument and try playing them ascending.
That means up and descending, which is down slowly to get the hang of what they sound like.
Pause this video now and try playing the minor pentachord.
Now you've had a go at playing the minor pentachord.
We are gonna try singing and then playing the whole song of "Little Birch Tree.
" Let's start by singing it to remind ourselves of what it sounds like.
Join in with me.
♪ See the little birch in the meadow ♪ ♪ Curly leaves all dancing when the wind blows ♪ ♪ Loo-Li-Loo, when the wind blows ♪ ♪ Loo-Li-Loo, when the wind blows ♪ ♪ See the little birch in the meadow ♪ ♪ Curly leaves all dancing when the wind blows ♪ ♪ Loo-Li-Loo, when the wind blows ♪ ♪ Loo-Li-Loo, when the wind blows ♪ Now we are really familiar with how the song goes.
Let's try playing it on our pitched percussion instrument.
Before we do, watch this video show an example of what the song will sound like.
Finally, now it's over to you.
Have a go at playing this song on your pitch percussion instrument.
You'll see the stave notation on the screen and underneath the notes are written in solfege so you can find them on your pitch percussion instrument.
Remember, when you are learning a new song, take it slow and steady, giving yourself plenty of time to find those notes.
And as you get more confident and familiar with where they are, you'll be able to speed it up a little bit.
Pause the video now and try learning the song, "Little Birch Tree.
" Now let's have a look at our next song, the song, "Wayfaring Stranger," is in 3-time.
let's sing the song together tapping the Beat.
See if you can feel that distinctive 3-time strong, weak, weak feel.
Which sounds a bit like this.
If I were to clap, one, two, three, one, two, three.
The beat for one is emphasized or stronger than the others.
Here it is again, one, two, three, one, two, three.
With this song, with the melody that would sound like this, ♪ I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger ♪ ♪ I'm traveling through this world below ♪ Let's try singing it together.
Try clapping the beats and the first strong beats will appear on the word poor.
♪ I'm just a poor ♪ Try singing it with me.
♪ I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger ♪ ♪ I'm traveling through this world below ♪ ♪ There is no sickness, toil, nor danger ♪ ♪ In that bright world to which I go ♪ ♪ I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger ♪ ♪ I'm traveling through this world below ♪ ♪ There is no sickness, toil, nor danger ♪ ♪ In that bright world to which I go ♪ The song "Little Birch Tree," uses mostly steps, but this song, "Wayfaring Stranger," also uses leaps.
When you are playing these on your pitch percussion instrument, take your time making sure you are jumping to the correct notes.
Let's watch what a performance of the first part of this song might sound like.
Now it's over to you.
Pause this video and try playing this first line of the song.
Remember, take your time playing slowly and steadily so you can find exactly where those notes leap to, and use the stave notation and note names on the screen to help you find the correct notes.
Finally, let's have a go at the whole song.
Watch this example of a full performance of the song, "Wayfaring Stranger" And now it's your turn.
Again, pause the video and try learning the full song for "Wayfaring Stranger.
" Take your time, use a slow and steady tempo, and then when you're feeling slightly more confident and familiar with where the notes are, you can speed it up a little bit.
Good luck with your playing.
And once you spend some time learning it, you can resume the video and for an extra challenge, try playing it along with an instrumental accompaniment.
Pause the video now and spend some time practicing.
Hopefully you've spent a good bit of time there practicing and know the song well.
If you'd like an extra bit of challenge, try playing along to this instrumental accompaniment playing the melody from "Wayfaring Stranger.
" Here we go.
Now you spent lots of time playing the song, "Wayfaring Stranger.
" Let's watch that performance video one more time.
While you're watching it, I want you to think about this.
How does your performance of this song compare to this example?
Did you manage to keep a slow, steady tempo while you were playing?
And were you able to carry on and find your place again if you made a mistake?
In today's lesson, we have learned that the minor pentachord uses the notes la, ti, do, re and mi.
We've learned that many folk songs are based around the minor pentachord.
We can sing them and play them on a pitched percussion instrument.
We've learned to sing and play a new rhythm, Taa-di, the dotted rhythm.
And we've learned that melodies can ascend and descend and use leaps and steps.
Well done for some excellent playing in today's lesson.
I look forward to seeing you in the next one.
