Lesson video

Hello musicians.

It's me again, Mrs. Steele, and I'm really excited to be guiding you through another music lesson today.

There's lots to do, so let's get started together By the end of today's lesson, the last one in this unit, you'll be able to rehearse effectively for a performance and reflect on the musical decisions that we've made.

Here are the key words we'll need in our learning today.

Fusion.

We know this one well now.

The process of blending two or more different musical styles, genres, or traditions to create a new distinct sound.

Rehearse.

To practice in order to improve and prepare for a performance.

Ensemble.

A group of people who perform together.

And perform, presenting our work in front of others.

But first, we know how important it is before every music lesson to warm up our bodies, voices, and minds.

We need to make sure that we warm and gently stretch those vocal cords safely to help us to prevent injury to our voice and to develop our vocal strength.

And warmups are also a great opportunity to develop lots of other musical skills too, including our singing and listening skills.

Sequence your whole body breathing and voice warmups to prepare you for music.

Join in with these warmups to warm up your voice and to practice articulating words clearly.

It's one, one, two, one first.

Here's the video.

(upbeat music) ♪ One ♪ ♪ One two one ♪ ♪ One two two two one ♪ ♪ One two four two one ♪ ♪ One two four five four ♪ ♪ Two one ♪ ♪ One two ♪ ♪ Four five six five four two one ♪ ♪ One two ♪ ♪ Four five six seven ♪ ♪ Six five four two one ♪ ♪ One two ♪ ♪ Four five six seven eight ♪ ♪ Seven six five four two one ♪ Now let's sing don't let fusion cause confusion.

Here's the music.

(upbeat music) ♪ Don't let fusion cause confusion ♪ ♪ It is just a blend of styles ♪ ♪ Mixing sounds from different places ♪ ♪ Traveling over many miles ♪ ♪ It can be a rhythmic pattern ♪ ♪ Instrument or special scale ♪ ♪ Driving new ideas in music, always fresh ♪ ♪ And never stale ♪ ♪ Take a rhythm from South America ♪ ♪ Mix it with a scale that comes from southern India ♪ ♪ Soak a beat from Trinidad ♪ ♪ Soak a beat from Trinidad ♪ ♪ Mix it with a baseline from Argentinian tango song ♪ ♪ Don't let fusion cause confusion ♪ ♪ It is just a blend of styles ♪ ♪ Mixing sounds from different places ♪ ♪ Traveling over many miles ♪ ♪ It can be a rhythmic pattern, instrument or special scale ♪ ♪ Driving new ideas in music ♪ ♪ Always fresh ♪ ♪ And never stale ♪ Let's check that you are ready to sing.

Check that you've got a relaxed singing posture and that your voice feels warm and ready.

We're going to begin by rehearsing for a fusion performance.

In this lesson today, we're going to be putting together everything we've been learning throughout this unit and we're going to rehearse, perform, and reflect on our fusion pieces.

Now it's time to take some time to remember the decisions you've already made in your ensemble about the structure of your piece.

Here are the questions you need to consider.

How will you start?

How will you add some contrasts to make the piece more exciting?

And how will you finish?

When you are ready and you've decided all of these things, play through your piece, listening carefully to each other and you've got the track to help you when you need it.

To help us to refine our fusion pieces.

Let's think about what's working well.

So we're going to think of things that we could praise.

Perhaps you could praise that we kept a steady pulse.

Did you all know the structure of the piece and when to join in or stop?

Was the balance good?

Did you know when to play loudly or more quietly?

And were the rhythms cleanly and accurately played?

Press pause now to think of things to praise about your performance.

They might be these things or perhaps other things too.

Now let's think about the areas that you could refine further with probe.

You might have spotted that the pulse wasn't consistent or that you were hesitant in some places about what we were doing next.

Maybe you spotted that it was difficult to identify the different rhythms or that there was very little dynamic contrast.

Press pause now to think of things to probe about your fusion piece.

Now let's think about the actions we're going to take to refine our piece.

Practicing with the backing track really helps to internalize the pulse.

Perhaps your ensemble needs to do that more.

A leader could signal to help you know when to start or stop.

Rehearsing the rhythm separately could help to build their accuracy.

And making small adaptations to the dynamics, for example, makes a big difference.

Press pause to consider what actions you are going to take to refine your piece.

It's important to rehearse as an ensemble to prepare for a performance.

Let's take a moment to think more carefully about why rehearsing is so beneficial.

Performing can be nerve wracking, so rehearsing helps settle our nerves as it helps us to feel more prepared.

When we rehearse, we can listen to our sound and we can make improvements as we go.

Rehearsing together helps us to understand our part in the ensemble.

We need to know when to play and how to play, and we can use this time to rehearse our dynamics together.

This creates a more powerful performance.

And finally, music making together is fun.

So rehearsing is another opportunity to do more of that.

Before you embark upon your rehearsal, here are some useful rehearsal strategies you might like to use.

Try sitting or standing in different layouts.

What do you think works best for your piece and why?

Work on specific areas for improvement rather than repeating the whole piece over and over again.

Experiment with the music and make decisions together about how you want it to sound.

Try choosing one person to not play.

They can then listen to the overall sound and can give some feedback to help everybody to improve.

Follow a leader to all change dynamics together.

Consider is this controlled and is your sound balanced?

And remember, stopping to consider how you can improve and what next to work on is a really important part of rehearsing.

Now it's time to complete your final rehearsal now, refining the things that you've decided as an ensemble that you'd like to work on, and the track is there when you need it.

Have fun.

Good luck rehearsing.

How did your rehearsal go?

You'll know you've rehearsed effectively when you feel confident, ready, and excited to perform.

You need to make sure that you understand the structure of your piece and that you can play your part with ease and can concentrate on the ensemble.

Check that you are happy with the musical decisions you've made together about how you want the music to sound and check that you're working together as a team.

Communicate with each other as you are playing and singing.

Now let's move on to reflecting on a fusion performance.

In a moment, you're going to turns performing your fusion pieces, so you are going to be an audience member too.

You can help each other to reflect on your performances by being prepared to give some feedback to one another.

When listening and being an audience member, you might consider how the fusion piece successfully combines elements of different styles of music.

Consider how the ensemble works together.

Are the different parts balanced?

Do they have a shared pulse?

And are the players communicating with one another?

And what suggestions could you offer that might help them further improve their fusion piece?

You might find these sentence starters helpful to structure your feedback.

You can refer back to these when you need to.

It's the moment we've been waiting for, it's performance time.

Take turns performing your pieces for your class.

Have fun everyone.

Now join in with another group to give each other feedback after your fusion performances.

Consider how was the fusion piece successful?

How did the group work together as a team to perform as an ensemble, and what could they perhaps further develop next time?

Press pause to join in with another group to offer feedback about the fusion performances that you've had.

Now it's time to reflect as a group on your own performance and the work that you've done in developing your fusion piece.

Consider what musical influences did you include in your fusion piece and why?

What choices did you make regarding when and how the instruments played during the performance and why?

And how did you work together as an ensemble?

And how did that impact the performance?

Press pause to reflect as a group on your own fusion performance.

Hello again.

What did you discuss?

Perhaps you discussed some of these things here.

You might like to pause now to compare your answers with mine, or you could share some of your ideas with the wider class.

We've reached the end of our lesson together today and the end of this unit.

But before we go, let's take a moment to reflect on everything we've been learning today.

We know that effective rehearsal will likely lead to a more successful performance, and that taking time to consider how we can improve and what next to work on is an important part of the refining process.

We know that receiving meaningful feedback can help us to reflect on our own performance, and we know that asking questions about musicians' choices is a powerful way of gaining a greater understanding of the music.

Thanks so much everyone.

Great music making.

I'm already looking forward to seeing you soon for another music lesson.

Bye everyone.