Lesson video

Hello, my name's Mr. Pate, and I'm looking forward to doing some great performing with you in today's lesson.

This unit is called Compose and Create: composing a minor melody on a stave.

And in today's lesson, we're gonna be reading and performing minor melodies.

By the end of the lesson, we will have performed our minor melody composition and the compositions of others with accuracy and a steady pulse.

Here are some of the keywords that will come up in today's lesson.

We're gonna be doing a composition, which means a new piece of music that's been created.

We'll be planning out the structure of our composition.

And structure is one of the elements of music.

That means the way that music is organized.

We'll be rehearsing for our performance.

And rehearsing is a term that means practicing, repeating something again and again in order to try and get better and prepare for a performance.

And finally, we'll be performing, which is when we present our work in front of others.

Before we start though, let's do a warm-up.

This will help get our bodies, voices, and minds ready for music making.

When we warm up our body, it helps us with our posture, standing correctly and at ease when singing.

And it also helps us to gently warm and stretch our vocal cords in order to avoid any injury.

Join in with these warm-ups.

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 work in, 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.

(vocalizing) Shake it out, shake it out.

Lovely.

And then, finally, let's have a big cartoony yawn.

(yawning) Here we go.

Ready? (yawning) 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, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm.

Good.

Really feel that jaw working.

Mm, mm, 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 (inhaling deeply).

And then breathing out.

(exhaling deeply) Lovely, and again.

And in.

(inhales deeply) And out.

(exhales deeply) Lovely.

Now this time when we breathe out, we're gonna try saying the letters S, s, s, F, f, f, and then we're gonna blow, like we're blowing out the candles on a birthday cake.

So we're gonna go, s, s, f, f, (exhaling sharply).

Ready, here we go.

So breathing in, (inhales deeply) and, s, s, f, f, (exhaling sharply).

Lovely and again, and breathing in.

(inhales deeply) And, s, s, f, f, (exhaling sharply).

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.

Now let's sing a few more songs to help us warm up further, getting us using our voices in different ways.

Start by joining in with this song, "Wayfaring Stranger." (gentle music) ♪ 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 ♪ (gentle music continues) ♪ 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 ♪ (gentle music) Now join in with this song, "Oh la la ley." (gentle upbeat music) ♪ Oh la la ley ♪ ♪ Another evening fades away ♪ ♪ You know the evening sun won't disappear for long ♪ ♪ Because tomorrow is another day ♪ (gentle upbeat music) ♪ Oh la la ley ♪ ♪ Another evening fades away ♪ ♪ You know the evening sun won't disappear for long ♪ ♪ Because tomorrow is another day ♪ Finally join in with this song, "Banaha." ♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ (instructor singing in foreign language) (instructor continues singing in foreign language) (instructor continues singing in foreign language) (instructor continues singing in foreign language) (instructor continues singing in foreign language) (instructor continues singing in foreign language) (instructor continues singing in foreign language) (instructor continues singing in foreign language) <v ->Are you warmed up and ready to sing?</v> If so, your muscles will feel relaxed, your throat will feel warm, and you'll be concentrating, ready to learn.

Here's the learning cycles for today's lesson.

We'll start by composing a new section for an AABA composition.

Then we'll look at adding accompaniments and rehearsing, and finally, performing your composition.

In our previous lesson, we composed, which means made-up an original melody.

We first composed the rhythm by selecting takadimi patterns.

Then we improvised, which means making up on the spot.

We improvise melodies using this rhythm.

Finally, we then chose our best ideas from our improvisation, refined and wrote out our new melody on a stave.

And what you ended up with might be something a little bit like this.

If you don't have your own, you can use this example in your composition.

Have a listen to this example, composed melody.

(bright music) Our melodies are sounding great already, but are a little bit short.

So we're gonna try and extend this into an AABA composition.

And what that means, AABA, is it's a type of musical structure.

Structure is the plan for how music's organized.

So if we label what we've done so far, A, we can then repeat it again, AA, then we'll add a new section called B, and finally come back to the A section to finish.

That'll make our melodies longer and also add a little bit of variety as well.

Here's what the whole thing will look like: A, A, B, a new section, and then A, back to our first section again.

Why would we do that though? Why do you think that repetition is important in music? Is it A, it makes music catchy and memorable? Is it B, it helps to give music structure? Is it C, it makes the music sound less random? Or is it D? All of the above.

The answer is D.

All of these things are great reasons why we use repetition.

It absolutely makes it catchy and memorable.

It helps to give our music structure and it makes it sound more organized and less random.

So the first part of this structure's nice and easy, AA, you just play your melody again.

For the next section, we're gonna compose a new B section.

Now we want it to contrast with the A section, we want it to sound a bit different, but we still want to consider our composing guidelines to make it sound nice and musical.

We do want it to sound musical, organized, and not random.

So, let's first compose a rhythm by selecting takadimi patterns.

You can see all of the patterns that we can choose from here on the screen.

Let's just remind ourselves of what they sound like.

I'm gonna do each one four times starting with ta.

You're very welcome to join in with me.

Here we go.

Ready, steady, off we go.

Ta, ta, ta, ta, (Mr. Pate clapping) ta-di, ta-di, ta-di, ta-di.

(Mr. Pate clapping) Ta-ka-di-mi, ta-ka-di-mi, ta-ka-di-mi, ta-ka-di-mi, ta-ka-di, ta-ka-di, ta-ka-di, ta-ka-di, ta mi-ta, mi-ta, mi-ta, mi-ta, (Mr. Pave clapping) mi ta di-mi, ta di-mi, ta di-mi, ta di-mi.

These are all the rhythms that we can choose from when we're composing our own.

So before we go ahead and get composing, think about this question.

When composing a rhythm, do you think it should be A, simple, or B, complicated? What do you think? The answer is, A, simple.

It can be really tempting to choose the most complicated and interesting patterns for your rhythm, but ultimately, that doesn't always lead to the best, most catchy, memorable melody.

What about this one? Do you think the rhythm should be always changing, or repetitive? The answer is D, repetitive.

Again, when you're composing ideas, it can be tempting to make it change all the time to try and make it as interesting as possible, but without any repetition, we lose the structure of our melody and it makes it less memorable.

So using repetition when composing a rhythm is a really good idea.

Finally, do you think that your rhythm should be divided into two repeating phrases, or should it be all one phrase? The answer is E, divided into two repeating phrases.

That's a great way to get repetition into our melody.

It's a great way to add structure, all of which makes it more memorable.

So with that in mind, now it's time to compose our rhythm.

Have a look at the rhythm bank you can see on the screen.

And choose four takadimi patterns for your rhythm.

You can use any of them in any order, and you can use them more than once as well.

Then repeat it to make eight in total.

Here's an example of what your composed rhythm might sound like.

I'm gonna clap this for you now.

Ready, and off we go.

Ta-di, ta-ka-di-mi, ta-di, ta-di, ta-di, ta-ka-di-mi, ta-di, ta-di.

So the fact that it was repeated twice makes it nice and memorable and using lots of simple rhythms like that ta-di rhythm helps it to feel structured as well.

Pause the video now and spend some time composing your own rhythm.

When you're done, write it down, ready for our next task.

So now you've composed your rhythms, we're gonna try and come up with some pitches for your melody, and we're gonna use the notes of the minor pentachord.

In this case, it's gonna be D, E, F, G and A.

Find those notes on your pitched percussion instrument, which could be a xylophone, glockenspiel, or chime bars.

Start by improvising.

That means taking the rhythm that you've composed, and trying out different pitches to see what sounds good.

Play your rhythm several times over and over again, trying out different ideas to see what sounds best.

Starting with improvising lets you generate lots of ideas quickly, and you might do something that sounds really good straight away, in which case, jot some notes down as you go.

Here are some things that are gonna make your improvisation sound really musical.

Firstly, just stick to the minor pentachord, la, ti, do, re, and mi.

And on your instrument, we'll be using D, E, F, G and A.

Try and use mostly steps with just occasional leaps.

That always makes it sound more musical.

Make sure you use repetition.

If you come up with a great idea, try repeating it.

Another thing to think about is as you want your new B section melody to contrast with your original A section melody, you might consider the following: Maybe start and end on a different note.

If you started on la for your A melody, you could start on a different one for your B melody.

If the A melody ascended, went up, then maybe the B melody could descend or go down.

Think about how the shape of your melody could contrast with the one you composed earlier.

Pause the video now and spend some time improvising, jotting down any great ideas you have as you're doing it.

When you spend some time improvising, choose your best ideas and write them out on a stave.

That's those three horizontal lines where we place musical notes.

Remember to use your rhythm as you planned it in the first part of this exercise, and write on the new pitches that you came up with during your improvisations.

Here's an example of what a B melody might sound like.

(bright music) And from this example, you can hear some of those things that we talked about, about what makes something sound melodic.

Using repetition, the first half and the second half are really similar with a slightly different ending, which makes it catchy, and using mostly steps with just occasional leaps.

Now that we've got our B section, we can put it all together for our final AABA structure.

Simply play your A melody twice, then your new B melody, and then back to the A melody again.

Let's have a listen to an example to see what that could sound like.

(bright music) (bright music continues) Now you've heard the example, pause this video, and spend some time playing your own completed composition.

Now you've tried playing it, what do you like about your own composition? What's working well? Lucas says, "My composition uses repetition, which makes it catchy." Jun says, "My composition uses mostly steps, which makes it sound musical." Aisha says, "I have composed a B section which contrasts with my A section." These are all great features of a composition.

How is yours? Next, we're gonna have a look at adding accompaniment, rehearsing and performing your composition.

Now you've finished composing your melody, for an extra challenge, let's try adding a drone accompaniment.

A drone in music is a constant pitched sound that continues throughout the piece, and we're gonna use the note, la, as a drone.

It's gonna be played regularly every two beats in the background of our melodies that we've composed.

Listen to the following example to hear that happening.

You'll hear the melody and you'll hear the drone parts.

Then you'll get a chance to try adding your own drone parts into your composition.

This works really well playing in pairs.

One of you could play the melody and the other one could play the drone.

Or if you want a real challenge, you could try doing both yourself.

Listen to this example first.

In the stave notation you can see on the screen, A now has two parts, the melody underneath and the drone parts on top.

See if you can hear both parts happening.

(bright music) (bright music continues) Now, pause this video and spend some time adding a drone to your own AABA melody.

Now you've finished your composition, we're gonna spend some time rehearsing using our pitched percussion instrument.

As Alex and Andeep tell us, "Rehearsing will help us to know it really well and be able to give a confident performance." Here are some top tips for when you're rehearsing.

Firstly, set a slow, steady tempo.

Playing slowly and steadily will give you more time to find the correct notes rather than trying to play it as fast as you can.

As you get confident with your rehearsing, you can speed it up a little bit when you know the notes really well.

Try and keep us steady pulse.

When we play the melody and drone together, we want to make sure that both parts fit together so both players are feeling that same steady pulse.

If you get a bit stuck, use the musical tools you've learned to help you work it out.

Use takadimi chants if you've forgotten how a rhythm goes, or solfege hand symbols to help you play the right pitches.

Finally, practice in small chunks.

Rather than trying to do the whole melody all at once, find the parts that are the most tricky and repeat those over and over and over.

If you find the B section a bit harder than the A section, 'cause it's a bit newer, spend a little bit more time practicing that bit in your rehearsal.

Pause this video now and spend some time rehearsing your melody ready to perform.

Now we've spent some time rehearsing it's time to perform our melody.

This is where we're gonna play our composition out loud to an audience.

It's a really great way for others to hear what you've been up to, hear your composition, and it'll help you build your confidence with performing skills.

What do you think makes an effective performance? Have a look at these features.

Which of the following do you think are good performance techniques? Choose two.

Could it be A, play slowly and steadily so you have plenty of time to find the correct notes? What about B? Play quickly through the bits you know the best.

What about C, if you make a mistake, stop and apologize? Or is it D, if you make a mistake, try and find your place and carry on? Which two are good performance techniques? The answer is A, play slowly and steadily, so you have plenty of time to find those notes.

We don't wanna rush.

And D, if you make a mistake, try and find your place and carry on.

The audience don't necessarily know what your piece is gonna sound like, so if you make a little mistake, don't worry, try and carry on, and they might not even notice.

So, now it's time to perform your composition.

When you're playing it to an audience, start with a count in.

We sometimes use: ♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ Which can set a slow and steady tempo for your performance.

If you do make a mistake, don't worry.

Mistakes happen all the time in musical performance.

It's not the end of the world.

Just try and find your place and carry on.

Your audience might not even notice that you've gone wrong if you continue the performance.

Pause the video now and perform your composition.

I know your audience is gonna love it.

So now you've performed your composition, how did it go? Laura says, "I played my melodies in time, keeping a slow and steady tempo." Izzy said, "I made a mistake, but I tried to find my place and carry on instead of stopping." And Andeep said, "I'd rehearsed, so I knew my composition well, which helped my performance." Do you agree? How did your performance go? In today's lesson, we've learned that we can use an AABA structure to shape a melody.

We've learned that rehearsing music helps us improve, and we've learned that when we perform, we should pick a slow, steady tempo, and if we make a mistake, try and find our place and carry on.

Well done for your performing in today's lesson.

Composing your own melody and performing it to an audience is a really fantastic achievement, so you should feel really proud, well done.

Thanks for all your hard work and I look forward to seeing you again next time.