Lesson video

Hi there, everybody, and welcome to this lesson on sharing important issues through music and song.

This is from our unit on music that comments on social change.

My name is Mr. Croughan, and I'm delighted to take you through this lesson.

Here we go.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to say, I can understand and explain how instrumental music can convey meaning.

Let's start by looking at today's keywords.

We are gonna introduce a word called dissonance.

Dissonance is when two or more notes played together intentionally clash with each other.

We'll look at Afrobeat, a style of music originating in Nigeria, often with chanted vocals over repeated riffs.

And riff, which is a short repeated musical idea.

There are two learning cycles today.

The first one is hearing influences and messages in music, and the second riffs in Afrobeat music.

So we'll begin with the first one.

We're gonna hear some influences and some messages in instrumental music because although many musicians will use words and like the lyrics of the song to tell stories and describe their thoughts, describe their feelings, you can also do this with instrumental music.

Now, over hundreds of years, musicians have used hip hop, classical music, blues, jazz, Hindustani, Northern Indian music, to express their objection to unfairness, to things they want to stand against, and to call for change.

One such community, the LGBT community have fought for years to have the same civil rights as others.

As Laura explains, for many gay people, loving their partner was considered a crime, or at the very least, frowned upon.

In the UK, the LGBT community has fought hard for changes in the law so that they are allowed to openly love their partner, to get married, to adopt children, to be fairly treated at school or at work, and to be protected from bullying and hate.

Now as Lucas explains, this fight was about fairness, the right to live safely, proudly, and with the same respect that all people deserve.

As a quick check, I would like you to match these civil rights to their description.

On the left column, you'll see four different civil rights, and on the right, a description, currently mismatched, could you please pause the video and line those up? Off you go.

Okay, working through the list, equal marriage, to be allowed to marry the person you love.

Adoption rights, being given the same chance to raise children in loving homes.

Anti-discrimination laws, being treated fairly at school, in work, and in public.

And the right to serve in the military, to be allowed to join the army openly as oneself.

We're now going to listen to part of a piece of music composed by the African-American composer, Julius Eastman, and it's called Gay Guerilla.

Now guerilla, which comes from the Spanish word guerra, meaning war, usually means someone who fights for a cause.

Andeep also explains it could be a small independent group that fights against a larger, established group.

The composer, Julius Eastman, was a gay man, who often used his music to comment on his experiences of being gay, how he was treated at the time in America.

So I'd like to pause here and just listen to that part of the music on the clip and we'll come back and delve further in a moment, okay? Okay, now this piece is unusual.

Some of the decisions are made by the composer, Julius Eastman, but the performers have agency, those musicians to make quite a few decisions as well.

I'll explain what I mean.

Eastman composed Gay Guerilla for any number of similar instruments, okay? So many musicians, they've performed the piece on different instruments.

We've heard four pianos playing the same piece, for example, and the piece is composed with musical patterns.

Now these called cells and they can repeat.

And the performer gets to decide how often to repeat them and when to move onto the next one.

And there's no conductor and no tempo or dynamic markings in the music giving any indication of how fast or slow or how loud or quiet it can be played, meaning the performer gets to decide that too.

And that means there's no two performances that are ever exactly the same.

Quick true or false for you.

The statement is, Gay Guerilla is an improvised piece.

Would you say that's true or would you say that's false? Be careful with your answer.

I don't mean to catch you out.

Give me a thumbs up if you think it's true or a thumbs down for false.

Is Gay Guerilla an improvised piece? And I'm going to tell you that it is indeed a false statement.

And the reason is although the performers can make some choices when they're playing Gay Guerrilla, Julius Eastman has composed the notes that they are going to play and he's put them in a structure of the composition.

So we're not improvising, we're making decisions on a piece that has been composed.

Okay, fancy word coming up.

Gay Guerilla is a chorale fantasia, I told you, a type of music that takes a hymn tune and changes it or develops it in creative ways.

So we're taking a hymn tune now.

Hymns are simple songs sung in churches to help bring people together with a shared message.

So a chorale fantasia takes that music and changes it or develops it.

We are going to listen to a short part of a hymn, and the hymn is called A Mighty Fortress is our God.

And the lyrics say, A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing, Our helper, He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing.

And then you're going to listen to Gay Guerilla by Julius Eastman.

And what I want you to see is can you notice that melody from the hymn as you listen? So pause here, listen to the first clip, A Mighty Fortress is our God.

And then see if you can identify that melody in Gay Guerilla by Julius Eastman.

Pause now.

Superb.

Well done.

Listened to both.

Did you hear the melody from that hymn as you listen to the clip? If you did, you might say something like Jacob did, which is, I can hear the piece getting louder when the hymn tune plays, and Lucas says, the hymn sounds out of tune with the other music.

Interesting.

Very good if you identified that tune.

Now the music in Gay Guerilla creates tension because the notes do not sound harmonious together all the time.

And as Aisha reminds us, this is called dissonance, that word, when two or more notes played together clash with each other.

It can make the music feel uneasy or dramatic, says Alex.

It's often used to create strong emotions in a piece.

Now if it made you feel a bit uncomfortable or it's not the most easy listening music, maybe there's intention behind that from the composer.

And in pairs now, we are going to discuss the music in Gay Guerilla by Julius Eastman.

I would like you to think about these three questions.

Number one, why did he call his piece Gay Guerilla? Think back to the definitions that we looked at earlier and as you were listening to each other, start to build on each other's ideas and answers.

Two, why did he use the hymn, A Mighty Fortress is our God in the piece? You can look back on the lyrics of those as well and think about there might be plenty of answers why he might have used that hymn.

And the third thing to talk about is, how you think the music represents the title of the piece.

So make sure you've got the understanding of the title, perhaps why he called his piece that.

Then think about why that hymn was added in and then think, does that represent the title of the piece? And if so, why? Okay, pause the video here, spend some good time discussing this.

I'm looking for some rich quality ideas and answers.

Off you go.

Okay, I hope you've spent some good time discussing, listening to each other's ideas and building on them.

Here's some suggested answers you may have come up with.

You may choose to also share your ideas with the rest of the class.

Aisha says, "A guerilla is someone who fights for what they believe in, and I think he was using music to stand up for LGBT people who weren't being treated fairly." Pretty good.

Laura says, "Maybe he used the hymn to show that everyone deserves strength and protection, even if they've been left out before." Another great answer.

Alex talks about dissonance and he says, "Those dissonances created tension and discomfort that might represent struggle or even protest." And Andeep says, "The music gets louder and stronger.

It feels like someone is finding their voice.

It feels like a protest, lots of repeating patterns that sound persistent and determined." Now what I like about these answers, is they're building on our prior learning.

So I hope some of that happened where you are.

Now the second part of our lesson is on riffs in Afrobeat music.

Fela Anikulapo Kuti was a political activist and musician who was born in modern-day Nigeria in 1938.

And you can see on the map in the southern part of West Africa where Nigeria is.

Comparing him to Julius Eastman, throughout his career, Fela Kuti used his music to protest.

He composed music about issues in Nigeria as well as across the wider world.

He can be described as one of the most influential African musicians of all time.

And if we delve further, we can see why.

Afrobeat is a style of music which originated in Nigeria, and was pioneered by Fela Kuti.

Afrobeat blends many different styles including jazz, soul, funk, highlife.

And it features a lot of repetitions in the basslines, in the instrumental parts, and in the vocals.

And the songs often have a strong protest or political message to them.

I'd like you to listen to this track.

This is "Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense" by Fela Kuti.

When the track comes on, there's four things I'd like you to listen out for.

The first, there's a horn section between trumpets and saxophones and they play a melody with a syncopated rhythm.

Listen for the jazz organ improvising fills in between the melody.

You should also hear call and response between the trumpets and the saxophones.

And then the last thing I'd like you to listen out for is the backing vocalist who is singing the first part of the protest song, okay? So leave those four points on the screen, pop the track on, and see if you can identify each of those four.

I'll catch you in a moment.

Did you get those? If you did, fantastic listening.

Really good ears.

Well done.

In the song, Kuti challenges the way people are taught to follow outside ideas without question, instead of thinking for themselves and valuing their own culture.

So the lyrics speak of the education system not teaching what really matters.

And a lot of what we learn is forgotten.

It doesn't help people actually improve their lives or understand each other.

And then also the education should focus on how we solve real problems like corruption, which can lead to injustice and inequality for ordinary people.

So again, this is someone looking around them, the modern-day Nigeria and going, why aren't we learning about this? Quick check for you now.

Which of the following are characteristics of Afrobeat music? I'll give you a clue.

There's certainly more than one.

Have a check down the list.

You can pause if you need to.

Which of the following are characteristic of Afrobeat music? Did you get them all? There were three.

And if you did, you'll know they're syncopated rhythms. There's strong protest and political messaging in there, and the repetition in the instrumental and vocal parts.

Afrobeat music is not known for its solo piano performances.

Listen again to the beginning of the track, "Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense." You can hear the rhythm section.

This includes the bass guitar, electric guitars, drum kit, and congas.

There's also a set of three drums called akuba.

Now each of these drums has a distinct tone and they play a complex rhythm pattern.

And then there's one of these, a shekere, an instrument with an onomatopoetic name that can make different sounds depending on how it's played.

So pause the track and see if you can identify all of those things in the rhythm section.

Off you go.

Nice.

The rhythm section, they play short, repeated musical patterns called riffs, and that creates something called an endless groove.

This is a repeated accompaniment texture.

It's an important feature of Afrobeat music.

Aisha points out, "The riffs don't change, but they build a strong groove that feels steady and exciting." And Izzy builds on this saying, the groove stays the same while other parts of the music like the horn melodies when we're listening for the trumpets there, and those call and responses, and the vocal parts, they're all being added to that endless groove.

Quick check for you then.

How do you think the endless groove of the music, how does that help the message of the song feel more powerful? What would you say? Have a pause, have a chat, have a discussion in your class and see how does the endless groove of the music, how is that making the message of the song more powerful? Off you go.

Good chat.

You may have said something like, the instruments keep repeating the same pattern.

It's like the music is backing up what the words are saying.

It's kind of relentless showing that he means it.

He won't give up.

It's persistent.

You might've said that the music makes you want to listen and move and maybe that helps the message stay in your mind.

We, in music lessons, have created short repeated patterns before called ostinati.

Ostinati, the plural of ostinato.

Now we often use ostinati to accompany our songs.

Now riffs kind of the same thing used in contemporary music.

Here's some pointers.

Riffs are often, not always, often four or eight beats long.

Simple riffs work super well.

Riffs can use syncopated rhythms 'cause that might fit with the style and the groove of the music.

And they often just use two or three notes.

It's possible to create a cool riff on one note, okay? Okay, it's time for your main task.

You're going to learn to play each of these three riffs using notes from the minor pentachord.

They are D, E, F, G, A.

That's five next door neighbor notes.

And you're gonna play these riffs.

The first one is our Clavis Calypso rhythm, which is that (metal clanking).

And you can see that's all played on the same note.

That's on la that is played on D.

The second one, not a syncopated rhythm, la, ti, do, re, mi, going up the scale with our held note at the end.

And then the third one, beginning on that D, and then our ti, ti, ti, ti, ti, ti, ti, ti, ti, ti, that quicker repeated note, okay? Once you've got that and you'll get that quickly, you are gonna compose your own riff.

You can take some of those ideas whether you want a syncopated rhythm or a straight rhythm or a bit of a mix.

Remember, most successful riffs can be just two or three notes and they can be just be four or eight beats, okay? This is not, we're not creating anything long.

We're gonna create an endless groove, an effective accompaniment texture.

But remember, a riff is short and repeated, okay? Four beats or eight beats.

There's a backing track there to help you.

You can improvise using different riffs until you find the one that you like.

Just only use those five notes from the pentachord.

Decide on the one you like.

Play it with the backing track, repeating it exactly the same each time.

Make sure that riff is that repeating pattern doesn't change.

And if you have time with a partner, put your riffs together, now layer them together, play them at the same time, listening carefully to how they sound.

Is there any dissonance? Do they work? Is some syncopated or not? Are you playing at the same time? Explore with that.

Enjoy.

And I will see you when you're done.

Brilliant work.

You know, I really wish I could hear some of these riffs about, they're fantastic.

A little reflection at the end.

Was your riff easy or difficult to repeat exactly the same each time and why? You wanted to make sure you kept it simple, maybe just four beats or eight beats, two or three notes.

What made your final riff work well with the backing track? Was it that you were playing in time? Was it the notes just sounded cool? What did you like about it? And then if you played with a partner at the same time, did your riffs sound good together? Why or why not? Was there dissonance? Did they sound pretty cool? Did you like it? Was it crunchy, but good? There's really no wrong answer there.

And did you need to adjust anything to make your riffs fit better? Were you feeling the steady pulse throughout? When you were listening to the backing track, was there certain notes that you thought, no, I wanna finish on that note? What was it? Think about how you improved.

Really well done for today.

Great compositions and good playing.

So let's recap on our learning.

We've learned instrumental music can be a powerful tool in communicating a powerful message.

Music doesn't always need to sound nice to be effective.

That dissonance, that can create tension, that can help tell a story.

Afrobeat music, this is a fusion of many different styles and influences.

And those repeated riffs can create an effective accompaniment texture.

Fantastic work today.

I look forward to seeing you next time.

Bye for now.