Lesson video

Hi there everybody.

Welcome to this lesson on the differences of rap and beat poetry.

This is from our Singing Together Unit on music that comments on social change.

My name is Mr. Kron and I'll be guiding you through today's lesson, looking both at rap and beat poetry.

Here we go.

By the end of today's lesson, you should be able to say that you can understand how rap and beat poetry can inspire hope and positive action.

There are two key words.

One, rap, rhythmical speech often over a musical accompaniment and beat poetry, an artistic movement that started in the 1950s influenced by the free improvisation styles of jazz.

The two learning cycles in today's lesson are beat poetry versus rap and hope as a powerful tool for collective change.

Let's begin by looking at beat poetry versus rap.

Many musicians will explore using their voice in different ways.

It could be singing, rapping, chanting, humming, and speaking, maybe even yodeling.

But there are lots of ways that we can use our voice when we're creating music.

In our first lesson, we saw how Cassie Kinoshi used a poem, that poem, "Wake" to inspire her to write a song about the Grendel Tower fire.

Now artists use words in different ways.

It's not always in a melodic tuneful way.

Sometimes artists express themselves using poetry with the music playing underneath and around the spoken words.

In the 1950s emerged a style of poetry called beat poetry.

Now, beat poets rebelled against some of the old more traditional rules of poetry and they used this new style to talk about social issues, love, nature, and some would perform with music being played underneath it and it just gave a different energy to the poem being spoken.

We're gonna listen to an excerpt from "Riprap" by the Kevin Flanagan Quartet.

So "Riprap" is a poem by the beat poet Gary Snyder, and in this version you're gonna hear bass, drums and piano.

And then Kevin Flanagan, who's also the saxophonist of the quartet, he is speaking the poem.

So pause here and have a listen to that excerpt.

Great.

Izzy says, "In that first verse of the poem, Schneider compares writing poetry to building a path out of rocks as if he's laying down a trail of ideas, one word at a time." Thinking about musical elements and dynamics specifically, did you notice what happened to the dynamics just before the poet started speaking? If you did super, if you don't, you can always put the track on again, but I'd like to press pause and discuss why did the dynamics do what they did? Just before the poet starts speaking, check in with your classmates and then we'll come back in just a moment.

So what happened was the other instruments all got quieter and gradually each of them dropped out apart from the base.

Now that allows us to focus on the words, the voice and the rhythm of the poem.

Next, let's think about the baseline.

How would you describe that baseline? You can pause here if you need to put that bit of the track on again.

Just have a listen to that baseline and a chat in your class to see how you would describe that baseline.

Pause here.

So that baseline is played by a double base.

It has a repetitive riff.

It's also sounds like there's some improvisation happening there.

That bass player is free to improvise with those notes and those rhythms. And thinking about rhythm, what do you notice about the way that the poem is delivered? The rhythm of that spoken word.

Because it doesn't follow the pulse of the base.

In fact, it kind of floats free and above the baseline.

You listen again in a moment.

I want you to notice if you hear that.

Also the pianist uses his left hand and he dampens the strings of the piano while he's playing the keys with his right hand.

And I want you to listen to how that affects the timbre of the piano sound.

Okay, so pause here, listen again.

You'll follow that free rhythm of the spoken poem and then the the pianist using his left hand to really affect the timbre of the piano.

Pause Now.

Nice.

Did you hear how that piano sounded? Unusual, different.

The timbre has changed.

Sofia puts it like this.

She says the piano sound is muffled and it's more percussive.

It's making more of a thudding sound than a clear note sound beat.

Poets like Gary Snyder who wrote the poem that we were listening to in that piece wrote poetry that was meant to be performed aloud and not just read silently.

I'd like us now to consider those similarities between beat poems and rap.

So while beat poems often flow freely without a fixed musical beat, they have a strong natural rhythm.

There's repeated phrases.

They often talk about strong feelings, who they are, what they believe in, just like many rap artists do today.

We are gonna listen to a piece called "Rise Up" by Ayanna Witter-Johnson featuring Akala.

Now if you listen, the voice is used in three ways here.

There's humming, singing and rapping during this song.

Also, Ayanna Witter-Johnson is a British composer, singer and cellist, and she uses the cellist in really creative ways.

In "Rise Up," she is singing and she's playing the cello.

Now you can hear her playing this repeated riff on a cello where she bounces the bow on the strings to give it a percussive sound, and she's also playing a solo on the cello during the wrap section.

So pause here and listen out for both of those things.

Did you pick up on both of those things? Did you hear that repeated riff on the cello, the way she's playing that to make that percussive sound, and then also her cello solo that's happening during the rap section.

If you did, super.

Talking of the rap section, a Carla is a rapper, he's an author and an entrepreneur who performs the rap on "Rise Up." We're gonna pause here and think about beat poetry that we've looked at and wrapping and compare.

What do those two things have in common? Pause here and come up with some ideas in a quick discussion in your class.

Off you go.

Good stuff.

You might have said things like beat poets and rappers both use words and rhythm to speak up about what matters to them and also that they both perform over music.

So there's jazz in the background for beat poetry and beats more commonly for rappers.

Here's your first task.

You're gonna listen to that rap section in "Rise Up" and you're gonna write down the first four lines of the rap as you hear them.

You might need to listen a couple of times.

And then collectively, I'd like you to practice saying that wrap in time to a steady pulse.

And when you are ready, try and wrap this along with Akala on the track altogether.

My top tip is once you've got those lines jotted down, start off slower with a steady pulse that you can all manage together as a class and then gradually get quicker because it's not slow on that track.

Pause now and enjoy that.

Great.

What did you notice about doing that? Was it harder than you thought? Was it fine? Aisha says, "The beat helped me stay in time, but I had to listen carefully to get it." Laura says, "The words came really fast, I had to concentrate to keep up." Andeep says, "It was fun, but it was hard to focus.

I really had to concentrate to get those words out." And Alex, "Pretty hard at first, but practicing it with a steady pulse, that's what made it easier." So I hope that maybe you had a good couple of tries there and enjoyed that where you are.

Our second learning cycle looks at using hope as a powerful tool for collective change.

Ayanna Witter-Johnson said that "I originally wrote the song "Rise Up" to encourage and remind my generation and especially the young black people in my Caribbean community of who they are, their greatness, their gifts, their belonging in this world." So it's fair to say no matter your heritage, you can be inspired by and take great comfort from the lyrics of this song.

In this unit, we've explored music that talks about lots of difficult issues, but also many musicians are trying to inspire and provide hope for people listening to.

As Jacob puts it, "It's important to talk about the negative things, but it's also important to inspire and when needed, bring hope." Have another listen to "Rise Up." And I'd like you to answer this question.

How do the lyrics and the music convey a message of hope in "Rise Up?" Think about the lyrics, think about the music that goes along with it.

How is that conveying a message of hope? Just a quick discussion in your class and we'll come back together in a moment.

Off you go.

All right, nice.

Good.

You may have said things like on the words Rise Up," the melody rises to and matches the words, and maybe that the chorus is getting louder as the backing vocals enter.

Is that helping it all feel positive? Also in the verses, the repetitive rifts in the cello part and the humming backing vocals, Lucas describes that as making it feel like something's about to happen.

So there's a movement to the music, it's kind of driving, it feels more positive.

I'm sure you might have said many other things besides, so well done.

We are now going to listen to something completely different.

This is "Imagine" by John Lennon.

John Lennon was a British musician, a singer, a songwriter, and one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most famous bands in the world.

After The Beatles split up in 1970, John Lennon continued songwriting, continued writing music of his own, and "Imagine" is one of his most famous songs In the song, John Lennon wants us to imagine and dream about what a world would be like if many people around the world didn't have to fight for civil rights and for the world to be as one.

I want you to have a listen and then tell me what you think about the lyrics.

Pause here and listen to that clip of "Imagine" by John Lennon.

Great, I hope you enjoyed that and were able to have a bit of a discussion about those lyrics in the song where you are.

Here, Laura says, "It doesn't sound like a normal pop song to me.

It feels more like a poem with music." Andeep puts it this way, "The piano makes it sound gentle, but the message is really powerful." Now, taking inspiration from "Rise Up" and "Imagine," your task now is to compose some lyrics that express a feeling of hope, that message of positivity that you might add to your piece, so working in the same teams you were before, these ideas might inspire you.

There's that idea that change is coming in my dream.

We'll step by step, one day, one day we, when we rise, if we stand together and imagine a place where, now these sentence starters are just there as a guide to help you, you can take them or create your own.

The idea is that you are putting a message of hope into your lyrics.

Now, once you're happy with your lyrics, try speaking those words over the top of the backing track.

Now, you might feel that that feels more inspired by the rap by Akala and "Rise Up," or maybe it'll feel more like a beat poem that's spoken freely over the backing track.

It's entirely up to you.

These are your lyrics of hope and positivity and you can deliver them how you like.

Try both styles, see what feels right for what you've written down.

Okay? And then we'll reflect on our work.

The backing track is there when you are ready for it.

For now, it's jotting those lyrics down that inspire the message of hope.

And when we're done, we'll reflect on our work.

Okay, pause here.

Good luck.

See you later.

Well done.

Hope we've got some good ideas down there.

Sam here said, "When we said our words with the music, it made them feel more powerful, like people would actually listen." Well, I hope where you are and you had an opportunity to to rehearse yours out loud that it worked In a similar way.

Sofia said, "We changed our idea from a wrap to a chant because it just felt stronger when we all said it together." Sometimes trying to wrap with more than one person at a time is quite a challenge, whereas chanting it might feel more achievable.

And Alex said, "Well, I tried to fit my words to the beat like Akala did in "Rise Up." If you gave that a go, fantastic.

That's some tough work.

He said, "It was tricky, but it was fun." Importantly, we want to think, did that message come across that message of hope? And like Sam says, maybe adding that music does make people want to listen more.

I hope so, and I hope you enjoyed yourself where you are.

In summary, our learning from today, artists can use words in different ways.

Beat poets can pose poems spoken over music and rap artists rhyming a rhythmical way in time to music that might be more based on drumbeats music and lyrics can bring hope and they can inspire.

And lastly, we can be inspired by music and lyrics, even if they weren't written specifically for a community that we are a part of.

Really well done for today.

Some great listening, reflecting and finally bringing our positive messages into our lyric writing.

Good work today and I'll see you next time.

Bye.