Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to your music lesson today.

My name is Miss Al-Hanoush and in today's lesson, we're going to be exploring how we can build interest using our bodies and voice.

We're going to be using the song, "Elefantea Nun Da," that we started to explore in the last lesson.

So if you haven't seen the last lesson, I really suggest that you do that one before you do this one.

we're going to be looking at how we can layer lots of different parts, including vocal harmonies, and vocal percussion in this lesson.

And then including all the body percussion and the unison part that we learned last lesson as well.

So without further ado, let's jump straight into our warmup with Camillo who is going to recap the unison section for us.

Before we start learning the song, let's do some stretches and some warmup.

We're going to do big circles backwards, maybe four of those.

One, two, three and four.

Very good, now forwards.

One, two, three, and four.

Great, now with our head, we're going to do circles to the left, three of those, slow and big.

One, two, and three.

And three now to the right, one, two, and three.

Okay, we're going to breathe in and sigh.

Here we go.

Very good.

Now we're going to sigh again by adding a little bit more voice to it and make it slightly longer.

Here we go.

And the last one from a higher pitch to a lower pitch, slightly longer, here we go.

Great, the last warming up exercise is going to be to sing the scale in numbers as in ♪ One, one, two ♪ ♪ One, one, two, three, two, one ♪ Yeah? To this pulse.

Here we go, and ♪ One, one, two, one.

♪ ♪ One, two, three, two, one.

♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, three, two, one.

♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five, four, three, two, one.

♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five, six, ♪ ♪ five, four, three, two, one.

♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, ♪ ♪ six, five, four, three, two, one.

♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, ♪ ♪ seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

♪ Okay, I think we are ready to start learning this song.

Okay, so we are going to learn the words by call and response.

I say something and you repeat it.

Okay, here we go.

[Claps] Dilin dalan dulun da.

You go.

Elefantea nun da.

[claps] My turn.

Dilin dalan dulun da.

Elefantea nun da.

You go.

[claps] I carry on.

Dolin dalin dolon do.

You go.

[claps] Zirkoa omen dago.

[whispers] Zirkoa omen dago.

My turn.

Dolin dalin dolon do.

Zirkoa omen dago.

You go.

[claps] [whispers] Very good.

That happens twice.

Now with the music.

The song is in two-part harmony but at the beginning we start in unison, so same melody for everyone.

So I sing, you repeat.

♪ Dilin dalan dulun da.

Elefantea nun da.

♪ You go.

[Sings in Higher Pitch] ♪ Dilin dalan dulun da.

Elefantea nun da.

♪ My turn.

♪ Dolin dalin dolon do.

Zirkoa omen dago.

♪ [Sings In Higher Pitch] ♪ Dolin dalin dolon do.

Zirkoa omen dago.

♪ So that is the unison section, okay? Let's sing it together.

♪ Dilin dalan ♪ or [Sings In Higher Pitch] ♪ Dilin dalan ♪ One, two, a one, two, three.

[Sings In Higher Pitch] ♪ Dilin dalan dulun da.

Elefantea nun da.

♪ ♪ Dolin dalin dolon do.

Zirkoa omen dago.

♪ At that point we split in two harmonies.

How much were you able to remember that? Did you pronounce all of the lyrics correctly? Well done if you did.

Please don't move on until you have got that unison melody firmly in your head.

In this lesson, you will need a piece of paper, a pencil, your body, and some water, because you're going to be doing lots of singing so you'll need to keep hydrated.

So you will also need a quiet space to work in and to make sure that any apps or notifications are turned off on any electronic devices so you're not disturbed whilst you're learning.

If you need to pause the video at this stage to make sure you've got all the equipment you need and a quiet space to work in, please do so now.

And then resume the video once you're ready.

Let's take a look at today's lesson agenda.

You're going to begin by exploring what harmony is and then learn the harmony part to verse one of "Elefantea Nun Da." You're then going to learn and compose a vocal percussion part.

And then perform the first verse using two-part harmony.

So let's begin the lesson by exploring what harmony is.

What is melody? Melody is a succession of notes that vary in pitch and they have a recognisable shape.

We can think of melody as being horizontal.

Take a look at my notes here on the screen.

We can see that they're moving horizontally from left to right.

So we think of melody as being horizontal.

You can also think of melody as the part of the music that you often find yourself singing along to.

However, that melody only becomes the tune when we add some kind of harmony.

So what is harmony? Well, harmony is created when more than one pitch note is played or sung at the same time, and then we get harmony.

You can think of harmony as being vertical.

Look at my musical notes now.

They're no longer just moving horizontally.

Once we add harmony, it moves vertically.

And the harmony can be above or below, so this can sit below the melody line or it can sit above the melody line.

When we sing two melodic lines, or two melody lines, at the same time, we create something that is called two-part harmony.

Take a moment to just look over the screen again and recap in your mind what melody is and what harmony is before I give you a quick quiz.

So, here's a quick quiz for you.

Does melody use a combination of pitch and rhythm? Is that true or false? That one is true.

Well done if you got that.

Unison is singing the same thing at the same time.

Think back to what you did with Camillo for your warmup.

Is that true or false? That one is also true.

Well done if you got that.

And harmony is created when two or more tempos are played at the same time.

Is that true or false? That one is false.

Harmony is created when two or more pitches are played at the same time.

Well done if you've got those.

Singing two melodic lines at the same time creates two-part harmony.

Is that true or false? That one is true.

Well done.

For your first pause task, I would you to take a few minutes to complete the following task.

On your piece of paper, write down one sentence to describe what the difference between a melody and the harmony is.

If you need to rewind the video to help you, please feel free to do so.

Pause the video to complete your task, and then resume once you're finished.

Now that you've explored what harmony is, you're now going to learn the harmony parts of verse one of, "Elefantea Nun Da." We began the lesson by recapping verse one's unison line.

Please do not move forward with the two-part harmony until you absolutely know that unison line.

If you know it, then we're going to begin learning the harmony lines to, "Elefantea," with Camillo.

There's two different harmony lines, a top harmony line and a bottom harmony line.

You can choose whether you would like to sing either of them, but great musicians learn both.

This song is in two-part harmony but at the beginning we start in unison, so same melody for everyone.

So, [Claps] I sing, you repeat.

♪ Dilin dalan dulun da.

Elefantea nun da.

♪ You go.

[Sings In Higher Pitch] ♪ Dilin dalan dulun da.

Elefantea nun da.

♪ My turn.

♪ Dolin dalin dolon do.

Zirkoa omen dago.

♪ [Sings In Higher Pitch] ♪ Dolin dalin dolon do.

Zirkoa omen dago.

♪ So that is the unison section, okay? Let's sing it together.

♪ Dilin dalan ♪ or [Sings In Higher Pitch] ♪ dilin dalan ♪ One, two, a one, two, three.

♪ dilin dalan dulun da.

Elefantea nun da.

♪ ♪ Dolin dalin dolon do.

Zirkoa omen dago.

♪ At that point, we split in two harmonies.

So, this is the top harmony.

Call and response.

♪ Dilin dalan dulun da.

♪ [Whispers] ♪ Dilin dalan dulun da.

♪ [Normal Voice] ♪ Elefantea nun da.

♪ [Whispers] ♪ Elefantea nun da.

♪ Very good.

The whole phrase, my turn.

♪ Dilin dalan dulun da.

Elefantea nun da.

♪ You go.

[Whispers] ♪ Dilin dalan dulun da.

Elefantea nun da.

♪ My turn.

♪ Dolin dalin dolon do.

♪ You go.

[Whispers] ♪ Dolin dalin dolon do.

♪ [Normal Volume] ♪ Zirkoa omen dago.

♪ [Whispers] ♪ Zirkoa omen dago.

♪ Now, the second half.

♪ Dolin dalin dolon do.

Zirkoa omen dago.

♪ Your turn.

[Whispers] ♪ Dolin dalin dolon do.

Zirkoa omen dago.

♪ So the low harmony is almost identical of the beginning.

It goes like this.

♪ Dilin dalan dulun da.

Elefantea nun da.

♪ You see? The ending is different.

Listening it together, one, two, three.

♪ Dilin dalan dulun da.

Elefantea nun da.

♪ Now, the next phrase.

♪ Dolin dalin dolon do.

Zirkoa omen dago.

♪ Again.

♪ Dolin dalin dolon do.

Zirkoa omen dago.

♪ With me.

♪ Dolin dalin dolon do.

Zirkoa omen dago.

♪ Were you able to keep up there? Which harmony did you choose? Or did you go for it and do both? I hope you went for it and did both.

For your next pause task, take 10 minutes to rewind the video and practise the harmony lines.

Sing along to Camillo's performance of verse one again.

Practise it over and over again until you begin to sing it without thinking about it.

If you have other household members with you, can you try performing it together in two-part harmony? One person can sing the melody and the other can sing the harmony line.

If you are a singer, what other harmonies can you sing with it to fit to verse one? Remember, great musicians learn both the top and the bottom harmony lines, so learn them both.

Pause the video to complete the task and then resume once you're finished.

Now that you've learned both harmony parts to verse one of, "Elefantea Nun Da," you're now going to learn and compose a vocal percussion part to fit.

Over the past few lessons, you have learned a melody line, harmony line, and body percussion to, "Elefantea." Let's take one step further and see if we can use every body percussion technique we can, by adding in a vocal percussion part too.

Here's Camillo to help us out.

With the body percussion pattern that we play along the song, we have already low frequencies and mid frequencies there.

[Mimics Stomping] The stomping and the sound here in the chest.

This one's a higher, [Snaps] but we can even add one higher layer with some vocal percussion, something very simple, trying to produce the sound of the high hat on the drum kit.

[Mimics High Hat] Let's practise that.

[Mimics High Hat] Like, "T, S." [Mimics High Hat] So we have the high hat when the two cymbals are closed, [Mimics High Hat] and then if you open them, sounds [Mimics High Hat] Okay, with those sounds, we have these two different patterns.

One for the verse, one for the chorus.

For the verse, it goes like this.

[Mimics Drum] Let's practise, first half.

[Mimics drum} There's the sound.

Let's do it together.

[Mimics Drum] Exactly, so it goes [Mimics Drum] So I sing.

One, two, three, open on the four.

[Mimics Drum] Exactly.

Really good.

So that's for the verse.

Did you manage to play that in time? How cool is the vocal percussion part? For your next pause task, take 10 minutes to rewind the video and re-watch Camillo's performance again.

Are you able to copy his vocal percussion performance in time? As an extension, now you know the melody, the unison part, and the two harmony parts, top and bottom, and a body percussion part from last lesson, and some vocal performances.

You can add these in as well.

Choose one of the parts to add in, or if you're really tech savvy, if you've got a split-screen app, you could try and put all of those parts together.

Pause the video to complete your task and then resume once you're finished.

Here is a vocal grid.

At the bottom, we have the count.

One and two and three and four and.

On the left hand side, we have the different parts of the drum kit, So our snare drum, high hat and bass drum.

Here is an example of the vocal percussion rhythm that I have made.

What do you notice about my high hat? On my high hat, I have used both closed high hat sounds, so the [Mimics High Hat] sound, And I've also used an open high hat sound here [Mimics High Hat] to give a variety of different sounds that I know my drum parts can play.

Let's just recap these sounds together.

Here's the bass drum sound.

[Mimics Bass Drum] Remember, you need to push one straight from your diaphragm.

Try it with me.

Here's a count in a four.

One, two, three, four.

[Mimics Bass Drum] Well done.

Let's try the high hat sound.

We'll try a closed high hat first.

This is the [Mimics High Hat] sound.

After four, one, two, three, four.

[Mimics High Hat] Well done.

And what about an open high hat? The [Mimics High Hat] sound.

Try that with me after four, one, two, three, four.

[Mimics High Hat] Well done.

Can we play an open high hat and a closed high hat? So [Mimics High Hat] Have a go.

One, two, three, four.

[Mimics High Hat] Well done.

And last but not least, the snare drum.

So this is a [Mimics Snare Drum] sound.

And again, you have to push that one straight from your diaphragm.

Have a go with me after four, one, two, three, four.

[Mimics Snare Drum] Well done.

Let's see if we can perform one bar of this vocal percussion rhythm.

Here we go.

One and two and three and four and.

[Mimics Drums] Well done.

What happens if we begin to loop this? Let's see if we can loop this four times.

Here we go.

One and two and three and four and.

[Mimics Drums] Well done if you managed to keep up with that.

For your next pause task, I would like you to take 10 minutes to compose your own vocal percussion rhythm pattern.

Remember, you can experiment with the different sounds, such as the open versus closed high hat, and you can also use more parts of the kit or other vocal sounds too if you like.

Think about things like DJ scratching.

You'll find an empty vocal percussion grid in the downloadable resources section if you want to draw it out like I did.

You can ask somebody at home to keep a steady pulse for you so you can stay in time if you don't have a metronome.

Or if they want to join in, why can't you get them to sing the melody line whilst you beat box? Pause the video to complete your task and then resume once you're finished.

Now that you've learnt and composed a vocal percussion part, you're now going to perform the first verse using two-part harmony.

That is so exciting.

So here's the really cool part.

You're now going to see if you can sing the harmony line in time with Camillo, and you can choose which harmony line you would like to sing.

Camillo is going to be performing all the parts to verse one and see if you can perform the harmony line in time with him.

[Multiple Voices Singing] ♪ Dilin dalan dulun da.

Elefantea nun da.

♪ ♪ Dolin dalin dolon do.

Zirkoa omen dago.

♪ ♪ Dilin dalan dulun da.

Elefantea nun da.

♪ ♪ Dolin dalin dulun do.

Zirkoa omen dago.

♪ Were you able to keep up with that harmony line, and play in tune with the correct pitch, and in time with Camillo? Well done if you managed that.

That's really hard to do.

What about the other layers of sounds though? Do you think you'd be able to put another layer in? Let's have a look at your next pause task.

So, this is my favourite pause task of the lesson.

I would like you to take 10 minutes to rewind the video and perform alongside Camillo again.

This time, I would like you to see if you can perform your beatboxing part and then I'd like you to practise it until it's perfect.

Once you've done that, rewind the video again and choose a different part to perform.

So you could have your body percussion, one of the vocal parts, so the unison, melody or one of the harmonies, and you've got the vocal percussion part that Camillo taught you earlier, as well.

As an extension, can you perform more than one part? So can you do the body percussion and sing the melody line? Or can you do the body percussion and sing the harmony line? Ask somebody at home if they can join in with you and you could perform the harmony line and they could perform the beatboxing.

Or if you're tech savvy, think about what Camillo's done with his performance and use the split screen.

So if you have a split screen app, you could go miles ahead and perform all of these different parts together and that would be super cool.

Pause the video to complete the task and then resume once you're finished.

How cool were your performances? I'd absolutely love to see them.

So on your piece of paper, here is your final pause task for the lesson.

I'd like you to answer the following question that was on the green screen at the start.

So how can we build interest using our bodies and voice? Pause the video, take five minutes to think about this and write down some ideas, and then come back and we'll have a chat about it.

How did you get on answering that question? So how can we build interest using our bodies and voice? Well, think about all the different parts that you've been putting together over the last two lessons.

You began with that unison melody in verse one, and then today, you've added two different harmony parts.

Last lesson, you also learnt a body percussion part and you created your own, and today, you learnt a vocal percussion part and created your own.

So there's lots of different things that you could layer together to build interest.

Also notice that throughout this piece, all those different layers don't just start at the same time right at the beginning of the piece.

It's actually just begins with that unison section.

And over these two lessons, we've learnt how to layer all these different parts together and it's built interest because it's made it more exciting for you as a performer, but also for the listener to see and hear these different layers being added within the performance.

So that's something that you could take forward into your compositions and performances in the future.

So one final request for me today is to make sure that you go and do the end of lesson quiz to see how much you've learnt.

And because you've now spent two lessons learning, "Elefantea Nun Da," we would absolutely love to see your work, and we would love for you to share your work with Oak National.

So if you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

That's all for me today.

Hopefully I will see you in the next music lesson.

Have a great day and goodbye for now.