Lesson video

Hi, everybody.

My name is Mrs. Steele, and I'm so excited that we're going to be learning together today in another music lesson.

Today we're going to be improvising a major pentatonic melody.

Here we go.

By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to create stylistic improvisations using the major pentatonic scale and dotted rhythms. Here are the keywords for our learning today.

The first one is folk song.

A song that originates from a particular country, culture or people that is usually passed down orally.

Then we have note, a single sound in music.

Major pentatonic scale.

The five notes, do, re, mi, so, and la, arranged in an ascending or descending order.

Improvise.

To create music in the moment using the voice or instruments alone or with others.

And our final keyword is melody.

A combination of notes to make a memorable tune.

It's important to warm up our minds, voices, and bodies before the start of every music lesson to make sure that we are ready to move and ready to sing and to make sure that we can gently stretch our vocal chords and sing safely.

Join in with these warmups so that you're ready to sing.

Here comes the video.

(cheerful music) (feet thudding) (hands clapping) (hands thwacking) (hands clapping) Let's warm up all the muscles of our faces.

Show me your happy face.

Show me your grumpy face.

Show me your big face.

Show me your small face.

Show me your silly face.

Show me your thinking face.

(melancholic music) Ready? (teacher and students inhaling) (teacher and students exhaling) (teacher and students inhaling) (teacher and students exhaling) (teacher and students inhaling) (teacher and students exhaling) (teacher and students inhaling) (teacher and students exhaling) <v ->Echo my singing.

</v> ♪ New ♪ ♪ New ♪ ♪ New ♪ ♪ Nay ♪ ♪ Nay ♪ ♪ Nay ♪ ♪ Me ♪ ♪ Me ♪ ♪ Me ♪ ♪ Moo ♪ ♪ Moo ♪ ♪ Moo ♪ ♪ May ♪ ♪ May ♪ ♪ May ♪ <v ->Copy this tricky tongue twister.

</v> Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked? Here's three more songs to help us to warm up further.

They make sure that we can use our voices and our bodies in lots of different ways so that we are really ready to make music together.

The first one is "Hill 'n Gully." Here comes the music for you.

(bright music) ♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully rider ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully rider ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully ♪ ♪ An you bend down low down ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully ♪ ♪ And ah low down to the ground ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully ♪ ♪ An I go down to the ground ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully ♪ ♪ An then you dance right 'round now ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully ♪ ♪ An you better mind you tumble down ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully rider ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully rider ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully ♪ ♪ And you bend down low down ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully ♪ ♪ And I'm low down to the ground ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully ♪ ♪ And I go down to the ground ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully ♪ ♪ And then you dance right 'round now ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully ♪ ♪ And you better mind you tumble down ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully rider ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully rider ♪ ♪ Hill 'n gully ♪ And now join in with "Tue Tue." Here it comes.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ (vocalist singing in foreign language) (cheerful music) (vocalist singing in foreign language) (cheerful music) (vocalist singing in foreign language) (cheerful music) (vocalist singing in foreign language) (cheerful music) (vocalist singing in foreign language) (cheerful music) (vocalist singing in foreign language) (cheerful music) (vocalist singing in foreign language) (cheerful music) (vocalist singing in foreign language) (cheerful music) (vocalist singing in foreign language) (cheerful music) (vocalist singing in foreign language) (cheerful music) (vocalist singing in foreign language) (cheerful music) (vocalist singing in foreign language) (cheerful music) (vocalist singing in foreign language) (cheerful music) (vocalist singing in foreign language) (cheerful music) Finally, listen to "Rocky Mountain." Here comes the music for you to join in.

(cheerful music) ♪ Rocky mountain ♪ ♪ Rocky mountain ♪ ♪ Rocky mountain high ♪ ♪ When you're on that rocky mountain ♪ ♪ Hang your head and cry ♪ ♪ Do, do, do, do, do remember me ♪ ♪ Do, do, do, do, do remember me ♪ ♪ Stormy ocean ♪ ♪ Stormy ocean ♪ ♪ Stormy ocean wide ♪ ♪ When you're on that stormy ocean ♪ ♪ There's nowhere to hide ♪ ♪ Do, do, do, do, do remember me ♪ ♪ Do, do, do, do, do remember me ♪ ♪ Sunny valley ♪ (hands clapping) ♪ Sunny valley ♪ ♪ Sunny valley low ♪ ♪ When you're in that sunny valley ♪ ♪ Sing it soft and low ♪ ♪ Do, do, do, do, do remember me ♪ ♪ Do, do, do, do, do remember me ♪ <v ->By now I'm sure that your muscles feel relaxed,</v> your throat feels warm, and you're concentrating and ready to learn.

That means that you're ready to sing.

Here we go.

Let's begin by improvising in our major pentatonic folk songs.

We have a new folk song to listen to today.

It's called "Great Big House in New Orleans" And it comes from the United States of America.

This song uses the notes of the major pentatonic scale.

Have a listen.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go.

♪ ♪ Great big house in New Orleans ♪ ♪ 40 stories high ♪ ♪ Every room that I've been in ♪ ♪ Filled with pumpkin pie ♪ ♪ Went down to the old mill stream ♪ ♪ To fetch a pail of water ♪ ♪ Put one on my around my wife ♪ ♪ The other around my daughter ♪ ♪ Fair thee well, my darling girl ♪ ♪ Fair thee well, my daughter ♪ ♪ Fair thee well, my darling girl ♪ ♪ With the golden slippers on her ♪ <v ->It's your turn to join in now.

</v> Gave a go at singing the first verse whilst tapping a steady beat.

Press pause to give that a try.

Let's sing that again, but this time take turns improvising new pie fillings.

I wonder what ones you'll choose.

Press pause to sing the song again.

This time improvising your own pie fillings.

When we improvise, we react creatively in the moment.

There are lots of different ways to do this, but here are just some of the ways that we could improvise in music.

We could improvise new lyrics by thinking of new words in the moment.

That's what you did just now with your pie fillings.

We could improvise by singing or playing a new melody on the spot.

We can improvise clapping new rhythm patterns in response to a call, or we can improvise actions by creating body percussion movements on the beat.

Let's explore some more improvisation with the echo folk song, "Tongo." Have a look at this video to remind you how it goes.

I'm the leader in this one.

Join in with the echoes.

<v ->Join in the echoes with me.

</v> (drum beating) (vocalists singing in foreign language) <v ->Now it's your turn to choose a leader</v> to sing the call in "Tongo." As the leader, can you improvise different dynamics for your class to echo.

I wonder which dynamics you will like the best and why.

Press pause to perform "Tongo." Choosing a leader to improvise their different dynamics.

You could use the audio or the video to help you with this.

Let's learn to play the game "Pass One Window, Tideo." Have a look at the video of these two teachers playing together.

Then press pause and try playing "Pass One Window, Tideo" with a partner.

Here comes the video.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ Pass one window, Tideo ♪ ♪ Pass one window, Tideo ♪ (hands clapping) ♪ Pass two windows, Tideo ♪ ♪ Pass two windows, Tideo ♪ ♪ Pass three windows, Tideo ♪ ♪ Pass three windows, Tideo ♪ ♪ Jingle at the window, Tideo ♪ ♪ Jingle at the window, Tideo ♪ ♪ Tideo ♪ ♪ Tideo ♪ ♪ Tideo ♪ ♪ Tideo ♪ ♪ Jingle at the window, Tideo ♪ ♪ Jingle at the window, Tideo ♪ ♪ Tideo ♪ ♪ Tideo ♪ ♪ Tideo ♪ ♪ Tideo ♪ ♪ Jingle at the window, Tideo ♪ ♪ Jingle at the window, Tideo ♪ Great work.

This time, play the game again, but choose a leader in your pair to improvise new actions for the lyric Tideo.

Then play the game again using those new actions.

You could use the video or the audio to help you with this.

See you later.

It's time for a check-in with our learning so far.

Can you complete this sentence correctly? When we improvise, we create new musical ideas in the moment, or when we improvise, we create, rehearse and notate new musical ideas.

Or when we improvise, we practice known songs and actions.

Which answer do you think is correct, a, b, or c? Here comes the answer.

When we improvise, we create new musical ideas in the moment.

Well done if you remembered that.

Great understanding of improvising.

Let's sing one of my favorite folk songs now.

It's "Ding Dong Diggidiggidong." Here comes the music for you to join in.

♪ Ding dong, diggi-diggi-dong ♪ (hands clapping) ♪ Diggi-diggi-dong, my cat, she's gone ♪ ♪ Ding dong diggi-diggi-dong, diggi-diggi-diggi-diggi-dong ♪ The song "Ding Dong diggidiggidong" uses these three rhythms. We have ta, ta di and ta ka di mi.

We are going to complete a challenge with this song now in partners.

In our partners, we're going to choose one partner to chant and move on the call and the other partner's going to respond with one of the rhythms from a rhythm bank.

Here's the call.

♪ ta ta ta ka di mi ta ♪ And the other partner's going to improvise by choosing one response each time.

You can do this in any order that you like.

Here are some different ideas for your responses to the call ♪ Ta ka di mi ta ♪ ♪ Ta ka di mi ta ♪ Or maybe you'll choose.

♪ Ta di ta ♪ ♪ Ta di ta di ♪ Or maybe.

♪ Ta di ta ki di mi ta di ta ♪ There are lots of other choices too because you could put those three rhythms in any order you like.

Here are some more ideas.

Leave this rhythm bank on the screen and press pause to work in partners to perform "Ding Dong diggidiggidong" Remember, one partner is going to chant and move to the call ta ta ta ki di mi ta, and then the other partners going to improvise their response by choosing a rhythm from this rhythm bank.

Press pause to give that challenge a try.

Good luck.

Hello again.

How did you and your partner get on? Were you able to keep a constant steady pulse between the call and response? Could you think ahead to the response you were going to choose before it was time to play it? That's an important skill in improvising.

Could you hear the rhythm you were going to play in your head before you played it? And could you listen carefully to how successfully the responses sounded after each call? Well done, everyone.

Great musical understanding and excellent work with your partners.

Now we're going to do some improvising over the major pentatonic scale.

We are going to improvise melodies using notes from the major pentatonic scale.

Here are our notes along with our hand signs for each one.

we have do, re, mi, so, and la.

We know that improvising is creating musical ideas in the moment.

However, successful improvising means you can often hear the sounds that you want to create.

Perhaps you've practiced or played them before and you understand what it might sound like.

To help us with this, we are going to practice and try out some different ideas so that you have a bank of sounds to draw upon when you're improvising.

Today we're going to need these notes on our pitched percussion instruments.

Press pause to find these notes on your instrument.

Using the notes do and so, we're going to improvise a two-note melody.

The rhythm that we're going to use is written down here for you in stick notation.

It sounds like this.

♪ Ta mi ta mi ta mi ♪ (hands clapping) ♪ Ta mi ta mi ta mi ta ♪ When you're improvising, keep it simple.

You could try repeating notes and making sure you can sing it as you play.

Have a look at this example video, then press pause to try improvising your own two-note melody using these notes and this rhythm.

Here comes the video to give you an example first.

(bright cheerful music) Now let's add the note mi to our do and so and improvising using three notes and the same rhythm.

Remember, the rhythm sounds like this.

♪ Ta mi ta mi ta mi ♪ (hands clapping) ♪ Ta mi ta mi ta ♪ Remember to keep it nice and simple and memorable.

Watch the example, then press pause to try improvising your own three-note melody to this rhythm.

(bright cheerful music) Now let's try four notes.

Using the same rhythm, can you improvise your own four-note melody.

Remember that you can repeat notes to keep it simple and memorable.

Watch the example, then press pause to create your own four-note melody.

(bright cheerful music) Great improvising, everyone.

Now it's time for a check-in.

True or false, improvising means never using musical ideas you have tried, used, or heard before.

Do you think that's true or false? Press pause to decide together.

What did you think? Here comes the answer.

That's definitely false.

Well done if you remembered that successful improvising often involves using musical ideas and phrases we've thought of before and then we can hear them in our head before we sing and play them.

This is our rhythm from our "Ame Ame." It sounds like this.

♪ Ta mi ta mi ta mi ♪ (hands clapping) ♪ Ta mi ta mi ta mi ta ♪ We know that rhythm well by now.

Could you improvise a short melodic phrase using only the notes from the major pentatonic scale? There they are at the bottom of the screen.

Do, re, mi, so and la.

Press pause to create your own improvisation using only those notes and this rhythm.

Try creating a second improvisation now and explore ideas that you like the sound of.

As you're improvising, think about keeping it very simple so that you can improvise successfully.

Try using do the most.

This helps us to know that we're playing in the major pentatonic.

Press pause to work on your own to create a second improvisation.

Our next challenge is to have a go at some improvising with a partner.

Listen to your partner's phrase, then improvise your phrase as a response.

Press pause to have a go at improvising in a partner team.

Let's take some time to think about what makes improvisations really successful.

We've got three videos of different improvisations here.

As you watch them, think about what makes them successful.

Here comes video a, what do you think? (bright cheerful music) What did you think made video a successful? Perhaps you noticed that they played steadily and with the correct rhythm, or perhaps you thought of something else.

Here comes video b.

What makes this improvisation successful? Watch the video, then press pause to share your ideas.

(bright cheerful music) What did you think of improvisation b? Did you notice that they use simple ideas that make sure they can be played and remembered easily? And here's our final improvisation video.

Here's video c.

Watch it, then press pause to decide what makes it successful.

(bright cheerful music) What did you think of our last improvisation video? Perhaps you notice that they only use the notes of the major pentatonic scale.

Did you also notice that they used do the most? Great listening, everybody.

And great understanding of what makes a successful improvisation.

We've come to the end of our lesson on improvising today.

Let's take a moment to think about everything we've been learning.

We know that improvising is creating music in the moment, alone or with others.

We can improvise actions to songs, new lyrics and responses, rhythms and melodies.

We've done a lot of those today.

We know that improvising allows us to freely explore and try out musical ideas and respond to these in the moment.

We know that the notes of the major pentatonic scale are do, re, me, so and la.

And we know that ta mi is a one-beat rhythm pattern that consists of a longer duration note followed by a shorter duration note.

Fantastic improvising and musical learning today, everyone.

I can't wait for the next one.

I'll see you soon.

Bye.