Lesson video

Hello, my name's Mr. Pate.

I am very much looking forward to making some great music with you in today's lesson.

This unit is called "Compose and Create: Notating and Performing using Rhythm Grids." And this lesson is called rhythm grids as a form of notation.

By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to perform from simple rhythm grids as parts of an ensemble.

Here are some key words that we're gonna be using in today's lesson.

We're going to use the word notation, and this is a way of visually representing and recording music.

We're going to be using lots of rhythm grids, and these are visual grid systems to represent and perform rhythmic patterns.

We've used the word rhythm a couple of times already, and we are going to be using that word a lot in today's lesson.

Rhythm is the pattern of sounds and silences that we play and sing.

We're going to be composing an ostinato.

An ostinato is a repeating musical pattern, which could be a rhythmic pattern or a melodic pattern.

Finally, we'll be looking at dynamics, and the word dynamics is one of the elements of music.

That means how loud or quiet the music is.

We'll cover all of these words in today's lesson.

Here are the learning cycles for today.

We'll start by warming up, so we are ready for music.

Then we'll look at playing from a rhythm grid.

And finally we'll be using rhythm grids to perform an ostinato.

Let's start with a warmup.

Before every music lesson, it's important to warm up our minds and voices so we're all ready to make music together.

We can do warmups and play musical games focused around pulse and rhythm to help us develop our sense of timing when we play together.

And warming up using movement helps us feel the pulse, feel that pulse in the music, and prepares our muscles for making music.

How do we know when we're all warmed up and ready to take part in our music lesson? Well, as Sophia says, when we're all warmed up, our body will feel awake and our muscles will feel relaxed.

Our breathing will be nice and controlled, and our chest will feel open.

We'll be alert and focused, and our mouth will feel loose, our voice feeling warm and ready.

Now we found out a bit about warmups and why we do them.

Which of the following statements do you think is true about warming up? Is it A, warming up helps us feel alert and focused? Is it B, we only need to warm up before a performance? Or is it C, warming up is only important before exercising? What do you think? The answer is A, warming up helps us feel alert and focused and ready for our music lessons.

We don't just do it before a performance.

We warm up at the start of every lesson to get us ready for making music together.

And warming up is great before exercise or playing sport, but it's also really important before making music.

Let's warm up our bodies and our minds with a warmup called "Clap.

Stomp.

Shh" Now we're gonna start by counting to eight over a steady pulse.

So I'm going to count you in by going, ready, steady, off we go.

And then we're gonna count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

When we get to the end, we're gonna come back to the start again and count again from one, and we're gonna do it four times in total.

Join in with me.

Let's chant from one to eight over a steady pulse.

Here we go.

Ready, steady, off we go.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

Great.

How did you do? Did you manage to keep it slow and steady and in time with my counting? For the next level, let's try swapping the number one for a clap.

So instead of chanting the number one in our counting, we're gonna swap that (claps) for a clap.

Try joining in with me and we'll do it four times in a row again.

Ready, steady, off we go.

(clap) 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

(clap) 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

(clap) 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

(clap) 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

Fantastic.

Let's go on to the next level.

For this next level, rather than copying me, I'd like to see if you can try doing it along with a pulse.

You're gonna hear a count in that's gonna go 1, 2, 3 and, and then you're gonna start with your clap.

We're going to keep the clap on number one, and we're also gonna replace number five with a stomp.

So you'll going clap, 2, 3, 4, stomp, 6, 7, 8.

Listen for the count in and then join in.

Here we go.

<v Teacher>1, 2, 3, and.

</v> (soft clapping) Fantastic! Now for the final level, we're going to swap the six for a rest, which is a silence.

So we're going to clap, 2, 3, 4, stomp, shh, seven, eight.

So instead of six we're saying nothing.

Or you could do a shh like I did.

Again, wait for the count in and then try joining in.

Here we go.

1, 2, 3 and.

(soft clapping) Who do you agree with? Lucas says, "Warming up is important.

We should warm up when we have time as it's helpful, but we only really need to do this before a performance." Andeep says, "Warming up is important.

We should warm up before every music lesson to protect our voices and prepare our bodies and minds for music." Who do you agree with more? Well, I agree with Andeep.

They're both correct, that warming up is important, but as Andeep tells us, we should do it before every music lesson to get our bodies, voices and minds ready for music.

We're gonna do another warmup now.

Let's have a listen to the Ghanaian folk song, "Obwisana".

There are some movements that we're gonna try and bring in alongside this song.

The first level is gonna involve a stepping with our left foot and right foot, forward and backwards.

On the first beat, we'll step forward with our left foot, then step forward with our right foot on beat two.

Then we'll go backwards with our left foot on beat three and then backwards with our right foot on beat four.

So your movements will be a bit like this: left forward, right forward, back left, right left.

Left forward, right forward, back left, right left.

Or forwards, forwards, back, back; forwards, forwards, back, back.

Let's have a listen to Obwisana and see if you can join in with these movements.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa, nana ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa.

♪ ♪ Obwisana sa, nana ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa, nana ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa, nana ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa.

♪ <v ->How did you do?</v> Were you able to move in time with the pulse? Let's try the next level.

This time we're gonna do the same thing again, moving left foot forward on beat one, then right foot forward, then left foot back, then right foot back.

But we're gonna add a clap on beat one as well.

So on one left foot forward and clap.

(claps) Then it's gonna be right foot forward, then left back, right back.

Let's have a try.

Join in with Obwisana.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa, nana ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa, nana ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa, nana ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa, nana ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa ♪ <v ->Are you feeling warmed up and ready for music?</v> You are warmed up when: you've had a chance to move to the music, you can feel the beat and move in time with the music, you're standing with your feet slightly apart, chest open and body relaxed, and you feel ready to learn.

Are you warmed up and ready for music? Let's continue with our next learning cycle.

Now we're going to be playing from a rhythm grid.

When we notate music, what that means is we're using a system of symbols to represent the sounds that we hear.

And those symbols can be anything that help us decode, which means to read and understand exactly what is meant to be sung or played.

It's a form of being able to write music down so we can play it back again.

One way to do that is using a rhythm grid.

And a rhythm grid is one way of notating rhythms. Here's some examples of rhythm grids.

It's a visual system of notating rhythm patterns, and there's lots of different ways they can look and all of these are designed to help us be able to perform rhythms. Here's an example.

Read this rhythm grid like a book from left to right.

If we start on the top row, you can see that it's a system of squares, some of which are colored in and some of which aren't.

When the square's colored in, we're going to clap.

When it's not colored in, we're going to rest, meaning we're not going to clap.

So if we were going to play that top line, we would go, clap, clap, rest, clap.

We then go onto the second line, which would go, rest, clap, rest, clap.

Watch this video showing how this rhythm would be performed.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go.

♪ ♪ Ta, ta, shh, ta, ♪ (clapping) ♪ Shh, ta, shh ♪ (clapping) ♪ Ta, ta, ta ♪ (clapping) ♪ Shh, ta, shh, ta, ta, ta ♪ (clapping) <v ->Here's another example of the same rhythm grid,</v> but this time we are considering dynamics.

And dynamics is one of the elements of music.

That means how loud or quiet a sound is.

When we consider dynamics, we'll think about which of our sounds are gonna be loud and which are gonna be quiet.

In this case, when you've got a dark colored in square, you are going to do a loud clap.

When you've got a lightly colored in square, you're going to do a quiet clap.

And when the square's not colored in at all, it's going to be a rest or no clap.

So the top line would sound like this, loud clap, quiet clap, rest, quiet clap.

Watch this video showing how this grid would be performed.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go.

♪ ♪ Ta, ta, shh, ta, ♪ (clapping) ♪ Shh, ta, shh ♪ (clapping) ♪ Ta, ta, ta ♪ (clapping) ♪ Shh, ta, shh, ta, ta, ta ♪ (clapping) <v ->When you perform rhythms using rhythm grids,</v> you need to have a strong sense of pulse, and this will help you stay in time.

One thing you can do to help with this is when you're gonna do a rest, which is a gap, you can try moving your hands apart, which won't make a sound, but will show where that beat would be, which can help you stay in time.

Look at the rhythm grid on the screen.

To show the top line, I would go, loud clap, quiet clap, rest, moving my hands apart, and then quiet clap again.

Pause this video now and try performing the rhythm grid that you can see on the screen.

Now you've had a go at performing this rhythm grid.

Watch this video of a performance and see how it compares to your own performance.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go.

♪ ♪ Ta, shh, ta, shh, ♪ (clapping) ♪ Ta, ta, ta, ta ♪ (clapping) ♪ Shh, shh, shh ♪ (clapping) ♪ Ta, ta, ta, ta, ta ♪ (clapping) <v ->Now you've tried performing this rhythm grid yourself</v> and seen an example performance.

Let's try performing this grid one more time.

But this time, instead of going left to right like a book, I'd like you to try reading the rhythms down the columns.

So we'd start in the top left hand corner with clap, and then the next square down is a rest.

So the first four beats would go, clap, rest, clap, rest.

Pause this video now and try performing this rhythm grid going down the columns.

Rhythm grids are great ways to show patterns of sounds and of silence.

They don't show melodies, so we don't know how high or low the notes are, but they're used to show us whether there's a sound or whether there's a silence.

And these patterns are what we call a rhythm.

Percussionists like Sophia here playing the drums find it useful to read from rhythm grids.

Let's have a think about what that might mean.

If you were playing one of these instruments and were reading some written down music, which of these instruments music might be notated using a rhythm grid? Would it be A, the flute; B, the claves; or C, the saxophone? What do you think? The answer is, B, the claves.

Because this is a percussion instrument, we don't need to know whether it's playing a Do, Re or Mi, it's simply playing a sound.

So a rhythm grid is a great way to notate music for this instrument.

Let's try making some rhythm grids ourselves.

With a partner, get a piece of paper and fold it to create a four by four grid, like the one you can see on your screen now.

Pause this video and create your rhythm grid.

Now you've done that.

Let's create a rhythm.

Choose which of the boxes you want to shade and which one you want to leave blank.

For an extra challenge, you could consider dynamics by shading some of them darker and some of them lighter.

Remember, a dark shaded box represents a loud sound.

A light or pale shaded box represents a quiet sound and a blank box represents a rest or silence.

You can see Aisha and Jun's rhythm grid here as an example.

Pause this video and create your rhythm grid.

Now you've created your rhythm grids.

We need to decide how it's gonna be played.

Will your grids be read left to right like a book or will they be read up and down? Will they be read down and up or right to left? Have a look at the examples below and decide how will your rhythm grid be played.

Then, pause the video and have a practice at playing your rhythms. Now you've had a practice at playing your rhythms, let's try performing them to a backing track.

You're gonna hear a count in and then a nice funky beat to try playing your rhythms along with.

Remember to keep a slow, steady pulse in time with the music.

Good luck performing your rhythms. (upbeat bright music) Now you've tried performing your rhythm.

How did you do? You will have been successful if: you created a four by four grid with two or three different sounds inside; you followed that rhythm grid, reading it carefully to tell you where to play; and you are then able to play along with that backing track with a steady tempo, not getting faster or slower.

Now let's have a look at using a rhythm grid to perform an ostinato.

A rhythm grid can be used to notate, remember that means write down, an ostinato.

And an ostinato just means a repeated musical pattern.

Izzy showing us an example here of a pattern of symbols, which is repeated three times.

These symbols could represent musical sounds.

And then we've got an ostinato or a repeated musical pattern.

Here's a new rhythm grid.

You can see a pattern of eight squares, some of which are colored in, which represents a stomp and some of which are blank, which represents a rest or a silence.

When we perform this, we're going to perform it as an ostinato, which means we repeat it.

By repeating this rhythm, we are creating an ostinato, and that's what this little symbol at the end means.

This new symbol with its two straight lines and its two dots means repeat.

We are gonna play this pattern four times in a row to create an ostinato.

Watch this example.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go.

♪ (stomping) ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ♪ (stomping) ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ♪ (stomping) ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ♪ (stomping) ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

♪ <v ->Now we've seen an example of how that ostinato is played,</v> let's try playing it ourselves.

You could choose a percussion instrument or you could choose body percussion like a stomp or a clap.

Pause the video now and practice playing this rhythm as an ostinato by repeating it four times in a row.

Now you've tried playing an ostinato.

Let's try it again with a different rhythm grid.

This pattern, again, we're going to play it four times in a row.

The squares that are colored in represent a tapping your chest and the squares that are not colored in represent a rest or a silence.

One thing to watch out for with this rhythm is the first beat is a rest.

So after your counting, 1, 2, 3, and, your first beat is silence, is a rest.

Watch this video showing an example of what this will sound like.

Then, pause the video and try playing it yourselves on your percussion instrument or using body percussion.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ♪ (tapping chest) ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ♪ (tapping chest) ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ♪ (tapping chest) ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ♪ (tapping chest) <v ->So now we've learned two different rhythms</v> that we're using to create an ostinato.

We are going to layer those two rhythm grids on top of each other to add to the texture.

And texture is one of those musical words, that means the different layers that we have in a piece of music.

What we can do is split into two different groups.

One group playing the top rhythm and the other group playing the bottom rhythm.

And then we can have both rhythms happening at the same time.

Watch this example of what that could look like.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ♪ (stomping and tapping chest) ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ♪ (stomping and tapping chest) ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ♪ (stomping and tapping chest) ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ♪ (stomping and tapping chest) <v ->Now you've seen an example</v> of how these two rhythm grids can be played together at the same time.

It's over to you.

Try performing these as a class.

Split into two groups, one group taking the top rhythm and the other group taking the bottom rhythm.

You could choose to use percussion instruments or you could use body percussion.

Pause the video now and try performing these both rhythms together and remember to get a nice clear counting at the start to help you stay in time and feel the pulse while you're performing.

Now let's go back to the song that we heard at the start of this lesson.

The Ghanaian folk song, "Obwisana" We're gonna use our two rhythmic ostinati and ostinati is the plural of ostinato.

So when we have more than one ostinato, we say two ostinati.

So we're gonna use these ostinati as an accompaniment, which means in the background of the song Obwisana.

First, let's sing the song together to remind ourselves of how it goes.

As you're singing, tap the beats on your knees to feel that steady pulse.

Here we go.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go.

♪ ♪ Obwisana sa, nana ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa, nana ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa, nana ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa, nana ♪ ♪ Obwisana sa ♪ <v ->Now we've heard the song</v> and had a reminder of what it sounds like, we're going to try playing our ostinato along with the sung melody.

We're gonna split into two groups.

Firstly, group one are gonna play your ostinato while group two sing the song.

Then, we'll swap over.

Group one will sing the song while group two play your ostinato pattern.

Here's a reminder of what those two ostinato patterns look like.

Pause the video now and try performing.

Remember, a nice clear counting will help you start at the same time and keep a steady pulse when you're playing together.

So how did it go when you split into two groups and had one group playing the ostinato and another group singing? Did you perform with a secure sense of pulse? Did you remember where the rest were and remember to leave a nice clear gap? Did you remember that each box represented one beat? In today's lesson, we've learned that a rhythm grid is a visual grid system used to and perform rhythmic patterns.

We've learned that rhythm grids are a useful way of notating music for percussionists, which means people who play percussion instruments.

We've learned that a steady pulse is really important when we're playing a rhythm grid as it helps to keep us in time.

And finally, we've learned that we can create something called an ostinato, which means a repeating musical pattern.

And we can do this by repeating a rhythm grid pattern.

Well done for your great rhythmic playing in today's lesson, and I look forward to seeing you again in the next one.