Lesson video

Hi there everybody, and welcome to our new unit on Singing for Performance, holding a second part in rounds and partner songs.

My name is Mr. Croughan and I'll be guiding you through this series of lessons, the first of which is called Rounds as a Singing Structure.

So let's go and discover what our singing structure of a round is.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to say, I can follow the structure of a round, and I know it's where everybody sings the same melody, but at different times.

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

We'll start with pulse.

Pulse is the regular steady heartbeat of the music.

A round.

A round is a singing structure in which a melody's sung in groups with each group starting regular intervals after the other.

And this creates a thicker texture in our music.

Structure is next.

Structure is the way the music is organised.

Unison, the same tune, sung or played all at the same time.

And then texture.

That's the combination of different layers of sounds.

And we'll be putting those keywords into our lesson throughout today.

So let's be ready to spot those.

There are three learning cycles in our lesson today.

We have warming up so that we are ready for music.

Then we have feeling the pulse to keep in time.

And then we have our singing a two part round.

So we'll begin by warming up because we know how important it is.

We want to warm up our bodies, our voices, our faces, and we also want to practise skills like feeling the pulse because that's really going to help us keep in time when we're singing together.

As Jun says, feeling the pulse is really useful when we're singing a round and there's different ways we can show the pulse.

We can pat the pulse.

We can tap the pulse, we can clap the pulse, we can flick the pulse.

And all of this is helping us mark the pulse.

And if we're all doing the same thing, we'll all be keeping in time.

So here is your first warmup.

I would like you to join in with this pulse warmup.

You have to watch carefully and what you do is you join in four beats after me.

My friends are there doing it too, so you'll be able to follow.

Here comes the video.

Ready, steady, off we go.

(Mr. Croughan clapping hands) (students clapping hands) And if you'd like to, you can pause the video here and play that where you are.

You could even choose to have a different leader to come in and create different movements.

Just follow the same principle that you follow four beats after.

Off you go.

Excellent, well done.

Now it's time to warm up our faces.

It's really important because we use our faces to speak and to sing.

So if they're stretched and relaxed, then our words will be coming out clearly.

Time to join in this rather silly face warm up.

Here it comes.

Now we are going to warm up our faces by chewing a toffee.

Find yours.

Mine's in my pocket right here.

And it's this big.

And when we put it in our mouth, we're going to begin to chew.

Let's all do it together.

It's quite tough.

Mm.

It's getting a bit softer.

Do some really good chewing.

Oh no.

It's stuck to my teeth at the back.

I have to use my tongue.

I am (inaudible).

Really big chewing now.

And now we're going to do something horrible and chew with our mouth open.

Don't tell the folks at home.

Mm, delicious.

It's time to join in with these breathing exercises.

I hope you also find them quite relaxing too.

Here they come.

We'll begin by breathing.

We'll breathe in for four, hold for one, and out for five.

Watch first.

(deep breathing) You'll notice we breathe in through our nose and out through our mouth.

Let's now join in altogether.

(deep breathing) Well done.

We're going to do that two more times.

Here we go.

Make sure we're feeling nice and relaxed and.

(deep breathing) That's great.

We should be feeling quite relaxed and the air should be flowing quite calmly.

This time we're going to breathe in for four, hold for one, and we're going to breathe out for six.

Imagining we're blowing out through a straw.

Watch first.

(deep breathing) Okay, let's all do that together.

Feeling relaxed.

Shoulders relaxed.

Off we go.

(deep breathing) Let's do that two more times.

(deep breathing) And one more.

(deep breathing) Well done.

Okay, now we've done our face and our breathing.

We're going to do some vocal warmups.

And as Laura says, when we do those vocal warmups, we're warming up our voice.

It's keeping our voice safe and healthy.

And that's gonna improve the quality of the sound that we make.

So by doing this, by the end of the lesson, we're going to sound even better.

We're going to start by learning the elevator song first.

It's very simple.

In a moment, the audio will come on for you to have a listen to and then you're going to follow a game to play with it.

Have a listen to the track first.

Here it comes.

(bright music) ♪ Elevator won't you take me ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me ♪ ♪ Five, four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me ♪ ♪ Five, four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me ♪ ♪ Five, four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me ♪ ♪ Five, four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me ♪ ♪ Five, four, three, two, one ♪ Okay, very good.

And now I'm gonna show you a video of a game that you can play.

Now when you play this, you could have five people at the front, maybe with five whiteboards or with the elevator floors drawn on them.

Have a watch of the video and you'll see what I mean.

(bright music) ♪ Elevator won't you take me one, three, five ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me five, three, one ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me one, three, five ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me five, three, one ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me one, three, five ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me five, three, one ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me one, three, five ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me five, three, one ♪ (bright music) ♪ Elevator won't you take me one, two, four, five ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me five, four, two, one ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me one, two, four, five ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me five, four, two, one ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me one, two, four, five ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me five, four, two, one ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me one, two, four, five ♪ ♪ Elevator won't you take me five, four, two, one ♪ Okay, so now we're playing the game where some of the floors are out of order or out of action.

And so we put those floors into our thinking voice.

So we might say one, two, four, five.

And as we're singing, whichever floor is out, we remember that floor goes into our thinking voice and we don't sing it out loud.

Pause the video here to play this where you are.

Off you go.

Fabulous.

Well done.

Now then, tongue twisters may help wake up the muscles in our lips and our tongue.

Now there is a chant on the screen.

We are going to use this in a later lesson.

So I'm dropping it in now for us to start to get our mouths a round.

There is a video of it, but you are essentially chanting one bottle of pop, two bottles of pop, three bottles of pop, and so on as clearly as you can.

Here comes the video.

Be ready to join in.

One bottle of pop.

Be ready to join in and one bottle of pop.

Two bottles of pop, three bottles of pop, four bottles of pop, five bottles of pop, six bottles of pop, seven bottles of pop, pop.

Pop.

Very well done indeed.

Okay, if we're warmed up and ready, then our body is feeling tall and relaxed.

Our chest is open giving us plenty of space to breathe.

Our mind is ready to concentrate.

We're ready to focus and our voice and our mouth are feeling warm and ready.

Now then, Aisha and Alex are having a bit of a discussion.

Aisha says, feeling the pulse is really useful when we sing together because it helps us keep singing at the same tempo.

Alex says, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Feeling the pulse is fun in warmup games, but I don't really need to think about it once I'm singing in a group.

So just have a think.

Do you agree more with Aisha or more with Alex? Yes, I agree with Aisha more too.

It's really useful because that feeling the pulse keeps us all in time.

Well done.

Now, then our last task for this first learning cycle is Bele Mama.

It's a song from Cameroon sung in the Oroko language and the lyrics in this song mean call mother.

Izzy's having a sing here.

If you look on the map, you can see Cameroon in that black circle just below the Sahara.

So in Sub-Saharan West Africa, Cameroon is right there.

And if you might be able to find whereabouts you are up in the UK and then look how far away it is and what countries are between, that'll give you an idea of where this song's from.

And we're going to have a listen to this song and then you're going to have a join in.

The track's gonna come on first for you to follow and then we'll pause the video for you to have a go at singing it.

Okay, here comes the track.

(bright music) ♪ Bele mama, bele mama eh ♪ ♪ Bele mama, bele mama eh ♪ ♪ Bele mama, bele mama ♪ ♪ Bele mama, bele mama ♪ ♪ Bele mama, bele mama eh ♪ Great stuff.

Now you've heard it, it's your turn to join in.

So pause the video, play the track again and have a go at joining in with Bele Mama.

You are welcome to try it a couple of times and each time you do, you'll be feeling a bit more confident.

Off you go.

Right then.

Are we all warmed up and ready to sing? Just have a check in with your own bodies.

Is your body tall? Are your feet slightly apart? Are you feeling relaxed? Is your face and your neck relaxed too? Does your chest feel open? Can you (deep breathing) take deep breaths without your shoulders moving anywhere? Does your voice feel nice and warm? Are your lips and mouth warmed up and free to move? And does your mind feel ready to concentrate? If so, time to press on to our second learning cycle, which is feeling the pulse to keep in time.

We remember that a round is a song structure where everyone sings the same melody but at a different time.

I'm going to play you an example of one.

The first one we're going to listen to is Have You Seen the Ghost of Tom? (imitating ghostly sounds) It's a round in four parts and what I'd like you to listen for is at the beginning everyone's singing in unison.

That's where we're all sing together.

Then you'll hear each voice come in one by one starting at different points.

And I'd like to see if you can count how many times the round is sung through.

Okay, here comes the track.

(dramatic music) ♪ Have you seen the ghost of Tom ♪ ♪ Long white bones with the skin all gone ♪ (humming) ♪ Wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on ♪ ♪ Have you seen the ghost of Tom ♪ ♪ Long white bones ♪ ♪ Have you seen ♪ ♪ With the skin all gone ♪ ♪ The ghost of Tom ♪ (humming) ♪ Have you seen ♪ ♪ The ghost of Tom ♪ ♪ Long white bones ♪ ♪ With the skin all gone ♪ ♪ Long white bones ♪ ♪ With the skin all gone ♪ (humming) (singers harmonising the lyrics) (humming) ♪ Wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on ♪ Very good indeed.

I hope you enjoyed the song.

Did you clock how many times it was sung? I wonder if you did.

We'll find out in a mo because now we are going to listen again and we're going to feel the pulse.

So if you can see the screen, we've got our pulse symbol, which is the heart showing us when to tap the steady pulse.

(tapping hands) Okay? And I'd like just to tap gently on your knees.

It doesn't need to be loud 'cause we want to hear the music and we want to make sure that we're staying in time together.

So here comes the track and tap along to the pulse.

Here it comes.

(dramatic music) ♪ Have you seen the ghost of Tom ♪ ♪ Long white bones with the skin all gone ♪ (humming) ♪ Wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on ♪ ♪ Have you seen the ghost of Tom ♪ ♪ Long white bones with the skin all gone ♪ (humming) ♪ Wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on ♪ Super duper.

We're all feeling the steady pulse to keep in time.

Now we are going to play some body percussion.

This is a body percussion ostinato, a repeated rhythm.

We're going to do it four times with a steady pulse.

So it goes knees clap, clap, clap.

(clapping) Knees clap, clap, clap.

And you'll do that four times.

Okay, I'm going to put the steady pulse on and you are going to join in.

Are you ready? Make sure you're comfortable.

You've got space.

Here we go.

<v Woman>Ready, steady, off we go.

</v> (soft dinging) <v ->Fantastic, well done.

</v> Now we did that all in unison at the same time.

We're now going to divide into four groups.

So there might be seven or eight of you in each group.

And each group is going to start four beats after the last.

So imagine group one starts with clap, clap, clap, they carry on.

(clapping) Group two starts, clap, clap, clap.

Then group three, and finally group four.

Okay, each group will do it four times.

Don't keep going.

You do it four times through.

So you'll notice that you'll start at separate times and you'll end at separate times.

You're going to pause the video, get into those groups, use the steady pulse button if you'd like to, to keep the steady pulse so that you keep in time.

And then I will see you in a mo.

Off you go.

Excellent.

Really well done.

So this is the structure of a round, what you've just done.

'Cause you each group did the same thing, but each group started slightly later.

Okay, so well done.

I'd like to have a quick check in with you to find out which of these statements is true.

A round song structure is where everyone sings in unison all the way through, or a round song structure is where everyone sings different words but to the same tune or a round song structure is where people sing the same melody beginning at different times.

Have a think, decide if it's A or B or C.

A, we all sing in unison.

B, we sing different words to the same tune.

Or C, we sing the same melody but each group begins at a different time.

What do we think? You can point to A, B or C.

Yep, well done.

It is C.

That round structure, we all sing the same melody but we start at different times.

Well done.

Now then, here's a new song.

It's Round and Round and it's a round in three parts.

So where Ghost of Tom had four lines, this one has three.

And I would like you to tap the pulse as you listen on the screen is showing our pulse symbol.

You can see the hearts there.

So we know when to tap the steady pulse.

I'll pop the track on now and I'd like you to tap gently on your knees.

Here it comes (soft music) ♪ Round and round the earth is turning ♪ ♪ Turning always into morning ♪ ♪ And from morning into night ♪ ♪ Round and round the earth is turning ♪ ♪ Turning always into morning ♪ ♪ Round and round ♪ ♪ The earth is turning ♪ (singers harmonising) ♪ And from morning into night ♪ Okay, super.

So now we feel a bit more familiar with the song.

We are going to in a moment be separated into three groups and we're still just gonna tap the beat and listen.

But each group's going to enter when each new part starts.

Tapping gently on our knees.

So if we hear round and round, the earth is turning, the second part's going to come in.

(clapping) And so group two will then start there tapping.

And then when the third part comes in, group three, start there tapping.

Remember it starts in unison first and then breaks into parts.

So while it's in unison, just listen.

Just feel that steady pulse in your mind, in your body.

And then as group one starts to sing, that's when you start your tapping.

Okay, pause the video here and do that where you are.

See you in a bit.

Marvellous, well done.

So what we can hear there is the texture getting thicker because we've got some tapping, then more tapping, and then everyone tapping.

So there's layers of sound are building up.

Now then, a round can be repeated as many times as we like, but it's usually repeated as many times as there are groups.

So Round and Round is sung in three groups.

So how many times would we sing it? Sofia is helping us out.

We'll sing the round three times through.

So in your groups you're going to listen carefully for each part beginning, feel that steady pulse.

And this time going to play the beat gently on body percussion.

So we've just tapped and now we're going one stage further.

And if you are in group one, you are going to clap the steady pulse along.

If you're group two, you are going to tap on your knees as you were doing anyway.

And group three to click.

And remember, if you can't click, you can just use two fingers to tap gently on your hand and you get a similar sound.

Okay? Don't start your body percussion until your part of the song starts.

So again, in unison, we're just listening when it breaks off into the parts, group one clapping, group two tapping, group three, when your part comes in, clicking, okay.

Pause the video here and use the track and I'll see you in a moment.

Very good.

Were we feeling that steady pulse, whether we were clapping, tapping, or clicking? Let's see, Alex says, well, I was in group one, I kept a steady pulse by clapping on the beat.

So he was listening carefully.

He was feeling that pulse and make sure he wasn't clapping too quickly.

Jacob says, tapping on my knees helped me feel the pulse.

And he knew it was right because it was in time with the other groups.

And Sam says, when all three parts were happening, I could hear there were more layers of sound and that makes the texture thicker.

And that's right, isn't it? Because we just heard some clapping, then there was clapping and tapping, then there was clapping, tapping and clicking.

So we had those three layers of sound making our texture thicker.

Well done.

Right then.

It is time for you wonderful people to sing a round in two parts.

Now one of the oldest surviving rounds is a song in English and it's called Summer is Icumen.

And this translates roughly from old English into summer has come or summer has arrived.

There is even older songs.

There's songs that go back more 900 years nearly in Latin, but this one is still sung.

And you might want to pause and find it if you can.

It's worth a listen.

It's very old, but it's very lovely.

So if you'd like to pause the video here and find Summer is Icumen where you are.

All right, so, Bele Mama which we did in our warmup, we sang it in unison, it can be sung in a round.

And what we need to do first is make sure we feel the pulse to tap along.

So we have Bele Mama, Bele Mama.

(clapping) Eh, two, three, four.

You're gonna keep that.

You can tap or you can tap on your knees nice and gently.

Here comes the track for you to tap along to.

(bright music) ♪ Bele mama, bele mama eh ♪ ♪ Bele mama, bele mama eh ♪ ♪ Bele mama, bele mama ♪ ♪ Bele mama, bele mama ♪ ♪ Bele mama, bele mama eh ♪ So there it was in unison, well done for keeping the steady pulse.

Bele mama can be sung as a two part round if we'd like.

So if we do that, then we can see part two start halfway through, have a listen.

Here it comes.

(bright music) ♪ Bele mama, bele mama eh ♪ ♪ Bele mama, bele mama eh ♪ ♪ Bele mama, bele mama ♪ ♪ Bele mama, bele mama ♪ ♪ Bele mama, bele mama eh ♪ ♪ Bele mama, bele mama eh ♪ ♪ Bele mama, bele mama eh ♪ ♪ Bele mama, bele mama eh ♪ ♪ Bele mama, bele mama ♪ ♪ Bele mama, bele mama ♪ ♪ Bele mama, bele mama eh ♪ ♪ Bele mama, bele mama ♪ ♪ Bele mama, bele mama ♪ ♪ Bele mama, bele mama eh ♪ Marvellous.

Well done.

Now we're going to divide into two groups and one group is going to follow the people who come in singing first and they're going to tap their knees to the steady pulse of Bele Mama.

Group two, you wait until you hear that second part come in and then when it does, you're tapping your shoulders to show the steady beat of part two joining in.

I'm gonna ask you to pause here so you can split into two groups and then use the track and watch each group.

Group one will come in first listening for halfway through.

When the second part starts, group two will begin their tapping.

Off you go.

Well, I hope that worked where you are.

When does the second group start singing? This is a little check for you.

Do we start after group one has sung one line of Bele Mama? Or do we start after one group has sung half of Bele Mama, where it's halfway through? Or do we wait until one group's finished singing the whole song and then we start? Is it A, B or C? This is for when we are singing in two parts.

If you are pointing at B, very well done because that is correct.

So halfway through is when we begin.

So as a class you are gonna put the track on and you're gonna sing along with part one of of Bele Mama.

So as those that group, that part one begins, you are all going to sing and you're just gonna sing it through.

Okay? When you've done that, your second task is you put the track on again and this time sing along with part two.

Remember you're starting the song from the beginning, but you're starting halfway through.

So you're listening for when group two is starting.

Finally, when you're feeling super confident with that and you can hold singing with group one or singing with group two, split into the two groups and in your class group one will sing and group two will come in halfway through and you'll be singing Bele Mama as a two part round.

To be successful in this, and I know you will be, we are going to establish a steady pulse.

We might start with a ready, steady, off we go.

You're going to sing the round twice through because there are two groups and I'd like you to sing confidently, but gently.

If we sing too loud, we can start to just hear ourselves.

We want to be able to hear both groups.

So we're checking that we are keeping in time.

Okay, I'll leave the lyrics for you up on the board.

There's the sound button there for you to use and sing along to the track.

Remember, you're gonna join in with part one first, then just join in with part two.

And finally, can you put them both together in your classroom? Very good luck to you and I'll see you in a bit.

Wowsers trousers, that was fantastic.

Singing in a two part round.

Let's find out were you able to hold your part and what went well.

So in the Oak Classroom group one said, well, we all counted in together and that helped us feel the steady pulse.

And they also didn't sing too loudly, which helped us hear were they in time with group two? And group two said, well, we began singing halfway through the song and we have two groups, so we sang twice through.

So both groups sang twice through, they weren't too loud and they kept the steady pulse.

If you did all of that, then absolutely fantastic and well done.

I hope you sounded brilliant.

Well done.

You worked really hard today, you've been feeling the steady pulse and singing in a two part round, all of which after warming up.

And we know that that warming up can help us develop a sense of pulse as well as protecting our voice from injury.

So really well done, important warming up.

And we put it to good use.

A round is a song structure where everyone repeats the same melody with each group beginning at regular intervals after the other.

Now quite often there's usually two to four groups singing in a round, that doesn't have to be, but very often there is.

And the more parts there are, the more parts we add, the thicker the texture because we're layering more layers of sound on top of each other.

And lastly, feeling the pulse, that helps us to sing at the same tempo so that the round is successful.

And sounds really good.

Well done for today.

I will look forward very much to seeing you next time.

Bye for now.