Lesson video

Hello, my name's Mr. Pate, and I'm really looking forward to making some great music with you today.

Our unit is called Compose and Create: Composing a major melody on a stave.

And today's lesson, we are gonna be reading and playing major melodies.

By the end of the lesson, you will be able to read and play major melodies on a tuned percussion instrument.

Here are some of the keywords that we're gonna be using in today's lesson.

Stave means the lines on which musical notes can be placed.

A composition is a new piece of music that's been created.

Accompaniment means a musical part that supports the main melody or chant.

And a rhythmic ostinato is a repeating musical idea created from a rhythmic pattern.

We'll be using all of those words and finding out a lot more about them in today's lesson.

But first, let's start with a warmup.

Before every music lesson, it's important to warm up your bodies, your voices, and your minds to get ready to make music.

Warming up our whole body helps us with our posture, standing correctly, our breathing, and keeps us at ease when we are singing.

We warm and stretch our vocal chords to protect our voices from injury.

Join in with these warmups.

<v ->We'll begin with a stretch, arms high into the air,</v> onto our tiptoes.

Hold onto a monkey bar.

And we are going to not let go of that monkey bar, but we are going to lower our heels to the ground.

So we're going to get taller.

Lowering to the count of four.

Here we go.

One, two, three, four.

Gosh, you're all super tall.

Drop your fingers and your wrists, and your elbows and your shoulders.

Relax your knees and go.

(babbling) (kids all babbling) Very good.

Let's do that one more time.

Stretch up onto your tiptoes.

Hold onto the monkey bar, lowering our heels to a count of four, go in one, two, three, four.

Gosh, you're so tall now.

Drop your fingers and your wrists, and your elbows and your shoulders.

Relax your knees and.

(babbling) (kids all babbling) Very good.

Now let's take up as much space as we can.

Make a really, really big space, huge shapes.

And we are going to shrink down into a itchy, tiny shape.

Tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, like a little seed.

And we are now going to grow back to a big shape.

While you're ready.

One, two, three, go.

Grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow.

And relax.

Feet slightly apart, arms by our sides.

<v ->Now let's warm up our face.

</v> We're gonna start by tapping all over our face, from our neck, all the way to the top of our head, to wake ourselves up.

Ready? We're starting on our neck.

And just lightly, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

Moving up.

Tap, tap, tap onto your chin.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

Past your cheeks.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

Past your eyes to your forehead.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

To the very top of your head.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

Bing.

Lovely.

Very good.

Now we're gonna pretend to brush our teeth, but with our tongue.

So our tongue is gonna move all the way across our top and bottom teeth, all the way into the corners of your mouth, like this.

Mm.

(muffled) There we go.

Right from the back.

Coming down to the other side, all the way to the back.

Back round.

And there we go.

Hopefully that tongue's feeling nice and exercised.

Now we're gonna do some breathing exercises.

We are gonna breathe in over a count of four.

Then we're gonna hold it for a count of five.

And then exhale, breathe out over a count of six.

It's gonna be a bit like this.

So in.

(inhales) (exhales softy) Now you try.

Ready? So in for four.

Ready? And in two, three, four.

And hold.

Two, three, four, five.

And out.

Two, three, four, five, six.

Lovely.

And again.

In, two, three, four.

And hold, two, three, four, five.

And out, two, three, four, five, six.

Well done.

Here's a tongue twister to get your mouths and voices working.

Repeat after me.

"All I want is a proper cup of coffee." Let's try that again.

"All I want is a proper cup of coffee." The next line will go, "Made in a proper copper coffee pot." Try repeating after me, "Made in a proper copper coffee pot." And again, "Made in a proper copper coffee pot." Let's put them both together.

So we'll go: "All I want is a proper cup of coffee, made in a proper copper coffee pot." Now your turn.

Ready, and.

"All I want is a proper cup of coffee, made in a proper copper coffee pot." This is a call and response warmup.

So when I say, "Hey, oh, Captain Jack," you'll repeat after me.

Let's get a bit of a march going.

(upbeat marching music) Get ready.

Here we go.

Ready, and here we go.

♪ Hey, oh, Captain Jack ♪ ♪ Take me down that railroad track ♪ ♪ Got my boots, got my hat ♪ ♪ I'm gonna be in a marching band ♪ Great.

Let's do it again.

♪ Hey oh, Captain Jack ♪ ♪ Take me down that railroad track ♪ ♪ Got my boots, got my hat ♪ ♪ I'm gonna be in a matching band ♪ Well done.

And again.

♪ Hey, oh, Captain Jack ♪ ♪ Take me down that railroad track ♪ ♪ Got my boots, got my hat ♪ ♪ I'm gonna be in a matching band ♪ One more time.

♪ Hey, oh, Captain Jack ♪ ♪ Take me down that railroad track ♪ ♪ Got my boots, got my hat ♪ ♪ I'm gonna be in a marching band ♪ Well done.

I'm sure you're starting to feel nice and warmed up.

Now let's try some other warmup songs to get our voices working.

This first song's called, "I Like the Flowers." Join in.

(bright music) ♪ I like the flowers ♪ ♪ I like the daffodils ♪ ♪ I like the mountains ♪ ♪ I like the rolling hills ♪ ♪ I like the fireside when the lights are low ♪ ♪ Singing a do wop, a do wop ♪ ♪ A do wop, a do wop ♪ ♪ I like the flowers ♪ ♪ I like the daffodils ♪ ♪ I like the mountains ♪ ♪ I like the rolling hills ♪ ♪ I like the fireside when the lights are low ♪ ♪ Singing a do wop, a do wop ♪ ♪ A do wop, a do wop ♪ Join in with this next warmup called "A Sailor Went to Sea." ♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ A sailor went to sea, sea, sea ♪ ♪ To see what he could see, see, see ♪ ♪ But all that he could see, see, see ♪ ♪ Was the bottom of the deep blue sea, sea, sea ♪ ♪ A sailor went to chop, chop, chop ♪ ♪ To see what he could chop, chop, chop ♪ ♪ But all that he could chop, chop, chop ♪ ♪ Was the bottom of the deep blue chop, chop, chop ♪ ♪ A sailor went to knee, knee, knee ♪ ♪ To see what he could knee, knee, knee ♪ ♪ But all that he could knee, knee, knee ♪ ♪ Was the bottom of the deep blue knee, knee, knee ♪ ♪ A sailor went to sea, chop, knee ♪ ♪ To see what he could see, chop, knee ♪ ♪ But all that he could see, chop, knee ♪ ♪ Was the bottom of the deep blue sea, chop, knee ♪ <v ->Finally, join in with this last warmup called,</v> "Have You Seen the Ghost of Tom?" (bright piano music) ♪ Have you seen the ghost of Tom ♪ ♪ Long white bones with the skin all gone ♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh ♪ ♪ Wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on ♪ ♪ Have you seen the ghost of Tom ♪ ♪ Long white bones with the skin all gone ♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh ♪ ♪ Wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on ♪ (song resolves) <v ->Great.

Now, are you warmed up and ready to sing?</v> If you are, then your muscles should feel nice and relaxed, your throat should feel warm, and you are concentrating and ready to learn.

Let's get started.

Here are the learning cycles in today's lesson.

We'll first be playing songs using simplified stave notation.

Then we'll look at composing a rhythm to play as an accompaniment.

Let's start with playing songs using simplified stave notation.

Listen to this French song called "Au Clair de la Lune." The lyrics translate to "By the light of the moon, My friend Pierrot, Lend me your quill," which is a type of pen "To write a word." Let's have a listen.

(gentle music) ♪ Au clair de la Lune ♪ ♪ Mon ami Pierrot ♪ ♪ Prête-moi ta plume ♪ ♪ Pour écrire un mot ♪ ♪ Au clair de la Lune ♪ ♪ Mon ami Pierrot ♪ ♪ Prête-moi ta plume ♪ ♪ Pour écrire un mot ♪ <v ->Now you've had a listen, let's try singing it together.

</v> (gentle music) ♪ Au clair de la Lune ♪ ♪ Mon ami Pierrot ♪ ♪ Prête-moi ta plume ♪ ♪ Pour écrire un mot ♪ ♪ Au clair de la Lune ♪ ♪ Mon ami Pierrot ♪ ♪ Prête-moi ta plume ♪ ♪ Pour écrire un mot ♪ <v ->Lovely.

Well done.

</v> Now this song, "Au Clair De La Lune" uses the major pentachord.

That means the first five notes of the major scale, which we call do, re, mi, fa, and so.

One way of writing music down is using a stave, which is a set of horizontal lines that the notes can be placed on.

And where they're placed on the stave will tell you how high or low it is, which means its pitch.

The higher up the stave, the higher the pitch of the note.

So far, in our lessons in this unit, we've used stave notation that looks a bit like the diagram at the top here.

You can see the notes placed on the stave.

The higher notes are placed higher up on the stave, and whether it's on a line or a space will tell us what the note is.

These notes have been labeled D for do, R for re, and M for mi.

So that's really useful for playing a piece of music 'cause it can tell us what pitch to find to play the melody.

What it doesn't tell us though, is the rhythm, how long each note is.

What we can do then is add stick notation to these musical notes.

And then it'll look a little bit more like the diagram you see at the bottom of the page.

Here you still see the notes placed on the lines or spaces to tell us the pitch, but also the stick notation tells us how long each of the notes are, or the rhythm of the notes.

So here's an example using the melody, "Au clair de la lune." The rhythm of the melody is written out in stick notation.

And the rhythm, using ta-ka-di-mi, would go ta-di, ta-di, ta ta.

Try saying that with me.

Ta-di ta-di ta ta.

So that gives us the length of the notes.

We can also see where the notes are placed.

And the symbol on the left hand side shows us where the note "do" would be.

And in this case, the note "do" is on the bottom line.

So the first notes for "Au clair de" are all on the note "do".

And going up the stave, we can see that the notes change to re and mi.

So stave notation is a great way to tell the rhythm and pitch of a melody.

Let's try playing this song on a pitched percussion instrument.

You can use a xylophone, a glockenspiel or chime bars.

You'll need the notes of the major pentachord.

And in this case, we are going to use the notes C to G.

That's C, D, E, F, and G.

So find your pitched percussion instruments, find the notes C to G.

And now let's try playing the melody of "Au Clair De La Lune" using these pitched percussion instruments.

You can see the notation on the screen.

Written in purple is the notes that you are playing.

Do do do re me re.

And underneath that in green is the ta-ka-di-mi patterns to tell us the rhythm: ta-di ta-di ta ta.

Before you try playing this yourself, let's watch an example of what this'll sound like on a pitched percussion instrument.

(xylophone playing "Au clair de la lune" note sequence) Now you've heard an example, try playing it yourself.

Pause this video and use the notation on screen to help you work out the notes and try playing "Au Clair de la Lune." Now let's listen to another song.

This is called "The Elevator Song." (upbeat piano 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 ♪ <v ->And now you've had a listen to the song,</v> let's try singing it together.

(upbeat piano 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 ♪ <v ->Fantastic.

</v> Now we've sung the song, let's find out a little bit more about it.

"The Elevator Song" uses the notes of the major pentachord.

Which solfege symbols are correct to describe the major pentachord? Would it be A: do, re, la, ti, and do? Would it be B: do, mi, ti, so and fa? Or would it be C: do, re, mi, fa and so? The answer is C.

The major pentachord is the notes do, re, mi, fa and so.

So to play "The Elevator Song" using pitched percussion instruments, these are the notes we'll need.

On the screen, you can see the melody written out using stave notation.

Again, the sticks will tell us the rhythms of the notes, how long they are.

The first phrase, the rhythms go like this: ta-di, ta-di, ta-di, ta-di, ta-di, ta-di, ta.

And which notes will you be using? Well, the symbol shows us where the note "do" is, and the whole of the first bar is just using the note "do".

And then when we get into the second bar, the notes go up, do, re, mi, fa, so.

Let's watch an example of what this song would sound like played on a pitched percussion instrument.

(xylophone plays "The Elevator Song note sequence") Now you've seen an example, let's try playing it ourselves.

Pause this video and try playing this melody using your pitched percussion instrument, using the stave notation on the screen to help you find the notes.

Remember to play slowly and steadily when you are learning a new piece of music.

Take your time, finding each note one at a time, and then eventually, when you're feeling more confident, you'll be able to speed it up a little bit.

Good luck with your playing.

Now you spent some time playing that melody, how did you do? Did you follow the pitches do to so using the notes on the stave? Did you follow the rhythms ta-di and ta using the stick notation on the stave? And did you play slowly and steadily, keeping a regular pulse? Our next learning cycle is called Composing a rhythm to play as an accompaniment.

Now, we've looked at some rhythms already in today's lesson.

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

And we use the phrase ta-ka-di-mi to represent different rhythmic patterns.

We've been using the rhythms ta-di and ta in today's lesson, but we've also learned other rhythmic patterns too.

Here are some examples of some of the rhythms we've learned before.

Each of these rhythms fits into just one beat.

So let's try clapping and chanting each rhythm four times in a row.

The first rhythm is ta, and four times in a row would sound like this.

Ta ta, ta ta.

Try doing that with me.

Ready, steady, here we go.

Ta ta, ta, ta.

(rhythm clapping in time) Great.

The next rhythm is ta-di.

Four times in a row would sound like this.

Ta-di, ta-di, ta-di, ta-di.

(rhythm clapping in time) Try that with me.

Ready, steady, off we go.

Ta-di, ta-di, ta-di, ta-di.

(rhythm clapping in time) Great.

The next rhythm we've learned is ta-ka-di-mi.

That's four quick claps within one beat.

And doing it four times in a row would sound like this.

Ta-ka-di-mi, ta-ka-di-mi, (rhythm clapping in time) ta-ka-di-mi, ta-ka-di-mi.

Try that with me now.

Ready, steady, off we go.

Ta-ka-di-mi, ta-ka-di-mi, (rhythm clapping in time) ta-ka-di-mi, ta-ka-di-mi.

Finally, we've also learned the rhythm ta-ka-di.

And doing that rhythm four times in a row would sound like this.

Ta-ka-di, ta-ka-di, (rhythm clapping in time) ta-ka-di, ta-ka-di.

Try that with me now.

Ready, steady, off we go.

Ta-ka-di, ta-ka-di, (rhythm clapping in time) ta-ka-di, ta-ka-di.

Excellent.

Now we're starting to get the hang of the different rhythms we can use, we can try composing our own rhythm.

Composing means to create a new musical idea, and we can compose a new rhythm by stringing together different rhythms, one after another.

Here's an example of a rhythmic composition.

I'm gonna try clapping it for you now.

Listen first and try following along with the stick notation you see on the screen.

Here we go.

Ready, steady, off we go.

Ta-di, ta-di, ta-ka-di, ta.

(rhythm clapping in time) Ta-di, ta, ta-ka-di-mi, ta.

Now try clapping it and chanting it along with me.

Look at the notation on the screen and try using that to help you work out the rhythm.

Let's do it together.

Ready, steady, off we go.

Ta-di, ta-di, ta-ka-di, ta.

(rhythm clapping in time) Ta-di, ta, ta-ka-di-mi, ta.

Well done.

Now try reading and clapping a rhythm yourself.

You can see a rhythmic composition here.

First, try going through the pattern in your head, working it out.

What would it sound like? Then try clapping it and chanting it out loud.

Pause the video here to take some time to work out this rhythm.

Then when you play again, I'll show you what it sounds like and you can see how you did.

So hopefully you've just spent some time clapping and chanting that rhythm to work out what it sounds like.

How did you do? Did it sound a bit like this? Ready, steady.

Off we go.

Ta-ka-di- ta, ta-di ta-di, (rhythm clapping in time) ta-ka-di ta-di, ta ta.

Try that again one more time with me.

Ready? Here we go.

Ready, steady, off we go.

Ta-ka-di- ta, ta-di ta-di, (rhythm clapping in time) ta-ka-di ta-di, ta ta.

So now we've spent some time reading some rhythmic compositions, let's try making one up ourselves.

We are going to compose a short rhythmic ostinato that we can play as an accompaniment on an unpitched percussion instrument, which is a drum, a tambourine, or a shaker.

If you haven't got one of those, you can also play it just using the note "do" on a pitched percussion instrument.

Now, what does some of those words mean? Well, an ostinato is a repeating musical pattern.

We are gonna make up a four beat rhythm that we play over and over again.

That's what an ostinato is.

Accompaniment means it's gonna be played in the background.

So we are gonna sing a melody on top of the rhythmic ostinato that we compose.

Here's an example.

We're gonna sing the words to the song "Hot Cross Buns" while playing a rhythmic ostinato.

Here's a rhythmic ostinato that's been composed that we are gonna use for this example.

Have a quick look at the rhythms and think, "What would this sound like?" I'm gonna clap this for you now.

Let's see what this rhythm would sound like.

Ready, steady, off we go.

Ta-ka-di ta, ta-di, ta-di.

(rhythm clapping in time) Try clapping it along with me.

Ready, steady, off we go.

Ta-ka-di ta, ta-di, ta-di.

(rhythm clapping in time) We can then make it into a rhythmic ostinato by repeating it.

Let's try repeating it now.

Ready, steady, off we go.

Ta-ka-di ta, ta-di, ta-di.

(rhythm clapping in time) Ta-ka-di ta, ta-di, ta-di.

Ta-ka-di ta, ta-di, ta-di.

Ta-ka-di ta, ta-di, ta-di.

(rhythm clapping in time) There's an example of a rhythmic ostinato.

Finally, we're gonna perform that rhythmic ostinato using a percussion instrument or the note "do" on your pitched percussion instrument.

And we're gonna sing the melody, the hot cross buns on top.

Let's have a listen to this example first to see what that's gonna sound like.

Ready, and here we go.

Ta-ka-di ta, ta-di, ta-di.

(rhythm clapping in time) Ta-ka-di ta, ta-di, ta-di.

(rhythm clapping in time) ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ ♪ One a penny, two a penny ♪ ♪ Hot cross buns ♪ Now you've heard an example of what that could sound like, we're going to try doing it ourselves.

The first thing that we'll do is compose our own rhythmic ostinato.

To do this, choose four rhythms to compose your rhythmic ostinato.

You can choose ta, ta-di, ta-ka-di-mi, or ta-ka-di.

You can use them more than once, and you can use them in any order.

Pause this video and write down the rhythms that you've chosen.

Then practice performing them.

Play them once and then try playing them as a rhythmic ostinato by repeating them four times in a row.

Now you've done this, let's try singing the melody for "Hot Cross Buns" on top.

Pause this video, get your rhythmic ostinato going, and as you are repeating that rhythm that you've composed, try singing the words for "Hot Cross Buns" on top.

So now you've spent some time composing your own rhythm and then performing it as a rhythmic ostinato with a sung melody on top.

Let's see how you did.

Did you compose a four beat rhythmic ostinato and play it slowly and steadily on your percussion instrument? Did you notate the rhythm clearly, writing the notes down so you could follow it while you were playing? Did you manage to keep the singing in time with your playing? So, in today's lesson, we've learned that stave notation can tell us the rhythms and pitches of notes used in a melody, which we can use to help us perform it accurately.

We've learned that a rhythmic ostinato is a repeating pattern of sounds that can be clapped or played on a percussion instrument.

We can select different rhythms to compose a rhythmic ostinato.

And finally, these rhythmic ostinati, which is the plural of ostinato, can be played as an accompaniment to a sung melody.

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