Lesson video

Hello, everyone.

Welcome to today's lesson on practicing a melodic accompaniment.

The last lesson was rhythmic.

This time, it is a melodic accompaniment we'll be playing.

My name's Mr. Croughan.

I'm excited to guide you through this lesson from our "Playing Together" unit where we're looking at effective rehearsal as part of an ensemble.

You are an ensemble of musical players and you are all fabulous, so let's get playing.

The outcome of this lesson is for you to practice a new melodic accompaniment and then you'll be recognizing strategies you can use to improve.

Let's look at today's keywords then.

First of all, we'll start with accompaniment.

This is a musical part that supports the main melody or chant or song.

The structure is the way the music is organized.

Binary form, a new term.

This is a musical structure that has two sections, so they're normally labeled A and B and they're often repeated like AABB.

It's part of the structure of the piece, binary form, and then tempo, the speed of the music, how fast or how slow the music is played.

Before each lesson, we know how important it's to warm up.

We wanna warm up our bodies.

We want to be focused and ready.

We want our voice to be safe for singing and we want our minds to be alert, ready to learn.

If we warm up our whole body, we can stand or place ourselves correctly and at ease when we're singing.

And what we want to do is gently warm up our voice so we protect it from any injury.

So please begin by following these warmups.

Off you go.

This warmup is called up, down, go, stop.

When you hear up, stretch both arms into the air.

When you hear down, put both hands on your knees.

When you hear go, run on the spot, and when you hear stop, strike a pose.

It looks like this.

Go.

Stop.

Go.

Stop.

Up.

Go.

Down.

Up, down.

Go.

Stop.

Once you've got the hang of it, try doing the opposite of what the instructions tell you.

It looks like this.

Down.

Go.

Cool.

Stop.

Stop.

Go.

Up.

Down.

Up.

Up, up, up.

Stop.

Stop.

Stop.

Go.

<v ->Join in with these breathing exercises.

</v> Copy me.

(instructor blows on hands) Ts ts ts ts.

(gentle music) ♪ 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 ♪ <v ->Now, miss out number three.

</v> (bright music) ♪ One, one two one ♪ ♪ One two, two one ♪ ♪ One two four two one ♪ ♪ One two four five four two one ♪ ♪ One two four five six five four two one ♪ ♪ One two four five six seven ♪ ♪ Six five four two one ♪ ♪ One two four five six seven eight ♪ ♪ Seven six five four two one ♪ (bright music) ♪ One two three four five ♪ ♪ One two three four five ♪ ♪ One two three four five one two three ♪ ♪ Four five one two three ♪ ♪ Four five one two three ♪ ♪ Four five one two three ♪ ♪ Four five one two three four five one ♪ ♪ Two three four five one ♪ ♪ Two three four five one ♪ ♪ Two three four five one ♪ ♪ Two three four five one two three four ♪ ♪ Five one two three four ♪ ♪ Five one two three four ♪ ♪ Five one two three four ♪ ♪ Five one two three four five one two ♪ ♪ Three four five one two ♪ ♪ Three four five one two ♪ ♪ Three four five one two ♪ ♪ Three four five one two three four five ♪ ♪ One two three four five ♪ (bright music) ♪ One two three four five ♪ ♪ One two three four five ♪ ♪ One two three four five one two three ♪ ♪ Four five one two three ♪ ♪ Four five one two three ♪ ♪ Four five one two three ♪ ♪ Four five one two three four five one ♪ ♪ Two three four five one ♪ ♪ Two three four five one ♪ ♪ Two three four five one ♪ ♪ Two three four five one two three four ♪ ♪ Five one two three four ♪ ♪ Five one two three four ♪ ♪ Five one two three four ♪ ♪ Five one two three four five one two ♪ ♪ Three four five one two ♪ ♪ Three four five one two ♪ ♪ Three four five one two ♪ ♪ Three four five one two three four five ♪ ♪ One two three four five ♪ ♪ One two three four five ♪ ♪ One two three four five ♪ ♪ One two three four five one two three ♪ ♪ Four five one two three ♪ ♪ Four five one two three ♪ ♪ Four five one two three ♪ ♪ Four five one two three four five one ♪ ♪ Two three four five one ♪ ♪ Two three four five one ♪ ♪ Two three four five one ♪ ♪ Two three four five one two three four ♪ ♪ Five one two three four ♪ ♪ Five one two three four ♪ ♪ Five one two three four ♪ ♪ Five one two three four five one two ♪ ♪ Three four five one two ♪ ♪ Three four five one two ♪ ♪ Three four five one two ♪ ♪ Three four five one two three four five ♪ ♪ One two three four five ♪ <v ->Here's just a couple more.

</v> Then there's Do as I do, which is gonna be great for our focus and our timekeeping.

And then Bungalow should get you all awake and working as a team.

So first of all, here is Do as I do.

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

</v> <v ->[Instructor &amp; Students] Do as I do and follow me</v> Do as I do and follow me.

If I do it high or low, if I do it fast or slow Do as I do and follow me.

Do as I do and follow me.

Ready, steady, off we go.

Do as I do and follow me.

Do as I do and follow me.

If I do it high or low, if I do it fast or slow, do as I do and follow me.

Do as I do and follow me.

Ready, steady, off we go.

Do as I do and follow me.

Do as I do and follow me.

If I do it high or low, if I do it fast or slow, do as I do and follow me.

Do as I do and follow me.

Ready, steady, off we go.

Do as I do and follow me.

Do as I do and follow me.

If I do it high or low, if I do it fast or slow, do as I do and follow me.

Do as I do and follow me.

<v ->Next is Bungalow.

</v> If you already feel confident, you can pause and skip over this bit.

Otherwise, enjoy this and play it where you are.

(jaunty piano music) ♪ Bungalow ♪ ♪ Bung bungalow ♪ ♪ Bungalow ♪ ♪ Bung bungalow ♪ ♪ Hey Rhea, hey Rhea, let me see your bungalow ♪ ♪ Let me see your bungalow ♪ ♪ My hands are high, my feet are low ♪ ♪ And this is how I bungalow ♪ ♪ This is how I bungalow ♪ ♪ Her hands are high, her feet are low ♪ ♪ And this is how she bungalows ♪ ♪ This is how she bungalows ♪ ♪ Bungalow ♪ ♪ Bung bungalow ♪ ♪ Bungalow ♪ ♪ Bung bungalow ♪ ♪ Hey Laurel, hey Laurel, let me see your bungalow ♪ ♪ Let me see your bungalow ♪ ♪ My hands are high, my feet are low ♪ ♪ And this is how I bungalow ♪ ♪ This is how I bungalow ♪ ♪ Her hands are high, her feet are low ♪ ♪ And this is how she bungalows ♪ ♪ This is how she bungalows ♪ ♪ Bungalow ♪ ♪ Bung bungalow ♪ ♪ Bungalow ♪ ♪ Bung bungalow ♪ <v ->Well, if you're all warmed up and ready</v> to sing and play, let's press on.

There are two learning cycles in today's lesson.

The first one is strategies for practicing a melodic accompaniment.

That's us thinking about what best ways are gonna be most effective for our practice when we're playing a tune.

And secondly, practicing as an ensemble, as all of us together.

What's going to make that brilliant? Let's start with our practicing a melodic accompaniment.

A good practice technique that we know is chunking, putting it in bits.

We can see the piece as a whole could be a bit overwhelming.

If we think, I'm just gonna do that bit, then we'll work on that little bit, it makes it a lot more manageable for us, especially when we're learning a new piece.

And if we understand the structure of a piece, then we can say, "Oh, let's do part A," or "Let's do part B." Binary form is a musical structure that has two sections.

They're usually labeled A and B, and they're very often repeated, so it'll go A, and that repeats, so A, A, and then B, and that repeats, so B, B.

The melodies are different so we can see that in "Egan's Polka." We have our first bit, the fact that we like eating strawberry ice cream sundaes.

And then also that their dog also likes ice cream sundaes.

Do you know any dogs that like ice cream sundaes? Maybe some of you do.

I know you can get dog ice cream.

This structure is AA and BB because the melody of the second part is different.

Have a listen to this recording of "Egan's Polka." When you hear section A, hands here please.

When you hear section B, raise your hands, please.

Here comes the track.

(bright folk music) Well done.

So now we've identified the structure of our piece.

We can add our melodic accompaniment.

Now an accompaniment supports the main melody or the chant.

It isn't the main melody.

It supports it.

And the notes that you are going to need on your instruments are C, D and G.

And you could play them on a xylophone (bright music) or you could play them on those rhythm tubes, the boom whackers, or you can play them on a xylophone or whatever you have available to you, chime bars, et cetera.

We want to make sure that we have everything set up and that our instruments are set up.

So my little xylophone is right in front of me and I have a beater ready.

Is the environment right? Is there any clutter around? No.

I've got space on my desk to focus.

My instrument is on a flat surface, got a suitable beater.

I tried another beater but it didn't sound so good, so I've got one that sounds just right.

I'm playing the note in the center of the bar.

I'm not trying to hit the edge 'cause that sounds silly.

If I tap it (bell dings) lightly, it makes a better quality sound.

And when I play it, I'm holding the beater gently, kind of allowing it to bounce off like that.

I'm not sort of driving it in.

It's light in my hand so I can, and it bounces off and makes a lovely sound.

Here is the accompaniment.

I will play it on the track.

Are you ready? Follow along if you can.

You are listening out for, I like eating, I like eating strawberry ice cream sundaes.

I like eating, I like eating strawberry ice cream fun.

Here it comes.

(bright music) So that accompaniment, that melodic accompaniment uses ta and ta rhythms. So we've got our ta held longer, which is our mini beat, which lasts all the way through I like eating like this.

I like eating, I like eating.

And you can count them, one, two, one, two.

And the same for strawberry ice cream sundaes.

In fact, most of the notes are this length.

The only one that's different is ice cream fun.

That's the only one that's slightly quicker.

So we get strawberry, still worth two, ice cream fun, one each.

One, two, one, two.

If I do that again, two, three, four, strawberry ice cream fun.

So first of all, you'll clap the rhythms keeping a steady pulse.

So we have the, I like eating, I like eating.

This is nice and steady.

Then I like eating, second part, go strawberry ice cream fun.

When you're ready, clap the rhythm for all of section A with the backing track.

So pause here and make sure that when you clap you are all in time.

This is us exploring.

It's different ways to learn.

We've tried singing it.

We've listened to it.

We've tapped it.

We're gonna clap the rhythm before we play it.

Off you go.

Very good stuff.

And our first phrase when we're playing our G, which is our do at this position, we have ♪ I like eating, I like eating ♪ Then we go down to the C for our fa.

♪ Strawberry ice cream sundae ♪ And you can notice that the accompaniment isn't the same tune as the melody.

♪ I'm singing this note, but I'm playing that one ♪ ♪ I like eating, I like eating strawberry ice cream sundaes ♪ So we're just gonna mark it with our signs first of all.

We're gonna sing and sign.

Are we ready? ♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ I like eating, I like eating strawberry ice cream sundaes ♪ ♪ I like eating, I like ♪ And pause there.

Very well done.

What you're going to do is put those Ds and those Cs on your instruments, practicing slowly.

When you're ready, you can put the last part where we have those two slightly quicker notes for ice cream fun, those shorter ta rhythms. So you get straw, no you don't.

You get ♪ Strawberry ice cream fun ♪ And that to sign is ♪ Strawberry ice cream fun ♪ I can feel that I move my hands quicker so I know that I'm playing ♪ Long note and short and short ♪ ♪ Ta ta ta ♪ ♪ Hold it and ♪ One and two.

I'll practice that a few times.

Then I'll put it together.

It's your turn to pause here and just practice slowly getting those notes on your instrument.

Once you've got the first part, add on your ice cream fun at the end.

Pause and take it slowly.

Off you go.

Wonderful.

So now when you're ready, we can increase that tempo and we can bring it up to performance tempo.

See what we've done? We've slowed it down and now we're gonna speed it up.

When you feel comfortable doing that, you are gonna play the accompaniment part with the tracks, your accompany part at performance speed.

Something like ♪ I like eating, I like eating strawberry ice cream sundaes ♪ ♪ I like eating, I like eating strawberry ice cream fun ♪ And you want to be super neat.

So practice it a few times getting quicker until you're at performance tempo.

Then practice it a few times with that track.

Pause here.

Enjoy that where you are and I'll see you when you're done.

Now I don't know about you, but when we practice, sometimes it can feel frustrating.

We want to be able to get it right straight away and when things are hard, that just doesn't happen.

So it's really important to be patient and to give ourselves time to improve.

I'd like us to pause to listen to Lloyd.

Lovely Lloyd performs with Paraorchestra and he is reflecting on his practicing.

Have a listen.

<v ->Practicing takes a lot of patience</v> and you have to practice.

To play your instrument well, you have to play for many hours to get better at it.

That doesn't mean that it can't be fun, but you do have to put the work in to be able to make the best sound and to get better at playing your instrument and to become a better musician.

So the hardest thing about practicing is giving it the time that it needs.

<v ->So we take time.

</v> We be patient and we keep going through those mistakes.

The mistakes are how we learn.

Oh, I'll try not to do that bit again, and we get better each time.

Mistakes are super important.

So here's your task.

You're going to use those practice techniques to help you learn section B.

We worked through it step by step with section A.

You're gonna do the same for section B.

So explore different ways to learn.

Listen to it.

Clap those rhythms. Sing the rhythm.

Sign it if you want to and then repeat the trickier parts until they become easy.

Break the phrase into two and you can repeat each one as many times as you need, especially the so, do at the end, I'll show you it on the next slide.

You slow down.

Then you speed up.

Do not start quickly.

That's how we run into trouble.

We start slow because then we can master our instruments and the right notes neatly.

Then when you're ready, you can bring it up to performance tempo.

Here is section B, lots of the same notes, lots of dos.

We're playing that G quite a lot.

And then down to the so just on ice cream.

Off you go.

Oh yes, well done.

I wonder what it was that really helped you.

Was it clapping the rhythm? Was it starting off slow before you brought it up to performance tempo? Was it knowing exactly which notes on your instrument you were playing? Sam says, "Didn't take me long to be able to play section B at the performance tempo.

I realized the last two notes are the same in both sections." Great.

So she knows whereabouts on her instrument she's playing.

And Sofia says, "Understanding the structure really helped me 'cause I remembered that that section B melody mainly uses one note." Looking for patterns in the melody is really useful.

That can help us when we're learning a new piece.

We spot that pattern.

I think, oh great, that's the same note, changes just there and we can remember it more readily.

Time for the second part of our lesson where we are practicing now as an ensemble.

Let's listen to our mate Siobhan.

She performs with the Paraorchestra.

She is the violinist and she's reflecting on her practicing.

Have a listen.

<v ->Practicing can be really hard for me</v> because you're on your own.

When you're with an ensemble, you've got people to work with and to bounce off.

And when you are on your own, sometimes you've gotta use your own creativity to motivate you.

<v ->And now that you've practiced the accompaniment part</v> by yourself, we can practice as a class ensemble.

Our aim is to be able to play the whole of the accompaniment together at performance speed.

That's what we're gonna get to.

Have a listen to Tilly first.

She performs with Paraorchestra and she talks about that practicing with purpose.

Here it comes.

<v ->There's lots of different things</v> that we work on when rehearsing a piece as an ensemble.

We might play one line at a time to make sure that we're getting the notes right or playing them together.

We might be working on, like, musical ideas like, you know, developing dynamic contrast or making sure that we've got the right phrasing of the music.

So yeah, there's all sorts of things we do in a rehearsal.

<v ->Thank you, Tilly.

So we will be practicing with purpose.

</v> We're gonna isolate any little tricky bits and improve those little moments.

We're gonna start by isolating a part that might be tricky.

You see, we've rehearsed section A slower then quicker.

We've rehearsed section B in the same way, but we've not yet put them together.

So that little bridge, the transition between the two, we want to make sure that we can keep it running smoothly.

So this part I'm talking about is our ♪ Strawberry ice cream fun ♪ ♪ And my dog he ♪ So it's just going from the one to the next.

I would like you to practice this bit together.

Give yourself a ready, steady, off you go.

That will start everyone together and know the tempo.

If we were to be even slower, we want to give a slower ready steady so we've got plenty of time to practice that.

Perhaps say ♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ Strawberry ice cream fun ♪ ♪ And my dog he ♪ Somewhere around there.

Remember, we can start off slowly and build quicker.

Practice joining those two sections together.

Off you go.

Great.

Well done.

Another way of practicing, we take that little tricky bit and improve it until it's smooth and flowing.

Very well done.

Now if we're following the notation, we're decoding that music that's written down and we're playing our instrument at the same time.

It can be tricky to play without losing our place.

You know, especially if the tempo's quite fast and it's moving along quite a bit or if the piece is quite long.

So here's two helpful tips.

Number one, follow the notation as you hear the music.

So you just put the track on and listen.

Follow where that accompaniment is.

Then sing the accompaniment.

Don't sing the tune or the words.

Sing the accompaniment, the melodic accompaniment part we're learning.

We're going to do both of those things now, so there is a track for each of them.

When the track comes on, all you're listening for is the ♪ Do, do, fa, fa ♪ When you hear the ♪ I like eating, I like eating strawberry ice cream sundaes ♪ And you are following each note as you hear it.

Then the second time, sing along.

So what you'll be hearing, the (gentle music) When you're hearing ♪ I like eating, I like eating ♪ I'd like you to be singing ♪ Do, do, fa, fa ♪ ♪ Do, do, fa, so, la ♪ And then it goes onto the second section, section B, as well.

And you'll be singing ♪ Do, do, do ♪ And so on.

The tracks are there to help you.

Pause now and work through both of those, listening and following the notation and then singing it.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

You have all done wonderfully already.

You've taken little moments and made those tricky bits better.

You've put it back.

You've played slower.

You've built up to tempo.

You've just looked at little chunks and then we're now ready to play the whole piece as a class ensemble.

We're still gonna take our time.

Remember, some top tips for you so that this is great and you feel happy with it.

Counting with a ready, steady, off we go, so everyone knows the tempo and we can all feel the steady pulse.

Practice each section first.

You've got section A and section B.

Then you've got your repeats of each, but you can still take them one at a time.

Then try playing the whole piece.

Slow it down.

Play it slowly first.

Only increase that tempo when everybody's feeling more confident.

We don't want people struggling to find their notes on their glockenspiels or xylophones or whatever you're playing.

And if you get lost and everyone's playing around you, don't worry.

Just wait and listen to the music.

Have a check what people are playing and come back in when you're, oh yes, I know it's this bit now.

And then just come back in when you can.

Section A is here, and section B is here.

The track is there to help you.

Remember, you can play slower before you are playing at performance speed.

What's important is that you are playing as an ensemble.

Everyone feeling the pulse, everyone staying together.

Best of luck and I'll see you when you're done.

Hey, how did it go? How many times did you play it? Did you get through three, four or five times before it started to find its neatness? Were you increasing the tempo a bit until everyone felt confident? How was it? I wonder what helped you stay in time together and I wonder whether there were moments where you lost where you were, but then were able to join back in, and I imagine there was quite a difference between your first try and that final performance when you had rehearsed even more.

I hope it felt good to play part as part of a whole class ensemble.

Really well done.

In summary of our learning today then, we've been looking at the structure of music and understanding that that can help us practice the piece in sections.

The form of "Egan's Polka" is binary form and that's a musical structure that has two sections, usually labeled A and B and they're often repeated, AABB, just like the piece we were playing today.

We can use practice techniques such as exploring different ways to learn, and to help us play an accompaniment part accurately, we've tried playing slower into quicker.

We've tried taking just the tricky moments and breaking the song down.

When we practice as an ensemble, we are working together at a slower tempo first, and that's a really good strategy to help us improve.

It also gives us some confidence so we can play together.

Fantastic work today, everybody.

I look forward to seeing you next time.

Bye for now.