Lesson video

Hi, everyone.

Welcome to this lesson on practicing arrhythmic accompaniment.

This is from our Playing Together unit where we are looking at effective rehearsing as part of an ensemble.

My name is Mr. Kran and I'm looking forward to guiding you through this lesson today.

You're all going to practice together and be utterly wonderful.

So let's go.

In this lesson, you'll practice a new rhythmic accompaniment and you'll recognize strategies you can use to improve.

So let's begin by looking at today's keywords.

First of all, practice.

This is to deliberately make an effort to improve our musical skills.

The tempo, that's the speed of the music, how fast or slow the music is played.

2-time, the organization and feel of the beat says one, two, one, two, strong, weak, strong, weak.

Accompaniment, this is a musical part and it supports the main melody or song or chant, and then a rest, like a rest, it's a silence in music of a certain amount of time.

We know how important it is to warm up our voices, our minds, our bodies before we sing and play music together.

This is because we want to keep our voices safe and we want to play together successfully.

And when we warm up our whole body, this helps us stand, or position ourselves so that we can sing safely and well.

We want to gently warm and stretch our vocal cords.

This is gonna prevent our voices from any injury.

So I would like you to join in with these warmups so that you're ready to sing.

Here they come.

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.

(children chuckle) 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.

(chuckles) Go.

Up.

Down.

Up.

Up, up, up.

Stop.

Stop.

Stop.

Go.

<v ->Join in with these breathing exercises.

</v> Copy me.

(hands swishing) (breath whooshing) (breath whooshing) (piano music) ♪ 1, 1, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ♪ <v ->Now miss out number three.

</v> (piano music) ♪ 1, 1, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 4, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 4, 5, 4, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 5, 4, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 6, 5, 4, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 2, 1 ♪ (piano music) ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3 ♪ ♪ 4, 5, 1, 2, 3 ♪ ♪ 4, 5, 1, 2, 3 ♪ ♪ 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1 ♪ ♪ 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1 ♪ ♪ 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4 ♪ ♪ 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4 ♪ ♪ 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2 ♪ ♪ 3, 4, 5, 1, 2 ♪ ♪ 3, 4, 5, 1, 2 ♪ ♪ 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ♪ (piano music) ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3 ♪ ♪ 4, 5, 1, 2, 3 ♪ ♪ 4, 5, 1, 2, 3 ♪ ♪ 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1 ♪ ♪ 2, 3, 4, 5, 1 ♪ ♪ 2, 3, 4, 5, 1 ♪ ♪ 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4 ♪ ♪ 5, 1, 2, 3, 4 ♪ ♪ 5, 1, 2, 3, 4 ♪ ♪ 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2 ♪ ♪ 3, 4, 5, 1, 2 ♪ ♪ 3, 4, 5, 1, 2 ♪ ♪ 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ♪ (piano music) ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3 ♪ ♪ 4, 5, 1, 2, 3 ♪ ♪ 4, 5, 1, 2, 3 ♪ ♪ 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1 ♪ ♪ 2, 3, 4, 5, 1 ♪ ♪ 2, 3, 4, 5, 1 ♪ ♪ 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4 ♪ ♪ 5, 1, 2, 3, 4 ♪ ♪ 5, 1, 2, 3, 4 ♪ ♪ 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2 ♪ ♪ 3, 4, 5, 1, 2 ♪ ♪ 3, 4, 5, 1, 2 ♪ ♪ 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ♪ <v ->There's a couple more chants and songs for us now.

</v> There's Bungalow and if you're confident playing Bungalow where you are, then you can skip over the video and there's a backing track there to help you if you would like it.

And then there's also elevator, "Won't you take me, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5." This is gonna help with our pitching, our in tune pitching in this lesson.

So first of all, here comes Bungalow.

(piano music) ♪ Bungalow, bung, bungalow ♪ ♪ Bungalow, bung, bungalow ♪ ♪ Hey, Ria, hey, Ria, 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 are feet 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 bungalows ♪ ♪ Bungalow, bung, bungalow ♪ ♪ Bungalow, bung, bungalow ♪ <v ->Lovely.

</v> If you've watched that and you want to pause, so you can play that one your way, you can do, otherwise, here comes Elevator.

Be ready to join in.

(piano 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 ♪ (piano 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 ♪ <v ->Great stuff, everybody.

</v> Are you now ready to sing? Are your muscles feeling a bit more relaxed, you're a bit more awake, your throat might be warm? And hopefully we're concentrating and focused, ready to learn.

There are two learning cycles in today's lesson.

The first one is practicing to improve our singing and the second, practicing a rhythmic accompaniment.

Let's start by practicing to improve our singing.

Egan's Polka.

First, the lyrics are on the screen and I would like you to pay careful attention to the rhythms of strawberry ice cream sundaes.

This is our ta, ta-mi, ta-di, that rhythm there, strawberry ice cream.

That's gonna really help you, because as an ensemble, you will sound really neat if those rhythms are accurate, I'll pop the track on.

Here it comes.

(guitar music) ♪ I like eating ♪ ♪ I like eating strawberry ice cream sundaes ♪ ♪ I like eating ♪ ♪ I like eating strawberry ice cream fun ♪ ♪ I like eating ♪ ♪ I like eating strawberry ice cream sundaes ♪ ♪ I like eating ♪ ♪ I like eating strawberry ice cream fun ♪ ♪ And my dog, he also likes my strawberry ice cream sundaes ♪ ♪ And my dog, he also likes my strawberry ice cream fun ♪ ♪ And my dog, he also likes my strawberry ice cream sundaes ♪ ♪ And my dog, he also likes my strawberry ice cream fun ♪ <v ->Now, if you thought, yes, in our class,</v> those rhythms sounded neat and tight and we were all getting them perfectly, let's move straight on.

Otherwise pause and use that track to have another go.

Are there any other bits of the song that we can improve? Any other tricky parts? Sofia suggests the, I like eating, I like eating, is quite tricky and Jacob says, "I agree actually, because that melody jumps around a bit and it might be difficult to get all of those notes exactly right pitched really neatly." Especially when we're singing altogether.

So isolating tricky parts of the music and practicing slowly can really help us improve.

I'd like us to listen to this.

This is Clarence.

He's from the Paraorchestra, which is a collective of disabled and non-disabled musicians based in Bristol.

And he's talking about effective practice.

Let's have a listen.

<v ->What I hate about practicing is I want it</v> to be perfect straight away.

So I'll try to play it fast and it doesn't work.

But I have two tips that always work for me and that is to first play it slowly and get better by playing slowly.

Another thing I try to do is to concentrate more.

So I pretend I'm playing my instrument in front of a hundred people all looking at me.

So I concentrate more rather than trying to practice and watch the television.

<v ->Thank you, Clarence.

</v> We will definitely take that advice going forwards.

Now, the part that we've identified as tricky is the, "I like eating, I like eating." And so because we've found that bit, that's the bit we're improving.

This is how we are practicing with purpose.

We're not just singing the song, it's purposeful.

Let's fix this bit.

The first thing we can do is slow it down and we want to make sure that we're not sliding between notes.

We don't want to be, "I like eating, I." It sounds terrible, but if we're neat we can be, "I like eating, I like eating." And make it very neat.

Now, that first one is a leap and it's fast when we sing it, firstly, "I like." So we want to make sure that we're absolutely in tune.

The way we can do that is it starts on a mi for the I and that's on mi.

And then it goes to the so like, "I like.

I like." And then do is on straw for strawberry.

So if we take those notes, we can be super accurate on our pitch when we sing do mi do.

Should we try that all together? If you can sign it as well, this is do, mi, do, let's do it together, go.

Do, mi, do.

One more time.

Go.

Do, mi, do.

Very good.

The second one, we're gonna sing do, so, do.

Are you ready? Go.

Do, so, do.

And one more time.

Do, so, do.

That is marvelous.

Now, the last one we're going to go is the mi, so, do.

Ready? Go.

Mi, so, do.

One more time.

Mi, so, do.

Very nice.

You're welcome to pause and practice each of those with the track there to help you, if you think you've mastered it, let's continue.

Now, we can sing the leaps in the tune.

We can practice that first part.

The, "I like eating." Now, "Like eating." Just goes step up, down.

So let's just go so, la, so, like eating.

Let's do that together.

Let's say so, la, so together and sign it if you can.

Off we go.

So, la, so.

Again, so, la, so.

Fantastic, if we put the mi, so, that's our jump.

Ready, steady, off we go.

Mi, so.

Nice.

Let's do that two more times.

Mi, so, off we go.

Me, so, one more time.

Mi, so, very good.

If we put the four together, we get mi, so, la, so.

Let's do it all together.

Ready? Off we go.

Mi, so, la, so.

Again, mi, so, la.

One more time, mi, so, la, so.

Super duper.

Now, you can practice singing that phrase slowly, avoid that swooping.

So really neatly the, "I like eating." Then we can repeat it and add the first part of strawberry.

You're gonna pause here to practice this.

The two things you're going to do, number one is the slower and then slightly quicker.

Making sure we're neat with the, "I like eating.

I like eating." Listening out to make sure we're all in tune, we're all accurate in those pitches and we're not swooping between the notes.

And then the second thing, add in the straw, which is the first part of our strawberry.

We don't like eating straw, but we do like eating strawberries and strawberry ice cream.

So then you'll get, "I like eating, I like eating straw." But we don't like eating straw.

I'd like you to pause and practice that as you get confident, as you think we are all singing that neatly, increase the tempo to the, "I like eating, I like eating, straw." And make sure you are still neat together.

Off you go.

And of course we want to see if our practice has paid off.

So then we sing the whole phrase.

We'll sing the, "I like eating.

I like eating strawberry ice cream sundaes.

I like eating.

I like eating strawberry ice cream fun.

And that repeats.

Remember we take a nice big breath before we begin so we've got plenty of breath to sing the whole thing.

Does that sound better? Pause here and find out.

Off you go.

Brilliant.

So your task is to apply the most useful practice task that's gonna help you.

So you might sing the song through and think which bit do we want to improve next.

It could be the melody of the second part.

It could be taking breaths so the words make sense and you're not going, "I like eating, I like eating." You want it to be nice and smooth, nice calm breath at the beginning.

"I like eating.

I like eating strawberry ice cream sundaes.

I like eating.

I like eating strawberry ice cream fun." Now, if you've got enough breath for that, that's fantastic.

Or you can take a little breath halfway through.

Maybe there's something else you find tricky.

Work out what it is.

Here are some techniques that you're going to use.

This is from practice.

You could practice with purpose, that is improving and just working on that specific tricky bit and making it great.

Is the environment right? Is there too much noise around? Is everyone focused? We've got clear desks so that we can remain concentrating on what we need to be concentrating on, which is our song.

Are we all together? Can we hear each other? So is that environment right? Repeating the tricky bits, repeat, repeat, repeat.

And then they become easier.

And also slowing it down.

"I like eating." Nice, steady tempo until you feel confident to speed it all up again.

Off you go.

How did it go? Which bit did you choose to work on and why was that? And have you now improved? What did you do that helped with that tricky bit? Was it making sure you all breathed and had plenty of breath? Was it checking in with that tuning really accurately? Was it repeating and repeating a tricky bit? And then was it easy to concentrate? What helped that? And was there anything that made it a bit challenging? How many times did you repeat it before it started to sound better? "Oh, we had to repeat it three or four, five times, but then we were really pleased with how it sounded." And if you had even more time, what might you work on next? Really well done.

You're welcome to pause here if you want to have another go or chat any of that through.

Otherwise, onto the second part of our lesson where we are practicing a rhythmic accompaniment.

Now Egan's Polka is a lively piece in 2-time.

1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2.

So it has a strong, weak, strong, weak beat feel to it.

Now, the rhythmic accompaniment we're going to learn plays on what we call the offbeats.

So not the one but the two.

So not the strong beat but the weak beat.

So the Z is what we're using to show a rest where we do nothing.

So beat one, nothing.

Beat two, we've got a ta-di.

(instrument clicks) Then beat three, there's a rest and beat four, a ta.

So if I counted 1, 2, 1, 2.

(instrument clicks) 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2.

Ba-bada-rum-bum.

All right, that's what it sounds like.

And an effective strategy, a practice strategy is to use words.

So ice cream, fun, ice cream, sh, fun.

That's one way.

And then another way we can do it is adding our body percussion.

So we're doing nothing.

(hands clap) Nothing, click, nothing, clap, clap, nothing, click.

All right, I would like you to pause and try both of those.

This is gonna give you a real accurate sense of this rhythm.

Pause and work through the, "Sh, ice cream, sh, fun." And then the body percussion of- (hands clap) (fingers click) Setting the steady tempo before you start will really help.

So you could start with a ready, steady, off we go, ice cream, fun, for example.

See you in a moment.

Another useful strategy for you is when we're learning a rhythm, start at a slower tempo.

So if we started at a tempo of ready, steady, off we go, rest.

(instrument clicks) Rest, which is rest, ice cream, rest, fun, sh, ice cream, fun.

Then you can go a little bit quicker.

Ready, steady, off we go.

Rest, ice cream, rest, fun, rest, ice cream, rest, fun.

And then our performance tempo, which is ready, steady, off we go.

Rest, ice cream, fun, rest, ice cream, rest, fun.

All right, pause here, try it at each of those tempos, the slow, the medium and then the speed we'll actually do it at.

All right, there are videos there to support you if you need them to make sure you're playing at the right tempo.

And I will see when you've had that part of your rehearsal.

Off you go.

Fantastic, now you're practicing at different Tempe, getting quicker when you feel confident, bringing it up to performance speed so it's accurate and you're decoding that stick notation.

There are four symbols which we use on the left and there's four meanings on the right, but they're not in the correct order.

I would like you to match up each symbol to their meaning.

Pause here and then we'll come back when you've done that.

Let's see how you did that.

First one is our ta-di rhythm, the second symbol we're using as a weak beat.

So it's not a filled in heart, it's not our first beat of the bar, it's the weaker beat.

And we remember we're playing our rhythms on those weaker beats on the offbeats.

The third one, we're using the Z as a rest symbol.

And lastly, to show that it's in 2-time, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2.

That is our symbol for 2-time.

If you've got all those right, fantastic.

The rhythmic accompanying part is really crucial to the success of our song arrangement.

So as we build up our arrangement for Egan's Polka, we want this bit to be bang on brilliant.

Now, when we play together, we need to play at the same tempo.

This accompaniment, that rhythmic accompaniment, when we hear it, it helps all of the players, all of our musicians and performers sing and play in time together.

In a large ensemble, there might be a conductor who sets the tempo, shows everyone the beat by their conducting.

And in smaller ensembles, maybe if there wasn't a conductor, there could be a drummer or a person that plays the rhythm often leads that ensemble and they set the tempo by counting in 5, 6, 7, 8, ta-sh, and then they keep everyone in time with their rhythm.

So for us, we need to make sure we're gonna start at the same tempo.

To do this, we're going to use a ready, steady, off we go.

And we do that at the same speed, at the same tempo as we're going to play.

This is a great rehearsal strategy.

Aisha says, "That helps us establish the correct pulse before we start to play." And if we've all heard it, if we've all heard a ready, steady, off we go, we've already felt that ba, ba, ba, ba.

And we know what tempo we're playing at.

Jun says, "Everyone will start together when we do this." And Izzy says, "And it'll improve our final performance." So you're gonna practice the rhythm and you're gonna use the backing track and this is at the performance tempo.

The first two bars go something like da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

And then you say, "Ready, steady, off we go." I'm just gonna do that one more time.

So when you hear it on the track, you know what's coming, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, ready, steady, off we go.

Do we then click straight away on our claves, or our instruments? No, no, no, no, no, 'cause the first beat is a rest.

So you'll hear it and you go da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, ready, steady, off we go, sh, sh, sh, ice cream, sh, fun.

(instrument clicks) Then we put the sh, ice cream fun into our thinking voice.

So we're all just- (instrument clicks) Together.

Last time, I'm gonna give you one more run through of that so you can really hit the ground running you get as soon as you hit the track, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

Ready, steady, off we go, sh- (instrument clicks) This is what you're going to do.

Pause here and do that now and be fabulous, off you go.

Well done, well done, well done.

Did you keep that steady pulse all the way through and were you listening carefully so you knew when to stop? If you did, I'm super impressed.

This is your final task for today.

You're gonna split into two groups to practice the melody and the rhythmic accompaniment.

So the group playing the rhythmic accompaniment, the, they're gonna count in for you and they're gonna keep a steady tempo with their rhythm throughout.

The singers, they listen carefully too 'cause they've all heard the da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, and you've got ready, steady, off we go and they start singing, "I like eating.

I like eating." That's gonna come together.

You've got the track, you've got the singing group and you've got the rhythm accompaniment groups.

Then swap over.

That means everyone has a turn at singing and everyone has a turn at playing the rhythmic accompaniment and listen to each other and enjoy those parts interacting with each other.

It's going to be fabulous.

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

Well done, everyone.

This is practice.

This is when the more we do it, the better we get, the neater it becomes.

You might even notice the very first time wasn't so neat.

Next time a bit neater and so on.

Sofia says, "I enjoy being in the rhythm group, 'cause we had to keep everybody else steady." So that clear rhythmic accompaniment stops people speeding up, which is great.

Jacob says, "The words ready, steady, off we go need to be spoken loud and clearly." Super accurately so that we feel the steady pulse.

And Sam says that, "Singing sounded better, we focused on singing the tricky bits in tune and we remember not to swoop between notes." Strawberry ice cream and we were really precise.

"I like eating, I like eating." If you achieved all of that, you have had a great lesson, really well done.

In summary of your learning today then.

When practicing, if we isolate those tricky parts, then we are practicing with purpose and that's a really useful strategy to help us improve.

Slowing the tempo down whilst practicing.

That's a useful strategy.

We want to get that rhythmic accuracy and if we're all doing it together, it sounds great.

The rhythmic accompaniment plays a really important role in the ensemble 'cause that is keeping everyone in time and counting in with the ready steady, off we go, sets a steady tempo and helps us all maintain that steady pulse.

Great work today, everyone.

Look forward to seeing you next time, bye for now.