Lesson video

Hello, my name's Mr. Pate.

I'm looking forward to doing some composing with you in today's lesson.

This unit is called "Compose and Create, Composing a Minor Melody on a Stave".

And this lesson is called "Composing and Notating, a Minor Melody".

By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to compose and notate a stylistic minor melody.

Here's some of the key words we'll be using in today's lesson.

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

Improvisation means creating new musical ideas on the spot.

Steps and leaps are some of the features of a melody we'll be looking at.

Melodies can move up or down one note at a time, which is called a step, or they can jump several notes, which is called a leap.

We'll also be using the phrase question and answer, which is a way of structuring a melody.

It makes it sound like a question phrase, and an answering phrase.

And we'll hear some examples of that later on.

Before we start though, it's important to warm up before every music lesson, getting our bodies, voices, and minds ready to make music.

Warming up our body helps us stand correctly, helps with our posture and our breathing, and it keeps us at ease when we're singing.

We need to gently warm up and stretch our vocal cords to prevent our voices from injury.

Join in with these warmups.

Let's warm up our bodies.

We're gonna start with shrug, shrug, shrug and shimmy shimmy, shimmy.

Ready? Here we go.

Shrug, shrug, shrug and shimmy, shimmy, shimmy.

And again shrug, shrug, shrug and shimmy, shimmy, shimmy.

Shrug, shrug, shrug and shimmy, shimmy.

One more time.

Shrug, shrug, shrug and shimmy, shimmy, shimmy.

Great, well done.

Now let's with our shoulders, try and do a nice little working, rolling them forwards like this.

There we go.

Rolling those shoulders forwards.

Lovely.

Very good.

And then back the other way.

There we go.

Lovely.

Excellent.

Now with your head, we're gonna go round in a circle like this, just a gentle circle.

Round and round and round.

There we go.

And then back the other way.

Good stuff.

Great.

Give everything a bit of a shake.

(lips chattering) Shake it out, shake it out.

Lovely.

And then finally, let's have a big cartoony yawn.

(Mr. Pate yawning) Here we go.

Ready? (Mr. Pate yawning) Let's start by warming up our face.

We're gonna start by imagining we're chewing a big, tasty toffee.

So in goes the toffee, and then we're gonna chew it.

Really exaggerated, big chew, and it's delicious.

So we're gonna go, mm.

Here we go, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm.

Good, really feel that jaw working.

Mm, mm, mm, mm.

Lovely.

Now I want you to imagine you've just seen something amazing, and you're gonna go, wow with a big, wide open mouth.

So ready, here we go.

Wow.

And again, it's really amazing.

Here we go.

Wow.

Now we're gonna do some breathing exercises.

First, let's practice breathing in really deeply.

And when you breathe in deeply, I want your shoulders to stay where they are, but it wants to feel like your tummy is inflating.

So shoulders, stay level, tummy inflating.

Ready? Nice deep breath and.

(inhaling) And then breathing out.

(exhaling) Lovely and again.

And in.

(inhaling) And out.

(exhaling) Lovely.

Now this time when we breathe out, we're gonna try saying the letters S shh, shh F, ff, ff and then we're gonna blow, like we're blowing out the candles on a birthday cake.

So we're gonna go, shh shh, ff, ff.

(air blowing) Ready? Here we go.

So breathing in and shh, shh, ff, ff.

(air blowing) Lovely and again, and breathing in.

(inhaling) And shh, shh, ff, ff.

(air blowing) Now let's try a tongue twister.

We're gonna say, nice and slowly.

She threw three free throws.

Try it with me.

She threw three free throws.

And again, she threw three free throws.

And one more time.

She through three free throws.

These next songs will help us warm up even more, getting us moving our bodies and using our voices in a variety of different ways.

Join in with this song "When the Train Comes Along".

(upbeat music) ♪ When the train comes along ♪ ♪ When the train comes along ♪ ♪ I'm gonna meet you at the station ♪ ♪ When the train comes along ♪ ♪ When the train comes along ♪ ♪ When the train comes along ♪ ♪ I'm gonna meet you at the station ♪ ♪ When the train comes along ♪ <v ->Now join in with this song "I Like the Flowers".

</v> (upbeat 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 boom dee ah da ♪ ♪ Boom dee ah da, boom dee ah da, boom dee ah da ♪ ♪ 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 boom dee ah da ♪ ♪ Boom dee ah da, boom dee ah da, boom dee ah da ♪ <v ->Finally join in with this warmup, "Sally Bonani".

</v> ♪ Ready, steady off we go ♪ ♪ Sally Bonani, Sally Bonani ♪ ♪ Sally Bonani, Sally Bonani ♪ ♪ Sally, Sally, Sally Bonani ♪ ♪ Sally, Sally, Sally Bonani ♪ ♪ Sally Bonani, Sally Bonani ♪ ♪ Sally Bonani, Sally Bonani ♪ ♪ Sally, Sally, Sally Bonani ♪ ♪ Sally, Sally, Sally Bonani ♪ <v ->Here are the learning cycles for today's lesson.

</v> We'll start by composing a rhythm for a melody.

Then we'll start to compose using improvisation.

And finally, we'll be composing a melody with a minor tonality.

Today we are going to compose a brand new melody.

This means we are gonna make up our own tune completely from scratch.

We're gonna start with the rhythm, and the rhythm is the patterns of sounds that make up our melody.

You can compose a rhythm by selecting and arranging different takadimi patterns.

Here's a reminder of some of the takadimi patterns that we've learned about.

We're gonna try clapping these together now, and I'd like to clap along with me.

We are gonna do each one four times.

Let's start with the rhythm ta.

Ready, steady, off we go.

Ta, ta, ta, ta.

Great.

Now let's try tardy.

Ready, steady, off we go.

Tardy, tardy, tardy, tardy.

Now let's try takadimi.

Get those quick clapping hands ready.

Ready, steady, off we go.

♪ Ta-ka-di-mi, ta-ka-di-mi, ta-ka-di-mi, ta-ka-di-mi ♪ Great, now takadi.

Ready, steady, off we go.

♪ Ta-ka-di, ta-ka-di, ta-ka-di, ta-ka-di ♪ Lovely, now let's tray ta-mi.

Remember that long ta and short mi.

Ready, steady, off we go.

♪ Ta-mi, ta-mi, ta-mi, ta-mi ♪ Finally, let's do ta di-mi.

Here we go, ready, steady off we go.

♪ Ta di-mi, ta di-mi, ta di-mi, ta di-mi ♪ Great.

So these are all the rhythms that we are gonna choose from when composing our own rhythmic pattern.

Here's an example, but this example is going to be a not very successful rhythmic composition.

Have a listen and think, why is this not a catchy memorable rhythm? Have a listen and see what you think.

Ready, steady, off we go.

(hands clapping) What is it about that rhythm that wasn't particularly successful? Why wasn't it a catchy memorable rhythm? Sam says, "It was too long and it did go on for a long time, didn't it?" Lucas says, "There wasn't much repetition." "It all sounded a bit random." I agree.

And Andeep said, "It was too complicated." "There were lots of quick rhythms are not many slow ones." "It sounded a bit like I was just doing lots and lots of really quick claps all the time in a bit of a random way." So how could we make that rhythm a little bit better? Well, a successful rhythmic composition should not be too long.

It should use repetition to make it memorable.

When we hear things more than once, they stick in our brain.

They should avoid being too complicated, making sure that we use longer rhythms as well as shorter ones.

Here's another example, and this one's a little bit more catchy and memorable.

Have a listen.

Ready and here we go.

♪ Ta-ta-di-ta-di-mi-ta ♪ ♪ Ta-ta-di-ta-di-mi-ta ♪ So now I finished clapping that one.

Hopefully you could clap it back to me because it was a catchy, memorable rhythm.

It followed those of not being too long using repetition and avoiding being too complicated.

Alex says, "That's much simpler and easier to remember." I agree.

Laura says, "Repeating the first four rhythms again, divides it up into two sections or phrases." That's a really good musical feature of dividing a longer pattern up into repeating sections.

In this case, we had four rhythms, which are then repeated making it two phrases.

So what do you think makes a good rhythmic composition? Choose two from the following list.

Is it A be complicated with lots of new ideas? B, be simple and memorable.

C, use repetition, dividing it up into two phrases or D, have rhythms that change constantly.

Which two are correct? The answers are B, be simple and memorable.

And C, use repetition,, dividing it up into two phrases.

So we're now gonna consider that advice when we compose our own rhythms. When you are composing your own rhythm, start by choosing four takadimi patterns from the rhythm bank you can see on the screen.

Then repeat them to make eight in total.

You can use any of the patterns in any order, and you can use them more than once as well.

As you are choosing which patterns to use, make sure you clap and chant them to see how it sounds.

Here's the rhythms that you can choose from to come up with your rhythmic composition.

Remember, start with four.

When they sound good, repeat them to make your eight total rhythms. Pause the video now to compose and write down your rhythm.

Now you've composed your rhythm.

How does yours compare to this example? This example sounds like this.

Ready, steady, off we go.

♪ Ta ta-di ta-di-mi ta ♪ ♪ Ta ta-di ta-di-mi ta ♪ How does yours compare? Is it simple and memorable? And does it include some repetition to make two separate phrases? Now we're gonna look at starting to compose using improvisation.

Now you've composed your rhythm.

We're going to add some pitch to complete our melody.

When you are composing, it's often a good idea to start with improvisation.

This is when you make up musical ideas on the spot.

Improvising is a great way to generate lots of new ideas, and then we can choose what we think works best.

Although there are no wrong answers when you improvise because you are making it up on the spot, there are some general rules which can help your improvisations to sound really musical.

Let's start by listening to a less successful example of an improvisation.

You're gonna hear the example rhythm that we used in our last exercise being played on lots of different pitches.

It will be improvised moving around various pitches.

I want you to think, why doesn't this example sound very good? (gentle xylophone music) So why didn't that melody sound very good? Laura says, "The notes jumped around a lot and sounded random." Sophia says, "It was really complicated and there wasn't really any repeating parts." And Jacob said, "It was hard to tell when it was gonna end." "We didn't have much structure." I agree.

This melody did sound a bit random.

It was a bit too complicated and it didn't have much structure.

So how can we help our improvisations to sound a bit better? While here are some general rules to make your own improvisations sound more musical.

First stick to just a few notes.

We are going to use the notes of the minor pentachord, which is la, ti, do, re, mi.

That means we've just got a few notes to choose from rather than using every note on our instrument.

When we improvise, we're gonna try and use mostly steps, which means notes that are right next to each other.

We'll use some leaps, which is jumps to notes higher or lower, but we're not gonna use too many.

And using mostly steps, we'll make it sound a bit less random.

Finally, if we choose a note that we're gonna start on and that we're gonna end on, that can help our melody feel more complete.

One final thing to consider when you are composing a melody is you could use question and answer phrases.

You can hear an example of what that means in the song we sung earlier today "When the Train Comes Along".

The first two phrases of the song go like this.

♪ When the train comes along ♪ ♪ When the train comes along ♪ What is it about that melody that sounds like a question and answer? Sam says, "The first phrase goes up like your voice often does at the end of a sentence when you're asking a question like, if I were to say hello, how are you?" "My voice goes up at the end of the question." "The second phrase finishes lower than the first, like the answer to the question." If I were to say, hello, how are you going up, you might say, I'm fine, thanks, going down.

In this case, the melody goes up.

♪ When the train comes along ♪ And then in the second phrase, it finishes lower.

♪ When the train comes along ♪ Giving it the sense of a question and an answer.

Let's put all of that together with an example improvisation.

This one's gonna sound a little bit better than the one we heard earlier today.

See if you can spot the following musical features, which will help this improvisation sound a bit better.

Firstly, we'll only be using the minor pentachord, la, ti, do, re, mi.

We'll be using mostly steps with some leaps.

We'll make use of repetition, repeating patterns.

We'll start and or end on the note la and we'll use some question and answer phrases in the improvising.

The rhythm that will be used for this improvisation will be the one that we heard earlier.

♪ At ta-di ta-di-mi ta ♪ Exploring the different notes of the minor pentachord.

Have a listen to this example improvisation.

(gentle xylophone music) Now you've heard the example it's over to you.

Use the rhythm that you composed in our last task and try improvising some melodies on a pitched percussion instrument like a xylophone, Glockenspiel or chime bars.

Try it a few times and see what you like best.

Those rules that we just talked about might help you as well using just the minor pentachord, which in our case are going to be the notes, D, E, F, G and A on your pitch percussion instrument, using mostly steps with some leaps.

Using repetition, starting and or ending on the note la and trying out some question and answer phrases.

Pause the video now and spend a bit of time improvising.

So when you finished your improvising, you probably had some great ideas that you really like the sound of.

Before we move on, it's a good idea to write some of these ideas down so you can remember them later.

You could write down the Solfege note names like la, ti, do or you could use the letter names of the notes like D, E, and F.

Pause the video now to write down any great ideas you've had that we can use in our next activity.

So how did you do with your improvising? Listen again to this example, improvisation, and I'd like you to think how do your ideas compare with this example? (gentle xylophone music) Did you remember the following in your improvising, using just the minor pentachord.

Using mostly steps with some leaps, making use of repetition, starting and or ending on the note la and trying out question and answer phrases.

Now let's have a look at composing a melody with a minor tonality.

So we've come up with lots of ideas while we were improvising, and now it's time to refine and complete your composition.

Go back to the ideas you wrote down for the previous task and play them again on your pitch percussion instruments.

This will allow you to hear them and see what you like best, what works well, what could be better.

Try taking the bits you really like and also changing some of the notes you've written to see what you like the sound of best.

This is a process of refining your ideas, listening to what you've already got, taking the best bits and changing things around until you are really happy with them.

Remember, your finished melody should use the rhythm you composed at the start of this lesson twice.

Before you continue working on your own composition ideas.

Watch this example of how you might refine your composition ideas.

As you're watching, can you spot any changes that are made in this composition that follow our rules for composing a good melody? For example, use of just the minor pentachord.

Use of mostly steps with some leaps.

Use of repetition.

Starting and ending on the note la or using question and answer phrases.

Here let's watch the example.

So to refine my composition, I've written down some of the ideas I came up with in my improvisations.

The first line I came up with went like this, it went, la, ti, la, do, re, re, mi.

And then the second line went ti, do, do, do, ti, ti, la.

Now, overall, I quite like that structure.

I like how it goes up at the start and then comes down at the end.

That gives the kind of question and answer thing.

But when I'm refining, I think, well, which parts of it don't I like? I think these three dos in a row don't sound quite as good.

So I wonder if I could change this start bit but still have the same ending.

So how about instead of starting on ti, do, do, and then going to do.

What if I made this line here actually similar to the first line, that could add a little bit of repetition to tie those lines together.

So what if instead of ti, do, do, do, ti, ti, la, what if instead it went la, ti, la, do, ti, ti, la.

Let's give that a try.

I'm gonna write that down.

So I've got la, ti, la.

Let's have a listen to the whole thing now.

(gentle xylophone music) Nice, and I think that ties them together quite nicely.

Now I could continue to refine and change things until I get the composition that I'm happy with.

Now you've seen the example, spend a little bit of time on your own composition, making some final changes to your ideas.

Now you've spent some time refining your composition.

We are ready to write it out using a stave.

The stave is the horizontal lines on which music notes can be placed to let us remember the pitches and rhythms we've chosen for our composition.

Let's first draw a stave using three horizontal lines.

We're then gonna add this symbol at the start, which shows us where the note do is.

Look carefully at where it's positioned.

It shows us that the note do is in between the bottom two lines, and that's where we want it.

Draw your own symbol to show where the note do is.

Now we're gonna draw our notes on, but when we draw our notes on the stave, we need to remember to copy out the rhythms correctly.

Earlier in our lesson, we wrote out some rhythms, which looked a bit like this.

Here was my example.

It went.

♪ Ta ta-di ta-di-mi ta ♪ And these sticks that show us the length of the different notes are gonna be copied when we draw those notes onto the stave like this.

The rhythm you see on the left looks like the notation on the right when it's written out on a stave.

At the moment, I've written it all on the note la, but we also need to make sure we put the notes on the right line or space to show what the pitches are.

My melody's probably not gonna be all one note, so how do I know where to put them in order to make sure I've got the notes labeled correctly? Well have a look at the diagram below.

La is just below the first line.

Ti sits on the first line.

Do in that first space.

Re on the middle line, and then mi in the top space.

So when you are writing out your melody, remember to copy out the rhythms correctly and to put your notes in the space showing what the pitch is.

What do you think of this statement, true or false? When you draw notes on a stave, the position of the note head doesn't really matter.

Do you think that's true or false? The answer is false.

The note head is the oval shape at the bottom of the note, and the space or line you place it on is really important because it tells us which pitch to play.

Now it's over to you.

Spend some time writing the pitches of your melody onto your stave, making sure you copy out your rhythms correctly and put your note heads in the correct line or space.

Here's an example of a finished composition.

Let's listen to what it might sound like.

(gentle xylophone music) You've heard the example.

Pause this video to spend some time writing out your own melody.

Use the guide that you can see on the screen to find the correct place to put the notes to tell us which pitch they are.

So now you've written out your melody.

How does yours compare to this example composition? Have a look at how it's been written out on the stave, and let's have a listen to what it sounds like.

(gentle xylophone music) So how does yours compare? Alex says, "My melody also uses mostly steps, and it ends on the note la." Those are great ideas for composing a melody.

Andeep says, "My melody sounds a little bit more random at the moment." "I should use more repetition." That's a really good idea, Andeep.

Repetition is a great musical feature which makes our melodies catchy.

In today's lesson, we've learned that we can compose rhythms by selecting and arranging takadimi patterns.

We can compose melodies by selecting pitches from the minor scale and assigning these to our composed rhythm.

We've learned that effective melodies move mostly by step with some leaps, and we've learned that we can use question and answer phrases to structure our melodies.

Well done for your great composition work in today's lesson.

I look forward to seeing you again in the next one.