Lesson video

Hi there, my name's Mr. Pate, and I'm looking forward to making some great music with you in today's lesson.

This unit is called "Compose and Create: composing a minor melody on a stave." And today's lesson is reading and playing minor melodies.

By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to read and play minor melodies using tuned percussion instruments.

Here are some of the keywords we'll be using in today's lesson.

A stave is a series of horizontal lines that musical notes can be placed on.

Texture is the combination of different layers of sounds.

It's one of our elements of music.

The word "accompaniment" means musical ideas that supports the main melody.

And finally, a musical drone is a constant pitched sound that continues throughout a piece of music.

We'll be going into all of these in more detail in today's lesson.

Before we start, though, let's do a warmup.

It's important to start your music lesson with a warmup to get your bodies, voices, and minds ready to make music.

Warming up our whole body helps us to stand correctly with a good posture, connects us to our breathing, and helps get us comfortable and at ease when singing.

We also, through warmup, stretch our vocal chords gently, getting them ready for singing, and to prevent any 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 a shimmy, shimmy, shimmy.

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

One more time.

Shrug, shrug, shrug, and a 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.

(vocalizes) 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 chews.

And it's delicious, so we're gonna go, "Hmm!" Here we go.

(vocalizes) Good.

Really feel that jaw working.

(vocalizes) 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 (inhales), then breathing out, (exhales).

Lovely.

And again.

And in.

(inhales) And out.

Lovely.

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

So we're gonna go (vocalizes).

(Mr. Pate blowing) Ready? Here we go.

So breathing in (inhales), and (vocalizes).

(Mr. Pate blowing) Lovely, and again, and breathing in.

(inhales) And (vocalizes).

(Mr. Pate 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 threw three free throws." These next songs will help us warm up our voice even more by using it in lots of different ways.

Join in with this song, "Oh la la ley." (upbeat music) ♪ Oh la la ley ♪ ♪ Another evening fades away ♪ ♪ You know the evening sun won't disappear for long ♪ ♪ Because tomorrow is another day ♪ ♪ Oh la la ley ♪ ♪ Another evening fades away ♪ ♪ You know the evening sun won't disappear for long ♪ ♪ Because tomorrow is another day ♪ Now join in with this song, "Little birch tree." (melancholy music) ♪ See the little birch in the meadow ♪ ♪ Curly leaves all dancing when the wind blows ♪ ♪ Loo lee loo, when the wind blows ♪ ♪ Loo lee loo, when the wind blows ♪ ♪ See the little birch in the meadow ♪ ♪ Curly leaves all dancing when the wind blows ♪ ♪ Loo lee loo, when the wind blows ♪ ♪ Loo lee loo, when the wind blows ♪ Finally, join in with this warmup game, "Johnny Caught a Flea." To play "Johnny Caught a Flea," stand facing a partner, with your fist on your hand, like this.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ One, two, three ♪ ♪ Johnny caught a flea ♪ ♪ Flea died, Johnny cried ♪ ♪ One, two, three ♪ <v Mr. Pate>At the end of the song,</v> show, rock, paper, or scissors in your hands, and the person who loses sits down.

When you play again, if you win, you get to stand back up.

If you draw, you stay as you are.

Nothing changes.

Here it is played as a whole class.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ One, two, three ♪ ♪ Johnny caught a flea ♪ ♪ Flea died, Johnny cried ♪ ♪ One, two, three ♪ <v Student>Aw!</v> <v ->Yes!</v> ♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ One, two, three ♪ ♪ Johnny caught a flea ♪ ♪ Flea died, Johnny cried ♪ ♪ One, two, three ♪ <v ->Yes!</v> <v ->Try playing a few rounds where you are.

</v> Are you ready to sing? If so, your muscles should feel nice and relaxed, your throat should feel warm, and you're concentrating, and ready to learn.

Here are the learning cycles in today's lesson First, we'll be looking at playing minor melodies from stave notation, then we'll be playing minor melodies with a drone accompaniment.

Let's learn a song.

This is a Spanish song called "Dulce, Dulce," which translates to, "Sweet, Sweet." Now, we can see the lyrics here, but before you hear the song, I'm gonna show you the stave notation, and we're gonna see if we can work out the rhythm of the notes before we hear the song for the first time.

So here is what the first part of the melody would look like.

Have a look at the rhythm, which means the different types of notes which are used.

Using takadimi, how would you clap or chant this rhythm? Pause the video now and spend a moment working it out.

Then press play, and I'll show you how it goes.

So hopefully you spent a moment there trying to work out the rhythm of these notes.

The takadimi patterns sound like this.

♪ Ta ta ta ta ♪ ♪ Ta tadi ta ♪ How did you do? Did yours sound similar? Try clapping and chanting that one with me.

Ready? ♪ And off we go ♪ ♪ Ta ta ta ta ♪ ♪ Ta tadi ta ♪ And the symbol at the end of the music is a rest, which means a gap.

Let's have a look at the next part of the song.

The final phrase goes like this.

Again, I'm gonna give you a moment to try and work out what those rhythms would sound like.

Try chanting and clapping the rhythms using takadimi patterns.

Pause the video now and have a go.

Hopefully you've spent some time there working out what this might sound like.

Let me show you the answers.

If I clapped and chanted this pattern, it would go ♪ Ta ta ta ta ♪ ♪ Tadi tadi ta ♪ Try clapping that with me.

Ready? ♪ And off we go ♪ ♪ Ta ta ta ta ♪ ♪ Tadi tadi ta ♪ How did you do? Did you manage to work out those rhythms? Now we've worked out the rhythms of the song, let's have a listen to it.

This is "Dulce, Dulce." (upbeat music) (Mr. Pate singing in Spanish) There we go.

Now we've had a listen, let's try singing it together.

(upbeat music) (Mr. Pate singing in Spanish) Well done.

Lovely singing.

Now we're gonna try and play this melody on a pitched percussion instrument.

This could be a xylophone, glockenspiel, or chime bars.

When you've found your pitched percussion instrument, we're gonna find the notes of the minor pentachord.

In this case, the notes we're using are D, E, F, G, and A.

Take a moment to find those notes on your instrument, and try playing them up and down.

Pause the video and have a go at playing the minor pentachord.

Hopefully you've spent some time there getting used to where those notes are.

Now, let's try and play this melody.

We'll need to work out what the notes are on the stave to be able to find them on our instrument.

Here's a guide to finding what the notes are on the stave, and we'll see if we can translate that to the notes on our instruments.

The stave is these three horizontal lines, and this symbol you can see on the left-hand side shows us where the note do is.

It's in the first space.

The minor pentachord, though, starts on the note la.

So whenever you see this note here, dangling just below the first line, that note is la.

Try finding that and playing it on your pitched percussion instrument.

Remember, in this case, that's the note D.

The next note is ti.

It's one higher than la, and you can see it on the first line of the stave On your instrument, the note that we'll be using is the note E.

Try and find that and play it now.

The next note we'll be using, like the symbol on the left-hand side tells us, if a note is in the first space, it's the note do.

Try working out what that would be on your instrument, and playing it now.

Next up, on the middle line is the note re.

Try finding that and playing it on your instrument now.

Finally, in the top space is the note mi.

Again, try finding that on your instrument and playing it.

Then take a moment to play all of those notes, noticing where they are on the stave.

Hopefully you've had a chance now to get really used to where those notes are on your instrument, and how to find them on the stave.

Let's now have a look at the song "Dulce Dulce." The first line of the melody goes like this.

Using the guide that you can see on the screen, which notes would we be playing to play that melody? The answer is, the first two notes for the word "dulce" are just below the bottom line, which is the note for la.

The second two notes, also on the word "dulce," are in the first space, which is where do sits.

So the two notes used in this melody are la and do.

You can see the order of those notes written on the screen now.

How did you do? Did you manage to work those out? Let's have a look in the last line of the song.

There are some more notes used in this line, so have a look now.

What are the note names of the notes that you can see in this line of music? Pause the video now and have a go at working out what they would be.

Now you've done that, let's see if you got them right.

The note names for this part of the song, again starting on la, would go, la la do re mi re do ti la.

How did you do? Did you manage to find those notes? Hopefully we're starting to feel confident with finding out what notes are on a musical stave.

Now let's try playing the song.

Before we play it, watch this example of what the song will sound like on a pitched percussion instrument.

(upbeat music) Now you've seen that example, it's over to you.

Use the stave notation that you can see on the screen to work out what the notes would be you're playing, and then spend some time learning this melody.

Remember, make sure you take it really slow when you are learning to play a melody, one note at a time, making sure you're giving yourself plenty of time to find the next note.

Once you've played it a few times, and it's starting to feel a little bit more confident, then you could speed it up a little bit.

Good luck with your playing.

Pause the video now and spend a bit of time learning it.

Now we've spent a little bit of time learning "Dulce, Dulce," let's try it with another song.

This new song is an African American spiritual called "When the Train Comes Along." You can see the words here on the screen, but again, before I play it to you, I'd like us to try and work out the rhythm of the notes from the stave notation.

The first two lines of melody have the same rhythm.

Notice how it starts with something called an upbeat.

The words "When the" happen just before that bar line, which signals the start of a bar.

Now, using takadimi patterns, can you work out how this rhythm would be clapped or chanted? Pause the video now, and try clapping and chanting those rhythms. Then press play, and I'll show you how it goes.

So how did you do? Did you manage to work out how this rhythm would sound? Here's the answers.

The rhythm would sound like this.

♪ Tadi ta ♪ ♪ Tami ta ♪ ♪ Tadi ta ♪ ♪ Tami ta ♪ Try clapping that with me now.

I'm gonna say, "Ready, and," and then we're gonna go, ♪ Tadi ta ♪ Let's give it a try.

Ready, and, ♪ Tadi ta ♪ ♪ Tami ta ♪ ♪ Tadi ta ♪ ♪ Tami ta ♪ We're almost ready to hear the song, but before we do, see if you can work out what the rhythm of the next lines would sound like using takadimi.

Pause this video and try clapping and chanting the notes you can see on the screen.

Let's see how you did.

The rhythm of these lines would sound like this.

♪ Tadimi tadi ♪ ♪ Tadi tadi ♪ ♪ Tadi ta ♪ ♪ Tami ta ♪ Try doing that along with me.

I'm gonna say, "Ready, and," then, ♪ Tadimi ♪ which is the first rhythm Here we go.

Ready, and, ♪ Tadimi tadi ♪ ♪ Tadi tadi ♪ ♪ Tadi ta ♪ ♪ Tami ta ♪ Great, now we've spent some time working out those rhythms, let's have a listen to the whole song.

This is "When the Train Comes Along." (bright 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 ♪ Now you've had a listen, try singing it along with me.

(bright 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 ♪ Now we've sung the song, we're gonna try playing it.

Before we can play our melody on our instrument, we're gonna need to work out what notes we're going to be using to play this song.

Use the guide you can see on the screen to work out what the notes of this melody would be.

I'll give you a clue.

The first note for the note "When" is just below the bottom line, which in this case is the note la.

Spend some time working out these notes.

Pause the video now, and then we'll see how you did.

So now you've spent some time working out what those notes are, let's see if you got them right.

Here are the answers.

The notes go, ♪ La do mi ♪ ♪ Mi re mi ♪ ♪ La do mi ♪ ♪ Re la do ♪ Let's try the next line.

Have a look at the music you can see using stave notation, and use the guide on screen to work out, what would the notes of this melody be? Pause the video here to work them out.

Then press play, and I'll tell you the answers.

Let's see how you did.

The notes in this melody go like this.

♪ La do do re re re mi re ♪ ♪ Do la la do ♪ ♪ Ti ti la ♪ How did you do? Now we spent some time working out the rhythm and the pitches used in this melody, let's try playing it.

First Watch this example of what the song will sound like played on pitched percussion instruments.

(bright music) And now it's over to you.

Pause this video and spend some time learning to play this melody.

Remember, keep it slow and steady while you are learning, and use the stave notation on the screen to help you work out what note to play next.

Good luck.

So hopefully you've managed to spend some time there learning to play this melody.

Before we finish, watch the example performance again to compare it to your own playing.

Did you play the melody accurately? (bright music) Now let's have a look at playing minor melodies with a drone accompaniment.

The accompaniment to a piece of music plays in the background, and it supports the main melody.

By adding an accompaniment, we add to the texture, which means the different layers of music happening at once.

By adding in another layer, the accompaniment layer, we then have a fuller or thicker texture.

A simple accompaniment you can add is something called a drone, and a drone in music is a constant pitched sound that continues throughout a piece.

Watch this video showing a performance of the song "Dulce, Dulce" with a drone accompaniment.

As you watch, think, what difference does the drone make? You might also be able to spot which note is being used for the drone.

Let's watch.

(bright music) Now you've seen the example, what did you notice about this performance? Jun says, "The drone part made the song sound more full." This is called adding to the texture.

Izzy says, "The drone played a simple, regular rhythm that was easy to play," which is absolutely right.

The drone should be a simple repeating part.

Alex says, "The drone used the note D, which in our scale is the note la." That's the first note of the minor pentachord, and it's a great note to use to drone when we're playing these songs.

Let's play the song "Dulce, Dulce" with a drone accompaniment.

The drone on la is played every two beats, and this continues through the whole song.

Start by playing this in pairs.

One person will play the drone, that simple repeating la, whereas the other person will play the melody.

If you want a challenge, though, you can use two hands, and try and play both parts yourself.

Below you can see an example of the stave notation showing the melody and the drone.

The top line, with that repeating la note, is the drone, and underneath that is the melody.

Now it's over to you.

Use the notation for the melody that you can see on the screen, along with that repeated la note as a drone accompaniment, and practice playing this song.

Now we've had a go at playing a song with a drone accompaniment, let's try it for our other song from this lesson, "When the Train Comes Along." the drone accompaniment starts on la, and plays every two beats.

Notice, though, that the first one comes in on the word "train," because there's an upbeat, a couple of extra notes at the start of this melody.

So when you're playing it together, the person playing the drone will come in on the word "train." On the last line, the drone accompaniment is actually gonna change notes.

It's gonna change from la, which is D in our scale, to so, which is just below, one note lower, on the note C in this scale, and then it comes back up to D, or la, again.

You can see that in the accompaniment on the screen.

The note goes down one, and then comes back up again.

There's the note C, or so, and then there back to the note D, or la.

Before we play it, let's watch an example.

Here's what this performance will look like.

As you watch, notice how the drone part is gonna stay steady on that note la until the last line, when it goes down and then comes back up again.

And also notice the upbeat, how the first note of the drone will come in with the note "train." Let's watch.

(bright music) Now spend some time learning to play this yourself.

In your pairs, one of you will play the melody, and the other will play the drone.

Have a look at the first part of the melody, which you can see on the screen, and when you're ready, resume the video, and you'll have a look at the second part.

Now you've spent some time playing the first part of the melody, here's the second part.

Notice the part where the drone note changes along with the line, "meet you at the station," and then it goes back up to la for the last few notes.

Spend some time practicing this whole song, and then, when you are ready, press resume, and we'll play it with the instrumental accompaniment.

Okay, hopefully you've spent some time learning both parts of this song, the first line and the last line.

Now, for a bit of a challenge, try playing this along with the instrumental accompaniment.

If you lose your place, don't worry, okay? If you play a note that's wrong, don't panic.

Just try and find your place and come back in again.

And you can repeat this as many times as you like.

Okay.

Here comes the instrumental.

Follow along with the music on the screen.

(bright 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 ♪ So you've spent some time today playing some melodies with a drone accompaniment.

How did it go? Laura says, "I was able to play the drone and the melody with my partner, but we found it hard to stay in time." It's really common when you're first playing parts together to find it difficult to stay in time together.

Don't worry, with more practice, you'll be able to get even better at it.

Andeep says, "I played in time with my partner, and I was able to follow the stave notation to see when the drone should play." That's really good work, Andeep, and we can all get there with practice too.

In today's lesson, we've learned that stave notation can tell us the rhythm and pitch of a melody, which we can then use to help perform it accurately.

We've learned that we can work out rhythms and pitches of a melody using takadimi and solfege note names.

Finally, we've learned that we can add to the texture of our music by using a drone as an accompaniment.

Well done for your great playing in today's lesson.

I look forward to seeing you in the next one.