Lesson video

Hi there everybody.

Welcome to this lesson on layering syncopated rhythms to accompany a song.

It's from our Singing for Performance Unit where we are adding syncopation to our songs.

My name is Mr. Croughan and I'm very excited to be guiding you through this session as we further explore syncopation.

You are all going to be marvelous, so let's get going.

By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to say, I can play a syncopated rhythm to accompany a song.

We'll begin by looking at today's keywords, the first of which is djembe.

Djembe is a goblet shaped drum that originates in West Africa.

It is a drum that's played with the hands.

Secondly, Kuku.

This is a rhythm from Guinea, a country in West Africa that can be played on two or more drums, and we'll be exploring that in today's lesson.

Syncopation, the rhythms that emphasize the beats that are usually weaker.

And a drum break.

A drum break is a specific phrase and it's played by the lead drummer to signal starting, stopping or changing a rhythm.

When we're warming up in this unit, we're really thinking about feeling a steady pulse, listening to rhythms and being able to respond in time with each other so that we might hear syncopation happening neatly.

The first warmup- ♪ Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar ♪ ♪ We are chanting to a steady pulse as we play ♪ ♪ When you play, don't stop ♪ ♪ Feel the pulse as you go ♪ Here comes the video to remind you.

If you don't need it, you can skip past this and play that where you are, but here is Cookie Jar should you wish to watch it.

♪ Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar ♪ ♪ Alex stole the cookie from the cookie jar ♪ ♪ Who, me? ♪ ♪ Yes you ♪ ♪ Couldn't have been ♪ ♪ Then who? ♪ ♪ Lucas stole the cookie from the cookie jar.

♪ ♪ Who, me? ♪ ♪ Yes you ♪ ♪ Couldn't have been ♪ ♪ Then who? ♪ ♪ Jacob stole the cookie from the cookie jar ♪ ♪ Who, me? ♪ ♪ Yes, you.

♪ ♪ Couldn't have been ♪ ♪ Then who? ♪ ♪ Andeep stole the cookie from the cookie jar ♪ ♪ Who, me? ♪ ♪ Yes, you.

♪ ♪ Couldn't have been ♪ ♪ Then who? ♪ Next up, don't clap this one back.

Again you are copying the rhythms and you are listening out for the rhythm that you don't copy.

If you feel confident with this, you can skip past this.

Choose a clapping leader where you are and create this in your classroom.

Remember, you can add in that additional challenge of pepperoni pizza where don't clap that rhythm back, but you do chant it.

Up to you.

Here comes the clips should you need it.

This is a game called Don't Clap This One Back.

You'll hear me clapping different rhythms like this one.

(clapping rhythmically) And that rhythm is actually our secret rhythm that we are never going to clap, because that rhythm says ♪ Don't clap this one back.

♪ So if you hear it, you do nothing.

Any other rhythm you hear, we all clap together.

Let's try a couple.

(clapping rhythmically) (clapping rhythmically) (clapping rhythmically) Very, very good.

Now you're going to listen super carefully because if you hear (clapping rhythmically) we don't clap that rhythm back.

Okay? Let's play.

(clapping rhythmically) (clapping rhythmically) (clapping rhythmically) (clapping rhythmically) Did I catch any of you out? Let's try one more time.

Here we go.

(clapping rhythmically) (clapping rhythmically) (clapping rhythmically) (clapping rhythmically) (clapping rhythmically) Very well done.

Now you can practice that where you are.

And then for fruit canon, it'll be a good idea to pause here because you'll want to get into three groups.

Remember there's the three lines of the songs, the mango bit, the kiwi bit, and the banana bit.

And so if you each start that one line later, you will feel those sun lines syncopating together.

Pause here, off you go.

Fantastic.

Hopefully not only does our voice feel warmer and our bodies move differently, so we kind of feeling awake and alert, but we're also feeling a steady pulse.

And this is gonna be so useful to us because in this lesson there are two learning cycles, the first of which we are layering syncopated rhythms, and in the second cycle we are gonna sing with a syncopated accompaniment.

Let's begin by layering syncopated rhythms. A drum that you might associate with the continent of Africa because it's very popular in schools, is the djembe.

And it looks a bit like this one being played here by Bolokada Conde, who is an expert drummer in Mandinka rhythms from Guinea.

So Mandinka is an area and the Mande people cover kind of Guinea, Senegal, Mali, and Gambia.

And it's thought that this drum was created by the Mandinka people in West Africa in about 1300.

Now, the Mandinka people combine the djembe with these three drums that form what's called the dunun set of drummers.

Now these names are often onomatopoeic, means they're often sounding like their names.

So the dununba, this is the largest and deepest pitch drum.

Then the sangban, the medium sized drum, and its rhythms are often very prominent within the rhythms that you are listening to.

And then the kenkeni is the smallest and highest pitch dunun, and its sound helps keep the players playing in time.

It's got almost metronome quality to it.

An important rhythm played using these drums is the traditional rhythm from Guinea called Kuku.

Now, apparently, Kuku was a circle dance for women celebrating their return from fishing, which is a wonderful way of celebrating, bringing that haul of fresh fish in.

Now we can recreate Kuku by learning each rhythm and playing them on different instruments that are available to us.

Now this part can be played on a djembe, and what we do is always count ourselves in with a five and six and seven and eight and, that's gonna set the steady tempo and show us where those beats and offbeats are.

I'll clap this rhythm for you now, the second time you're going to join in.

So listen in carefully, I'll count myself in, five and six and seven and eight, and one and two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight and.

This time it's your turn to join in with me, following along as we go.

Five and six and seven and eight and, one and two and three and four and, five and six and seven and eight and.

One more time, we're gonna increase the tempo a little bit.

Five and six and seven and eight, and one and two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight.

So now in your classrooms as an ensemble, as a collective altogether, nice and neatly, you are going to make sure that you count yourselves in with that five and six and seven and eight, and- And I would like you to play that part four times through.

Okay, pause here, and practice that where you are.

Off you go.

This next part can be played on the sangban.

That's the medium sized drum of the dunun set.

Remember, we still count five and six and seven and eight and, to set the steady tempo before clapping the rhythm.

You could choose to put this one on your chest to create a different sound.

I will clap it for you so you can see.

Five and six and seven and eight and, one and two and three and four and, five and six and seven and eight and.

These rhythms keep repeating.

Why don't we try all together with your hand on your chest this time.

You ready? Five and six and seven and eight and, one and two and three and four and five and, six and seven and eight and.

Very good.

What you are going to do now is play that four times.

When you keep the pulse, you could try keeping it in your thinking voice instead of us all saying one and do an out loud, can you do it, you say five and six and seven and eight, and out loud and the rest then goes into your thinking voice.

See if everyone stays together, it might help to have someone keeping the steady pulse in front of you.

Notice what works for you.

Make sure as an ensemble, as a class you can play that four times through on your chest or clapping.

Ready? Off you go.

Well done so far.

This next rhythm is for the kenkeni, the smallest and highest pitched of the dunun unset.

Now the kenkeni rhythm begins on beat eight.

So when we count in five and six and seven and eight and.

So we are gonna start there.

It comes in earlier than the other rhythms. I will clap it for you first and we'll click it second.

Five and six and seven and eight and, one and two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight, and one and two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight.

This time, I will click and I would like you to join in with me.

If when you click yours, you are a person where the click doesn't really make much of a noise, two fingers on your palm (clapping) gets a similar sound.

So you can go with that, unless the clicking works for you.

Either way, keeping in time is what's important.

Remember, we're coming in on the eight, so five and six and seven and eight, and one and two and three and four and five and six and, carry on, eight and one and two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight.

Very good.

So I'd like you to be able to play that four times.

Remember you begin playing on the count of eight.

So if you're all counting in or you've got someone counting in, five and six and seven and eight, and one.

All right? And remember clicking, if that doesn't work, two fingers for a tap.

Pause here and master that where you are.

Brilliant.

We are gonna start layering up these rhythms. We will start with the kenkeni rhythm and that djembe rhythm.

So we've just done the five and six and seven and eight, and one and two and three and four and five.

This is the kenkeni rhythm, and eight and one.

We're gonna layer it up with the djembe part, that five and six and seven and eight, and one and two and three and four, five and six and seven and eight.

And when you do it, we're gonna do it four times three.

I'd like you to pause here because I would like to use that pulse track which just gives you a steady beat that isn't too quick so that we're all listening and staying in time together.

But feeling that steady pulse with the and in between, divide into two groups.

One of you will play the kenkeni, click the tap, the other one will be the djembe, clapping part.

Pause here and work on that where you are.

Amazing.

Absolutely super.

that feeling the steady pulse, it's why we warmed up feeling steady pulses because that is what is helping us stay together as a group, as an ensemble.

So we want this to work with three layers this time.

We have the kenkeni rhythm, (finger snaps) the djembe, (hands clap) and the sangban together.

So you'll be in three groups.

Just as before, five and six and seven and eight is the kenkeni rhythm we hear first.

Everyone else on the one, two, and three, if you are on the djembe, And if you are on the sangban, you are the one and two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight and one.

Okay.

Three groups, there's a pulse track to help you not go too quickly and feel that steady pulse and hear it out loud.

Three groups, off you go.

Magic.

Now, we can add the dununba, which is the largest and the deepest pitch drum, and it only gets to play on beat seven.

So we hear five and six and seven and eight, and one and two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight.

And we can do a stomp on that beat to create that deeper sound.

Have a foot ready if you can, and I will count you in and I would simply like you to make sure you stomp neatly in time so it sounds like one loud giant stomp, not lots of little ones on beat seven, you ready? Five and six and seven and eight, and one and two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight, and very good.

And so now you are ready to put the four layers of Kuku together.

The kenkeni group, you can either stay on clicks or you could move to claves.

(claves playing) They sort of represent that higher pitched sound.

Djembe, you could stay on claps or if you have access to a djembe, then may use some of those.

(Djembe playing) Sangban group keep it to your chest, or if you have something like a tambour, (tambour playing) then use that to create your sangban rhythm on.

And then with the dununba, if you've got something like a gathering drum or a larger drum that can make a lower sound, then fabulous.

Something that's gonna create that lower sound.

It might still need to be a stomp.

So you've got the choice there.

You might begin on body percussion and then migrate onto instruments.

Here's how you're gonna be super successful.

Know which group you're in of those four rhythms, play to a steady pulse.

Using a metronome, there's a pulse track there.

Setting it to a hundred beats a minute.

That's what's gonna help you here.

That's the timing of that pulse track.

You can also find metronomes in line if you just want one that goes perpetually until you are ready to stop.

Remember the ands are the offbeats one and two and three and, and we sometimes play on those beats.

So we want to keep those in our thinking voice.

We count in out loud with that five and six and seven and eight and.

Remember on the eight that is the first sound we hear is the kenkeni rhythm as it begins on beat eight.

You've got this.

I'm excited to hear.

Now remember, first time might not go perfectly, but listening to the steady pulse and improving every time, being as accurate as you can with your rhythms, this is gonna sound super.

Good luck and I'll see you when you're done.

How was that? I wish I could have heard all of them.

June says, I played the kenkeni rhythm and I remembered to come in on the eighth, which was before everyone else started playing.

Sam says, we counted the five and six and, seven and eight and, and we remembered not to chant it too fast.

Good idea.

Alex said it helped when we rehearsed with a metronome until we were neat and then we turned the metronome off and played again, just feeling that steady pulse.

What great musicianship.

If you got to that stage, well done.

Onto our second learning cycle where we sing with a syncopated accompaniment.

Now, the song we're going to sing is called Dawda Sanneh.

And the reason I've chosen it is because it's in the Mandinka language and comes from The Gambia.

So this is a country in West Africa.

So the Mandinka language spoken commonly throughout Guinea, The Gambia, Senegal, Mali, and this is also where the Mande people are from, where commonly played is the dunun and the Kuku rhythm that we've been learning.

So, ♪ Dawda Sanneh koloo bwtei ♪ ♪ Koloo bwtei n'ta ben doona ♪ ♪ Ninkynankoo binoo ba la ♪ ♪ Binoo ba la n'te mo so la ♪ We're gonna have a listen to that.

Ninkynankoo is probably my favorite word, which means a dragon, a dragon with horns.

So here comes the track and I'd like you to follow along with the lyrics.

♪ Dawda Sanneh koloo bwtei ♪ ♪ Koloo bwtei n'ta ben doona ♪ ♪ Ninkynankoo binoo ba la ♪ ♪ Binoo ba la n'te mo so la ♪ Now, I've heard this song sung at a much quicker tempo.

It can be used in a circle game and I've heard the tempo.

♪ Dawda Sanneh koloo bwtei ♪ ♪ Koloo bwtei n'ta ben doona ♪ We're not going to sing that fast.

Number one, I'm not sure all of us will have sung in the Mande language before, and so we don't want to to rush that.

We want to get it right, but also we're gonna be putting our syncopated rhythms to this song.

So, line number one and line number three in the song, share the same rhythm.

Have a listen.

♪ Dawda Sanneh koloo bwtei ♪ is the same as, ♪ Ninkynankoo binoo ba la ♪ Now I've written it down there, one and two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight and.

I'm gonna have to slow down my tempo so that I can count those.

Just have a listen, one and two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight and.

That's it, slow down.

What helps it be syncopated? What shows that it is syncopated is if you look where the offbeats are, so where there is a green circle by a plus, just notice those.

There's one, two, three of them.

There they are on the offbeats.

If all of the notes were just on the, one, two, three, four, five, that's not syncopated, that's just on the pulse.

And if they were all on the pluses, (hands clapping) that's just on the offbeats.

What makes the the syncopated rhythm true and super is that combination of on the beat and with the weaker beats there.

(hands clapping) And we have a syncopated rhythm.

We are now gonna sing along to the track.

In fact, we're going to sing twice through because I want us to feel more confident, not only with the tune, but with our pronunciation.

A top tip, there are two lines that come in before the beat.

Let me point them out for you.

If I kept a, (claves playing) we get a, ♪ Dawda Sanneh koloo bwtei ♪ ♪ Koloo bwtei ♪ before the beat, ♪ n'ta ben doona ♪ back on the beat ♪ Ninkynankoo binoo ba la ♪ ♪ Binoo ba la n'te mo so la ♪ So look out for where you are coming in earlier.

Okay.

Pause here, please.

Sing along with that track, listening to the pronunciation and feeding the steady pulse so that you know when you're coming in on the beat and when you're coming in before the beat.

Off you go.

Cool.

Now, by marvelous serendipity, the rhythm of this first line is also the drum break for our Kuku rhythm.

So the, (claves playing) is a drum break that is used with the lead drummer of the Kuku rhythm, they would play it probably on the djembe.

And this signals the starting, the stopping, the changing of rhythms. And it's also the same rhythm as- ♪ Dawda Sanneh koloo bwtei ♪ So we are gonna play this on our classroom percussion and it's gonna introduce this song.

First of all, let's clap it.

So I'm gonna say five and six and seven and eight, (hands clapping) Let's do it all together, five and six and seven and eight and, (hands clapping) Very good.

Let's do it one more time.

Five and six and seven and eight and, (hands clapping) Super well done.

What you're going to do is play that on your classroom percussion.

So, choose whether it's claves, whether it is other stuff that are available to you.

You can be a little bit creative here.

If you're just using your hands, where are you putting it on your body percussion.

But make that as neat as possible.

Have maybe one person's leading, maybe someone gives you a count in, if you need a steady pulse.

But what I want to hear is a real crisp- (mimicking Kuku rhythm) Pause and make sure you can master that where you are.

We're now going to use two rhythms from our Kuku rhythm structure and use them as our accompaniment to Dawda Sanneh.

We'll take the kenkeni rhythm, that five and six and seven and eight, and one, four and five.

(claves playing) That's gonna fit there because if I sing, we get- ♪ Dawda Sanneh koloo bwtei ♪ ♪ Koloo bwtei n'ta ben doona ♪ Okay? And then another group will be playing the sangban parts.

I'm using a tambour for this.

So this is the one and two and three and four and five and six and seven and, which we would get, ♪ Dawda Sanneh koloo bwtei ♪ ♪ Koloo bwtei n'ta ben doona ♪ Okay? That's how it will fit.

And your job is simply to put this piece together.

But don't worry, we won't do it all in one go.

We will break it down.

So as a class, you're going to play the kenkeni part first against the song tracks.

So you're gonna hear, ♪ Dawda Sanneh koloo bwtei ♪ Another way of thinking that is, ♪ One and two and three and four ♪ ♪ And five and six and seven, ♪ ♪ Eight and one, ♪ ♪ Two, three, four and five ♪ (claves playing) ♪ Dawda Sanneh koloo bwtei ♪ And so on.

When you've mastered that as a class, you move on to the sangban part.

So again, you hear, ♪ Dawda Sanneh koloo bwtei ♪ We're playing one, three, five, six, seven, and, ♪ Dawda Sanneh koloo bwtei ♪ ♪ Koloo bwtei n'ta ben doona ♪ Then at this point, when you've mastered that, you can divide into two groups.

One will play that kenkeni part and the other, the sangban part.

What would be ace is for you to choose a djembe player to play and you can swap around if you're all desperate to do it.

So it's gonna go, (mimicking djembe sounds) This is our drum break.

It has the same rhythm as, ♪ Dawda Sanneh koloo bwtei ♪ but the wonderful thing about it is it sets the tempo for everyone to be able to play their rhythmic parts in time.

If we were singing, you would hear, (djembe drum playing) ♪ Dawda Sanneh koloo bwtei ♪ If you were on the the kenkeni rhythm, you would hear, (kenkeni playing) (mimicking kenkeni sounds) And if you were on the the sangban rhythm you would hear (mimicking sangban rhythm) One, three, five, six, seven and, one, three, five, six, seven and.

And so that, (mimicking sangban rhythm) really is useful for us setting the tempo and knowing where everyone comes in.

If we're feeding that steady pulse, you know if you're coming in on the eight for the kenkeni or the one you are going to get it right, it's really worth spending time building it up step by step.

You don't wanna rush this bit.

Then when you are ready, you split into three groups to sing the song.

Don't use the track anymore because you are counting yourself in with the (mimicking rhythm) drum break.

♪ Dawda Sanneh ♪ And, five, six, seven, click, click, and all the rest of it.

You're putting all of those parts together.

It's in your hands.

You've absolutely got this.

I believe in you.

Remember, take it step by step so you feel confident at each stage and I'll see you when you're done.

Good luck.

Wowzers trousers! How neat and tight were those rhythms? Did you remember to rehearse at a slower tempo first, speed up only when you felt confident? Hope you weren't rushing straight away.

And did that drum break play, (mimicking rhythm) was that tempo clear and steady so you knew (mimicking rhythm) when you were coming in, and singing and playing? If you managed to split into those parts, the singers, the sangban players, the kenkeni players, and you had a djembe player too, and it worked, I'm super impressed.

Very well done.

In summary then for today's lesson, we know there are many, many drums played in West Africa, including the dundunba, the sangban, the kenkeni, as well as the djembe, and many more besides.

We have looked at a small area.

The dundunba, sangban, and kenkeni form the Mande drum ensemble played by the Mandinka people.

Kuku is a rhythm from Guinea that can be played on two or more drums. We've explored it on three or four, if we added the stomp one in, and we've also played some of it to accompany our song.

We know that we can use rhythm grids to decode syncopated rhythms with our one and two and three and four, et cetera.

And we can sing to a syncopated accompaniment, which you did today fantastically.

If you any more time at all left in your lesson, do go back and swap around so different people get to play on those parts and sing.

Otherwise, superbly well done for today, and I'll be delighted to see you next time.

Bye for now.