Lesson video

Hi everyone.

Welcome to this unit on singing and playing syncopated rhythms. This is from our Singing for Performance unit where we are adding syncopation to our songs.

My name is Mr. Krawn and I'm excited to guide you through further developing our syncopation skills today.

You are all gonna be fabulous, so let's go! So today you'll be playing and singing syncopated rhythms and you're going to remember that syncopation is where the beats that are usually weaker get emphasized.

Let's look at our keywords for today then we'll begin with syncopation.

This is where rhythms that emphasize the beats that are usually weaker.

Offbeat, weak notes or notes in between the beats.

Pulse, the regular steady heartbeat of the music.

And a rhythmic ostinato, this is a repeating musical pattern created from a rhythmic pattern.

Coming up now are three warmups to help us feel the pulse and lead us into syncopation.

The first one is ♪ Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar ♪ This is really useful because we chant it to a pulse altogether and we want to keep the pulse going so the game keeps moving.

You can always choose to play the hardcore version where if you don't keep the steady pulse.

♪ Who me ♪ ♪ Yes you ♪ ♪ Couldn't have been ♪ ♪ Then who ♪ ♪ It was Alex who stole the cookie ♪ Then couple of times of not keeping in time, (mouth blowing) you're out.

Don't spend too long, we've got a lot to do in this lesson.

The second warm up is ♪ Don't clap this one back ♪ We're listening clearly to those rhythms and clapping back as an ensemble super tightly and neatly.

You can choose to skip over both of these and lead them where you are in your classroom if you feel confident in them already.

With "Don't Clap this one Back," you can also add in the ♪ Pepperoni pizza rule ♪ which is when you hear the rhythm, (hands clapping) you simply chant ♪ Pepperoni pizza back ♪ Thirdly, "Fruit Canon." I will pause after those videos so that you can sing that.

You'll need time to split into three groups, and then 'cause we've got the three lines, the mango line, the kiwi line and the banana line in this warmup.

And you can sing those a line apart as a round in your three groups.

So first of all, here comes "Cookie Jar," followed by "Don't Clap this one Back." Here we go.

♪ 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 ♪ <v ->This is a game called Don't Clap this one Back.

</v> You'll hear me clapping different rhythms, like this one.

(hands clapping) 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.

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

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

Okay, let's play.

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

Here we go.

(hands clapping) (hands clapping) (hands clapping) (hands clapping) (hands clapping) Very well done, now you can practice that where you are.

Super well done.

And lastly, "Fruit Canon" Pause here just to put yourself into the three groups and sing in those three parts.

Off you go.

Fabulous and great, well done.

Hopefully now your voice is feeling warmer and you've been feeling that steady pulse by chanting in time.

Well done.

There are two learning cycles in today's lesson.

The first one is singing syncopated rhythms and the second one, adding a syncopated rhythmic ostinato.

I can do it, can I say it? Let's begin with singing syncopated rhythms. We are gonna begin by listening to a piece of music called "Defying Gravity." It's from the musical "Wicked" by Stephen Schwartz.

When we listen, the drumkit plays a steady beat on the hi-hat.

♪ Tsi tsi tsi ♪ The lyrics are sung with plenty of syncopation, so that melody is emphasizing those weaker beats to give that syncopated feel.

And the drummer also emphasizes offbeats on the snare drum.

So listen to the hi-hat and the snare and listen to how that melody kind of is syncopated against that pause.

Have a listen now.

"Babethandaza" is a song from South Africa, and the lyrics are in Zulu.

And they're talking about praying and ancestors before us praying.

What I'd like you to do is you're gonna pause, listen to the track, and while you listen, tap a steady pulse.

Just keep that one, two, three, four, because you'll hear the syncopation in the lyrics more clearly.

Pause now and give that a go please.

Lovely, now I'd like you to repeat after me.

♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi thanda zo ♪ (hands clapping) Let's do it again.

♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi thanda zo ♪ Your turn.

(hands clapping) Very good.

So, when we clap the rhythm of that phrase, remember the rhythm is the way the syllables sound, we get this.

(hands clapping) Let's try that.

One, two, three and.

(hands clapping) Remember that sin is coming in just before the first beat, so we want to be ready.

One, ready, everyone, hands ready? One, two, three, and- ♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi thanda zo ♪ Again.

♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi thanda zo ♪ Last time.

(hands clapping) Well done.

Can you clap and sing together? My turn, your turn.

♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi thanda zo ♪ Let's go! ♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi thanda zo ♪ On your own.

(hands clapping) Very good.

Now if you need to, you can pause here to master that.

If you're quite confident, we'll pop the track on.

And all you need to do is beat the steady pulse.

♪ Si nje nje nje ngemi thanda zo ♪ Now all those hearts there are because we love you, because I know they look slightly different, they're all the pulse.

(hands clapping) We've got strong, weak, medium, weak, strong, weak, medium, weak.

♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi thanda zo ♪ All right.

♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi thanda zo ♪ We remember that the first beat in the bar is the strong one.

Let's pop the track on.

I'd like you to clap the pulse along, here it comes.

(piano music) ♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi thanda zo ♪ ♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi thanda zo ♪ <v ->Now in two groups,</v> you need to play these rhythms four times.

One group will keep the steady pulse, as in- ♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi thanda zo ♪ ♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi thanda zo ♪ The other group will clap.

(hands clapping) You're clapping.

♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi thanda zo ♪ So we have pulse versus rhythm.

Pulse, the regular steady heartbeat, rhythm, the way those syllables sound in ♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi thanda zo ♪ It's probably worth the pulse people setting up first so we know that pulse is steady, not getting any quicker, then you can count.

You can count in with that one, two, three, and ♪ Sin nje ♪ All right.

Pause here and master that in two groups.

Off you go.

Now if you did that well, you should hear how the rhythm is syncopated against the pulse.

We've got the steady pulse, but, ♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi thanda zo ♪ Adds a lot of syncopation.

So you can hear when it lands on the beat and when it's in between the beats or on the offbeats.

Well done.

We're now gonna sing the first verse of "Babethandaza," which is, sin nje nje nje ngemi thanda zo, twice.

And then, ngemi than-da-zo, ngemi than-da-zo is repeated.

All right, I'll pop the track on.

Lyrics are on the board there.

Here we go.

(piano music) ♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi than-da-zo ♪ ♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi than-da-zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-da-zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-da-zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-da-zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-da-zo ♪ <v ->Now you're going to sing the second verse.

</v> So we have, ♪ Oo mama bagudale babe-than-da-za ♪ Okay, I would like my turn, your turn.

♪ Oo mama bagudale babe-than-da-za ♪ Go! (hands clapping) Very good.

And then we have ♪ Babe-Than-Da-Za ♪ ♪ Babe-Than-Da-za ♪ And that's the repetition.

I'll pop the track on, ready to sing along.

Here it comes.

♪ Oo mama bagudale babe-than-da-za ♪ ♪ Oo mama bagadale babe-than-da-za ♪ ♪ Babe-Than-Da-Za ♪ ♪ Babe-Than-Da-Za ♪ ♪ Babe-Than-Da-Za ♪ ♪ Babe-Than-Da-za ♪ <v ->In that second verse,</v> some rhythms are syncopated and some of them aren't.

Some of them land straight on the beat.

Let's together tap the pulse and sing.

We're gonna sing ♪ Oo mama bagudale babe-than-da-za ♪ And we're gonna tap a steady pulse.

Make sure your hands are ready.

♪ Ready steady off we go ♪ ♪ Oo mama bagudale babe-than-da-za ♪ Again ♪ Oo mama bagudale babe-than-da-za ♪ Did you notice which syllables on those words landed bang on the beat and which were in between? One more time.

♪ Oo mama bagudale babe-than-da-za ♪ Which beat landed off the beat? Give you a moment to just think about that.

And if you are thinking that than-da-za is syncopated, you're absolutely right.

Listen to the first bit.

♪ Oo mama bagudale babe ♪ Each one lands on the beat.

♪ Than-Da-za ♪ ♪ Than-Da-Za ♪ So da, za, off the beat, syncopation.

We're gonna sing the full song now because you are all ready for it.

You are gonna tap the steady pulse throughout.

Now you can either just use your chest or if you have djembe, some you might be able to play on the djembe.

So we want to keep that.

♪ Oo mama bagudale babe ♪ You're just tapping the steady pulse.

And I'd like you to notice because you're tapping the pulse, which beats for both verses are in syncopation and when you're singing to the beat.

So pause here, the tracks there to help you sing it through and tap the pulse.

Off you go.

How was it? Did you notice when you were singing in a syncopated rhythm and when you were singing on the beat? Aisha says, "I was only singing on the beat actually for "♪ Oo mama bagudale baba" Did you notice that most of the rest was syncopated? Alex says, "Playing the pulse while we sang that "helped me here." (hands tapping) ♪ Si nje nje nje ngemi than-da-zo ♪ So he was really noticing how much was syncopated by feeling it against the pulse.

If you did that too, I'm super pleased.

We are ready to move on to the second half of our lesson where we are adding a syncopated rhythmic ostinato.

So rhythmic ostinato, that's a repeated pattern that is on untune percussion.

So it's a pattern that doesn't have a melody 'cause it's rhythmic only.

And we're gonna add it to this song because that's gonna add a bit of interest and create a thicker texture.

The more layers of sound we add, the thicker the texture.

We could use one of our syncopated phrases for inspiration.

I've taken the idea of ♪ Than-Da-Zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-da-zo ♪ I'm gonna simplify it slightly to put the da, in our thinking voice and we're gonna chant ♪ Than zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-zo ♪ I'd like you to join in with that, you ready? ♪ Ready, steady off we go ♪ ♪ Than-Zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-zo ♪ Well done.

Now then, we can show that on a rhythm grid.

So if we look one and two and three and four and ♪ Ta di ta di ta di ta di ♪ ♪ Than zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than zo ♪ So that'd be one and two and three and four and ♪ Pa pa parara ♪ One and two and three and four and ♪ Than zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than zo ♪ What I would like you to do is to have a clap of that.

You ready? So I'm gonna say one and two and three and four and.

And you are gonna go ♪ Than zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than zo ngemi ♪ Here we comes.

One and two and three and four and.

(hands clapping) Very good one more time and I'll counter along just to make sure we're staying in time.

One and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and.

If you need to pause to master that, you can, what we're noticing is it's that zo that is on the offbeat that makes the whole thing feel syncopated ♪ Than zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than zo ♪ So that is giving that syncopated feel to the rhythm.

What you're going to do now is as a class, you're going to play the first verse of ♪ Sin nje nje ngemi than-da-zo ♪ And underneath you're gonna clap that (hands clapping) which is our ♪ Than-Zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-zo ngemi ♪ ♪ Sin nje nje nje ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-da-zo ♪ ♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi than-da-zo ♪ But I don't want you to sing, I just want you to concentrate on the rhythmic ostinato that repeats.

Put the track on.

Remember, you don't come in on the sin, you come in on the nje.

Sin is our upbeat, so it's, ♪ Sin nje nje nje ♪ ♪ Ba ba ba ♪ ♪ Than-zo ♪ Alright, you've got this.

Have a pause, see if you can count just to give you something else to do.

How many times that rhythmic ostinato has played in one verse? Give it a couple of tries.

You might not get it banged on first time, but you will very soon.

Pause, off you go.

Amazing.

That's fantastic.

When you do it the first time, you sort of go, is it now.

♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi ♪ And then the more you do it and relax into it, it's like your muscle memory takes over.

♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi than-da-zo ♪ ♪ Sin nje nje nje ♪ And it just starts to feel a bit more natural, which is brilliant.

So the more you've practiced, the better you'll get and there's plenty of time for more practice.

If anyone said like Alex did, that we clap the rhythmic ostinato eight times.

I'm super impressed.

I'm mainly impressed that you were able to clap that rhythmic ostinato against that first first.

That's really, really good.

Well done.

Now then, you've sung it, yeah.

You've clapped it.

Brilliant.

You've clapped that rhythmic ostinato.

We're just gonna put the two together.

It's gonna be fine.

What we're listening for is that ♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi than-da-zo ♪ ♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi than-da-zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-da-zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-da-zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-da-zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-da-zo ♪ That's what I'd like.

Pause here, use the track and take your time.

Do it a couple of times through until you are happy that you can sing and clap a rhythmic ostinato at the same time.

Might take two or three goes.

Off you go.

Best of luck.

Fantastic.

Now when we look at the second verse, it could be slightly more tricky to tap the ostinato because ♪ Oo mama bagudale babe ♪ is straight on the beat.

Let's clap that.

I'm gonna give you a one and two and three and four and we are gonna clap that rhythm.

Are we ready? Have your hands ready.

One and two and three and four and ♪ Oo mama bagudale babe ♪ Again, one and two and three and four and ♪ Oo mama bagudale babe ♪ Let's do it one more time.

I want everyone super neat on that.

One and two and three and four and ♪ Oo mama bagudale babe ♪ Very good.

In this verse, what we're singing is not syncopated, but the rhythmic ostinato is.

So while we've got ♪ Oo mama bagudale babe ♪ We've got ♪ Than-Zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-zo ♪ So what we need to do is break that down a bit.

To get it lined up, we are gonna focus on the first half.

So first of all, we've got ♪ Oo mama bagu ♪ and ♪ Than-Zo ♪ I would like us to do the ♪ Oo ♪ where we have the first clap of our rhythmic ostinato.

And ♪ Oo ♪ Which is the second beat of our second sound of our rhythmic ostinato.

So we get ♪ Oo mama bagu ♪ ♪ Oo mama bagu ♪ That's all I want us to do.

I will give us a one and two and three and four and ♪ Oo mama bagu ♪ Okay? Have your hands ready.

We're clapping on the ooh and the gu.

One and two and three and four and ♪ Oo mama bagu ♪ Again, one and two and three and four and ♪ Oo mama bagu ♪ One more time.

One and two and three and four and ♪ Oo mama bagu ♪ Very good.

The second half is oo mama bagu dale daba.

So we have ♪ Dale baba ♪ That second half ♪ Dale baba.

♪ You ready? Let's go.

I'm gonna say one and two and ♪ Dale baba ♪ Okay, you ready? So don't clap on the da.

One and two and ♪ Dale baba ♪ Let's do that two more times.

One and two and ♪ Dale baba ♪ One and two and ♪ Dale baba ♪ Now we've got those both separate, we can put them together.

We'll go gently.

So we have ♪ Oo mama bagu ♪ And ♪ Dale baba ♪ When we put them together, we get, ♪ Oo mama bagudale baba ♪ Let's do it slowly.

I'll count us in with a one and two and three and four.

And we've got, ♪ Oo mama bagudale baba ♪ Okay, hands at the ready.

One and two and three and four and ♪ Oo mama bagudale baba ♪ We're now gonna do it three times.

Relax, have your hands ready.

This will become second nature before you know it.

But while we're learning it, we just want to make sure we're being precise.

One and two and three and four and ♪ Oo mama bagudale baba ♪ One and two and three and four and ♪ Oo mama bagudale baba ♪ One and two and three and four and ♪ Oo mama bagudale baba ♪ Was that enough times? If you need to pause, you can pause and practice that more where you are.

What we're going to do though, is split into two groups and play these rhythms four times.

So one group is gonna clap ♪ Than-Zo ngemi than-zo ♪ which we've just been doing with the ♪ Gu da le ba be ♪ ♪ Oo mama bagudale baba ♪ ♪ Than-Zo ngemi ♪ That's that rhythm.

The other group are gonna tap the rhythm for the line that goes, ♪ Oo mama bagudale babe-than-da-za ♪ ♪ Oo mama bagudale babe-than-da-za ♪ Alright, so you might start one group sets that going, ♪ Oo mama bagudale babe-than-da-za ♪ And ♪ Oo mama bagudale babe-than-da-za ♪ And ♪ Oo mama bagudale babe-than-da-za ♪ I think that and is quite helpful 'cause when it stops us speeding up.

And then the other group, ♪ Than-Zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-zo ♪ Have a pause and see where you get to with that.

Set one group up first when you've got that ♪ Oo mama bagudale babe than-da-za ♪ And ♪ Oo mama bagu ♪ Yeah.

On your thighs.

(hands tapping) Then the other group can feel when they're coming in with ♪ Than-Da-Zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-da-zo ♪ All right.

If you want a super challenge, both start at the same time.

But for now, start separately.

So you're building it up.

And then if you do want a super challenge, you just all count in one and two and three and four and (fingers snapping) and you both go.

Pause here, see how well you do.

Amazing.

Did you hear that complex texture with those two rhythms together? That's really building up a wonderful syncopated rhythm, texture.

Fantastic.

Very well done.

This time, one group's gonna sing, phew, one's group's gonna sing the second verse, and the other group's gonna clap ♪ Than-Zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-zo ♪ So I'm not asking you to sing and clap at the same time yet.

Simply two groups, one group, ♪ Oo mama bagudale babe than-da-za ♪ The other group.

(hands clapping) Then swap.

Pop the track on and practice that a couple of times each way round.

Off you go.

Now you ready? You are totally ready.

You've sung, you've clapped, you are going to put it together.

Remember, your brain is thinking about lots of things now.

It's thinking about the words, it's thinking about the rhythm.

It's thinking about the rhythm that are singing and the rhythm that we're clapping.

And we know they're different.

So let your brain work hard at this point.

This is great for it, but give yourself patience.

Do it a few times until it starts to feel more natural, okay? This is your task.

You split into two groups.

Group one, you're just singing and tapping the pulse.

(hand tapping) So you'll have ♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi than-da-zo ♪ All right, you've done that beat.

You can totally do that.

Group two, you're gonna sing and clap with the, ♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi than-da-zo ♪ ♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi than-da-zo ♪ Okay? Take your time, build it up, practice it a few times and it will gradually get neater and neater.

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

I am so impressed.

Your brain is thinking about so much and it's brilliant.

And what you are doing is you are clapping a syncopated rhythm, while singing, sometimes a straight unsyncopated melody.

That's hard and that's impressive.

So if you did it just once, I'm super impressed.

What's great about the song, is it leads as in gently.

So that ♪ Sin nje nje nje ngemi than-da-zo ♪ It's easier at this beat.

♪ Ngemi than-da-zo ♪ ♪ Ngemi than-da-zo ngemi ♪ This is fine.

So by the time we get to our second verse, hopefully it's in our body a bit more.

♪ Oo mama bagudale babe than-da-zo ♪ ♪ Oo mama bagudale babe ♪ And if you manage to keep it going, that's amazing.

And that second verse is where it has that higher risk of falling apart.

Because we're singing on the beat and clapping, syncopated.

This is great for our brains and great for our musicianship, but it really does take practice.

So very well done.

You'll have been successful if you kept that steady pulse as you sang, keeping you in time, and that your rhythmic ostinato did it maintain that clear syncopated rhythm.

The more you do it, the better you'll get at it.

And if you can sing and play at the same time, and you are staying in time as an ensemble, as your class, and balancing your singing and your rhythmic parts, creating that thicker texture with the vocal sound and the rhythmic ostinato, you've been fabulous.

Absolutely.

Well done.

Your brains deserve a break after this.

So let's have a think about our summary of our learning.

Just to put it all into context.

You've identified offbeats in a bar whilst counting and clapping.

You know that syncopated music can give that kind of sense of movement.

It kind of grabs our attention.

Maybe it drives a piece of music forward, or adds an interesting groove to the piece like you created just now.

And some of our early listening.

Syncopation as well we can play it on any instrument.

It's in our voice.

It could be on our body percussion, it could be on other percussion, it could be on any instrument at all.

And we can play and sing together with different syncopated rhythms and layer them over each other.

You have been marvelous today, really well done.

I look forward to seeing you next time.

Bye for now.