Lesson video

Hi there everyone.

Welcome to today's lesson on adding harmony and balancing sound.

This is from our "Singing Together" unit, "How Songs Unite Us".

My name's Mr. Croughan and I'm really looking forward to guiding us through today, finding simple ways to sing in harmony.

Are we ready?

Let's begin.

In this lesson, you will be adding a simple harmony to a song whilst still working to create that balanced and united choral sound.

Let's begin by looking at today's keywords.

We are gonna start with unison.

Now, unison is the same tune sung or played at the same time.

Then harmony, that's the combination of two or more notes played or sung together, creating a pleasing sound.

Then dynamics, how loud or quiet the music is.

A round, a round is a song structure where multiple groups sing the same melody, but they start at different times.

And then a melodic ostinato, this is a repeating musical pattern that uses notes of differing pitch.

We'll explore each one of these in turn throughout the lesson.

So we know how important it is to warm up our bodies, our brains, and our voices so they stay safe when we're going to sing, so I would like you to follow these warmups.

Here they come.

<v ->Before we sing, we are going to warm up our whole body,</v> particularly our neck and our shoulders.

First of all, we're going to move our neck gently round and round like a figure of eight on its side.

Imagine you have got a pencil on the end of your nose and you're trying to draw a figure of eight on its side.

Now gently bend your neck to one side.

Maybe feel the stretch along here and gently bend it the other way.

Now we're gonna do some shoulder rolls.

Roll your shoulders forward and up and back and round.

Let's do that a couple of times.

Can you do it the other way?

Go up and forward and down and back.

Let's do that a couple of times.

Now let's take one arm over our head to the side and stretch and let's do it the other way.

Finally, let's scrunch our shoulders up to our ears and let go and scrunch and let go and scrunch and let go.

Last time, scrunch and let go.

Now let's warm up our face.

Imagine you are chewing some bubble gum.

What flavor is your bubble gum?

Mine is cherry.

I'm going to unwrap my bubble gum, pop it in my mouth, and have a good chew.

Why don't you join in?

Let's do some big chews and some little chews.

Oh, my bubble gum's got stuck behind my teeth.

I need to use my tongue to get it out.

That's enough chewing now.

I'm going to take it out and put it behind my ear for another day.

Join in with this breathing warmup.

We're going to draw a square in the air with our finger as we do it.

First, we're going to breathe in for four beats.

Hold our breath for four beats, breathe out for four beats, and hold our breath for four beats.

Are you ready?

Well done.

Listen to this tongue twister.

If a dog chews shoes, whose shoes does he choose?

Now you join in.

If a dog chews shoes, whose shoes does he choose?

<v ->Good stuff.

Well done.

</v> What I'd like you to do now is pause the video in a moment and chant what is on the screen, the "Many voices, all aligned.

" If you're keeping to a steady pulse, you're gonna stay in time together and, in effect, that's what you're practicing.

How neat can you be as a choir, even when we're just chanting?

When you've done that, I'd like you to sing "As I Was Walking".

There's a backing track there to help you, and then "Elevator" and you can choose to follow the video or create your own.

So pause here and focus on staying nice and tight together as a choral ensemble.

Off you go.

Good job.

Really well done.

Great listening and staying together.

Are you now ready for music?

If like Sofia, your mind is more alert and ready, your voice is feeling warmed up safely, then you are ready to move on.

There are two learning cycles in today's lesson, the first one, "Sorida", two ways to add harmony, and then in the second cycle, "Nanuma", where we'll be creating a round.

Let's begin with "Sorida" and explore those two ways that we can add harmony.

If we think about choirs, anywhere and everywhere in our communities, they bring people together.

Those people who have a common love of singing can be brought together for so many different reasons.

The Kingdom Choir, they're known for their energetic British gospel sound and what I'd like you to do is just notice, I'd like to watch "Stand By Me".

It was sung at a royal wedding in 2018 and I'd like you to notice how it is that they sound like a balanced choir.

What is it that they're doing, maybe with their voices, with their performance?

Watch carefully, 'cause there'll be some top tips that we can pick up.

Have a pause and watch that now.

Amazing there.

What did you think?

It's just strong, clean, powerful performance and they're all balanced, unless there's those solos, and they sound amazing.

Now, there's so many different kinds of choirs singing a huge range of music to suit almost everyone.

There's rock choirs, gospel choirs, show choirs, classical choirs, barbershop, so much more and what we're thinking about with choirs is how they bring people together and the positive effect that has.

Now, sometimes a choir can be brought together because those people have got a shared experience.

I'm gonna talk about Hear our Voice.

So in 2025, the choir Hear our Voice performed on "Britain's Got Talent" and they reached the final.

Now, they're a choir brought together by their shared direct impact of the post office scandal and the effect that had on their lives and that shared experience united them in that power of singing.

You can now pause and listen to or watch Hear our Voice perform "Falling Down" alongside composer Will Rendle, so pause here and think, what role does this choir play in those people's lives?

Pause here and let me know.

There's something really powerful about connection.

When we sing in unison, we feel connected and often singing in harmony can be even more powerful in making us feel united.

We're creating that wonderful sound together.

Alex says, when we sing in harmony, we need to listen carefully to all of those singers around us, to ensure we stay in tune and that we're blending our sound.

Izzy says, if we try to just block out the other parts or if we wanted to sing too loud, then it's not gonna create that rich balanced sound that we want.

It would sound unbalanced.

Now then, we can add harmony to a song in many different ways.

Here are some suggestions, adding an ostinato.

There might be a partner song, another song that fits with it, when it's sung at the same time.

The song might work sung as a round.

Perhaps we could add a long sustained note, like a drone that runs throughout it.

We could perhaps change a few notes of the melody and we can add what we call a counter melody, which is another tune, another melody underneath.

I'd like you to pause and fill in these blanks.

It says, when we sing in unison, we all sing the blank tune at the blank time.

And then, when we sing in harmony, we combine- Creating a pleasing sound.

Have a pause and decide what you're gonna put in those blanks.

Let's see how you did.

So when we sing in unison, we all sing the same tune at the same time.

And when we sing in harmony, we combine two or more notes, creating a pleasing sound.

If you got both of those right, very well done.

We're gonna sing "Sorida" in unison, and then you're going to choose a version of the game that you like best and play in your classroom.

So there are videos there showing the game played in two different ways and you're going to be thinking as you're playing how the game shows you the different pitches, the high, medium, low pitches as you are playing.

So you're going to pause.

First, sing it in unison, and then play those games, deciding your favorite, noticing those pitches.

Off you go.

Great job, people.

Well done.

So you will have noticed that "Sorida" uses only three pitches, so, mi, do.

They're the three pitches it uses and they work really well together and you can layer them on top of each other actually in any combination and they will sound great every time.

Here are some harmonies that I'm going to play.

On the screen is a five-line stave and there's a symbol there which shows where do is at the bottom there in the first space.

So we have.

♪ So, mi, do, do, so ♪ And then it splits and you can see there is a purple dot for voice one and a green one for voice two, and when it's black, that is the same note sung in unison.

So I'd like you to have a listen, and then you'll be able to have a go at trying this in your class.

Here it comes.

♪ So, mi, do, do ♪ ♪ So, mi, do, do ♪ ♪ So, mi, do, do ♪ ♪ So, so, mi, mi ♪ ♪ Mi, mi, do ♪ ♪ Mi, so, do ♪ <v ->So now that they've heard it,</v> you may think, gosh, that sounds a bit complicated, I don't think we can do that in our class, but you absolutely can.

There is a backing track for each, so you can hear just voice one, and then just voice two, and then you can put them together.

So if you were in a group that sings voice one, you follow the black notes and the purple.

If you're voice two, you follow the black notes, that's when you're in unison, and the green.

So voice one would have.

♪ So, mi, do, do ♪ ♪ So, mi, do, do ♪ ♪ Mi, mi, do ♪ And voice two would have.

♪ So, mi, do, do ♪ ♪ So, so, mi, mi ♪ ♪ Mi, so, do ♪ So as you follow those along, remember if that dot is in the same space, it's in the same pitch.

Okay.

That's gonna help you.

Pause here and have a practice where you are.

Very good.

How did it go?

I hope you had some success.

Remember that when we're introducing singing in harmony, we might not get it perfect straight away.

We're focusing on our own line whilst we're hearing something different happen, so really well done already.

We're just gonna have a quick check and I'd like you to tell me which type of harmony you can hear, so I'm going to play four sounds, A, B, C, and D, and you're going to tell me is it a round, is it a counter melody, where there's another tune underneath, is it a partner song, two songs played together, or an ostinato, where there's that repeating, it could be a repeating melodic ostinato, that simple pattern that repeats?

Are you ready?

Here comes A.

♪ Oh when the saints go marching in ♪ ♪ Oh when the saints go marching in ♪ ♪ I want to be in that number ♪ ♪ Oh when the saints go marching in ♪ ♪ Oh when the saints ♪ ♪ She'll be coming round ♪ ♪ Go marching in ♪ ♪ The mountain when she comes ♪ ♪ Oh when the saints ♪ ♪ She'll be coming round ♪ ♪ Go marching in ♪ ♪ The mountain when she comes ♪ ♪ I want to be ♪ ♪ She'll be coming round ♪ ♪ In that number ♪ ♪ The mountain ♪ ♪ She'll be coming round the mountain ♪ ♪ Oh when the saints ♪ ♪ She'll be coming round ♪ ♪ Go marching in ♪ ♪ The mountain ♪ ♪ When she comes ♪ ♪ Oh when the saints ♪ ♪ Singing ♪ <v ->Okay, well done and now B.

</v> ♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ Oliver Cromwell ♪ ♪ Hee, haw ♪ ♪ Lay buried and dead ♪ ♪ Hee, haw ♪ ♪ Hee, haw ♪ ♪ Hee, haw ♪ ♪ Buried and dead ♪ ♪ Hee, haw ♪ ♪ There grew an old apple tree ♪ ♪ Hee, haw ♪ ♪ Over his head ♪ ♪ Hee, haw ♪ ♪ Hee, haw ♪ ♪ Hee, haw ♪ ♪ Over his head ♪ ♪ Hee, haw ♪ <v ->Super.

All right, here is C.

</v> ♪ Have you seen ♪ ♪ Have you seen ♪ ♪ The ghost of Tom?

♪ ♪ The ghost of Tom?

♪ ♪ Long white bones ♪ ♪ Have you seen ♪ ♪ With the skin all gone ♪ ♪ The ghost of Tom?

♪ ♪ Long white bones with the skin all gone ♪ ♪ Wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on?

♪ ♪ Have you seen ♪ ♪ Wouldn't it be chilly ♪ ♪ The ghost of Tom?

♪ ♪ With no skin on?

♪ <v ->And the last one, D.

</v> ♪ Oh Danny boy ♪ ♪ The pipes, the pipes ♪ ♪ The pipes, the pipes ♪ ♪ Are calling ♪ ♪ They call ♪ ♪ From glen to glen ♪ ♪ They call ♪ ♪ And down the mountainside ♪ ♪ From glen to glen ♪ ♪ The summer's gone ♪ ♪ Summer's gone ♪ ♪ And all the roses ♪ ♪ Summer's gone ♪ ♪ Falling ♪ ♪ And I ♪ ♪ It's you, it's you ♪ ♪ Must go ♪ ♪ Must go and I must fly ♪ ♪ But I'll come back ♪ <v ->So let's see how you did.

</v> A, that was a partner song.

There was two different songs sung at the same time and they fitted together.

B had that melodic ostinato running underneath, that constant repeating tune alongside the main melody.

C, it was sung in a round, so it's the same song with people starting at different starting times and D had a counter melody, another tune that went underneath.

If you got all those right, absolutely fabulous.

Well done.

Here is your first task.

You are going to split into two groups in a moment and you're going to sing "Sorida" as a two-part round.

That means the first group begins first, the second group begins second.

Second group, you are coming in quite shortly after.

There is a track there with both parts that you can listen to, and then know when you're going to come in.

So the first group you start singing your.

♪ Sorida ♪ The second group, as soon as they've got to their second pitch.

♪ Sori ♪ As they're about to start, you come in.

So you get.

♪ Sori ♪ ♪ Sori ♪ So can you hear you're starting later?

You sing the same song all the way through.

Group two, you are starting that bit later.

Have a pause and work on that where you are.

Cracking job.

Very well done.

Now then, you're gonna also now sing "Sorida", but with a melodic ostinato.

There are two to choose from.

One simply goes.

♪ Da, da, da ♪ ♪ Da, da, da ♪ And that just repeats.

And the other one takes the first word.

♪ Sorida ♪ ♪ Sorida ♪ And that just repeats.

So we're the first one just on one note.

♪ Da, da, da ♪ And that repeats or the Sorida, so you'll still be in two groups.

One will sing the main tune and the other group will sing one of those melodic ostinatos, then swap around so you all get a try.

Are you ready?

Pause here and work on that in your classroom.

Amazing, well done.

Really good stuff.

This is singing in harmony already and you're already doing it wonderfully.

So you're gonna reflect on both performances now.

Which type of harmony part-singing did you prefer and why?

Is the first question and the second one, are there two pitches or a bit of that song that you really liked hearing at the same time?

Because there's something quite pleasing about a bit of it where you felt, oh, this sounds good.

So just have a pause and just a very quick class discussion.

Off you go.

All right then, people, you are ready for the second learning cycle and this is "Nanuma", creating a round.

Now, when we sing together in a choir, we're blending our sound together so we sound as one, one choir, not lots of individual voices at different volumes.

We're trying to get the same blend of sound all together.

If we hear individual voices sounding out, it doesn't sound like a choir anymore, unless they're singing a solo.

So let's begin by singing the first phrase of "Nanuma" and I'd like you to sing it very gently with a quiet dynamic, so just can be as gentle as.

♪ Nanuma wyee ay ♪ ♪ Nanuma ♪ Just pause there and do that and just feel that balance of sound in your class.

Off you go.

All right, super.

That's wonderful.

Now, you're gonna divide into smaller groups.

The first group are gonna sing the phrase, just very gently, that first phrase, nice and gently, and then pass the phrase around each group, whether that's table groups or small groups you've gotten yourself into, and each group that goes thereafter are copying that same gentle tone.

Can you get the same balance of sound as the first group so that by the time it's got all the way around, it's still at that same volume, the dynamic hasn't changed?

Pause here and do that now.

Magical.

Really well done.

Did you all successfully create that similar tone?

If you did, fantastic.

You're gonna pause and just have another listen to the Kingdom Choir performing that "Stand By Me", and this time, pay careful attention to the soloist.

Now, what that soloist does very skillfully is creating that stronger sound when singing solo, and then blending into the choir when singing as part of the ensemble.

Have a listen and notice that, please.

Great.

You are doing really well.

We've got great ideas.

Now what we're gonna do is put some of that into practice and explore our dynamics a bit.

There's four phrases in the song, the first phrase sung quietly, and imagine with each new phrase that you sing, the dynamic increases.

We're getting a little bit louder, so by the third one it's louder still, and then on the last one we're gonna go back to that soft singing.

So we could call that first one soft or piano.

We could call that middle one metso piano, quite soft but it is a bit louder.

Then the third one, metso forte or moderately loud.

It's getting a bit louder.

It's not belted out, but it is louder still, and then that first one back to piano, back to soft singing.

Okay, so quiet, bit louder, bit louder still, and back.

All right, that's you controlling your dynamics really well.

Pause here and do that now.

Yes, well done.

Now you're gonna try it again and this time listening really carefully to those people singing around you.

Notice, are you blending your sound with everyone around you?

Are your dynamics balanced so that you're all getting a bit louder together, and then back to quiet together?

Does it sound balanced still, even though you're changing the dynamics?

And it's kind of controlling that change.

Have I suddenly got loud or is it incrementally a bit louder, a bit louder, and back to quiet?

Do you sound like a choir?

Do it one more time, and then just reflect on how successful you've been.

Off you go.

All right, you are so ready for this now.

You're gonna sing "Nanuma" in a round and to do it successfully, I'm gonna suggest there could be someone at the front, maybe a teacher, or maybe one of you, that's keeping the steady pitch so you can see it nice and clearly.

That's being a conductor, helping to keep you all in time.

That conductor may also show you when you're getting louder and getting quieter too, so you're really focused watching that conductor so that you are moving together.

Balance each part so that all parts are heard equally.

When you're singing in a round, you're singing a same song, but a different time to the other group.

So you're focused on your own line, the bit that you're singing in your group, but also you're noticing that sound around you, keeping it balanced.

Blend your sound together.

You're still sounding like one choir.

Great challenge and I know you can do it, and then it's that shaping the dynamics to create that interesting phrasing.

So perhaps if you kept to the quiet, bit louder, bit louder, and back to quiet, but this time of course it's happening in two different groups.

All right, pause here, work on that sung as a round.

There's tracks there to help you.

If you want to be super ambitious, you can split into a four-part round.

There's a track for that as well.

All the best of luck and I'll see you when you have sung.

Off you go.

Brilliant.

Now, if that was your first time doing that with that song in a round, that's absolutely fantastic, however far that you got.

It's always that repetition that's gonna help us feel comfortable keeping in time, keeping that balance of sound, and if you were, watching a conductor.

It's really useful to record and then reflect back on your performance and you can hear it and notice then by listening back just how well you did.

You might be surprised about how fantastic you already sound.

What you're gonna listen out for when you play it back is, can you hear all the parts of the round equally?

Is the sound blended so there's a lovely tone and are those changing dynamics effective?

Have a pause, record it, listen back, and then check in with those three points.

Off you go.

You have been amazing today.

What wonderful singing, being bold, diving into harmony and already creating a balanced sound that's sounding more and more like a choir.

Really well done.

Quick recap on our learning then.

There are choirs to suit nearly every style and they're a brilliant way of bringing communities together and if you've got an opportunity to join a choir and you'd like to, I really recommend it.

Singing in harmony can help us create a rich choral sound.

Do, mi, and so, those three pitches that we've been using a lot today sound great when they're combined to form harmony and we can add shape to a song by altering our dynamics.

And then to sound like a choir, we need to work together so we are blending and balancing our sound.

Fantastic work today.

I'll very much look forward to seeing you next time.

Bye for now.