Lesson video

Hi there, everybody, and welcome to this lesson on Singing in Unison.

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

My name's Mr. Croughan and I'm really excited that we get to work together and discover what it is about that power of singing that unites us all so strongly.

Are we ready then?

Let's begin.

At the end of this lesson, you'll be able to say that you can sing in unison, working to create a balanced and united choral sound.

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

We're gonna start with unison.

Unison, that's the same tune sung or played at the same time.

Then this is a great phrase, social bonding.

This is something that develops connections and relationships with friends, family, and our community.

Choral, an adjective relating to music written for or perform by a choir.

And then balance how each part is matched against another to ensure that no part overwhelms the other.

There are three learning cycles in today's lesson.

We will begin by warming up so that we are ready.

Then there is a new song, "Let Us Sing Together.

" And thirdly, songs based on do, mi, so.

So let's begin by warming up.

We know how important it is to warm up our voices, our minds, and our bodies so that we are ready to sing safely.

Gently warming up, stretching our vocal folds that helps us prevent injury to our voice and it helps develop our vocal strength.

Warm ups also develop our sense of pulse, our understanding of rhythm, and generally prepare our minds for learning.

So first, we're going to warm up our bodies.

As Laura reminds us, "Warming up our body can release tension, help us find the correct posture for singing.

" And so I would like you to join in with these warm ups.

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.

<v ->Great.

So have a check in with yourself.

</v> Does your body feel a bit more grounded and balanced?

Are your muscles a bit warmer?

Are you feeling a little more relaxed?

And do you have a comfortable singing posture?

Next, we're gonna warm up the muscles in our face.

"Gently warming our face muscles," as Jun suggests, "helps release tension and it can protect our vocal cords too.

" So here come the face warm ups.

Are you ready?

Let's go.

<v ->Now, let's warm up our face.

</v> Imagine you are chewing some bubble gum.

What flavor is your bubble gum?

Mine is cherry.

I'm going to unwrap my bubblegum, 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 bubblegum'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.

<v ->And a check in again.

</v> Does your jaw, oh, feel a bit more relaxed and loose?

Your neck relaxed and not holding tension or shoulders aren't up, they're just, ah, down with a good posture and relaxed ready for singing.

If so, we're gonna practice our breathing exercises next.

So when we breathe, we breathe more deeply.

Our ribcage sides swings out a bit because that is allowing more space for the air to fill our lungs, okay?

If you actually place your hands on the sides of your ribcage and then you take a nice deep breath in, you might notice that movement a bit swinging out.

What we're going to do is some focused breathing slightly deeper than we would and with holds in between to help regulate ourselves, feel calm, and control our airflow.

So, we're going to take a finger and we're going to draw a square.

It's going to go like this.

We're gonna breathe in for four, that's the first line of the square like this.

Then we hold for four.

Breathe out for four.

Then hold for four again.

And we draw a square each time.

So have your finger ready.

Ready for the first line that we're going to draw.

Are we ready, relaxed, and breathing in.

Hold.

Out.

Hold.

Again, join in.

Last time.

Are you ready?

Very well done.

If you'd like to, you can pause here and practice that more on your own.

Otherwise, just check in with your posture.

If your feet are slightly apart, your arms are relaxed, hands by your sides, and your shoulders feeling relaxed, this is a great posture.

It's gonna help us breathe easily and sing easily.

So, we're now ready to warm up our voice.

And as Laura suggests, warming up, our voice safely prepares our singing apparatus, our vocal folds for singing, helping to prevent any injury to our voice.

So, you are going to join in with one, one, two, one.

This is the song where we keep adding a number on one.

one, two, one, one, two, three, two, one, one, two, three, four, three, two, one, and so on.

Are we ready?

Here comes the track.

♪ One, one, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five, four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five, six ♪ ♪ Five, four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five, six, seven ♪ ♪ Six, five, four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight ♪ ♪ Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one ♪ ♪ Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight ♪ ♪ Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one ♪ <v ->Jolly D, well done.

</v> So, does your voice feel warmer?

We're now ready for singing.

And so, when we sing we want to sing clearly so people can understand the words that we are singing.

So tongue twisters can help with this.

It helps improve our articulation.

Articulation, how we pronounce our words clearly.

Here it comes, have a listen.

It says, if a dog chews shoes, whose shoes does he choose?

Listen again.

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

You can also amend it to add another sh sound into if a dog chews shoes, whose shoes does she choose?

Up to you.

I'd like you to have a pause and what I'd like to focus on is can you chant that together, speaking as clearly as you can.

Quick pause.

Off you go.

Great, so now our mouths are hopefully feeling warmer.

We've used those smaller muscles around their lips and the tongue in order to speak and articulate clearly.

Well done.

Okay, here is possibly my favorite song in the world.

It is "My Dog, He Can do the Can Can.

" And the dog can do it better than my cat can.

But my goldfish, bless the poor goldfish, finds it very difficult.

I would like you to have a watch of this song.

Here comes the video and then we're going to pause and sing it.

Here it comes.

<v ->This is a warm up song about pets and it goes like this.

</v> ♪ My dog, he can do the can can ♪ ♪ Better than my cat can ♪ ♪ But my goldfish finds it very difficult ♪ ♪ And my dog, he can do the can can ♪ ♪ Better than my cat can ♪ ♪ But my goldfish finds it very hard ♪ So the first part of the song goes ♪ My dog, he can do the can can ♪ Try that with me.

Here we go ♪ My dog, he can do the can can ♪ The next line.

♪ Better than my cat can ♪ Give it a try.

♪ Better than my cat can ♪ And now the goldfish line goes.

♪ But my goldfish finds it very difficult ♪ Give it a try.

♪ But my goldfish finds it very difficult ♪ Let's put that all together from.

♪ My dog ♪ Ready.

One, two, three.

♪ My dog, he can do the can can ♪ ♪ Better than my cat can ♪ ♪ But my goldfish finds it very difficult ♪ Very good.

Now the second of the song is the same but it finishes instead of finding it very difficult, the goldfish finds it very hard.

So it's gonna finish.

♪ But my goldfish finds it very hard ♪ Let's try the second part starting with my dog and finishing with finds it very hard.

Here we go.

Ready, and.

♪ My dog, he can do the can can ♪ ♪ Better than my cat can ♪ ♪ But my goldfish finds it very hard ♪ Very good.

Well done.

Let's put it all together.

So the first time it's difficult.

The second time it's hard.

Here we go.

Ready, and.

♪ My dog, he can do the can can ♪ ♪ Better than my cat can ♪ ♪ But my goldfish finds it very difficult ♪ ♪ And my dog, he can do the can can ♪ ♪ Better than my cat can ♪ ♪ But my goldfish finds it very hard ♪ <v ->Nice.

So now you've heard it.

</v> Maybe you started to join in a little bit.

We're going to pause and use the backing track.

Here is a top tip if you'd like to.

You can breathe each time you see a comma.

That's when we can take a breath.

Now where those commas are, they're not full stops, they're not time for a huge breath.

But what we can do is take what we can call a snatch breath.

Like this.

♪ My dog, he can do the can can ♪ ♪ Better than my cat can ♪ ♪ But my goldfish finds it very difficult ♪ ♪ And my dog, he can do the can can ♪ ♪ Better than my cat can ♪ ♪ But my goldfish finds it very hard ♪ All right, that gives you plenty of air just with those snatch breaths on the commas.

So pause here and work on that where you are.

Very good.

Now, ridiculous song, I know.

We are going to take it a step further and we are going to omit the word can for a clap.

I'm gonna really concentrate and try and get this right.

Here it comes.

It should say.

♪ My dog, he do the ♪ ♪ Better than my cat ♪ ♪ But my goldfish finds it very difficult ♪ ♪ And my dog, he do the ♪ ♪ Better than my cat ♪ ♪ But my goldfish finds it very hard ♪ So you are not saying the word can at all.

Instead, the word can can go into your thinking voice and then you replace it with a clap.

Pause here and have a go.

Brilliant work team.

Very well done.

Now, just when you thought, surely things can't get any sillier, er, uh, they're about to.

Here we go.

We are now going to replace the animal names like dog, cat, and goldfish for their sounds.

So the dog will sound like this or whichever kind of sound you would like to create for a dog.

A cat will go And the goldfish clearly, as we all know, the sound of a goldfish goes like this one.

So now we hear.

♪ My , he can do the can can ♪ ♪ Better than my can ♪ ♪ But my find it very difficult ♪ ♪ And my , he do the can can.

♪ ♪ Better than my can ♪ ♪ But my finds it very hard ♪ Good.

I'd like you to pause and practice that where you are giving it your absolute focus and attention and taking this marvelously silly song very seriously indeed.

Good luck.

Well done.

I hope you successfully worked through each of those stages.

If you did and you got right to the end, you are thoroughly silly, wonderful, and importantly warmed up.

So let's have a check in with our bodies.

Aisha says, "Are your feet shoulder-width apart?

" If so, give you self a tick, well done.

Are your hands held loosely by your sides, with your shoulders relaxed?

Let's just have a check.

Let's hope so.

You're looking great now.

Is your face and neck warm and relaxed?

I hope so.

"And are you ready to concentrate?

" asks Andeep.

If you are, let's press on the second learning cycle.

This is a new song, "Let Us Sing Together.

" Singing is universal.

This means it happens all over the world, everywhere we can think of and it's brought humans together since our early history.

Singing does loads of brilliant thing for us.

Whether we're singing by yourself or as a group, it can improve our mood.

If we sing in those large groups, that positive feeling gets really amplified and grows further and we're all sharing it together and we can achieve what we call social bonding through singing together.

Singing is actually a really powerful tool for social bonding.

So when people sing together in unison, that shared experience of doing so gives us a real sense of closeness and togetherness.

Let me give you an example.

People singing in unison at a sporting event, maybe they're singing in support of their favorite team.

Everyone knows the words, everyone's singing together, and it's an example of social bonding and it helps us feel great.

What other places or opportunities might we sing together?

Here's some ideas.

In a choir or in school, maybe an assembly.

Might sing if you're celebrating someone's birthday.

Could be in a faith setting.

Maybe you sing around a campfire.

A parent or carer to their infant might sing.

Maybe at a sports stadium like we thought about.

And a live music concert or at a festival.

Crowds of people joining in the familiar chorus they know and love.

There might be plenty more opportunities that you can think of where we sing together too.

Now, in 2014, the city of Glasgow in Scotland hosted the Commonwealth Games and there was a fantastic memorable piece of music for the opening ceremony.

It was a song called "What If" written by Eric Whitacre.

Now what makes this thing marvelous is 2,292 young people aged 18 and under from 80 countries around the world joined together to form a virtual youth choir.

Virtual being it was on computers.

And this performance, this choral performance created this shared experience for millions of people both in the stadium there live and those watching it at home.

So I'd like you to pause here and have a listen or a watch of "What If" by Eric Whitacre.

Off you go.

How cool is that?

So let's take a pause then.

Let's reflect on when you sing with others and how does that build social bonding?

So we've seen an example of it happening.

You're going to pause, have a short class discussion.

When is it we sing with other people?

And how do you think that can build social bonding?

Have a pause and a chat.

Catch you when you're done.

I hope you had a great discussion.

It's always really fascinating 'cause there's lots of different ideas.

Aisha actually says, "I usually feel nervous about singing, but if I'm singing with others, then it makes me feel more connected to my classmates.

" Maybe you feel less nervous if you're in a bigger group.

Lucas says, "It doesn't matter if I don't know someone's name because when we sing together, we're more connected.

" That's kinda true.

We can't all talk at the same time, but we can all sing at the same time.

We're gonna learn a song together in unison and it celebrates the joys of singing in a choir.

It's a nice, simple song I'd like you to have a listen.

Here it comes.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ Let us sing together ♪ ♪ Let us sing together ♪ ♪ One and all a joyous song ♪ ♪ Let us sing together ♪ ♪ One and all a joyous song ♪ ♪ Let us sing again and again ♪ ♪ Let us sing again and again ♪ ♪ Let us sing again and again ♪ ♪ One and all a joyous song ♪ ♪ Let us sing together ♪ ♪ Let us sing together ♪ ♪ One and all a joyous song ♪ ♪ Let us sing together ♪ ♪ One and all a joyous song ♪ ♪ Let us sing again and again ♪ ♪ Let us sing again and again ♪ ♪ Let us sing again and again ♪ ♪ One and all a joyous song ♪ <v ->Nice, so we're gonna listen again</v> and we're gonna think about the structure of each what we call melodic phrase.

That's a bit of a song.

What do you notice about the melody each time you hear "one and all a joyous song?

" Pause, have a listen, and let me know what you think.

Yes, it is the same every time.

So we're gonna join in with the phrase "One and all a joyous song" each time it repeats this time.

Are you ready?

Here comes the track.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ Let us sing together ♪ ♪ Let us sing together ♪ ♪ One and all a joyous song ♪ ♪ Let us sing together ♪ ♪ One and all a joyous song ♪ ♪ Let us sing again and again ♪ ♪ Let us sing again and again ♪ ♪ Let us sing again and again ♪ ♪ One and all a joyous song ♪ ♪ Let us sing together ♪ ♪ Let us sing together ♪ ♪ One and all a joyous song ♪ ♪ Let us sing together ♪ ♪ One and all a joyous song ♪ ♪ Let us sing again and again ♪ ♪ Let us sing again and again ♪ ♪ Let us sing again and again ♪ ♪ One and all a joyous song ♪ <v ->Well done, people.

Fantastic.

</v> Now, when we listen again, I'd like you to listen out for "Let us sing again and again.

" It's heard three times in a row and I'd like you to try and work out what is it you notice about that melody each time you hear the phrase.

So pause, have a listen to that bit.

It's repeated three times.

What do you notice about that melody?

Off you go.

Yes, it is the same shape every time, but it starts a step lower, like a bit, coming down in pitch and we call that a descending sequence.

So I'd like you to join in with that descending sequence, "Let us sing again and again.

" Are you ready?

Here comes the track.

♪ Let us sing again and again ♪ ♪ Let us sing again and again ♪ ♪ Let us sing again and again ♪ <v ->Okey dokey.

Very good.

</v> It's your first task.

You're going to sing the new song together in unison and your job while you sing, now we're feeling more and more confident with each part of that song is try and create a balanced sound so we hear what's a choral sound.

There may naturally be some quieter and louder voices.

Your job is to try and even them all out.

So rather than us just hearing very separate voices, you sound like one choir.

So pause here, use the backing track to help you and I'll see you when you've sung.

Off you go.

Great work, wonderful people.

Well done.

So how did we do to create that balanced choral sound?

Well, when you sing together in unison, what happens a lot is we begin to breathe at the same time as everyone else in a phrase that actually helps with social bonding as well.

But it can also shape the clean sound of a song.

We try not to stand out, we blend our voice, our sound with the people around us.

And we follow our conductor carefully if we're using one to make sure we're singing in time together.

And if we don't have a conductor, perhaps we're feeling that steady pulse, perhaps we're certainly listening to everything that's going on with the other singers around us.

Very well done.

Time for our final learning cycle of this lesson, which is songs based on do, mi, so.

We're bonding when we play singing games together.

Now we've been doing this in the playground since we were tiny.

And when we do it, we do things like moving at the same time or in time to the music.

We might sing together or there's like a call and response and we often need eye contact if we want our games to work.

Not always, but quite often that there's those games where we are looking at each other.

Now all of these help our bonding with our friends.

There is a Zimbabwean welcome song, "Sorida," and it uses only three pitches.

So, mi, do.

Have a listen.

It's an easy one to pick up and maybe you'll listen out for those three different pitches.

Here it comes.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ Sorida, sorida ♪ ♪ Rida, rida ♪ ♪ Sorida, sorida ♪ ♪ Rida, rida ♪ ♪ Da da da, da da da ♪ ♪ Rida, rida ♪ ♪ Da da da, da da da ♪ ♪ Rida, rida ♪ ♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ Sorida, sorida ♪ ♪ Rida, rida ♪ ♪ Sorida, sorida ♪ ♪ Rida, rida ♪ ♪ Da da da, da da da ♪ ♪ Rida, rida ♪ ♪ Da da da, da da da ♪ ♪ Rida, rida ♪ <v ->Great stuff.

</v> So, "Sorida" can be played as a game in different ways.

I'm gonna show you two videos.

I'd like you to notice how other pitches, the so, mi, do, how are those pitches shown differently in each of the games?

Here comes the first clip.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ Sorida, sorida ♪ ♪ Rida, rida ♪ ♪ Sorida, sorida ♪ ♪ Rida, rida ♪ ♪ Da da da, da da da ♪ ♪ Rida, rida ♪ ♪ Da da da, da da da ♪ ♪ Rida, rida ♪ <v ->Did you identify how those pitches are shown?

</v> So the high pitch, the so uses circled hands, the middle pitch, there's a partner tap, and the low pitches when they clap hands.

Have a watch of the second video and see what you notice this time.

♪ Sorida, sorida ♪ ♪ Rida, rida ♪ ♪ Sorida, sorida ♪ ♪ Rida, rida ♪ ♪ Da da da, da da da ♪ ♪ Rida, rida ♪ ♪ Da da da, da da da ♪ ♪ Rida, rida ♪ <v ->So in this second one, the high pitch</v> is where we throw the bean bag, the middle pitch catch the beanbag, and the low pitch when we tap our thighs.

So we've seen two ways in which we can play the games using "Sorida" and showing those pitches clearly.

In the song, each syllable is always sung at the same pitch.

So so, ri, da.

They're always in those same three pitches that you hear.

It doesn't change.

So your check in now is to decide which one are you going to play.

There's videos there if you need to remind yourself of how each one goes.

And then have a go of singing and playing, representing those pitches as you do.

Pause here, play either of those.

Off you go.

Magic.

Here's another one.

This is "As I Was Walking by the Lake.

" Again, three different pitches but this time it's a bit higher.

So our so, mi, and do, same equal distance in those pitches, just starts a little bit higher.

I'd like you to sing along when you're ready.

What I'll do is I'll play the track now then if you'd like to, you can pause and sing it again.

Here it comes.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ As I was walking by the lake ♪ ♪ I met a little rattlesnake ♪ ♪ I gave him so much jelly cake ♪ ♪ It made his little belly ache ♪ <v ->Sweet.

So if you'd like to pause and sing again, you can.

</v> And I'd like you as we're thinking, can you match the pitch to the words, if you've sung it a couple of times, there's three words, there's little, there's jelly, and there's belly.

So little's on the second line, jelly on the third line, and belly in the last.

We have so, mi, and do as A, B, and C.

I would simply like you to match the pitch to the word.

Pause here.

See how well you do.

There you go.

That gets us to think a bit differently, doesn't it?

So A, jelly, well done if you've got that one.

B, the mi is belly and do is on little.

If you've got all three of those correct, absolutely fabulous.

Well done.

We're now going to listen to the Ghanaian greeting folk song "Nanuma.

" This is gonna form the last practice task for today.

So, Ghana in Sub-Saharan Africa, it's there in West Africa, just to the east of Cote d'Ivoire.

You can see it there in the blue circle.

Now, "Nanuma" has no specific direct English translation, but we can translate it closely as meaning beautiful.

And the song itself does sound very beautiful when we are blending our sound and blending and balancing our choral singing.

That's what we're going to be aiming for.

So the song is structured around do, mi, and so.

So the first phrase begins on do, the second on mi, and the third on so, then it finally goes down to do.

We're going to use the hand signs.

Do, mi, so, back to do.

And gently sing the pitch names that start each phrase.

There's a video that explains this.

So when you hear You are just singing ♪ Do ♪ And then you'll be singing ♪ Mi ♪ for the second line.

For the third line ♪ So ♪ And then you go back to ♪ Do ♪ Here comes the video and you'll see what I mean then you'll be able to join along with those signs singing those pitches.

Are you ready?

Here it comes.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ Do ♪ ♪ Mi ♪ ♪ So ♪ ♪ Do ♪ ♪ Do ♪ ♪ Mi ♪ ♪ So ♪ ♪ Do ♪ ♪ Do ♪ ♪ Mi ♪ ♪ So ♪ ♪ Do ♪ ♪ Do ♪ ♪ Mi ♪ ♪ So ♪ ♪ Do ♪ <v ->Well done.

</v> So what that's done is it's help us lock in each of those pitches so that when we're singing, we are all gonna start at the right pitch altogether.

Okay, this is really useful.

Now that's kind of more familiar in our brains.

Our job now is to sing as a chorus in unison, balancing your sound.

The way you do this, we're listening to the sound around us.

We're not trying to sing almost loudly and confidently, we are singing in a balanced way.

So rather than hearing lots of individual voices, it sounds like one strong choir.

You're going to pause here.

You can use the backing track if you'd like.

It might be nicer to do this acapella.

Just make sure you've got your starting note.

The backing track's there to support you if you need it, perhaps maybe once with, once without, up to you.

Your main job though, how can you create a beautiful choral sound?

Off you go.

See you when you're done.

All right, fantastic.

Well done.

So when you sang together in unison, just then, let's see which of these helped you create that really beautiful, balanced sound.

Did you listen carefully to those singing next to you and try and blend your sound together?

Perhaps you maybe used some of your hand signals to help you pitch the sound accurately.

And maybe even you may have had a conductor to finish singing every phrase at exactly the same time, so we're not holding notes at different lengths.

Whatever you did, I hope it was really successful and you created a beautiful and balanced sound.

Well done.

That's all we have time for for today.

So, we will finish with a recap of our learning in this lesson.

Warming up together, that in itself is a form of social bonding as well as protecting our voice, developing our choral skills too.

Social bonding.

This is about making positive connections with others and it can be achieved through singing in unison together.

We know we've done it in the classroom today.

You might have done it by the sports field too, but social bonding is hugely important and singing does it brilliantly.

Listening carefully to those singing around us as we sing helps us to create a blended and balanced choral sound.

Fantastic singing today.

Really well done.

Look forward to seeing you next time.

Bye for now.