Lesson video

Hi there again, everybody.

Welcome to the final lesson in this unit.

We are today practicing and then performing our composed variations on a theme from our Compose and Create unit, Creating melodic variations based on a theme.

I'm Mr. Croughan.

I'm really delighted with how much progress you've made so far, and I'm excited that we get to add that extra bit of finesse today and then perform our pieces.

Let's go.

Today you will be using effective strategies to prepare for a performance of your variations on that given theme.

Checking through our keywords for today, we're gonna look at some practice techniques, and these are strategies that help to improve musical skills.

To rehearse: to practice in order to improve and prepare for a performance.

Ensemble: a group of people who perform together.

Structure: the way the music is organized.

Rehearsing and performing both take great amounts of focus.

So what we're going to do now is warm up our minds, our voices, and our bodies so that we are ready to do a great job.

We'll begin with joining in singing the theme and variation song.

Here it comes.

(bright piano music) ♪ Here's a theme and some variations ♪ ♪ Different versions of one idea ♪ ♪ There are so many permutations ♪ ♪ Changing aspects of what you hear ♪ (soft music) ♪ Here's a theme and some variations ♪ ♪ Different versions of one idea ♪ ♪ There are so many permutations ♪ ♪ Changing aspects of what you hear ♪ (jazzy music) ♪ Here's a theme and some variations ♪ ♪ Different versions of one idea ♪ ♪ There are so many permutations ♪ ♪ Changing aspects of what you hear ♪ (whimsical music) ♪ Here's a theme and some variations ♪ ♪ Different versions of one idea ♪ ♪ There are so many permutations ♪ ♪ Changing aspects of what you hear ♪ (dramatic theatrical music) ♪ Here's a theme and some variations ♪ ♪ Different versions of one idea ♪ ♪ There are so many permutations ♪ ♪ Changing aspects of aspects of what you hear ♪ (lilting music) ♪ Here's a theme and some variations ♪ ♪ Different versions of one idea ♪ ♪ There are so many permutations ♪ ♪ Changing aspects of ♪ ♪ Changing aspects of ♪ ♪ Changing aspects of what you hear ♪ (bright music) ♪ Here's a theme and some variations ♪ ♪ Different versions of one idea ♪ ♪ There are so many permutations ♪ ♪ Changing aspects of what you hear ♪ <v ->And then next up, the "1, 2, 3, 4,"</v> and the "1, 2, 3, 4 challenge." Now, because we are performing today, make this like a neat performance.

Work as an ensemble when you are working through 1, 2, 3, 4, and the challenge.

And make those stomps and claps as neat as if there was someone watching.

Off you go.

<v ->Ready steady, off we go</v> One, two, three, four, (feet stamping on beat) one, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

Clap on number one.

One, two, three, four.

(claps on one beat) One, two, three, four.

(claps on one beat) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat one) Clap on number two.

One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat two) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat two) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat two) Clap on number three.

One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat three) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat three) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat three) Clap on number four.

One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat four) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat four) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat four) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat four) Harder version.

Ready, steady, off we go.

One, two, three, four.

(feet stamping on each beat) One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, let's go.

One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat one) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat two) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat three) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat four) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat one) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat two) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat three) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat four) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat one) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat two) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat three) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat four) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat one) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat two) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat three) One, two, three, four.

(claps on beat four) <v ->So are we ready for music?</v> Are we internalizing that beat so that when we work together, we're feeling that pulse and keeping together as a team? And are we all alert and ready to focus? I hope so.

Because we are about to begin.

There are two learning cycles.

The first one, refining and practicing our variation.

The second, rehearsing and performing our theme and variations, and we'll do that as an ensemble.

Let's begin with our refining and practicing.

We're going to prepare our individual variation composition to add to a larger group performance.

So this means we'll have our bit in a bigger piece of music.

Laura says, "We want to feel proud of our composition and be able to play it confidently and fluently in the group," so it's worth the effort.

Now, your variation might have: you might have changed the melody, you might have added some notes, changed the direction of the tune.

You might have gone from changing the tonality from major to minor.

Perhaps you changed some of those rhythms that were used.

Maybe you changed the tempo or even the way the beats are organized from two time to three time, for example.

You might have played this now on a different instrument, and you might have explored the dynamic changes as well.

We're going to remember all this in our rehearsal.

Thinking about all the theme and variation pieces that you've listened to throughout this unit.

We know that composers combine different techniques to change the character of the theme.

If you remember back to that, was it the seventh variation from Andrew Lloyd Weber where it's became a rock piece? So we can give a real different feel each time.

Play your variation, see how far you've got with it, how that rhythmic variation, is that included? The melodic variation, how much of that have you included? And the different feel that we worked on in the last lesson, that you will have given to your piece.

Is there anything else you want to do to make it more interesting? Because Lucas, just as an idea says, "Well, I think I might add some more takadimi rhythms in the middle line, and that might make it sound more exciting." There's one idea.

You will have your own.

Another one, Aisha says, "My variation is in the minor tonality and I think I'm gonna slow my tempo down and I'm gonna make my dynamics quiet.

That's gonna make my variation sound mysterious." Great feel.

There's two ideas.

You are going to pause here, think about your variation and think, is there anything else you'd like to change? Pause now, check in and share your ideas.

Now, once we are happy with our variation, it's important we can play it confidently.

So before we play as an ensemble, it's important we prepare for the rehearsal by practicing our own part so that we can play that well.

It's not just about playing the part over and over when we practice or rehearse, we need to focus on the bits that will require the most improvement.

So which bits are tricky and which bits could we play a bit more fluently? So say if there's one bar or two bars in that piece, you think, "Oh, the rhythms in that bit, I always struggle or finding the right notes on my instrument for that bit." Don't practice the whole piece.

Practice that bit.

These practice techniques might help you prepare so that you can play your variation accurately and confidently.

Here it comes.

P, play the tricky parts, again, again, again.

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Do the tricky bits.

You can request some feedback.

"How does this sound to you? Is it better when I slow it down? What do you think?" Ask others.

Adapt and change where necessary.

"Oh, that's not quite working.

Maybe I need to make it a bit simpler." Chunking.

I sort of touched on this.

We break it down and practice in small bits.

Don't think, "Gosh, I've got all of these six bars to get through.

I said I'd speed up there and I said I'd play quieter there." Take it a bar at a time.

Start with the tricky bit.

"Oh yes, I was gonna play that bit loudly.

Well, I'll add that in later." Chunking, breaking it down.

Tempo, if we start too fast, we're going to run into trouble.

Set the tempo, count yourself in.

Improve.

We can decide on one detail at a time to work on.

We can't just magically improve and get it all right and fabulous.

Whatever it is, you decide on one detail and work on one bit at a time.

Slow it down and speed it up.

This is going, "Okay, I can just about do this, but it's getting a bit messy, a bit scrappy.

If I slow it down and keep a slow, a-stea-dy pulse, starting to get confident with what I'm doing." And then get it back up to the tempo you want to play it at.

And lastly, explore different ways to learn.

"What happens if I just tap that rhythm? What happens if I just sing it? Let me just listen to that track again.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah." All these different ways are going to help us.

This is your time to improve your part.

Now we remember playing well includes a good technique.

So a barred instrument like a glockenspiel or xylophone.

Here's some top tips, holding the mallet about three quarters of the way down, playing in the center of the bar so the mallet bounces.

And not pushing the mallet in to deaden the sound.

Quick check.

You've got this, remember.

Which skills show good practice technique? Is it deciding on one detail to work on at a time? Is it requesting feedback and listening to others? Is it rehearsing at a slower speed to improve accuracy? And is it playing loudly to gain confidence? I'll give you a clue.

There are three correct answers.

What do we think? Which one of those is not the best practice technique to adopt? Yep, we are gonna decide on one detail to work on at a time.

We are gonna ask, "Does this sound better? What do you think? Shall I do it that way or that way?" Rehearse at a slower speed.

We become more accurate that way.

We don't need to play loudly.

That's not gonna give us confidence.

Taking our time and being accurate is gonna give us more confidence.

And repeating, repeating, repeating.

So this is your first task.

Practice your variation until you can play it fluently, and fluently means not so stop-starty.

Just smooth and fluently all the way through.

If you're slowing down at some points or speeding up, that's fine.

Otherwise we're feeling that steady pulse throughout the piece.

In pairs, play your variations to each other.

Give each other feedback.

"Oh, I loved it when you did that." "Oh, you know, you said you were gonna go quieter? Do a bit more of that.

That's great." Whatever it might be.

It's good to discuss one thing that's good when you're helping each other.

One thing that you might need to do before you move into groups and one thing you could do.

And then lastly, take a little bit more time to practice, to act on that feedback.

You're gonna pause here.

You're going to work initially individually and work in pairs to give each other feedback.

Make sure we are looking for a smooth and fluent playing style.

Off you go.

Right, how was that? Rehearsal takes concentration, doesn't it? And repetition, repetition, repetition.

These variations are gonna be fixed in your mind like earworms. Now then, Andeep tells us, "Jun suggested I should start off maybe quietly, play the middle section louder and play the last line quieter again.

And I tried that and my variation sounds better now." Lovely.

Great to get some feedback from someone else.

And Jacob says, "When I played my variation to Sam, I stumbled over the bit that's just really difficult to play.

So I practiced that bit again and I practiced it really slowly and I think I can play it now without making a mistake." Great.

It is about that practice.

It's not about going, "Oh yeah, magic, I can do it." It is about practicing those bits we find challenging, repeating slower and gradually building up to time so that it sounds better and we feel more confident when we play.

So now the second part of our lesson is where we rehearse and perform our theme and variations.

This is how we're going to do it.

A theme and variation piece almost always starts with a performance of the theme, and then follows a number of the variations.

So in this part of the lesson, we'll work together in groups and we'll rehearse and perform the theme and our variations so we get to work out the order and how we'd like that to go and sound.

Lucas says, "Well, we've worked hard composing and practicing our variations.

So rehearsing it all together should be fun." And we'll practice the theme together in groups, first of all, just maybe once through or twice through, remind yourself of that theme and practice so you can play it fluently.

Remember, at a steady tempo that isn't stop starting.

Okay? So have your instruments ready.

There's a video there if you need to remind yourself of playing it.

Pause here, just practice it once or twice by yourself.

Off you go.

Now we're ready to start working more closely together.

When musicians play in an ensemble, they work as a team.

Teamwork is crucial.

Everyone's got a role.

The music only works if they listen to each other.

They're supportive of each other.

They're responding musically to each other.

So let's have a watch of children from the National Children's Orchestra talking about playing together.

Here it comes.

<v ->We all play in orchestra.

</v> <v ->I play the clarinet.

</v> <v ->I play the harp.

</v> <v ->And I play timpani.

</v> When we're playing together, even though we're in different sections, we have to work as a team.

<v ->When we're working as a team,</v> we all have to watch the conductor to make sure we're in time.

<v ->We also have to make sure we're always</v> listening to each other.

<v ->We also have to play dynamics,</v> which is how loud or soft you are.

<v ->So let's take away some of those top tips for rehearsing</v> and working together.

When we decide on the tempo, we want to make sure everyone in the group can play comfortably at that speed.

There's just no point if three of us can go super fast and everyone else is trying to catch up.

We want to play at a steady, manageable tempo.

Choose a leader that can count in with a "Rea-dy, stea-dy, off-we-go" and everyone can come in and play on time.

It sets the tempo and everybody gets to feel the steady pulse.

Listening and watching.

You can watch each other's hands.

You can listen for the beat.

If your senses are aware, you are really more likely to stay in time than if you're just in your own bubble.

You want to adjust your part to match your group.

And remember those good PRACTICE techniques.

Identify those tricky parts and then solve the problems by chunking, by slow then fast, by working out which way of learning works for you.

When you rehearse, you rehearse as a team.

You remember, that's not about being the loudest or the fastest, it's about making good music together, and making it sound good too.

So in your groups now, you're going to rehearse the theme together until, as a group, you play it fluently and confidently as an ensemble, okay? That means we are hearing that tune played by, if it's six of you in a group, steadily all together, okay? Pause here and do that for me now.

Very well done.

So thinking about that lovely sound that you've created, can we make that bit more interesting? This is the theme.

This is what we're gonna hear first.

Maybe adding some dynamics.

Do you start off quieter or louder? Do you finish quieter? Is there a crescendo? In a moment, just in your group, you're gonna decide on how to vary the dynamics.

And secondly, would you change the instrumentation? Is there anyone who might want to play it on a different instrument, okay? So if you already play an instrument and you want to use that at this stage, that's possible.

You might remember another lesson where someone transferred theirs onto percussion.

Just think what's gonna make, in your group, the piece a bit more interesting.

We still need to very much hear the theme.

This is the introduction of the theme to the audience.

So we're not changing much, but we might want to make it more interesting.

Pause and see what you might change where you are.

Off you go.

And now we've got our theme that we're playing in our group, and then each of us has a variation.

So we need to think, "Well, what's the best way of putting that together? Which order should we put in? How will we structure our piece? How's it gonna start? How's it gonna end?" To get some inspiration, we will listen to "Caprice 24" by the composer Niccolo Paganini.

Now it's only about three and a half or four minutes long, but there's plenty of ideas that we can borrow from there.

You'll recognize the theme 'cause it's the one Andrew Lloyd Weber borrowed for his "Variations." And it has a theme and variation structure.

There's actually 11 variations of the theme.

So pause here and let's be ready to take away the best ideas and inspiration that can help us structure our pieces, okay? Pause here and have a listen to that now.

Okay, so Paganini certainly keeps the piece interesting, even though it's based on the same theme.

But how is he doing that? What ideas would you like to take? And how does that piece build excitement from the theme right through to the finale? There's something that sort of feels like a journey.

It takes you on a bit of a journey.

Is it the variation? Is it the way in which each variation goes next? How does it build? And then what would you like to borrow? What of Paganini's ideas do you think, "Yep, that's gonna help us structure our variations.

I like the feel of that."? In your groups now, discuss and decide on the order of your variations.

Think carefully of the structure of your piece as a whole, and then you're going to rehearse it.

So you will begin with your theme, and then you've got free reign, then, to decide what should go next and how will it sound? When you are rehearsing your piece, just think carefully, if there's any improvements you need to make or is there enough dynamic variation there? Are you thinking actually, "Oh, we put them in that order, but actually if we swap those two, that might sound even better.

Or if we finish on that one, maybe that's a better finale." Okay? These sort of things.

And lastly, how do you want it to finish? Is it a surprise? A big final moment, something gentle and quiet that peters out and feels relaxing.

Maybe there's something you want to change in your last variation to make it feel like the end.

Up to you.

Okay, pause here and have that discussion in your group so that, after your discussion, you know how your piece is structured and you've played it through.

Okay, off you go.

Amazing.

As well as creating your pieces, you are now working as an ensemble.

You are having to negotiate, share ideas: "Now, I think I should go next." "Well, let's try it in that order." Really well done.

When we're performing, we're sharing work that we want to feel proud of.

Other people are going to hear it, and we want them to know that we've done a great job and we want 'em to enjoy it and get something from it.

Here's some top tips for performance success.

Number one, relax.

You have got this, you totally have.

We've had all these lessons of building up to this and you know these pieces and you can play confidently with those variations.

You've totally got it.

Well done.

Stay focused, okay? Even if it's not your turn, just keep focused.

You're listening to the music.

You are knowing who's coming in next and when.

We're supporting each other.

And if anyone makes a mistake, that's fine.

We just keep going.

We're feeling that steady pulse together.

We want to help everyone feel supported.

Okay? And if you feel nervous, (rasps in horror) everyone feels nervous sometimes, we can front it out, we can act confident.

It really helps sometimes to think, "Yeah, yeah.

I've got this." Even though we're a little bit nervous actually.

And then don't worry about being perfect.

Perfect's not really a thing.

It's doing the best we can or present best.

"What is the best I can do right now with the work I put in so far?" Okay? Everything's a journey.

We're improving all the time.

And now it is your practice task.

You are going to perform your theme and variations piece to an audience.

When you perform, we want them to enjoy themselves, so we should be enjoying ourselves too.

Remember, we're focused and we take our time.

I'd like you to record the theme and variations composition using something like an iPad or a tablet or a recorder or similar.

And then you'll be able to watch or listen to the recording back and you can discuss that piece in your groups.

You're gonna think about "What went well? What was really good about that? What was good about the way we played that theme?" And each person's variation and the structure, the order in which we put those.

Did it work? What do we like? And then think about the overall quality of that musical performance.

Was it smooth and flowing? Did people work together? Did we carry on even though there was a couple of hiccups? Okay? Really looking forward to your performances.

Pause here and enjoy performing.

You've worked really hard so far.

Off you go.

Whew, everyone okay? That's brilliant.

You've performed a whole theme and variation piece that you've created.

You've taken it on a right journey.

That's super.

Some feedback might be what Jun says: "In the pieces, you could recognize that original theme in all the variations." I hope that was the case where you are too.

Alex says, "Playing the theme again at the end in our group.

And we did it the same time as Lucas' rhythmic variation on the tambourine.

And that sounded great." What a nice choice.

Loving the creativity.

I'm sure you've had piles of it yourself.

Izzy says, "Rehearsing the music greatly improved the performance." Yes, Izzy, rehearsal is so important and we have a lot of patience while we keep getting better each time.

She said, "We played with dynamics," great, "and worked as a team." Super.

Hope you all managed that too.

And Sam says that "Variations worked well as a set in our group 'cause they were all quite different.

And so that kept the whole piece interesting." Wonderful.

I hope you really enjoyed creating and structuring your pieces, and I hope they were really well enjoyed.

Here we are at the end of this lesson and indeed this unit.

Summarizing our learning, then, we know and we put into practice that we can use good practice techniques when we're preparing and rehearsing for a performance.

And understanding how to rehearse effectively, efficiently, usefully as a team that really improves our ensemble skills.

Ongoing refinement, getting better and better, bit by bit each time, that's an important part of improving a composition and a performance.

It won't be great straight away.

And we can create a successful composition using our theme and variations structure.

Congratulations, everyone.

Really, really well done on a superb unit.

All the best and I'll see you next time.

Bye for now.