Lesson video

Hello again, musicians.

It's me, Mrs. Steele, and I'm back with another music lesson for us today.

Before we begin, there are some listening examples that we'll need today, that don't feature in this video.

So if you haven't already done so, you'll need to take a moment to find these listening examples, before we start.

There's a teacher guidance slide at the beginning of the slide deck to help you with this.

Press pause to find those listening examples now if you need to.

Okay, now that everybody's ready, let's jump into this lesson together.

By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to learn and rehearse repetitive musical cells with accuracy and a steady pulse.

Here are the keywords we'll need in our learning today: Cell, a simple musical pattern that can be rhythmic or melodic.

Fusion, the process of blending two or more different musical styles, genres, or traditions to create a new, distinct sound.

Afrobeat, a style of music that originated in Nigeria, often with chanted vocals over repeated riffs.

Accompaniment, a musical part that supports the main melody or chant.

And riff, a short, repeated musical phrase or pattern.

As always, let's begin by warming up.

We know that we need to warm up our voices, our bodies, and our minds before every music lesson, to make sure that we prevent injury to our voice, and to make sure that we can sing safely.

Warmups are also a great opportunity to develop our vocal strength, and other musical skills too, including our singing, listening, and ensemble skills.

Sequence your whole body, breathing and voice warmups so that you are ready for singing.

Now, join in with these warmups to warm up your voice and practice articulating words clearly.

We'll start with 1, 1, 2, 1.

Here's the video.

(piano playing an ascending and descending scale) ♪ 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 ♪ <v ->Now miss out number three.

</v> (piano playing an ascending and descending scale) ♪ One, one, two, one, one, two, two, one.

♪ ♪ One, two, four, two, one.

♪ ♪ One, two, four, five, ♪ ♪ Four, two, one.

♪ ♪ One, two, four, five, six ♪ ♪ Five, four, two, one.

♪ ♪ One, two, four, five, six, ♪ ♪ Seven six five four two one ♪ ♪ One two four five six seven eight ♪ ♪ Seven six five four two one ♪ <v ->Now join in with don't let fusion cause confusion.

</v> Here's the music.

(upbeat music playing) ♪ Don't let fusion cause confusion ♪ ♪ It is just a blend of styles ♪ ♪ Mixing sounds from different places ♪ ♪ Traveling over many miles ♪ ♪ It can be a rhythmic pattern ♪ ♪ Instrumental special scale ♪ ♪ Driving new ideas in music ♪ ♪ Always fresh and never stale ♪ ♪ Take a rhythm from South America ♪ ♪ Mix it with a scale that comes from Southern India ♪ ♪ Soka beat from Trinidad ♪ ♪ Soka beat from Trinidad ♪ ♪ Mix it with a baseline from Argentinian tango song ♪ ♪ Don't let fusion cause confusion.

♪ ♪ It is just a blend of styles ♪ ♪ Mixing sounds from different places ♪ ♪ Traveling over many miles ♪ ♪ It can be a rhythmic pattern ♪ ♪ Instrumental special scale ♪ ♪ Driving new ideas in music ♪ ♪ Always fresh and never stale ♪ <v ->If you have a relaxed singing posture,</v> and if your voice feels warm, you're ready to sing.

Let's start together.

We're going to begin today by learning about cells in music.

In music, repeated motifs are like small building blocks that composers use to create texture and structure.

A rhythmic cell could be a repeated pattern of beats or accents that drives the pulse of the music, and a melodic cell might be a short sequence of notes that appears several times, sometimes exactly the same, sometimes slightly varied.

Let's dive into our first listening example today.

This one is part of Banjara, the finale of Ravi Shankar's symphony.

It combines two distinct musical traditions, Hindustani, classical music and orchestral music.

This fusion is evident in how it uses Indian features like ragga, a melodic framework, and tala rhythmic cycles, but adapts them for the orchestra.

Press pause to find and listen to this listening example now.

What did you think of it? In this piece, you can hear short musical cells that are repeated or varied throughout the piece.

The sitar is used to play a repeated melodic motif.

Sometimes it's repeated exactly the same, and sometimes it's changed slightly.

In Hindustani classical music, the rhythmic cycle would be played on drums called tabla.

In Banjara, these repetitive rhythmic patterns are passed between instruments in the orchestra.

Also listen out for the musicians in the orchestra reciting the Indian rhythmic patterns or bols.

It's time for a quick check-in with our learning so far.

True or false, Banjara is a fusion of Hindustani classical music and orchestral music? Show me a thumbs up if you think that's true, or a thumbs down if you think that's false.

Hopefully I'm seeing lots of thumbs up, because that's true.

Indian musical features like raga, melodic patterns, and tala, rhythmic cycles, are used within an orchestral piece.

Well done if you got that right.

Let's look at another listening example together now.

Ezra Collective are a modern jazz band from London, and they're known for blending jazz with African and Caribbean music styles.

Their track Ajala is inspired by Afrobeat, a style of music created in the 1960s in Nigeria.

Afrobeat is famous fr its repetitive rhythms, layered instruments and baseline grooves.

Press pause to find and listen to this listening example.

In Afrobeat, the rhythm section plays short, repeated rhythmic patterns, that create a repetitive accompaniment texture called an endless groove.

The groove stays the same, while other parts in the music like the horn melodies, instrumental solos and calls and responses are added.

Let's listen to this listening example once more.

This time, as you listen, have a go at answering this question.

What instruments play the rhythmic patterns that form the endless groove accompaniment in Ajala, by Ezra Collective? Press pause to listen to this listening example again, and see if you can listen carefully and answer my question.

Did you identify the instruments that play the endless groove? The drum kit, the bass guitar, and the keys, the keyboard player play the repeating accompaniment groove.

Well done if you identified any or all of those.

A melodic riff is a short, repeated musical phrase or pattern that forms a core part of a musical piece.

Riffs are typically catchy, memorable, and are designed to create a sense of restless energy and a danceable atmosphere.

In Ajala, the melodic riff is played by the horn section, in this case, the saxophone and trumpet.

Let's focus on the riff in our next listen of Ajala, by Ezra Collective.

Listen again from the beginning.

Focus on the riff on the saxophone and trumpet, can you notice when it changes slightly? What else can you notice and how is the riff important? Press pause to listen once more from the beginning, this time focusing on the riff.

Hi again.

What did you notice about the riff during that listen? Did you spot that the riffs are often played in groups of four? The last riff in each group of four changes slightly at the end of the pattern.

Did you spot that the riffs are jazzy, upbeat and have a catchy tune and rhythm? It's the part of the piece that you might be humming or remembering afterwards.

And did you spot that the riff is important to the structure of the piece? Now let's move on to playing cells and riffs.

We can be inspired by the endless groove in Afrobeat music to create some repeated rhythmic cells and melodic riffs.

These can be simple rhythms and are often syncopated rhythms. Let's start by watching this clip of beatboxer Jason Singh, and then join in with each of the two rhythmic cells in turn.

To make the claves beatboxing sound, just click your tongue on the roof of your mouth, and to make the high-hat beatboxing sound, vocalize to a ts sound.

Here comes the video for the first time.

Then watch it twice more, once to join in with the claves beatboxing sound and then another time to join in with the high-hat beatboxing sound.

Here comes the video for the first time.

Then press pause and watch it twice more, joining in with each of the two rhythmic cells in turn.

(performer beatboxes) Let's try clapping and saying this rhythm, following the stick notation of this rhythmic cell.

Let's listen first.

<v ->Ready, and here we go.

</v> ♪ Sa-gi-di sa-gi-di sa-po-po ♪ ♪ Sa-gi-di sa-gi-di sa-po-po ♪ ♪ Sa-gi-di sa-gi-di sa-po-po ♪ ♪ Sa-gi-di sa-gi-di sa-po-po ♪ <v ->Now it's your turn,</v> press pause to try clapping and saying this rhythm, following the stick notation.

We can use rhythm grids to decode and perform syncopated rhythms. With a partner, try layering these two rhythmic cells together.

Press pause to try that musical challenge now with your partner.

Let's take that challenge one step further.

With a partner, use a rhythm grid like this to compose and perform two syncopated rhythmic cells.

Remember syncopated rhythms place emphasis on the weaker beats, or in between the beats.

Press pause to try that musical challenge now, with your partner.

Welcome back.

Were you able to keep a steady pulse, so that you played in time with each other? And did your rhythm sound interesting together? You could pause now to share your ideas with the wider group, about how your two syncopated rhythmic cells sounded together, or you could even perform some of them to one another.

Let's try reading the notation and clapping this rhythmic cell now.

Let's listen to it first.

(soft clacking) (soft clacking continues) Now it's your turn.

Press pause to try it yourselves.

Now listen to how this rhythm stays the same, but pitches are added to the cell to form a simple riff.

Here's this example.

(up-tempo music) Using a beat such as the Soca backing rhythm, practice playing this riff, we're going to play it three times.

Let's listen to it first.

(upbeat music playing) Now press pause to try playing it three times, and you can use the audio button to support if you need it.

On the fourth time, we're going to play this, let's rehearse this repeated riff, we'll listen first.

(up-tempo music playing) Now it's your turn.

Press pause to rehearse this repeated riff, using the audio button to support, If you'd like to.

Now add some pitches to your own syncopated rhythmic cell, to make a simple melodic riff.

Here are the steps you'll need to follow to do this successfully.

Use just two or three notes from these notes to make your riff.

So we have D, E, F, G, A, and C.

Choose just two or three of those.

Make the first note and the last note the same, and make the pattern slightly different on the fourth repeat of your riff.

Then when you're ready, you can use the Soca backing rhythm to practice playing your simple melodic riff.

Press pause to try that big musical challenge where you are.

Hello again.

How did it go? Some of our Oak pupils tried that challenge too.

Izzy says "the cell and riffs are like building blocks, I think we could use them as the basis of a longer piece of music." Laura focused Hard to remember that on the fourth repeat, the riff changed very slightly.

Well done if you achieved that too.

And Jun says it took a few goes until I was happy with the sound of my riff.

I hope that you were happy with the sound of your riffs.

Great practicing and composing everyone.

We've come to the end of our lesson together today, but before we go, let's take a moment to think about everything we've been learning.

We know that repeated motifs are like the small building blocks that composers use to create continuity, momentum, and structure.

We know that we can layer rhythmic cells to create an accompaniment texture, and we know that a melodic riff is a short repeated musical phrase or pattern that forms a core part of a musical piece.

Great musical learning this time, everyone.

I'm looking forward to seeing you again soon to guide you through another music lesson.

Bye everybody.