Lesson video

Hello, musicians! It's me again, Mrs. Steele, and I'm back to guide us through another music lesson today.

Today's music lesson is all about "Polyrhythmic accompaniments." And there's lots for us to do together, so let's get started.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to rehearse songs with many layers effectively to prepare for a performance.

Here are the keywords that will be important in our learning together today.

Rehearse.

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

Perform.

To present music, playing or singing for an audience.

Accompaniment.

A musical part that supports the main melody.

And polyrhythm.

Playing two or more conflicting rhythms at the same time.

Let's begin, as always, by warming up because we know how important it is to warm up our voices, our bodies, and our minds before every music lesson so that we can sing safely, develop our vocal strength, and have some time developing those other important musical skills too.

Press pause to complete this unit's warm-up cycle so that you're ready for music.

These songs and singing games will help us to warm up further.

They help us develop our coordination, pulse, singing and ensemble skills all in one go.

Let's start by joining in with "Bate Bate Chocolate." Here's the music.

(drum music) (performers singing in foreign language) (performers continue singing in foreign language) (performers continue singing in foreign language) <v ->Now join in with "Grow Banana."</v> Here it comes.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ Grow bananas ♪ ♪ Grow, grow bananas ♪ ♪ Peel bananas ♪ ♪ Peel, peel bananas ♪ ♪ Slice bananas ♪ ♪ Slice, slice bananas ♪ ♪ Eat bananas ♪ ♪ Eat, eat bananas ♪ ♪ Go bananas ♪ ♪ Go, go bananas ♪ (drum music) ♪ Sleep bananas ♪ ♪ Sleep, sleep bananas ♪ ♪ Shh ♪ <v ->And finally, it's one we know well, "Four White Horses."</v> You could choose to press the video button and try performing it as a group or use the audio button to sing.

Press pause to choose your warm-up challenge for "Four White Horses." Are you ready to sing? Do you have a relaxed singing posture and does your voice feel warm and ready? Great.

Let's go.

We're going to begin by learning about rehearsing effectively.

To perform as an ensemble, first we need to rehearse effectively together.

"It can be tricky knowing how best to work together or knowing how to make your piece better." When we're practicing and rehearsing, we can try different strategies together and that will help us to improve.

We're going to explore some of that now.

We could practice starting together.

Let's decide, who will count in? What will they do? And at what tempo? We could focus on the tricky parts.

Repeat and fix small chunks of the piece that need refining rather than starting the whole thing again and again from the beginning each time.

Rehearse the bits that need fixing in small chunks.

You could request feedback, perform for others, or listen back to a recording.

Remember to consider your environment.

Can you see the leader and the rest of your ensemble? And you can explore different ways to play to help you to rehearse.

You could chant it, sing it, sign it, or tap it.

And perhaps you need to change the tempo as you rehearse.

Playing at a slower tempo can really help to get things right.

Also, you could try it faster than you want to play.

This is a good test, too, to see how well you know it.

Let's develop our practicing and rehearsal strategies by singing "Senwa Dedende" as an ensemble, accompanied by the rhythmic ostinato on untuned percussion.

Press pause to organize yourselves into groups and decide who will sing and who will play the rhythmic ostinato.

Then meet me back here and I'll play the music.

Ready? It's time to perform "Senwa Dedende." Here's the music for you.

♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ (performer singing in foreign language) (performer continues singing in foreign language) (performer continues singing in foreign language) (performer continues singing in foreign language) (performer continues singing in foreign language) <v ->Let's think about the parts</v> of our "Senwa Dedende" performance that need refining.

You could choose one rehearsal strategy and use this to improve your performance.

I wonder which strategy you'll use and why? Press pause to choose one of our rehearsal strategies and try practicing "Senwa Dedende" again to refine a little bit that needs fixing.

"Mango Walk" uses the same rhythmic ostinato as "Senwa Dedende." Divide yourselves into two groups to sing "Mango Walk," accompanied by the other group with that rhythmic ostinato.

Press pause to organize yourselves into groups and meet me back here for the music.

Are you ready? Here's the music for "Mango Walk." Play the rhythmic ostinato and sing.

♪ Off we go ♪ ♪ My mother deed-a tell me that you go mango walk ♪ ♪ You go mango walk ♪ ♪ You go mango walk ♪ ♪ My mother deed-a tell me that you go mango walk ♪ ♪ And eat all the number 'leven ♪ (drum music) ♪ My mother deed-a tell me that you go mango walk ♪ ♪ You go mango walk ♪ ♪ You go mango walk ♪ ♪ My mother deed-a tell me that you go mango walk ♪ ♪ And eat all the number 'leven ♪ (drum music continues) ♪ My mother deed-a tell me that you go mango walk ♪ ♪ You go mango walk ♪ ♪ You go mango walk ♪ ♪ My mother deed-a tell me that you go mango walk ♪ ♪ And eat all the number 'leven ♪ (drum music continues) ♪ My mother deed-a tell me that you go mango walk ♪ ♪ You go mango walk ♪ ♪ You go mango walk ♪ ♪ My mother deed-a tell me that you go mango walk ♪ ♪ And eat all the number 'leven ♪ <v ->Now's a good time to think about the parts</v> of our "Mango Walk" performance that need refining.

Select a different rehearsal strategy to try this time and use this to improve your performance.

I wonder which strategy you'll choose this time and why? Press pause to try that now.

We've added two rhythmic ostinati to accompany "Lost my Gold Ring" to create a polyrhythm.

Let's decide who will play each rhythmic ostinato and or sing the melody.

Then use a selection of the practicing and rehearsal strategies to improve your performance.

I wonder which strategies you'll select and why? I'll show you the slide that you might need for this challenge.

Here it is.

You've got audio buttons to help you if you want to remind yourselves of how the singing or either of the rhythmic ostinati go.

And you could also refer back to the slide with all our different rehearsal strategies too.

Press pause to practice your performance of "Lost my Gold Ring," using all of those rehearsal strategies to really refine it.

Good luck! I'll see you soon.

Let's reflect on the rehearsal strategies you've selected.

Which strategies did you choose to use? And why did you choose them? How effective were they? Perhaps some were more effective than others.

And is there anything you would do differently next time during your rehearsal? Press pause to share your ideas about that now or think about them in your own thinking voice.

Here are some of our Oak friends' ideas.

Jun says, "We found it tricky to time the ostinato beginning after the upbeat.

We practiced this small chunk over and over again until we got the entry correct." I wonder if you chose to practice a small chunk of your performance.

And Andeep says, "We chanted the ostinato rhythm many times before playing it on instruments, so we could concentrate on the rhythm." I wonder if you tried playing any of your performance a different way as you rehearsed, for example, chanting or tapping or whispering or mouthing the words.

That's a great strategy too.

Now let's move on to learning about performing together.

We're going to perform "To Stop the Train" and "Ning Wendete." You could perform for another class, in assembly, for a community audience, or you could create a recording to share.

Let's prepare to perform "To Stop the Train" as a four-part round.

What do you need to rehearse or consider? Perhaps you want to practice your entry one more time, or you need to check your environment because you're not sure you can see the conductor.

To make sure that everyone can see and knows when to enter, I've got a clever trick.

Stand with correct singing posture, facing your conductor, and copy your conductor's actions to check you can see them clearly.

Once you've copied your conductor's actions, you could try one further challenge.

When the conductor points at your group, or gestures like this towards your group, sing the first phrase only.

♪ To stop the train ♪ Press pause to try copying your conductor's actions and singing that first phrase when they point at you.

Try that challenge now.

Now that you've made sure that everyone can see the conductor, it's time to use the rehearsal strategies and rehearse "To Stop the Train" as a four-part round to prepare for a performance.

You could use the video or the audio button to help you with this, or you might like to do some work using both.

Press pause to use the rehearsal strategies and get ready for your performance of "To Stop the Train" as a four-part round.

Now let's prepare to perform "Ning Wendete" with its rich polyrhythmic accompaniment.

Let's think about what points we need to rehearse or consider.

One particular sticking point is sometimes this one.

"I'm not sure when my rhythm starts and stops playing." So let's explore checking that we can get that right.

To make sure that everyone can see and knows when to enter, stand in groups from left to right, in the order that each group enters the song.

Then when the conductor points at your group, start playing your rhythm.

And when they look at you and close their hands, stop playing.

Now use the rehearsal strategies, including the one we just talked about, about the conductor, to rehearse "Ning Wendete" with a polyrhythm accompaniment to prepare for a performance.

And you can use the audio button whenever you need it to help you with this.

Good luck! See you in a bit.

Now it's time to perform for an audience.

Choose which songs to perform and in which order.

Remember to consider balance when you're performing so that the melody is heard clearly over the accompaniment.

Remember to enjoy hearing all of that texture with open ears.

Try not to block out the sound of the other groups playing or singing.

And you might like to share the separate layers with your audience, so they can listen out for these when the whole song is put together.

And finally, perhaps most importantly, remember to enjoy celebrating your learning and performing together.

Press pause to share your performance of "Ning Wendete" and "To Stop the Train." You might like to do this with a recording or live.

Good luck! It's always a good idea to reflect on a performance afterwards.

We can consider what went well? Which rehearsal strategies prepared you best? And if you performed again, what might need further rehearsal next time? Press pause to talk about these ideas with your ensemble.

Hello again.

Here are some of our Oak friends' ideas.

Sam says, "We all knew when it was our turn to start playing or singing, as we had rehearsed with our conductor many times before." Showing the benefits of that rehearsal there.

Well done, Sam.

And Izzy says, "If we were going to perform 'Ning Wendete' again, I would want to focus more on our balance in rehearsals, as the accompaniment was a bit too loud." That's a great spot.

Well done if you shared similar ideas or perhaps something different to improve your performance next time and to celebrate what went really well this time.

We've reached the end of our learning today all about polyrhythmic accompaniments.

But before we go our separate ways, let's take a moment to think about everything we've been learning.

We know that rehearsing together makes sure that everybody knows their part in the ensemble and when to play.

And we know that rehearsing together is a skill that can be developed.

We've been doing lots of developing our rehearsal skills today in our lesson.

And we know that performing to a small audience gives you the opportunity to develop your performance skills too.

Great rehearsing and performing in an ensemble, everyone.

I'm looking forward to seeing you again sometime soon for another music lesson.

Bye!.