Lesson video

Hello, welcome to today's lesson, entitled "Composing Rhythmic Ideas." My name's Mr. Norris, and I'm gonna be taking you through today as we have a look at how we can use rhythmic ideas as the starting point for composition.

So let's get into it.

Our outcome for today's lesson is that I can create short rhythmic patterns as the first steps in free composition.

So we're looking at how we can use those as a basis for building composition.

Some key words.

An ostinato is a short, repeated pattern.

Polyrhythm is when two or more independent rhythmic patterns are played at the same time.

And then, syncopation.

This is when a rhythm emphasises notes in between the main beats.

This effect is often created by half-beat rests on the beat or dotted rhythms. So we'll explore those more as we go.

The first part of our lesson today is looking at words to rhythm.

When we talk, we use different inflexions to help make what we say interesting.

And when I'm just listening to myself talk now, I notice it's a really natural thing to do.

We stress certain words, like I did there.

Sometimes we'll do that by saying them more slowly or we might go up or down in pitch to emphasise certain things.

We also change the dynamics, the volume that we speak, by speaking louder on certain words and softer on others.

So it's a really natural thing in speech.

And music can be similar to speech in that we can stress different notes in a variety of different ways, and that's how music can be so expressive, because it's like we're talking through sound.

This makes the music interesting for the listener as well as making it more expressive.

So we can use words as a starting point to help us create interesting rhythmic patterns.

Let's have a look at how we might do that.

In its most simple form, it would work like this.

I'm gonna play you three short clips of a rhythm, and I'd like you to match the rhythm of the word to the word on the right hand side and the notation that's with it.

So I'm gonna play you one.

Does it sound like the rhythm of the word coffee, the word elephant, or the word tea? Here's our first one.

(upbeat drum music) Play you it again.

(upbeat drum music) Here's our second one.

Which one's this? (drum taps) I'll play you that one more time.

(drum taps) And then the third one, which rhythm, which word does this match? (upbeat drum music) And again.

(upbeat drum music) So hopefully there you identified that our first one was elephant.

That was this one.

(upbeat drum music) The second one was tea.

(drum taps) And the third one was coffee.

(upbeat drum music) So the idea here is we're taking the rhythm of the natural syllable pattern of that word.

And as we know, every word has a natural rhythm or a natural pattern with which we say it.

We can then group different words together to create a rhythmic phrase.

So we've got tea, coffee, and elephant.

We've got those three rhythms, and we can put them into a pattern to create a more extended rhythm.

Tea, coffee, tea, tea.

Dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.

And that way, we've got a rhythmic starting point.

Another common system for using words with rhythms uses these following syllables for the note values.

This is called the takadimi system.

So a crotchet, we would say, "Ta." (drum taps) Ta.

For a pair of quavers, we would say, "Ta-di." (drum tapping) Ta-di.

And then for that pattern there, which is two semiquavers and a quaver, we'd say, "ta-ka di." (upbeat drum music) Ta-ka di.

Let's just have a look at this rhythm.

So this we would say, "Ta, ta-di, ta, ta." We can also create more interesting rhythms by using different words.

So we could choose anything, really.

But a good example might be a colour, a number between one and 99, or an animal.

So we choose those three words, and then we put the rhythms of those words together.

And we can do it in any order.

We can leave a rest.

We can repeat some of them.

There's really endless possibilities here.

So we're taking those words as the starting point for our rhythmic little cells, and then combining them to create an interesting rhythmic phrase.

Creating an interesting rhythm then repeating it allows us to find a balance between unity and variety.

And remember, this is really key in composition, is getting that balance between those two things.

We can string words or rhythms together to create an ostinato.

And this can be the basis of a musical composition.

Remember, an ostinato is a short musical idea that repeats.

And many pieces of music are built on repeated musical ideas.

Can you think of any songs which are built on a repeated pattern? You can pause my video.

Have a little think or a discussion.

So, loads of examples you could have thought of.

There are lots of pop songs, rock songs, film music, video game music, classical music.

Loads of music is based on repeating ideas, on ostinati.

Let's look at these three words here as an example.

Purple, 27, and caterpillar.

I'd like to think about how this might sound if we took the rhythms of those words and combined them.

So what I'd like to do is once I've finished talking, you're gonna consider the rhythm of each syllable first, and clap the three words together.

I'd also like you to consider what other options do we have to develop this rhythm? So how could we, using those words, then make some more interesting rhythms based on them? So you pause my video and have a go at those two things.

Okay, so the rhythm will sound like this.

(upbeat drum music) Purple, 27, caterpillar.

That's our rhythm there.

And that's just taking those three words, a colour, a number, and an animal, and combining them together.

And the other options we would have to develop it are we'd experiment with the order of the words.

So changing the pattern, maybe, I don't know, so caterpillar came first, for example.

We could repeat one of the words, or we could repeat the whole pattern, or we could leave a rest.

And rests, remember, don't forget rests in rhythm.

They're such an important tool to use when we're trying to create interesting rhythms. So well done if you picked up on any of those ways that we could develop that more interestingly.

For this task, you're gonna create an interesting rhythm as a musical starting point for a composition.

You could use an instrument, a DAW, you could use clapping, or speech.

The key here is that the instrument and the pitch are not important.

Here we're just focusing on rhythm.

Here are the steps to follow.

Choose a colour, a number between one and 99, and an animal.

Work out the rhythm of the syllables, then clap the rhythm and repeat it as an ostinato.

Have a think about some ways of changing the pattern by either swapping the order of the words, or repeating some words, or you might add a rest in.

And then listen to your patterns and find one that you like.

So you're trying to isolate one rhythm based on those words.

And try and make it as interesting and distinctive as you can to create a repeated rhythmic pattern.

You can pause my video and give that your best shot.

Okay, let's move on.

I'd like you to listen back to your initial rhythmic pattern once I've finished talking, and there are a few questions I'd like to consider about it.

Why do you like it? Why is it successful? How have you made it interesting? How have you created interest? Is there a mix of rhythms with the syllables you've chosen? So do they not all sound too similar? Remember, you want them to be a bit of variety in there.

Have you added any rests and have you created an ostinato? So is it repeatable? Is it short and repeatable? So pause my video, have another listen back to your rhythm, and reflect on it using those questions.

It's time to move on to the second part of our lesson now.

And for this, we're looking at creating complementary patterns.

Layering up of rhythms is a powerful musical tool.

This can bring excitement to the music and add interest for the listener.

When we layer different rhythmic patterns, we call this a polyrhythmic texture, or a polyrhythm.

Think about a song that you know well.

Can you hear the different rhythms of each part in your head? You can pause my video just while you do that.

Hopefully that example that you were thinking about there, some different layered rhythms, creating a polyrhythmic texture.

And polyrhythm is often discussed in styles that use lots of percussion, for example, such as samba, but most styles kind of contrasting rhythmic ideas that create polyrhythmic textures.

So often we might think about it in relation to very specific styles, but really a lot of the music that we listen to has polyrhythmic textures.

The key to creating an effective polyrhythm is to have variety in our rhythms while ensuring that the rhythms are clearly audible.

So it's possible when we create a polyrhythm for things to become too busy and too congested.

And it's important that when we're creating polyrhythmic textures that we can still hear each of the rhythms really distinctly from each other.

So they have to complement each other, not affect each other by drowning each other out.

Composers must listen carefully as they add additional layers to ensure that it achieves that desired effect.

So when you're building up a polyrhythmic texture, constantly reflecting on it and thinking about whether it does have that variety, but that you can still hear all the rhythms individually as being achieved.

Let's have a look at this polyrhythm here.

We've got our original rhythmic pattern and two new ones are layered on top.

So we've got three rhythms playing at the same time.

I'm gonna play it for you in a second, and as I'm playing it, I'd like you to listen and follow through the notation, and try and answer the question, which is the most complex layer and why? Which would be the hardest one to learn really quickly? Here we go.

(upbeat rhythmic music) I'll play it one more time.

(upbeat rhythmic music) So there's no right or wrong answer exactly for this, but I would probably argue that the most complex layer is the snare drum pan.

And the reason I would say that is because it doesn't really repeat any rhythms at all.

If we have a look at the tambourine, which I imagine some of you probably thought of as the most complex one, there's actually quite a lot of repetition of ideas within that part.

So there's shorter rhythmic ideas that are repeated, whereas that snare drum rhythm, there's not really anything repeated at all.

It changes constantly throughout.

And the woodblock rhythm is mostly just minims repeated, so that's much simpler than the other two as well.

So the tambourine uses shorter note values and rests at the start of the bar to create interesting rhythms. So we've got those rests on beat one, and we've got some fast rhythms being played, and that suits that instrument.

Let's have a listen.

(upbeat rhythmic music) So hopefully there you managed to pick out that tambourine part with its interesting fast and short note value rhythms. The woodblock, as we can see, uses much longer note duration.

See if you can pick out the woodblock mostly playing minims here.

(upbeat rhythmic music) So there we've got that contrast between these three different rhythms, some with long note durations, some with shorter ones, and the snare drum with the more complex mix of lots of different rhythms. So when we're creating complementary rhythmic patterns, the rhythms should contrast with each other.

That's really key.

You don't want rhythms that sound too similar.

There should be a balance of simple and more complex rhythms. The simple rhythms should utilise longer notes, repetitive patterns, so repeated ideas, and silence.

And more complex rhythms could use rests at the start of the bar, so that creates syncopation, and they could use syncopation elsewhere in the bar as well, and shorter note duration.

So we should have this balance of simpler and more complex rhythms. Let's check your understanding.

What are two ways that we can create more complex rhythmic patterns? Pause my video.

Try to come up with a couple of ideas.

So here are a few of the things you might have said.

You could use shorter note durations, can include syncopation, or start patterns after the first beat of the bar.

So there are a few ways that we can make slightly more complex rhythms. For this task, you're gonna add two more patterns that fit around your original rhythmic idea that you created in Task A.

One should be simpler and one should be more complex.

So you're gonna create one that's more simple, using longer note durations and repeated ideas, and one that's more complex, using some of those things we talked about.

Consider the contrast and the balance between the rhythms. So maybe you want that variety and difference between the rhythms. Consider how you use longer and shorter note durations to make the pattern less or more complex and the use of rest to create silence or syncopation.

So you can pause my video now and give that your best shot.

Good luck.

Let's move on to the second part of this task.

And for this, I'd like you to think about some of the success criteria that we were just using.

Have a listen to this example.

And you can also see the example there on the screen.

And I'd like to think about how are these three rhythmic patterns musically successful? And they play twice in this clip.

Here we go.

(mysterious music) I'm gonna play it one more time, and again, use the visual there to help you with this as well.

Think about how these rhythms work well together.

Here we go.

(mysterious music) Pause my video just while you finish your answer.

Okay, let's go through this one.

So you might have said that the three rhythms contrast with each other, so they're all quite different from each other.

The middle layer has lots of variety with different rhythmic values.

That's the most complex of the three.

The top layer uses rests, which creates interest, and the top layer also uses repetition.

And then the lower layer has longer note values.

And this is a welcome balance to the other parts.

So we've got some with fast and shorter note values, some more complex rhythms, some with simpler rhythms, some with the longer note values, and the three together create a really good balance of rhythmic patterns.

So it creates a really effective polyrhythm.

Well done if you picked up on any of those points.

Let's move on now to the final part of our lesson.

And for this, again, we're looking at making it musical.

Composers make lots of decisions when creating music.

As well as considering rhythm, they make choices about how the music should be played.

It's important to consider expression from the beginning.

I'd like to pause my video in a second.

Have a look at this example.

What expressive features have been considered in this? You can pause my video now.

Let's have a look then.

So that example used a tempo marking, dynamics, and articulation.

There's our moderate tempo, our dynamics, we've got mezzo-forte at the start, we've got subito mezzo-piano, and then we've got mezzo-forte as well.

And we've got some accents and some staccato, that's articulation.

So those three have made this rhythm much more expressive than it originally was.

And this can change the overall feel of it.

So just adding a bit of expression can completely transform the character of musical idea.

Let's check your understanding.

Which three of the following are ways of showing expression? Indicating a tempo, adding syncopation, using dynamic changes, or adding articulation.

So come up with three answers.

I'll give you a few seconds.

And our best three answers then would be indicating a tempo, using dynamic changes, and adding articulation.

Adding syncopation is less to do with expression and changing the expressive quality of a melody, whereas those three features would be.

Well done if you got that.

For this task, we're gonna think about how you can use expression in your rhythmic ideas.

And then you're gonna continue to listen to and refine those musical ideas, including how they might influence your melodic ideas.

Some success criteria.

All of the patterns sound effective and interesting.

The rhythms capture your desired mood and character.

And remember, that's key here, really.

We shouldn't forget that, that what you're really trying to do is create a piece of music that expresses something or creates a mood, and you want those rhythms, therefore, to match that.

And finally, you've considered wider compositional choices you can make at this stage, including tempo, dynamics, and articulation.

So really be looking at how you can add those in to make those rhythmic patterns and that polyrhythmic composition you've done even more expressive and interesting.

So you can pause my video now, and good luck.

Let's finish this task off.

And here I would like you to think about these following questions, to think about how the success criteria applies to your rhythmic material.

The first question.

Are the patterns distinctive and interesting? And have you used a variety of note lengths and characterful rhythms? What mood and character's suggested by your choice of rhythm? Is there variety and interest? And finally, what expressive elements have you used at this point? So this is to give you some ideas as to where you're up to with your rhythmic composition and your rhythmic ideas, and also to give you some ideas as to how you might go on to develop them further.

So pause my video and reflect on your composition so far.

Let's summarise our lesson, then.

The rhythm and syllables of words can help us create rhythmic variety in our compositions.

Variety is important, as it creates interest for the listener.

So we need to use both simple and complex rhythms to get that variety.

We can also use syncopation and polyrhythms to create interest.

And then finally, using repeated patterns, or an ostinato, allows the music to have a sense of unity.

So again, that sense of unity and variety is always key in composition, isn't it? That brings us to the end of today's lesson, then.

I hope that's given you some really useful ideas as to how you might build some interesting and distinctive rhythmic ideas to help you go on and build a composition.

Thank you.