Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to today's music lesson.

I'm Miss Mansell and I'm gonna be your teacher for today.

Let's get started.

Today's lesson outcome is I can describe some common features of European and Russian folk dance and can perform the melody of Korobeiniki.

Here's some keywords for today's lesson, minor scale, a set of seven notes in a minor key, dotted crotchet, a note that lasts for one and a half beats, and you can see the symbol for it there, a phrase, a short section of a melody, normally lasting one, two, or four bars, and a repeat mark.

That's a symbol at the end.

And also often the start of a section that tells the performer to repeat it.

And you can see the symbol there.

Today's lesson on folk dance and the minor scale is in two parts.

Part one is on characteristics of European and Russian folk dance.

And part two is playing the melody of Korobeiniki.

Folk music served many different purposes across different cultures and periods of history.

Many folk traditions used song to tell stories, teach lessons, and share poetry.

Others served practical purposes like helping farmers, sailors, or warriors carry out their tasks.

For many cultures, one role of folk music was for dance.

This was often for celebrations like weddings and the harvest.

Have a listen to this modern dance style piece.

What musical features make it easy to dance to? You might need to find this music yourself or get an adult or teacher to help you.

If so, you're looking for "Say My Name" by David Guetta.

Pause the lesson and go and have a listen to this piece.

Did you notice I had a suitable tempo for dancing? So not too fast and not too slow, and it has a clear, strong, consistent pulse along with repeated rhythms. Dance music across cultures and periods of history shared many of these characteristics, including folk dance.

Which of those dance music characteristics can you hear in this Polish folk dance? This piece is called (speaking in foreign language) Pause the video and have a listen.

It's got a suitable tempo, so it's upbeat, but not too fast.

A clear, strong and consistent pulse and repeated patterns.

What similarities in rhythm and instrumentation does this Russian folk dance have with the previous Polish example? This piece is called Korobeiniki.

Pause the lesson and have a listen.

The rhythms in the accompaniment are similar with a strong pulse and offbeat notes, and they repeated.

There are some similar instruments as well.

So violin, accordion, guitar, or a similar instrument.

Female vocals and simple drums and double bass.

European and Russian folk dance have the following shared characteristics.

Moderate or fast tempo, a clear and consistent pulse, repeated rhythmic patterns, a short melody that repeats, a strophic structure.

Let's do a check for understanding.

Which of these is not a typical feature of folk dance? Is it A, a clear and consistent pulse? B, a melody that changes in each verse, or C, repeated rhythmic patterns.

What do you think? Well done if you've got B.

A melody that changes in each verse.

Which were historically popular occasions to perform folk dances? Choose all that apply.

So A, marriage, B, in battle, or C, harvest.

Which ones do you think? Well done if you've got A and C, marriage and harvest.

So let's move on to task A.

You're going to listen to each clip and answer the questions.

So example A is a piece called (speaking in foreign language) and you're going to be listening for how is the tempo suitable for dance music and identifying two other musical features that make it suitable for dancing.

Example B is Korobeiniki, which we listened to before.

Questions for that are, what is the structure of this song? Listen to the melody and lyrics and describe the music in between the vocal sections.

So find those pieces of music, have a listen and answer the questions.

How did you get on? So with the first piece of music, how is the tempo suitable for dance music? It's fairly upbeat, but not too fast or too slow.

And then we asked you to identify two other musical features that make it suitable for dancing.

So you could have said a clear and consistent pulse or repeated rhythmic patterns, or a short melody that repeats.

I hope you've got two of those.

Next, we've got the second piece.

So we asked you what's the structure of the song and how do you know? It's got a strophic structure.

I know this because the melody is the same in each verse, but with different lyrics.

So I hope you wrote something similar to that.

And then we asked you to describe the music in between the vocal sections.

So the accompaniment stays the same, but two instruments play a short section of the melody over the top, and that's a guitar like instrument that's called a balalaika, and an accordion.

Let's move on to part two of today's lesson, playing the melody of Korobeiniki.

Korobeiniki is a famous Russian folk song often used for dancing.

It was made even more famous by its use as the theme tune to the early video game Tetris.

Have you come across Tetris? What are the main differences in the two versions? So have a listen to the traditional version.

We've already found that and listen to it.

So have another listen, and then find the Tetris version and have a listen to that as well.

So pause the video and go and listen to both versions.

So the instrumentation is quite different between the two versions.

The traditional version uses vocals and live instruments.

While the Tetris version uses electronic sounds like synthesizers.

There are fewer parts playing in the Tetris version.

The texture is thinner and simpler.

The melody of Korobeiniki is based on the notes of the A minor scale.

This gives it a dark mood.

Now A minor scale, if you look at a keyboard, you'll see it's all the white notes between A and A.

Do you notice any patterns in the melody? How long is each phrase? Have a listen and then follow along with the score below.

("Korobeiniki" instrumental) What patterns did you notice? The melody has two, four bar phrases.

You can see them there.

And then the last two bars of each phrase are identical.

Did you spot that.

The melody is played twice.

This is shown by a repeat mark at the end.

So you can see there's the repeat mark at the end, and you play the music through.

And when you get to that repeat mark, you go all the way back to the beginning and play it again.

So you can see the repeat marks showing the bit that you play twice.

The melody also features dotted crotchets, and you can see those highlighted there.

In this melody, they're always followed by a quaver.

So we count this rhythm as one and two and.

So if I demonstrate this by clapping 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, and two, and three, four, and one, and two, and 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.

So you can see you count the rhythm as one and two and and the notes are on the one and the second and.

So what we're gonna be doing today is learning the melody in small sections.

Have a look at the demonstration videos.

Firstly for the first phrase, that's gonna be the A position on the keyboard, which if you remember, that's where your thumb goes on the A.

("Korobeiniki" on piano) And then watch the first part of the second phrase that's gonna be in your D position where your thumb is on the D.

("Korobeiniki" on piano) And then the last part of the second phrase is in the A position.

("Korobeiniki" on piano) Now watch the whole melody altogether and pay careful attention to where the hand positions are.

("Korobeiniki" on piano) So to learn the melody, we're going to practice with a consistent pulse always slowly to begin with.

You should use your right hand with the correct playing posture.

So relaxed shoulder, straight line between little finger and elbow and curved fingers on the keyboard.

You want to start in that A position.

Switch to the D position, and then back to that A position.

Make sure that you carefully practice the changes between positions and remember that that final switch from D to A occurs partway through the phrase.

So it can be quite tricky.

Make sure you learn the melody in short sections.

Let's do a check for understanding, which of these is a repeat mark? Is it A, B, or C? Have a think.

If you got C, Well done.

And how do we count the rhythm pictured? The dark green is the emphasis.

So is it one and two and, one and two and, one and two and, or one and two and.

Which of those is it? Well done if you've got B, it's one and two and.

So we're gonna do task B.

That's gonna be performing the melody of Korobeiniki.

The success criteria for that is practicing with a consistent pulse slowly to start using the right hand with the correct posture.

Carefully practicing the changes between the A to D to A positions.

Learning the melody in short sections.

Make sure you learn to perform it fluently with the correct rhythms and pitches.

Here's the full melody written out with the finger positions and the notes.

So pause the video and practice the melody.

For the next bit of task B, I want you to list three features of effective practice.

Have a think.

What did you get? You could have had practicing in small sections or chunks, practicing slowly, practicing with a consistent pulse and using correct technique always.

I hope you got three of those.

So let's summarize today's lesson on folk dance and the minor scale.

Many folk music traditions use music for dance, including for celebrations like marriages and harvest.

Like most dance music, folk dance needs a clear pulse, suitable tempo and repeated rhythms. Korobeiniki is a Russian folk song often used for dancing that was famously used for the video game Tetris.

It includes four bar phrases, dotted crotchets, and is based on a minor scale.

The music repeats and uses repeat marks to show this.

I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson.