Lesson video

Hello, welcome to today's lesson entitled "Warabadon - structure and solo parts." My name is Mr. Norris.

Today, we're gonna be building and deepening our understanding of Warabadon, looking at the broader structure and building in some improvised solos.

Our outcome is I can play the Warabadon rhythm with the different sections, including an improvised solo.

Some key words, firstly, polyrhythm.

This is the combination of two or more different rhythms at the same time.

Improvised solo, this is a featured part of a composition played by one person, where the player makes up the rhythm on the spot.

Djembefola, this is the lead drummer, or master drummer.

And finally, triplets, these are three notes played in the time it normally takes to play two.

The first part of today's lesson is looking at the structure of Warabadon.

Now the echauffement phrase in Warabadon is a short section used to build up to a climax, which is similar to the role it has in Kuku.

This usually happens towards the end of a section, or the whole piece.

It signals to the dancers that a change is coming and that there may be an increase in tempo.

Let's have look at echauffement.

(djembe playing rhythmically) Now let's break that down.

As the music is in 12/8, each beat has a triplet feel, there are three notes in each beat.

And if we have a look at the grid notation for this echauffement, we've got repeated quavers with the first beat on tone, and then beats two, three, and four on slap.

One, and a two, and a three, and a four, and a one, and a two, and a three, and a four, and a.

That's our pattern there, starting on tone, and then using slap for most of it as well.

One, and a two, and a three, and a four, and a.

I'd like to clap that echauffement rhythm along with the drum.

The pattern is three mid sounds, that's imitating the tone, and then nine high sounds imitating the slap.

One, and a two, and a three, and a four, and a one, and a two, and a three, and a four, and a.

And it's quite fast, so make sure you're keeping up.

Let's give it a shot.

(djembe playing rhythmically) When you were doing that, well done if you managed to start at the right time after the call, play three notes on each beat.

One, and a two, and a three, and a four, and a.

And used the right sonorities, starting with the mid sonority, finishing with the high sonority.

This is the overall structure of Warabadon.

The length of each section is dictated by how the musicians feel and if they add improvised solo.

So it's not necessarily determined in advance how long each section is gonna last for.

That'll be determined by the performers and how they're feeling, and also the purpose of the performance.

Remember that the call signals that a piece is gonna start, change or end and arrives in between every section.

So that's the master drummer, the djembefola, communicating to the rest of the musicians, "We're gonna change to the next section now." Let's watch that whole structure now, try and follow it through.

(djembe playing rhythmically) To make the structure easier to remember, we can group the sections into the following.

Call, break, call, part one, call, break, call, part two, call, break, call, echauffement, and then the call.

So we break into those three chunks, that makes it a little bit easier to remember if we're chunking it like that.

Traditionally, the structure is repeated more than once, and it might be repeated several times, possibly at different speeds, again, depending on the purpose of the performance and the context.

Let's have a look at it using a faster tempo.

(djembe playing rhythmically) (djembe tempo increasing) Let's check your understanding.

Which of these is not the purpose of the echauffement section? Is it to help build a climax in the music, to start and finish the piece, to signal an increase in tempo, or to show the dancers that a change is coming? I'll give you a few seconds to choose which one is not the purpose of the echauffement.

And, well done then if you picked "To start and finish the piece." It's the call that starts and finishes the piece.

The echauffement serves the purpose of helping to build a climax, increase the tempo, and communicate with the dancers.

Fill in the missing sections of the structure.

You can pause my video while you do this.

And the missing sections here were, a break, and part one, in the first section.

And then two calls were missing in the third section.

Well done if you got those correct.

For task A, practice the full Warabadon rhythm.

Here's some success criteria.

You work as a team, deciding in advance who plays the calls, that's the person who's operating as the djembefola, the master drummer.

You keep a consistent tempo.

When you feel confident, you play a faster tempo or speed up for the ending to add that excitement in that climax.

Here's the structure of the whole piece.

And now I can pause my video, give this your best shot.

Now I'd like to reflect on the success of your performance.

Use these questions to get you thinking, and help you think about how you can improve your performance further.

Did you perform the sections in the correct order? How did you start and finish together, and what decisions did you make before the performance? Did you keep to a consistent tempo throughout? And were the rhythms and sonorities, bass, tone, and slap, correct in each part? So was everyone being very precise about where they were using those different sonorities? Pause my video while you finish off this reflection.

The second part of today's lesson is looking at incorporating polyrhythm in solo and improvisation.

The piece can be developed by adding solos.

Solos are played by the djembefola, so remember that's the master drummer, the leader who does the calls and communicates and leads the performance.

They're different to the normal parts in the music.

How would you describe the two solos in this example? (djembe playing rhythmically) So hopefully there, you managed to pick out that the solos are complex and syncopated.

They include fast triplet rhythms. So those groups of three notes and the rhythm is repeated.

So there's repetition involved as well.

Now, those were fixed solos, meaning that the specific rhythms were planned in advance.

Solos can also be improvised.

You can do this unprepared, which is where you create the rhythms completely on the spot and in the moment.

Or you can do prepared improvisation, which is where you loosely plan some ideas for rhythms beforehand, and then use them in your improvisation.

Once you've prepared your solo part, this needs to be accommodated in the overall structure.

So we need to work out where it fits in the structure of the whole piece.

Here is a suggested structure with the solo section.

Our first part is as normal, call, break, call, part one.

The same for the second part, call, break, call, part two.

Then in the third section, call, break, call, part three, and that's where we're gonna add our solos in the part three section.

And then our ending is as normal with the echauffement leading to the final call.

Now for part three, which is a solo section, you can use either, or both, the rhythms from parts one and two as an accompaniment.

If you manage to play both rhythms together in the accompaniment, that'll create a really interesting polyrhythm.

And then if you add the solos over this, it creates a really exciting complex rhythmic texture.

Polyrhythm is one of the distinctive features of the drumming traditions in the various different regions of West Africa, and it helps to give the music excitement and depth.

It's one of the defining aspects of many of these traditions.

So, to play part three with an added solo, split into two groups, have group one play the rhythm from part one, and group two play the rhythm from part two.

Allow performance to take it in turn to improvise solos.

Make sure that these start and finish with the call.

And after part three, make sure that all players play the call together and finish the piece as normal.

Let's check your understanding.

Which of the following is not a type of improvisation? Unprepared improvisation, prepared improvisation, or fixed improvisation? I'll give you a few seconds.

And the correct answer here is fixed improvisation.

Unprepared improvisation, so when you make it up completely on the spot, and prepared is where you plan some of your rhythms in advance.

For task B, add a solo improvisation to your performance of Warabadon.

Here's some success criteria.

You adapt the structure to add in part three.

You plan a prepared improvisation.

You start and finish each improvisation with a call.

Each member of the group plays a solo.

You focus on creating an effective polyrhythm by adding both accompaniment patterns, so parts one and two underneath the solos.

And you choose a tempo that's suitable for the whole group.

Here's the structure of the whole thing, and that solo section is gonna be in part three.

Here are some optional solo rhythms that you could use in your improvisation, or you can make them up completely on the spot, or prepare your own rhythms. So, you'd pause my video now.

Give this task your best shot.

For the final part of this task, listen to these improvised solos.

What makes them successful, and how could the solo section be developed further? Let's have a look.

(djembe playing rhythmically) Pause my video while you're finishing off your answer.

So here's some of the things you might've picked up on.

Both solos use syncopation, and different rhythms to the accompanying parts to create a polyrhythm.

The rhythms are more complex 'cause they use fast rhythms than the other parts, which makes the solos interesting and exciting.

The solos also contrast with each other as well.

So there's lots of good effective things about those solos.

In terms of developing it further, while there's only one accompanying rhythm, so using both together, we create a more complex texture and a polyrhythm using both rhythms one and two underneath the solos.

The solos could also have tried including flams, which are really exciting and effective technique for solo parts.

Well done if you picked up on some of those points there.

And hopefully, you can feed some of those in when you're improving your performance further.

Let's summarize today's lesson.

Warabadon has a structure consisting of different sections, and this is the structure that we've been using today.

Part three contains improvised solos which are performed by the djembefola or the master drummer, and they often include fast, complex triplet rhythms. The solo section for Warabadon includes polyrhythm.

This is a key feature which creates excitement and a thicker texture in the music.

And we've performed the full Warabadon structure, including an improvised solo.

So that brings us to the end of today's lesson.

I hope you've enjoyed exploring this piece of music with its complex polyrhythms, compound time, and its triplet rhythms as well.

And hopefully, you managed to put together a really effective performance with some improvisations to show off your creativity as well.

Thanks for taking part, and I'll see you in another lesson.