Layering parts in Wade In The Water
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Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can sing Wade In The Water in a polyphonic texture with four vocal layers.
Key learning points
- African American spirituals were songs created by enslaved African Americans in the 19th Century.
- They expressed faith, hope, sorrow, and resistance, and sometimes carried hidden messages about freedom.
- A melody is divided up into phrases, each being a musical idea, like a sentence in a story.
- A polyphonic texture means each layer of harmony has a distinct melody that moves at different times.
- An anacrusis is when the opening note or notes of a phrase starts before the first beat of the bar.
Keywords
Phrase - a musical thought, like a sentence in a story
Harmony - the notes that accompany the melody
Texture - the combination of different layers of sounds
Polyphonic - each layer of harmony has a distinct melody that moves at different times
Anacrusis - the opening note or notes of a phrase starting before the first beat of the bar (also called a pickup)
Common misconception
In polyphonic textures, it can be hard to hear the blend of all the sounds together, so can sound "messy" while learning.
Listen to the performance tracks first to get used to what the different overlapping layers will sound like together.
Teacher tip
With smaller groups, you could just use two or three of the layers rather than all four. The audio recordings are at the lower octave. Parts can be sung at either octave to suit pupils' voices.
Licence
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