- Year 10
- OCR
Delving deeper into West African percussive music
I can understand and perform some more complex examples of West African percussive music.
Copyrighted materials: to view and download resources from this lesson, you’ll need to be in the UK and
- Year 10
- OCR
Delving deeper into West African percussive music
I can understand and perform some more complex examples of West African percussive music.
Copyrighted materials: to view and download resources from this lesson, you’ll need to be in the UK and
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Lesson details
Key learning points
- West African percussive music is often rhythmically complex.
- West African musicians traditionally don't use notation, but instead learn rhythms by ear and through movement.
- A compound time signature has each beat divided into three quavers. 6/8 is a common example of this.
- In a simple time signature each beat is divided into two quavers.
- Some West African music has a feel of compound time, including akom and dununba.
Keywords
Simple time - Simple time is where each beat is divided into two quavers. 4/4 and 3/4 are examples of this.
Compound time - Compound time is where each beat is divided into three quavers. 6/8 and 12/8 are examples of this.
Polyrhythm - When multiple rhythms are played at the same time we call this a polyrhythm.
Dununba - Dununba is a type of dance and music in compound time from Guinea.
Common misconception
Dance music is usually in 4/4.
While the majority of modern Western dance music is in 4/4, dance music around the world (and throughout history) often uses different time signatures, including 3/.4, 6/8 and 12/8, as well as others.
To help you plan your year 10 music lesson on: Delving deeper into West African percussive music, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 10 music lesson on: Delving deeper into West African percussive music, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom.
Explore more key stage 4 music lessons from the North Indian Classical music and West African drumming unit, dive into the full secondary music curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
DAW and/or set of hand drums and percussion instruments
Licence
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