Building texture with a minor accompaniment

♪ - Hello again, musicians. ♪ It's me, Mrs. Steele, back with another music lesson for us today. In today's music lesson, we'll be learning all about building texture with a minor accompaniment. But before we begin, there's a listening example today that doesn't feature in today's video, so you'll need to take a moment to find that listening example now. There's a teacher guidance slide at the beginning of the slide deck to help you with this. Press Pause if you need to find that listening example. Are you ready? We are going to have lots of fun together today, so let's get started. By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to accompany a minor tonality song with a melodic ostinato. Here are the key words that we'll need in our learning together today. Unison: the same tune sung or played at the same time. Accompaniment: a musical part that supports the main melody or chant. Melodic ostinato: a repeating musical pattern that uses notes of differing pitch. Minor pentachord: the first five notes of the minor scale, la, ti, do, re, and mi. And finally, 3-time: the organization and feel of bars as strong-weak-weak. We know that it's important to warm up our minds, our bodies, and our voices before every music lesson so that we're ready to move and ready to sing. We need to gently warm and stretch those vocal chords to make sure that we prevent injury and that we can sing safely. It also helps develop our musical skills too. Join in with these warmups so that you are ready to make music. (bright piano music) ♪ Ready, chickens ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 1, 2 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 1, 2 ♪ ♪ 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 ♪ Warmup chicken! ♪ Ready, chickens ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 1, 2 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 1, 2 ♪ ♪ 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 ♪ Warmup chicken! (children clucking) Let's warm up all the muscles of our faces. Show me your happy face. Show me your grumpy face. Show me your big face. Show me your small face. Show me your silly face. Show me your thinking face. You ready? (soft piano music) (Mrs. Steele inhales) (Mrs. Steele exhales) (Mrs. Steele inhales) (all exhaling) (Mrs. Steele inhales) (all exhaling) (Mrs. Steele inhales) (all exhaling) Follow me. (all humming) (all buzzing) (all vocalizing) The great Greek grape growers grow great Greek grapes. These tongue twisters and songs will help us to warm up further as they help us to move our mouths and use our voices in lots of different ways. Let's start with two tongue twisters. Here they are for you to join in. ♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ Fresh fried fish, fresh fried fish ♪ ♪ Fresh fried fish, fresh fried fish ♪ ♪ Fresh fried fish ♪ ♪ Fresh fried fish, fresh fried fish ♪ ♪ Fresh fried fish, fresh fried fish ♪ ♪ Fresh fried fish ♪ ♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ She sees cheese, she sees cheese ♪ ♪ She sees cheese, she sees cheese ♪ ♪ She sees cheese ♪ ♪ She sees cheese, she sees cheese ♪ ♪ She sees cheese, she sees cheese ♪ ♪ She sees cheese ♪ Now let's sing "Light and Dark." Here comes the music (bright piano music) ♪ Mmm, minor, minor ♪ ♪ Mmm, minor, minor ♪ ♪ Mmm, minor, minor ♪ ♪ Mmm ♪ ♪ Mmm, major, major ♪ ♪ Mmm, major, major ♪ ♪ Mmm, major, major ♪ ♪ Mmm ♪ ♪ Mmm, minor, minor ♪ ♪ Mmm, minor, minor ♪ ♪ Mmm, minor, minor ♪ ♪ Mmm ♪ ♪ Mmm, major, major ♪ ♪ Mmm, major, major ♪ ♪ Mmm, major, major ♪ ♪ Mmm ♪ And now join in with the echoes in "Abiyo Abeyo." (rhythmic drum music) ♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ Abiyo ♪ ♪ Abiyo ♪ ♪ Abeyo ♪ ♪ Abeyo ♪ ♪ Abio, bio, bima ♪ ♪ Abio, bio, bima ♪ ♪ Abio, bio, bima ♪ ♪ Abiyo, bio, bima ♪ ♪ Abiyo ♪ ♪ Abiyo ♪ ♪ Abeyo ♪ ♪ Abeyo ♪ ♪ Abio, bio, bima ♪ ♪ Abio, bio, bima ♪ ♪ Abio, bio, bima ♪ ♪ Abio, bio, bima ♪ Does your body feel relaxed? Does your throat feel warm? And are you alert and focused? Brilliant. You are ready for music. We're going to begin today by practicing known minor tonality folk songs. Let's start with "Rise Up O Flame." It can be sung as a round, meaning we can sing the same melody but in groups starting at different times. Sing part one of "Rise Up O Flame" in unison, all together at the same time. Listening to how it fits together as a two-part round. Remember to tap the beat as you sing. Here comes the music. You sing part one. Can you hear when the second voice enters? ♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ Rise up o flame ♪ ♪ By thy light glowing ♪ ♪ Show to us beauty ♪ ♪ Vision and joy ♪ ♪ Rise up o flame ♪ ♪ By thy light glowing ♪ ♪ Rise up o flame ♪ ♪ Show to us beauty ♪ ♪ By thy light glowing ♪ ♪ Vision and joy ♪ ♪ Show to us beauty ♪ ♪ Rise up o flame ♪ ♪ By thy light glowing ♪ ♪ Rise up o flame ♪ ♪ Show to us beauty ♪ ♪ By thy light glowing ♪ ♪ Vision and joy ♪ ♪ Show to us beauty ♪ ♪ Vision and joy ♪ Now let's try singing that second part entry. Listen to the round begin and then all join in as the second voice starts. Remember to tap the steady beat gently as you sing. Here we go. ♪ Ready, steady, off we go ♪ ♪ Rise up o flame ♪ ♪ By thy light glowing ♪ ♪ Show to us beauty ♪ ♪ Vision and joy ♪ ♪ Rise up o flame ♪ ♪ By thy light glowing ♪ ♪ Rise up o flame ♪ ♪ Show to us beauty ♪ ♪ By thy light glowing ♪ ♪ Vision and joy ♪ ♪ Show to us beauty ♪ ♪ Rise up o flame ♪ ♪ By thy light glowing ♪ ♪ Rise up o flame ♪ ♪ Show to us beauty ♪ ♪ By thy light glowing ♪ ♪ Vision and joy ♪ ♪ Show to us beauty ♪ ♪ Vision and joy ♪ When we sing rounds like this one, we're adding layers and creating a thicker texture. It's particularly important to keep a steady sense of pulse when we do this to make sure that we can all sing and play in time together. Our song, "Have You Seen the Ghost of Tom?" can also be sung as a round. Let's listen to it sung in unison to remember how it goes. Here's the music. (bright piano music) ♪ Have you seen the ghost of Tom ♪ ♪ Long white bones with the skin all gone ♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ ♪ Wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on ♪ ♪ Have you seen the ghost of Tom ♪ ♪ Long white bones with the skin all gone ♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ ♪ Wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on ♪ It's time for a check-in and we've got three challenges to choose from. You could sing "The Ghost of Tom" in unison, sing it as a two-part round, or challenge yourselves to sing it as a four-part round. If you sing it as a round, remember to not sing too loudly. We need to hear all of those parts working together. Press pause to choose your "Have you seen the Ghost of Tom?" challenge. And you can use whichever audio button is right for you to help you. See you soon! It's time to find your extra listening example now of "Old Abram Brown." As you listen, tap the pulse very gently. Can you spot when the song is in unison, in a two-part round and in a four-part round? Press pause to find that listening example now and listen very carefully. Now have a listen to this shortened version. This one's a two-part round. Then I've got a challenge for you. Split into two groups and decide who will sing each entry. You begin in unison. Then sing two further verses in a round. Remember to swap turns after you've completed this so you each have a turn at singing both parts. It's important to continue feeling the steady pulse as you complete this challenge so that we can all sing together. And remember to consider your dynamics carefully. We need to make sure that we can hear both parts all of the time. Press pause to listen to "Old Abram Brown" as a two-part round, and then try joining in together. As we listened earlier, did you spot that the song is sung in unison two times, then a two-part round two times, and then dividing again into a four-part round? Well done, if you did. Great listening. Did you feel the steady pulse as you sang? And did you sing gently so that both parts can be heard? It's important to have a balance between each part that's singing. Can be very tempting to sing loudly so that we can concentrate on our part, but we want to have open ears and hear how all of those parts fit together. Now let's move on to adding a melodic ostinato layer. We know that folk songs can be accompanied or unaccompanied. In this unit, we've explored singing unaccompanied, adding a steady beat, adding a drone, we've added a rhythmic ostinato and we've added a melodic ostinato too. Now we are going to create a melodic ostinato to accompany our minor tonality song "Rise Up O Flame." Remember that a melodic ostinato is a repeated musical pattern and it uses high and low pitches to create that pattern. Beats are organized into groups. In "Rise Up O Flame," the beats are organized into threes and we call this 3-time. We can tap the beat like this as we listen. Strong, weak, weak, strong, weak, weak, strong, weak, weak. Listen carefully to this clip. Can you hear the three beat pattern and can you identify the melodic ostinato? You can hear a pattern of three notes, low, middle, high, and this keeps repeating over and over again. Have a listen. (light music) When we add an accompaniment such as a melodic ostinato, like this one, it's important that we think about balancing our sound. It can be tempting to play loudly, but remember that the ostinato is accompanying the melody. The accompaniment is usually quieter than the melody. To create a melodic ostinato, we are going to use pitched percussion instruments and the notes la, do, and, mi from the minor pentachord. For this song la is D, do is F, and mi is A. Here's our melodic ostinato. ♪ La, do, mi ♪ Watch this video of the ostinato being played. (light xylophone music) Now let's try singing the Solfege, adding our hand signs to learn this melodic ostinato. It follows the steady 3-time beat. ♪ La, do, mi ♪ ♪ La, do, mi ♪ ♪ La, do, mi ♪ Watch this video to see what that looks like with our hand signs. Then press pause to practice it where you are. ♪ La, do, mi ♪ ♪ La, do, mi ♪ ♪ La, do, mi ♪ ♪ La, do, mi ♪ It's time for a quick check-in. True or false: All music is organized into four beach groups or 4-time. Do you think that's true or false? Point to your answer now. That's false. Well done, if you remember that. "Rise up O Flame" isn't in 4-time, is it? It's in 3-time. Music can have any number of beats grouped together. We often hear music in 2-time, 3-time or 4-time. The moment is here. It's time for our big musical challenge of our lesson today. First, you're going to find la, do, and mi on your pitched percussion instrument. Then practice playing arm melodic ostinato for "Rise Up O Flame" slowly keeping a steady 3-time beat. You could sing the Solfege to help you if you'd like to. Then practice playing the melodic ostinato as you listen to the recording. Remember, if you get lost, you can return to la each time it comes back around. Then when you feel confident doing that, you could try playing the melodic ostinato and singing at the same time or try it with a partner. You are going to want to do this at your own pace where you are taking your time working through all of those different practicing stages. So I'll show you the slide that you might need before you press pause. Here it comes. Here's the slide that you might need. Have fun practicing each of those stages in your "Rise Up O Flame" melodic ostinato. Find the notes, practice the ostinato, then try playing it along with the recording, you could sing the Solfege if this helps you, then when you feel confident, try putting it all together, singing and playing the melodic ostinato at the same time or working with a partner. Good luck and I'll see you soon! Hello again. How did you get on? Try listening to the recording again and taking a moment to think about how your playing compared. Did you remember the la, do, and mi pattern? Could you play the ostinato in time to a steady 3-time beat all together neatly? And were you able to sing as you played? Well done if you could. That's a particularly tricky challenge. As we've come to the end of our lesson together today, let's take a moment before we finish to think about everything that we've been learning. We know that folk songs can be accompanied or unaccompanied, and an ostinato can be rhythmic or melodic. We know that adding an ostinato underneath a song adds another layer of sound to the texture of the piece, just like we did today with "Rise Up O Flame." And we know that we need to consider the dynamic balance when adding accompaniments to our songs. And we know that beats are organized into groups. For example, our song "Rise Up O Flame" is in the 3-time. Great music making together today, everyone. I can't wait to see you again for another music lesson soon. Bye!.