Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to another music lesson with me, Miss Minor.

I'm really looking forward to getting creative with you in today's lesson, and I really hope you've been enjoying the learning so far.

So, let's go.

What will we cover in this lesson? We will start with a warm up.

Captain, go sidetrack your train.

We will then learn about world percussion.

Following that, we will learn to make and find four sound sources at home with different timbres.

Finally, we will accompany a song with a homemade instrument.

In this lesson, you will need: two saucepans, a wooden spoon, a few old tubs, pots, boxes, or bottles, some rice or pasta, and your body.

Now, if you don't have these, please, don't worry.

You'll still be able to watch the video and join in, and there'll be some body percussion options later on for you to do instead.

So please, don't worry.

Please pause the video now to gather anything you need, and when you've got everything, press play and we'll continue.

Our warm up today is going to be "Captain, go sidetrack your train", again, except we are going to be singing an ostinato along with this.

And when I say singing, we're really going to be whispering.

We're going to be making that train sound, like this Can you try that with me? Ready? Steady.

Off we go.

Super! Choose a part and sing along.

♪ Captain, go sidetrack your train ♪ ♪ Captain, go sidetrack your train ♪ ♪ Number one in line ♪ ♪ Coming in on time ♪ ♪ Captain, go sidetrack your train ♪ Pause the video to practise the song.

When you've finished press play and we'll carry on.

How could you describe the timbre of these instruments? If you're stuck for a describing word, have a look at the word bank on the right.

The first instrument I would like you to explore is the djembe.

Have a listen to what it sounds like and think of a describing word that describes its timbre.

And this is the güiro.

And this is a ganzá, usually found in samba.

And finally, we have the agogô bells and these are a pitched percussion instrument.

That means they play different pitches, not just rhythms. I hope you were able to think of a describing word to describe each of the instruments timbres.

If you're stuck, you could always use the word bank at the side.

Make a mental note of these now or jot them down, if you can.

So what does timbre mean? Is it the heartbeat of the music? Whether a sound is high or low? Is it the quality of the sound? How you can distinguish one sound from another? Or is it how loud or quiet a sound is? Point to the answer you think is correct.

Well done.

It's the quality of a sound.

We are going to create our own world percussion from items in the home.

Last week, we really thought about timbre, long and hard, as well as finding sound sources in our home.

Now some of those sound sources we're going to be using again today, and we need a sound source that's most similar to a djembe.

Now thinking about that djembe sound, we know that it creates quite a woody hollow sound.

So, I've looked through my sound sources and I've decided that for me, the best thing I can use is this big cardboard box.

Now, I might want to think about how I'm going to play this.

I could stand it up on its end like this, but I don't like the vibrations quite so much.

I'm going to keep it like this.

I could even experiment with tapping it on the side.

So, my djembe is going to be my cardboard box.

Next, I need to imitate the güiro.

And I've been thinking really carefully about how the güiro is played and what I have at home that sounds most similar.

So, I've decided on my chopping board, which with a wooden spoon, makes this lovely scraping sound very similar to a güiro.

So, here's my güiro at home.

Now it's time to imitate the ganzá, bit like a shaker used mainly in samba music.

Now, this might make you put your thinking caps on a little bit more, compared to the other instruments.

Personally, I've used an old milk bottle, which I've washed out, but you could use a water bottle or an old plastic bottle.

And I've filled it with some rice and some pasta.

I'll put a bit more in.

Here's my rice.

Now, as I've got a really big vessel, I'm putting lots of rice and pasta in there, but the smaller the bottle, the less rice you need to put in.

You may also find that you have a tub hanging around in your cupboard, that's already got things in that you could just shake.

So, you may find you don't need to make this, but for me, I've been experimenting with the size of the bottle and the type of grain or pasta that I've put in and listening very carefully to the different sounds it makes and how it affects the timbre.

So here's my ganzá.

It's a very large one.

It's a very deep sound, but I like it.

And I'm working from home so, my ganzá, I love it.

Now, I've had to think long and hard about the agogô and think about what sound sources I have at home that will sound most like the agogô.

Now what makes the agogô different than the other percussion instruments here is that it's tuned percussion.

That means it has pitches.

Whereas the others don't, they're more rhythmical.

So, I needed to find something in the home or some things in the home that would have more than one pitch, a higher pitch and a lower pitch.

And I found these two different size saucepans that make a higher sound and a lower sound.

Just like the agogô bell has a higher part and a lower part.

Now, before you go raiding your cupboards in your kitchen, please do ask your parent or carers permission before you take things out.

I'm going to use these saucepans and I'll show you how it sounds just like the agogô.

See if you can find something similar at home.

Most importantly, please don't panic, if you can't find these sound sources at home or don't have access to them.

What I know all of you have is your bodies.

So, if you can't find any or all of these items, don't worry.

We have an alternative, the base drum we're going to do on our knees.

The güiro, we're going to do like this.

The ganzá, we're going to do just like the ostinato in our warmup.

And our agogô we're going to do like this.

♪ Ding, ding, dong, ding ding da-dong dong ♪ ♪ Ding, ding, dong, ding ding da-dong dong ♪ ♪ Ding, ding, dong, ding ding da-dong dong ♪ So, if you can't find any of these sound sources, don't panic, pause the video and practise that body percussion.

Now, it's time to pause the video and get anything you need and have your time to practise each of these different timbres.

Take your time and when you're ready, press play and we'll carry on.

Just to test your knowledge, which of these instruments is not a percussion instrument? A djembe, a güiro, an agogô bell, or a violin.

What do you think? You're right! A violin belongs to the string family.

So now, you have your four world percussion instruments.

Homemade, of course, or if you don't have those, you have four body percussion sounds.

We are ready to create our four-part polyrhythm.

Now, a polyrhythm is when you have two or more rhythms being played at the same time, and those rhythms are going to be different.

Our first rhythm we're going to learn on a djembe, or for me a cardboard box.

And it's just on the pulse.

It goes like this.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Don't forget.

If you haven't managed to find a cardboard box, or you don't have access to anything at home that could be the same as a djembe.

You can use your body.

So, we're going to do it on our knees.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Let's try it all together.

Whether you're using your body percussion or you're using an homemade instrument.

Off we go.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Super! Well done.

The second part is our güiro part.

And for me, I'm using my ridged chopping board, but you may be using something like a cheese grater or something else you've found in your kitchen that makes that sort of scrapy timbre.

And don't worry, if you haven't got an instrument, there is that body percussion action instead.

This rhythm goes like this.

Scrape and scrape, and scrape and scrape, and scrape and scrape and scrape and scrape and- Remember if you're doing the body percussion, you're going to do.

Scrape and scrape, and scrape and scrape, and scrape and scrape and scrape and scrape and- Let's try it together.

Off we go.

Scrape and scrape, and scrape and scrape, and scrape and scrape and scrape and scrape and- Well done.

The third part of our four part polyrhythm is the ganzá part.

I have my ganzá here and you may have a bottle filled with rice or grains, or you might be doing your vocal percussion instead.

Just like the ostinato for "Captain, go sidetrack your train".

If you're using a ganzá, you're going to think about this.

Shakey, shakey, shakey, shakey, shakey, shakey, shakey, shakey, shakey, shakey, shakey, shakey, shakey, shakey, shakey, shakey.

Let's try it.

Remember you're either using the vocal percussion or you're using shakey shakey on your ganzá.

Off we go.

Well done.

The fourth and final part to our four part polyrhythm is my personal favourite.

The part of the agogô bell and it goes like this.

Hi, hi, low, low, hi, hi, low, low, hi, hi, low, low, hi, hi, low, low.

Remember, if you haven't managed to find any saucepans or anything at home, that's nothing to worry about.

You're going to do it like this.

Hi, hi, low, low, hi, hi, low, low, hi, hi, low, low, hi, hi, low, low.

Let's have a go all together.

Off we go.

Well done.

Now, pause the video and choose your part to practise.

When you press play, we're going to perform all of the parts together.

So, be ready! Press play when you're ready.

So just remind me, what does timbre mean? Is it the quality of the sound? How you can distinguish one sound from another? Is it whether a sound is high or low? Is it how fast or slow the music is? Or is it how loud or quiet the sound is? What do you think? Correct! It's the quality of a sound.

So, here comes the challenge.

What I would like you to do is have a go at singing, "Captain, go sidetrack your train" with the ganzá apart underneath, that we've been practising.

But don't worry, if you don't have your homemade ganzá, you can use the ostinato vocal percussion instead.

Or you could improvise! ♪ Captain, go sidetrack your train ♪ ♪ Captain, go sidetrack your train ♪ ♪ Number one in line ♪ ♪ Coming in on time ♪ ♪ Captain, go sidetrack your train ♪ So, that brings us to the end of the lesson, a really big well done on all the fantastic learning you've achieved in this lesson.

I've got two final things I'd like you to do now.

Firstly, think back and identify one key thing you've learned today.

It's totally up to you what it is.

Secondly, if you'd like to please take a picture of your work and ask your parent or carer to share it with your teacher.

So, that they can see all the fantastic things you've learnt.

If you'd like to please ask your parents or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter; tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

Now, don't forget to complete the end of lesson quiz.

Well, all that's left for me to say is thank you, take care, and enjoy the rest of your learning for today.

Bye!.