Lesson video

Hello, my name is Miss Charatan and looking forward to teaching you today, all about how bands stay in time together and how each part can be heard.

So we're going to be thinking a lot about musicianship.

We're going to start then with a warm up together.

I'm going to teach you some body percussion and you're going to use your musicianship to play at the same time as me with really, really good timing.

So this is a body percussion rhythm.

One, two, three, four.

Copy me.

And the second bit goes like this.

Like that, try again, really nice and slowly.

Two, three, four.

And again.

Okay and let's do it together, I'm going to count you in.

You want to start at exactly the same time as me, carry on and I'm going to go count down and we're going to stop exactly together.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, and stop.

Good, so hopefully you carried on a bit on your own, 'cause I didn't give you the one, two, three, four until the end.

Brilliant, let's get started with our lesson.

In this lesson, you will need a piece of paper, a pencil, something to write with, as well as a digital audio workstation.

So something like Garage Band or BandLab for Education, you can get on computers or phones.

Pause the video, find those things and come back when you are ready.

Lovely, let's make a start.

So today we've got lots of exciting things.

We're going to recap our knowledge of structure, we will learn about how bands play in time, we'll learn how and why band members communicate with each other.

We'll then think about the importance of balance in an ensemble and then we will practise balancing different parts in a digital audio workstation, so make sure you have got one ready to do that activity with.

Let's get started by recapping our knowledge of structure.

So what is a typical song structure? I've got the various parts of the structure here.

Pause the video, put them in order and resume when you're ready to check your work.

Lovely, let's check your answers.

Ready, start with the intro, verse one and then the chorus.

Then we have verse two, chorus and a bridge.

Followed by chorus and an outro.

So we're going to practise now identifying different parts of the structure.

So remember the intro probably doesn't have any lyrics, it probably is just instrumental.

Verse one is generally a little bit more stepwise, maybe not as catchy.

The chorus is the catchy big part of the song, probably with the most parts there, the outro's likely to kind of fade away at the end and it's likely to not have too much vocals in it.

So I'm going to play you part of a song and you are going to tell me what part of this song do you think it is? If you'd like to listen to that again, you can just rewind the video.

What part of the song did you think it was and why? If you said chorus and why? Because it was catchy and repetitive.

Well done if you've got both of those points.

Let's move on to this one.

So again, what part of the song do we think it is? And make sure you give a reason why you think it's that part.

♪ Same bed but it feels just a little bit bigger now ♪ ♪ Our song on the radio but it don't sound the same ♪ ♪ When our friends talk about you ♪ ♪ All it does is just tear me down ♪ ♪ 'Cause my heart breaks a little when I hear your name ♪ ♪ It all just ♪ Beautiful song.

What do we think that part of the song that was? Take a moment, think about your answer and your reason.

Okay, I'm going to reveal it now.

It is a verse and why was that? It was nice, it's a beautiful catchy song but it wasn't so repetitive and it had that AABB structure for the lyrics and it was very stepwise actually as well.

It only had voice and piano, so it didn't feel so energetic.

Let's move on to this part.

Which part of the song do we think it is and why? Another great song.

What part do we think that was and why? Going to reveal the answer now.

It was the intro and why was that? Because we didn't have any lyrics and the tension and the dynamics increased, so it was building up to the start of our song.

How about this one? ♪ I remember when ♪ ♪ I remember, I remember when I lost my mind ♪ ♪ There was something so pleasant about that place ♪ ♪ Even your emotions had an echo in so much space ♪ I'm going to reveal the answer right now, so pause if you're not ready yet.

That was a verse, well done if you got that correct.

Because again, it wasn't so repetitive and it was very stepwise.

So how about this one? ♪ I'm going down the only road I've ever been down ♪ ♪ Been down ♪ ♪ Ever been down ♪ What do we think it is and why? It was the outro, of course, because it faded away at the end.

Although also, well we had no lyrics at the very end 'cause it just faded away.

Okay, we recapped our knowledge of structure really well just then.

Now we're going to learn all about how bands play in time.

Okay, we are now going to play a bit of a game slash task.

You are going to clap this with me.

Let's first run through it, before I want you to copy it exactly with me.

So this is what it sounds like.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

Okay? So if you're not quite sure, then just come in with me.

Okay, so let's clap together.

Wait, did you play with me just then? What did I do wrong? What stopped you from be able to clap in time with me? Okay, one thing I did wrong, you might tell me, I didn't count you in.

So that meant you had no chance of coming in in time.

Okay, so together let's clap together.

One, two, three, four.

Was that better? I remembered to count in that time.

Good, so how did you stay in time with me then? And how do you think bands stay in time with each other? Have a think about that now.

Okay, so two ways you probably stayed in time with me: one, you hopefully were watching me in the corner over here and obviously it'd be easier if I was a real person in front of you, be more likely to watch me then and hopefully you used your ears, so you were listening to what I was doing and that's exactly what bands do to stay in time with each other.

Let's now have a look at some real famous bands to see what they were doing.

So look at this picture of The Beatles, one of the most influential bands ever.

They're looking at each other, you can see, as they're playing even though one of them is way up, far away on this kind of pedestal thing.

He's still looking at the other members of the band.

They're all obviously listening as well, 'cause they can't all see each other.

Let's now compare two different types of bands.

So on the left, we've obviously got The Beatles and on the right we have, probably looks like a kind of more classical wind band.

What's the difference between these two pictures? What do you notice about how they're playing together? How they know what they're doing, how they're staying in time.

Okay, so I'm going to highlight two things for you now.

These two, narrowing it down.

What do we think these are? How does this band stay in time with each other? How do they know what's going on? So in the blue circle, that's the conductor and they help everyone to stay in time by beating the beats, bringing everyone in and there is a music stand.

So that's sheet music, so they know exactly what and when to play.

However, this is a wind band, probably a classical one, looking at kind of how they're dressed and probably what they're playing from, sheet music.

That's very different to a pop band and pop bands typically don't play with music.

If we go back to our Beatles.

They don't have sheet music there, they don't have a conductor, they are using their ears, their eyes and they need to memorise a lot more than many classical musicians who play in larger ensembles because they have a conductor and they have sheet music.

So, we've learned about how bands play in time and now we're going to think more about that communication and what someone needs to know if they're playing particularly in a pop or rock band.

So we're going to watch this video of a Ceili band, which is Irish and I'd like you to think about five things that they need to memorise.

So list them down, write them down with a pencil and paper, so go and get that if you haven't got it.

We're going to watch a small clip of this.

Okay, really exciting tune there.

Pause the video if you need more time to write down the five things that they need to memorise.

Otherwise, let's see what I thought.

So they actually need to memorise not only their own parts, but the other parts going on around them 'cause they need to know their role within the band, whether to play loudly or more quietly.

They need to know their own part, obviously.

They need to know the structure because you could hear that there was some various different melodies happening.

So they needed to know when to move on to the next melody, otherwise it wouldn't sound good with the other parts.

They needed to know their role.

So how does their role relate to everybody else's? Were they playing the beat, the rhythm? Were they playing the main melody? Were they playing the chords? And that obviously affects how loudly they play and when they play.

And here we go, when they play.

So many of them at that point were playing all of the time but later on, it's likely that some would have a more prominent role than others.

So let's now have another look and seeing how they communicate with each other.

They didn't have any sheet music, they didn't have a conductor.

So how did they come in at the beginning? How did they come in all together? How did they make a really fantastic performance? So these are actual winners of a competition, so they are obviously a great ensemble.

So how did they communicate with each other? Let's watch the first little bit again.

So what did we notice? Pause the video if you need a bit more time or you can always rewind it and watch it again.

So they were looking at each other, so at the very beginning, they were all looking at one of the middle players and after we heard the piano chord, they all came in together and you could see particularly the flautists were looking across at each other to see what was going on.

They were obviously listening really carefully to each other because they were so well in time, even though they didn't have a conductor.

So they would probably listening to the drum parts because they were keeping that rhythm.

So let's now consolidate what we have done so far.

On your piece of paper, answer the three questions, pause the video, take five minutes and resume when you're ready to check your answers.

Lovely.

Hopefully now you're ready to check your answers.

So I've just put them straight on here.

So pause the video now, check your answers, give yourself a big tick if you've got them correct and add anything that you have missed out and resume the video when you are ready.

Lovely, well done.

So we have learnt how and why band members communicate with each other and now we're going to think about the importance of balance in an ensemble.

So balance is the relative volume level of different parts of a piece of music.

So for a piece of music to sound good, it needs to be balanced.

So parts that need to be loud enough so we can hear them.

Do we think that every single part in a band should be the same volume? Have a think about that now.

The answer is probably not.

So let's have a look at these, our favourite bands again.

Which parts do you think need to be heard more than others? And do you think this is going to be the same throughout the whole song? So you've got melody, bass line, rhythm and chords.

So pause the video, have a think about that now.

Think about the songs that you know, which parts stick out to you? So probably the melody needs to be heard a little bit more than the others because if we could only hear the drum kit more than everything else, we're not really going to get the essence of the song.

That's not going to be the same throughout the song because the melody is not always there.

There might be points where the bass line comes out and does something exciting or the bass player and the same in many other types of music.

We're not always going to have exactly the same balance all of the time.

So in a live performance and recordings, balance is sorted out.

What do we think happens before, during, and after the performance? Pause the video now, write down what you think needs to happen, using the pictures to help you and resume when you're ready.

So before a performance, there will typically be a sound check.

So you might sometimes hear if you get somewhere early, there might be a one, two, one, two on the microphones.

That is practising the, sorting out the levels of the relative different parts.

So it's really, really important because sometimes when a band is touring they're going to different venues, so some venues, they might be even placed and located in different places on the stage.

So that's really important they sort that out.

So with, with a mixing desk, often they will sort out the different levels of the instruments to make sure they have a really great sound.

During the performance, they, the people in the band or the ensemble are listening and adjusting to each other.

So whether that's going to be acoustic, so without electronic instruments, they might just be singing in a choir.

They're listening to each other and working out, are they balanced? It might actually be someone on a mixing desk adjusting the relative volume level of the different parts.

And after the performance or the recording, they would reflect on how it went.

Just like any piece of work, we need to reflect to get better.

So they might talk about it when each other and decide actually in that bit, you need to play louder or sing louder there.

So these three ways are really really important for ensuring excellent balance but probably the most important way is that listening because without listening, we're not going to be able to balance appropriately on a live performance or even on a recording.

So mixing is also really, really important and that's what we're going to explore a little bit more on a digital audio workstation.

We are now going to practise our listening.

You're going to listen to the track, "Can't Stop" by Red Hot Chilli Peppers and I'd like you to think really carefully, listening to the bass and the drums and what happens to the relative volume of those two parts? When the vocals come in, which is actually after this particular part, what do you think will happen to the volume then? And let's think about this drummer.

There's something that he needs to be really, really careful to remember.

I'm going to listen to the track now.

Lovely, pause the video and write down the answer to these three questions.

If you'd like to listen to it again, you can just rewind the video.

Resume when you're ready to check your answers.

Great.

So what were the answers? So the rise in volume with the bass and drums. The drums got a little bit louder over the course of the track until they stopped.

So the drums got louder than the bass.

What would happen to the bass and drums when the vocals come in? Well, they'd need to become a lot quieter because they'll need to be able to hear the vocals over the top of them.

Lastly, that drummer needed to remember when to stop because there was a bit where they stopped really suddenly and then the bass had their solo.

So that drummer needed to memorise the structure and memorise how many bars he was playing for, or she was playing for, before they stopped.

So another really good example of why memory is so important when playing particularly popular music.

We're now going to recap our learning again.

So on a piece of paper, you're going to answer the following questions.

Pause the video, take five minutes and resume when you are ready.

Lovely, let's check your answers.

So they're all on the screen here, pause the video, check them now, give yourself a big tick if you got correct and add any information that you missed off.

Lovely.

So we have done so much already today.

We are now going to explore how to balance different parts on a digital audio workstation.

So in a moment, I'm going to show you my piece on BandLab for Education.

You're going to find one thing wrong with the timing, three things wrong with the balance and you're going to tell me what to do to fix it.

Pause the video and make a note of the things that you need to look at 'cause in a moment, the screen is going to be the whole of my piece.

The demonstration you're about to see uses a free programme called BandLab for Education.

You can use it if you're under 13, but you must get permission from a parent or carer first.

Please speak to your parent or carer or your school for help in setting up the programme.

So here is my track.

So remember to find three things wrong with the balance, one thing wrong with the timing and one thing I can do to fix it.

Okay, so you can rewind the video again if you want to have another listen to my track, which had a lot wrong with it.

So what were the three things that were wrong with the balance? So number one would be the bass was way too loud.

So this was literally all we could hear.

The drums. The drums were also very overpowering when they came in and also our melodic interest, so our synths here, we couldn't hear them.

So we couldn't really hear any melodic ideas at all or this lead here.

So this actually had some really interesting ideas.

But we couldn't actually hear it at all.

Timing, you may have noticed my drum was completely out of time, my beat here.

So it needed to be back in time.

So to fix them, I needed to move this in time, I needed to turn down the bass, turn down the drums, probably turn up the lead and maybe turn up the other two as well.

Turn up this one too.

Let's hear what it sounds like now.

Okay, so it wasn't perfect actually, 'cause I didn't really listen to it, I just had a guess.

So I think probably the beat would need to go up a bit more.

Remember that you can actually do this as you go.

Just like someone on a mixing desk, they'd have music going on and they would actually adjust as they are hearing it.

So this brings us to your next task.

Your next task is to create a piece with perfect balance on a digital audio workstation.

I'm going to show you how to do that now.

You will create a very quick piece or use an existing piece.

Use the volume bars and automation to change the balance.

Okay, so on BandLab for Education, you will either find an old project to work on or start a new one using the mix editor.

I'm going to open up the one I have just shown you by doing open in mix editor here.

It's just loading, how exciting.

Okay.

So I created this by using loops.

It was super quick, it took me less than five minutes.

So the handy thing about BandLab is these loop packs.

So these are all loops that would fit really well together.

So there's all sorts, you can actually use the search bar at the top here to find something you like.

So let's say rock, Here we go, there's loads of different rocks, so I'm going to put them here and then if you end up getting skyline, for example, these would all fit together definitely.

So you can just drag in a skyline guitar, a skyline drums, a skyline bass and maybe try the keys and that should work really, really well.

Don't spend too long on the loops for this lesson because the focus is balance, it's not about necessarily choosing the best loops.

So that's if you haven't got a piece, you could do that quickly now for five minutes.

Set yourself a timer, so you don't spend any more time.

So let's say you've got a piece already like mine.

The first thing you need to do is actually think about the overall volume.

So you're going to put them in, they'll have default volumes here and you're going to press play.

As you're listening, you're going to adjust as you go along.

So you could see that I was adjusting as I went along and what you might want to do is actually loop it using this.

So that means it will just go around again and again and again, so you don't have to keep rewinding it every time.

So let's say you're absolutely happy with how all the levels and volume sound.

Then you can think about having it out of one ear or the other.

So for example, maybe I wanted to have my lead out of my right ear, my pad in the middle and maybe my bass in my left ear.

If you're wearing headphones, let's try it now.

So you might want that, you might want the drums in the centre.

Probably I'd suggest you have the drums left as they are.

So you can have a go with panning, so that's having it at out of one ear the other 'cause that does affect the balance, really.

And then the last thing to do is actually change the balance as you go on.

So let's say I wanted my drum beat to get louder and louder, like in Red Hot Chilli Peppers, I would click on this button.

I get this nice line here and that tells me what the volume is and at the moment it's the same all the way through.

Let's say I want it to get to be start quietly and then get louder and louder and louder.

I would make two dots, drag it down.

I can always move it up and down like this.

And I want it to get louder and louder.

I might want to do it more suddenly like this.

Let's hear what that sounds like, probably a bit weird.

So you can experiment around with the automation, so actually changing the volume of that individual part as you go through.

Pause the video to complete this task and resume when you are finished.

Take about 15 minutes to do this task.

Lovely.

Now there are three questions for you to think about and write down on paper.

Pause the video, write your answers to these questions and resume when you are finished.

Lovely, so for that purple box, you've probably put that your melody was louder and for your balance changing, I hope it did change because it adds an interest to the piece but you might not want it to change to have a real consistency throughout your piece.

So now it's your chance to share your project.

So you could show it to somebody at home, you could send to a friend or family for feedback or even share it with your school.

We're now going to return to our key question, thinking about how bands play in time and how they ensure they're balanced.

On your piece of paper, answer the four questions below.

Take five minutes to do this task and resume when you're finished.

Excellent work, let's now go over the answers to your questions.

So how do bands ensure they perform in time? They listen and they watch and maybe have a count in at the beginning.

Balance is the relative volume of different parts in a band.

Number three, how do live acts ensure they are balanced? So you've got that three step process: you've got the sound check, you've got the listening and adjusting, and there's reflecting at the end.

So definitely using their ears is really important and number four, how can you change the balance on a digital audio workstation? So you can change it with the volume dial, you can change panning using the right to left headphones and you can also use automation.

Well done if you got all of those correct.

Do share your work with Oak National, if you'd like to.

So please ask your parent or carer to share it on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tagging Oak National and using the hashtag #LearnwithOak.

All that's left to say is great job today, well done and see you next time.