Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to your music lesson today.

My name is Miss Al-Hanoush, and in today's lesson, we're going to be exploring what the human voice can do.

So up on your feet for a quick singing warmup.

Let's do a quick singing warmup and to make sure that our bodies are nice and warmed up, let's do some stretches.

So can you touch your toes and touch the ceiling for me? And can you stretch to the left and then stretch to the right and see if he can touch both sides of the room.

Excellent.

And roll your shoulders backwards and roll them forwards.

Brilliant.

Okay.

And just give your bodies a little bit of shake, make sure that your feet are shoulder width apart.

Can you look up, and look down, look left, and look right.

Excellent.

Okay, copy me.

♪ 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 5, 1 ♪ Walking in step up the scale.

Here we go.

After 4.

1, 2, 3, 4.

♪ 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 5, 1 ♪ Brilliant if you've got that.

This time take out the number three.

So, ♪ 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 2, 1 ♪ and so on.

Here we go, after 4.

1, 2, 3, 4 ♪ 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 4, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 1, 2, 4, 5, 4, 2, 1 ♪ ♪ 5, 1 ♪ Excellent, if you did that.

If not, you can rewind the video and have another go before we move on.

Hopefully you are now nice and warmed up.

In this lesson, you will need a piece of paper, a pencil, your body, and some water as we'll be moving around quite a lot.

You will also need a quiet space to work in and to turn off any apps or notifications on any electronic devices.

Feel free to pause the video now and get yourself ready and then resume once you're ready.

Let's take a look at today's lesson agenda.

You're going to begin by exploring the vocal range and acapella singing.

You're then going to sing "Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie" using call and response.

And then learn a body percussion part to fit with our performance of "Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie".

And then finally, you're going to perform your own version of "Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie".

Let's begin by exploring the vocal range and acapella singing.

So what is vocal range? Vocal range is the range of pitches from low to high that the voice can produce.

And when we say vocal range, we talk about that comfortably producing those sounds.

So have a go and see what the lowest and the highest sound you can produce is that's comfortable.

Feel free to pause the video and do that task before we move on.

So we split our vocal ranges into different sections, depending on how high or how low the voice is.

So on the left hand side, you can see we've got our different vocal ranges.

We start with soprano, which is the highest female voice.

And we then go down to our base, which is the lowest male voice.

So soprano, mezzo soprano and alto are our female voices and tenor, baritone and bass are our male voices.

Let's take a listen to what these sound like.

Here is an example of soprano singer singing "Summertime".

♪ Summertime, ♪ ♪ And the livin' is easy ♪ ♪ Fish are jumpin' ♪ ♪ And the cotton is high ♪ ♪ Oh, your daddy's rich ♪ Okay, so that was our highest female voice soprano.

Let's take a listen to a mezzo soprano.

So the next example is Etana.

♪ And my wings took flight ♪ ♪ I rise, I rise ♪ ♪ See, I'm hurting, but not broken ♪ ♪ Down, but I won't die ♪ ♪ I rise, I rise ♪ ♪ Soon I will reach the sky ♪ ♪ And still I rise ♪ So we can hear there that the mezzo soprano has a slightly lower pitch than the soprano voice.

So what's about an alto voice, our lowest female voice? For this, I'm going to use an example by Tracy Chapman, who has an alto voice.

You might recognise this.

♪ You got a fast car ♪ ♪ I want a ticket to anywhere ♪ ♪ Maybe we make a deal ♪ ♪ Maybe together we can get somewhere ♪ ♪ Any place is better ♪ ♪ Starting from zero got nothing to lose ♪ ♪ Maybe we'll make something ♪ ♪ Me, myself, I got nothing to prove ♪ Okay, so Tracy Chapman's definitely got a lower alto singing voice.

So her vocal range is of an alto.

So what's about males? What about the male vocals? So the highest male is what we call a tenor.

And here is Pavarotti as our male tenor.

What a beautiful voice.

So a baritone.

Again, you might recognise this one.

This is Lewis Capaldi.

He has a baritone voice.

Let's check him out.

♪ I'm going under ♪ ♪ And this time I fear there's no one to save me ♪ ♪ This all or nothing really got a way of driving me crazy ♪ ♪ I need somebody to heal ♪ ♪ Somebody to know ♪ ♪ Somebody to have ♪ ♪ Somebody to hold ♪ ♪ It's easy to say ♪ ♪ But it's never the same ♪ So the baritone voice is in between the tenor and the base range.

So let's have a listen to our last example of the bass vocal range.

And this example is by Nicolai Ghiaurov, who is an opera singer.

So there you have our six vocal ranges that females and males are placed in within their voices.

Now you might see what's just come up on the right hand side of the screen, SATB, and sometimes you see that on vocal scores.

And that simply means soprano, alto, tenor, and bass.

So now that we've heard the different vocal ranges, what is acapella singing? I'd like you to listen to the following performances.

And I'd like you to tell me how they are using their voices.

And are there any instruments accompanying them? So how are they using their voices? Well, they use their voices to actually create melody lines and percussion and harmony parts as well.

And was there any instruments accompanying them? No, there wasn't.

So acapella singing is when you only use your voice and you don't have any instruments accompanying you.

The first example that I showed you.

So the example that I just showed you was by The Swingle Sisters.

And they use their voice to create their own accompaniment as well as their melody lines over the top.

Take a listen to the second example of acapella singing by Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

This is a vocal group from South Africa.

And I want you to tell me how they're using their voices.

Did you spot how they were using their voices? So again, it was acapella, but they do something really clever.

And actually they tried to replicate animal sounds of South Africa within their music.

So right at the beginning of the extract, you would have heard what they've been trying to replicate as a frog croaking.

And if you listened further on throughout that, you'll hear little popping sounds and even a hyena laugh.

So even if you don't play an instrument or you don't have instruments that accompany you, there are loads of ways to use your voice, including acapella singing, which is a brilliant way to express yourself.

For your first pause task, on your piece of paper can you answer the following questions? What does SATB stand for? Which voice ranges do females usually sing in? And which voice ranges to males usually sing in? And what is acapella singing? Pause the video to complete your task.

Take five minutes max to do this, and then resume once you're finished.

Now that we've explored the vocal range and acapella singing, you're now going to sing "Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie" using call and response.

Before we learn how to sing the song, "Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie", let's look at its composer and what it's about.

So it was composed by a man that was nicknamed Lead Belly, and he was an American folk and blues singer, musician.

And he lived in Louisiana in the South of America.

South in North America.

And "Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie" was written around 1936.

So when performing a song, he would often tell his audiences that the song was about his uncle Bob who works out in the field, ploughing the soil.

And his uncle's wife was called Sylvie.

When Bob got thirsty, he would call for his wife, Sylvie, to bring him some water.

And after a long time, that call developed into a song.

So let's take a listen to "Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie".

And this version is by Moira Smiley.

Whilst you're listening, I'd like you to watch the video and think about what the lyrics are about.

Are there any instruments accompanying the choir? And if so, what are they? And what is the name that this type of vocal performance? Singing with our outdoor voices.

♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Bring me little water now ♪ ♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Every little once in a while ♪ ♪ Bring in a bucket Sylvie ♪ ♪ Bring in a bucket now ♪ ♪ Bring in a bucket Sylvie ♪ ♪ Every little once in a while ♪ ♪ Sylvie come runnin' ♪ ♪ Bucket in my hand ♪ ♪ I will bring a little water ♪ ♪ Fast as I can ♪ ♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Bring me little water now ♪ ♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Every little once in a while ♪ ♪ Can't you see me comin'? ♪ ♪ Can't you see me now? ♪ ♪ I will bring a little water ♪ ♪ Every little once in a while ♪ ♪ Every little once in a while ♪ ♪ Every little once in a while ♪ ♪ Every little once in a while ♪ So what do you think the lyrics were about? Remembering the story that I told you earlier.

His uncle is asking his aunt, Sylvie, to bring him some water whilst he was ploughing the fields.

Were there any instruments accompanying the choir? No.

And in that case, what was the name for this type of vocal performance? Acapella.

Well done if you've got the answers to those three questions correct.

Let's have a go at singing some of this song ourselves.

We're going to learn the lyrics to "Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie", using call and response.

Copy me.

Bring me little water, Sylvie.

Bring me little water, Sylvie.

Bring me little water now.

Bring me little water now.

Bring me little water, Sylvie.

Bring me little water, Sylvie.

Every little once in a while.

Every little once in a while.

Excellent.

Okay.

So have a listen to how this goes.

♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Bring me little water now ♪ ♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Every little once in a while ♪ How many phrases are there, there? Four.

Bring me little water Sylvie.

Bring me little water now.

Bring me little water Sylvie.

Every little once in a while.

Am I singing them short and staccato or am I singing them long and smooth, legato? ♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ or ♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ as staccato? I'm singing them nice and legato.

So we want to make our expression, our articulation, nice and legato when we sing these.

Can you hear my lyrics? I hope so.

They should be clear enough for you to hear them as well.

And the majority of this moves in step.

Where's the leap? The main leap? It's on that third line.

♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ So you've really got to leap that.

Let's have a go, line for line, call and response.

♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Bring me little water now ♪ ♪ Bring me little water now ♪ ♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Every little once in a while ♪ ♪ Every little once in a while ♪ Excellent.

Let's see if we can put the whole of those four phrases together, remembering that we want those nice legato phrasing and we need to make sure that we hit that leap on the top of water and Sylvie as it goes in.

So let's sing this in unison altogether at the same time.

Remember your posture, shoulders should be nice and back.

Imagine an invisible string holding you up.

Arms by your sides, and your feet should be shoulder width apart.

Here we go.

♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Bring me little water now ♪ ♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Every little once in a while ♪ Well done if you kept in time and managed to get the correct pitch and the correct articulation, nice and legato throughout that and the rhythm.

If you didn't, rewind the video and have another go.

For your next pause task, I would like to you to spend five minutes practising that first verse of "Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie".

Make sure that your posture is straight.

Imagine that imaginary, invisible string holding you up.

Also make sure that your feet are shoulder width apart, when you're singing, your hands by your sides, and make sure that you are pronouncing each of those words in each phrase correctly.

As an extension, how could you express the emotion within this song? Think about the way that you articulate it and your dynamics.

Pause the video to complete your task and then resume once you're finished.

Now that you've learned how to sing "Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie" using call and response, you're now going to learn a body percussion part, which will fit with it and fit with your performance.

On the screen, you can see a simple body percussion part which fits with "Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie".

Which parts of your body do you think you need to perform this? So you need your hands, your feet, your chest, and your thighs.

What are the numbers along the top? These are our beats in a bar.

So there are two bars here.

One, two, three, four, and then our second bar, five, six, seven, eight.

And what are the purple boxes? What do you think we do in those? So they are rests.

We don't do anything in the purple boxes.

And why are there two little people in beats two? Have a look at the words underneath.

So that's the nearest icon that I could find for a chest slap.

How'd you think that we would perform that? Bear in mind that there's two.

So they would be half beats each.

So let's see what this looks like when we put in our body percussion.

Here is how the body percussion part fits with Sylvie.

♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Bring me little water now ♪ ♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Every little once in a while ♪ So our main four parts that we need are a clap, a chest slap, a stamp, and a brush of the thighs.

And we go backwards and forwards, okay? So on seven, I went backwards, and then on eight, I went forwards.

Let's see if we can do this really slowly.

So we clap, chest chest, stamp, rest, clap, rest, brush, brush.

Try that again.

Clap, chest chest, stamp, rest, clap, rest, brush, brush.

Little bit faster.

Clap, chest chest, stamp, rest, clap, rest, brush, brush.

Okay, you can try it this time whilst I sing Sylvie.

See if you do it in speed.

So one, two, three, four.

♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Bring me little water now ♪ ♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Every little once in a while ♪ If you didn't manage to get that, you can rewind the video and have another go.

But that is the body percussion part to Sylvie.

For your third pause task, I would like you to take 10 minutes to rehearse the body percussion that you have just learned.

If you want to add a more complex part, like the one in the video, feel free to replicate that.

You will have to rewind and watch how they are doing it to be able to do it though.

Pause the videos to complete your task, and then resume once you're finished.

Now that you've learned a body percussion part to fit with your performance, you're now going to be performing your own version of "Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie".

So hopefully by now, you have practised that body percussion part, and you've practised singing "Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie" nice and clearly, watching your phrasing and the steps and the leaps.

So before we sing, let's just watch our posture, make sure that we are nice and straight.

We've got an invisible string holding us up.

Our arms and nice and loose by our sides.

And our feet are nice and shoulder width apart.

So now we've got our posture sorted, we're going to see if we can put "Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie", the lyrics and the body percussion parts together.

Okay? So we're going to sing this in unison.

So make sure that you're listening to myself for the timing, the tempo, any dynamics and the pitch as well.

And if you've got somebody that wants to sing this with you, also make sure that you're singing around the same as they are as well.

Particularly for the dynamics and the tempos, so that we're keeping in time with each other.

Remember where the steps and the leaps are in the song.

So remember that third line, that particular high leap.

And make sure that you're copying and following with the body percussion.

Let's have a go.

I'll do a count in of four.

One, two, three, four.

♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Bring me little water now ♪ ♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Every little once in a while ♪ How did you get on? Did you manage to keep in time with me? Let's have one more go.

This time, we're going to focus on making our phrasing really legato, nice and smooth.

And we're going to make sure that we put some dynamics and expression in as well.

So you can see that I am smiling whilst I'm singing this.

I'm not shouting it and saying, ♪ Bring me little water! ♪ I'm not doing that.

Nice and smiling like this, and I'm seeing it nice and legato.

And I would like you to do the same.

So let's put some dynamics in.

Let's start it quite quietly, so piano.

And let's see by that third line, if we can build it to forte, so loud.

And then let's bring back our fourth phrase as being piano again.

So let's have a go at doing that.

It will sound something like this.

♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Bring me little water now ♪ ♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Every little once in a while ♪ Did you notice how I changed my dynamics but I kept my phrasing nice and legato.

Let's have a go at doing that together in unison.

Here we go.

One, two, three, four.

♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Bring me little water now ♪ ♪ Bring me little water Sylvie ♪ ♪ Every little once in a while ♪ How did you do then? Hopefully you're now getting the hand of those body percussion parts, and able to put those different expressions into your performance as well.

If not, feel free to rewind the video and have a go with your performing task next before moving alongside me and seeing if you can get those into your performance.

For your fourth pause task, take 10 minutes to perform "Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie" to a member of your household.

Can you ask them to clap the pulse for you as you perform? And can you teach them the lyrics and the body percussion part.

Try performing it in time with them as well.

Re-perform it again.

And then this time, thinking about your expression.

Are you singing in legato? Are you shouting or are you singing? As an extension, how could you make the body percussion part more complex? Could you add two more body percussion sounds to it and try and perform it? Think about why you're choosing that sound.

And can you replicate the body percussion that Moira Smiley used in her version that we watched earlier? Pause the video to complete your task and then resume once you're finished.

Let's just recap the agenda for today.

You began today's lesson by exploring vocal range and acapella singing.

You then learned how to sing "Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie" using call and response, and learned a body percussion part to fit with your performance.

You then end the lesson by performing your own version of "Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie".

Amazing job.

Well done.

For your final pause task, on your piece of paper, I would like you to answer the following question.

What can a human voice do? Think about all the things that we've talked about today and all the things that you've listened to today as well.

Take five minutes to complete this task and then resume once you're finished.

How did you get on with that last question? What can a human voice do? Well, it can sing, speak, beatbox, make a variety of different sounds, including replicating animal sounds too.

So how are you going to use your voice in the future? Hopefully you can think about that question and whilst you do it, don't forget to do the end of lesson quiz to show me how much you've learned and yourselves how much you've learned.

And if you would like to share your work with Oak National, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

That's all from me today.

Hopefully I'll see you in the next lesson.

Go and have a rest and goodbye.