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Hi, everyone.

I'm Ms. Friar and I'm going to be your music teacher for lesson three of unit three, all around blues music.

Right, straight into our warm up activity today.

I'm going to be playing you a bassline, a low part walking bassline.

Here it is.

First question.

Can you hear how many beats in a bar I was playing? There's a bar.

There's another bar.

How many beats in a bar could you hear? Tell me in three, two, one.

It's four.

Four beats in a bar.

And I'm playing four notes per bar.

So what I want you to do now is clap all the pitches you can hear in each bar, all the notes you can hear.

I'll flick at the start of the bar.

Here we go.

♪ One, two, clap your hands, ready and ♪ Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap.

Clap, clap, clap, clap.

Great.

This time, what I want you to do is I want you to clap a strong clap on the first beat of the bar.

So it'll sound like this.

One, two, three, four.

Two, two, three, four.

Three, two, three, four.

Ready? So big strong clap on the first beat of the bar.

One, two, three and four.

Good.

Great.

This time, I want you to put a strong clap on the first and the third.

♪ Pom pom pom pom ♪ ♪ Pom pom pom pom ♪ Okay, let's give it a go.

A one, two, first and third beat, go.

Da.

Great.

Well-accented notes and claps on the first and third beats of our bar.

They are our strong beats of a four beat in a bar rhythm following my bassline.

Well done.

Let's carry on and see what you need to get ready for today's lesson.

Right, okay.

So let's get everything that we need for today's lesson to go really well.

You're going to need a piece of paper or a booklet to write your notes in or if you've got the worksheet at hand, you can work from that.

You're going to need a pencil and I suggest a different coloured pen so that you can make any notes or mark any of your work.

And then for the lesson today where we're going to be making some music, you've got a few options.

One, I suggest you work from a piano or a keyboard or if you don't have that, then you can use one of the keyboard apps that are available.

There is options to play the part that we're going to on a bass guitar on a ukulele and on an acoustic guitar following something called tab.

So if you have a ukulele, a bass guitar or a normal guitar and would like to use that, then you can grab that as well.

So if you need anything from that list or if you need to go and get those instruments that I've spoken about, pause the video now, go and get everything you need and then come back and we'll have a look at the structure for today.

Okay.

So the first thing we're going to do in today's lesson is we're going to look at how blues music was created.

So we've looked at where, why and now, we're going to look at the bit of the how it happened.

We're going to understand blues rhythms. Okay, so we've looked a lot around notes and chords and progressions.

So we've looked a lot around pitches, chords and progressions but now, we're going to look at the rhythm and rhythm is so important to the style of blues music.

We're going to have a go at playing some blues rhythms on drums and I'll show you through that in a moment.

And you're going to have a go at doing an extension of our bassline called a walking blues bassline.

And then when you're ready, we're going to see if we can record that with some drums. All right, let's get going.

We're going to look a little bit into how blues music was created.

So how it evolved into the music that we know today.

It is believed that blues music was created by many communities over a period of many years.

Blues is a fusion of West African traditions and styles that evolved due to the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery.

So there were many historical moments, many communities, many cultures that have, it didn't happen that somebody just woke up one day and just created blues music.

It happened with lots of different factors and it developed over a period of time.

Here are three other traditions and styles that have evolved and come together in the creation of blues music.

One is African chants and drumming.

So that's a tradition from African American in their home countries and the music that they would play there.

While they were working in fields as slaves or in prisons, they would create work songs.

We spoke a bit about that when we looked at "Wade in the Water" and Ella Jenkins in the last lesson.

So then would sing to keep them motivated and to give them hope.

And they would sing the words in the rhythm of the work that they were doing.

The other style that helped to evolve blues music is something called spirituals.

Religious music, gospel music where everyone would come together and sing, especially in church.

Those three traditions performed and listened to and experienced over a period of time all came together to help blues music be created in the late 19th century going into the 20th century.

Good, well done.

So what we're going to do now is another listening task.

We're going to listen to a song "Tutti Frutti" by Little Richard.

And there's four questions for you to answer so make sure you've got your pencil and your piece of paper ready, your ears are tuned in and we're going to analyse the music while we answer these questions, okay? Active listening.

Number one, name two instruments you can hear.

Number two, how many beats are there in a bar? Three or four? Number three, what do you notice about the first four lines of the lyrics? And four, what is the pattern of the bassline? So lots to listen out for.

I'm going to play the clip for you twice and then you're going to pause and answer the questions.

Here we go.

♪ A wop bop a-luma blop bam bom ♪ ♪ I got a girl named Sue ♪ ♪ She knows just what to do ♪ ♪ I got a girl named Sue ♪ ♪ She knows just what to do ♪ ♪ She rocks to the east ♪ ♪ She rocks to the west ♪ ♪ But she's the girl that I love best ♪ ♪ Tutti frutti, aw rooty ♪ ♪ Tutti frutti, aw rooty woo ♪ ♪ Tutti frutti, aw rooty ♪ ♪ Tutti frutti, aw rooty ♪ ♪ Tutti frutti, aw rooty ♪ Okay, so maybe you've answered number one, number two.

Let's listen to the clip again.

And you're thinking about what you notice in the first four lines of those lyrics.

And you want to listen to the lowest part to see if you can hear a pattern in the bassline.

Here's the clip again.

Okay, pause the video now and take two minutes to check through your answers and finish any that aren't quite complete.

Okay, let's go through those answers.

So number one, I was looking for just two instruments you can hear but this is the full list and you're just looking to see if you've identified two of these.

In the band were guitar, vocals, bass, drums, saxophone and piano.

So if you've got any of those two, well done.

Make sure you get to have a big tick.

How many beats are there in a bar? So you need to feel the pulse of that to find that and it was four.

Four beats in a bar.

What do you notice about the first four lines of the lyrics? They repeat and rhyme.

Okay, so they're really repetitive.

And also, they rhyme as well.

Which is interesting 'cause that's quite similar to the call and response that you would hear in the earlier blues.

This is, in fact, a piece of music that falls into the genre of rock and roll later into the 1950s and '60s.

But it was really heavily influenced from blues, which is why the lyrics and how they're laid out in those four phrases is quite similar to the early blues like we heard with Robert Johnson in our first lesson.

The pattern of the bassline is four notes per bar.

Just like we did for our opening activity.

So they are crotchet notes and they ascend, which means go up.

And come back down again.

Well done if you got any of those right.

Make corrections with your different coloured pen and add the right answers to your piece of paper so you've got them there for notes later on.

Okay, well done.

So let's have a look at where we are so far.

We know how blues music was created from the different traditional styles.

Now, we'll going to have a look how certain blues rhythms sound and how we clap them out.

Okay.

So much blues rhythms is about something called a swung feel, okay? Okay, so straight rhythms sound like this.

Straight, straight, straight, straight.

Swung rhythm means that there's an emphasis on the first note.

So it sounds like long short.

Long short, long short, long short, long short.

Rather than one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two.

Swung is one, two, one, two, one, two.

I'm going to clap a swung quaver rhythm and you're going to clap it back.

Me first, four beats in a bar.

Long short, long short, long short, long short.

Here we go.

Me first.

One, two, three, four.

Long short, long short, you go.

♪ Ta tada tada da ♪ My go.

Good.

Another rhythm or another pattern of notes that are often used in blues rhythms is something called triplets.

And they're written out like this.

And they sound like this.

Again, it still has a swung feel but we're fitting three notes in.

♪ Tadada tadada tadada tadada ♪ So instead of a top swung quavers, long, short, long, short, long, short, long, short, we're going one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three.

I'm going to have a go clapping it and then you are going to respond.

Here we go.

One, two, three, ah.

One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, your go.

♪ Tadada tadada tadada ♪ My go.

Your go.

♪ Tadada tadada tadada ♪ Great, well done.

Now, we're really getting into the swung feel of blues rhythm.

Okay, so what I need you to do is to go and pause the video and either grab yourself a chair and then two items that you can use as sticks from the kitchen or if you've got some drum sticks, go and grab those.

Great, if you're ready and you've got those, let's go.

So, chair drumming is used quite a lot in schools and things like that because it's an easy way for all of us to have a go at how to actually imitate a drum kit.

This is how we're going to break it down.

So your foot is going to be your bass.

Is it like it's the kick drum on a drum.

The big bass drum.

In your right hand is going to be your high hat.

We're going to use the top of the back of the chair.

And then the seat of the chair is going to be your snare.

So, high hat.

Snare.

Bass.

Do that with me.

High hat.

Snare.

Bass.

High hat, snare, bass.

What we're going to do now is practise a basic rhythm so you can get your hands and your feet coordinated.

So, we're going to put our bass drum on one and three out of four beats in a bar.

So it will go one, two, three, four.

Do that with me when you're ready and bass.

Two, bass, four, bass, two, four, bass, two, bass, four, bass, two, bass, four.

Good.

What we're now going to do is put the snare drum in between our bass notes.

So it's going to go one, two, three, four.

One, two.

Have a go with me after four.

One, two, three, four.

One, snare.

Snare.

Four, one, snare, three, snare.

One, snare, three, snare.

Let's see if we can now put bass.

My foot and my snare together.

They alternate.

Bass, snare, bass, snare.

Keep your high hat out the way for the minute.

Here we go.

One, two, three, four.

Great.

We're going to add the high hat on top now and that is going to do all the one, two, three, four, one.

Just try the high hat.

Two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

Good.

Let's see if we can put it all together now.

So we've got one and three in our bass.

Two, three, four.

Our snare drum is in between.

And our high hat is going to do all of them.

Good.

Now you have go playing with me.

High hat, snare drum, bass drum.

After four.

One, two, three, four.

Good.

If you want a challenge, you can start to maybe make your high hat a bit more complicated.

So it's got two.

Two, so I'm hitting it twice setting quavers to every beat.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

And with your snare and your kick.

It sounds like this.

One, two, three, four.

And if you want to throw in a little drum fill, go for it.

Okay, great.

And that is how we do chair drumming.

And you're going to go and practise playing the three parts of the drum kit on your chair trying to do that basic rock rhythm.

Enjoy.

Off you go.

Great, well done.

We've all become drummers in today's lessons, whether it be chair drumming or maybe you had a go on your own drum kit if you've got one or a drum kit at school.

Now, we're in that bluesy rhythmic feel, let's see where we are in the lesson.

So, now we understand those rhythms and we've got our chair drum ready.

we're going to play some specific blues rhythms that I want to introduce you to.

On the right hand side, there are some pictures written on a stave.

This is how you read basic drum rhythms. The high hat is the x and that's written as x's on this top line of the stave, that's the high hat.

This middle note, that's here and it's written on this C of a treble clef stave C, that's the snare drum, this drum here.

And then the kick drum or the bass drum, the large one that's on the floor we were using our foot for the kick drum, that takes the bottom space here.

So high hat, snare drum and bass drum.

Keep that in mind 'cause I'm going to show you some notated rhythms in a blues style.

And here they are.

What we're going to learn to play is something called a shuffle rhythm.

And we're going to use that swung long, short, long, short, long, short, long.

One and two and three and four and one.

You remember what this top line is, the cross? It's the high hat.

Brilliant.

And that was the top of our chair.

So, here's my chair for drumming.

So.

That was all high hat sound.

Our snare.

And our drum, sorry, our kick drum.

It's my foot on my floor.

So number one is just your high hat.

Great.

Number two, we play our high hat and our snare at the same time.

Okay, in that swung rhythm.

Number three, what have we added? We have now added our kick drum sound and that's here at the bottom.

And that is on the.

And that is on the one, a two, a three, a four.

It's just on the beats.

So, there's my bass drum sound.

Okay, that is number three.

And to go even a step further so that feels really bluesy, we're going to need to put an accent, okay? That's what that symbol there means, an accent, which means we're going to make this one sound stronger.

One and two and three and four and one and two three and four.

One, two, three, four.

Let's have a go at number four.

And you can take lots of time to practise this.

So our snare is going constantly.

One and two and three and four and one and two and three and four.

Here are some even more challenging rhythms. Number five.

We've taken out one of the snares.

So it's just bass and high hat.

Really slowly.

So, it alternates between bass on its own then snare on its own, then together.

Snare on its own then bass on its own.

Snare on its own.

Bass and snare together and the high hat goes throughout.

Number six is even more challenging because the high hat isn't playing.

I would like everyone to have a go at getting up to this.

This is the main rhythm, number four, and it's called a double shuffle because both the snare drum and the high hat are playing the shuffle rhythm.

Cha cha cha cha cha.

If you want to go on and try the extension, when we pause the video for you to go and practise, rewind, come back and have a look at these.

There are some even more complex ones with semiquaver rhythms in it for you to try if you're either a more experienced drummer or if you find the other patterns easier to follow.

So with the semiquaver.

♪ Dum dum dum tada dum dum dum ♪ ♪ Tada dum dum dum tada dum dum dum ♪ And this would be your snare.

Okay? And this one, again, we've got high hat and bass together.

What you're going to do now is decide whether you are going to have a go at doing these drum patterns either on the chair drum like I've just demonstrated.

Perhaps, you want to grab an app that has a drum option on it.

Or you'd like to have a go at playing the double shuffle on an actual drum kit.

Now, it takes a while to practise and learn these.

So I expect you to spend a good 15 minutes, 12, 15 minutes perfecting which of the drum patterns that you are going to play.

But remember, we're all aiming to get to number four confidently.

And then we've got the others as an extension to really stretch yourself to a more challenging rhythm.

Pause the video now and go and practise your blues style rhythms on drums. All right, where are we in our lesson? Well done, everyone.

What we're going to do now is learn something called a walking bassline.

And we're going to see if we can record that with a drum part.

Okay, the walking bassline.

So, what the screen is showing you now is the chords as we have learned them.

G, B, D, C, E, G, D, F sharp, A.

Have a look at this line here.

Can you spot the difference between the walking bassline, so this in my bassline.

And it's called walking 'cause it goes up and down the stairs, up and down the stairs.

Can you spot the difference between these and these? Take 30 seconds now, have a look and see what you notice.

Hopefully, what you're starting to notice is that the walking bassline is the notes of the chord, exactly the same notes of the chord but they're broken, they're played one at a time.

So they're played one at a time.

But that would only give us three notes.

♪ G, B, D ♪ Where has the fourth note come from or pitches in that bar? One, two, three, four.

Where's that pitch come from? In fact, the fourth note is the second note played again.

It's the middle note of the chord played again.

So let me play these three bars of a walking bassline for you of the three chords.

So we've got G but we're going to play it as a low bassline.

That's our G chord split into a walking bassline.

C, E, G.

And D, F sharp, A, F sharp.

So, a walking bassline is the same notes of the chords, it's just broken and we're playing one note at a time.

So, you're going to have a go at playing that walking bassline now in G.

What I'll show you now is how to play that walking bassline following a piano.

Okay, so I'm going to give you a quick demonstration so that you can see.

Okay, so following the 12-bar blues structure, I've got G.

Notice how I'm using my left hand because it's a walking bassline part.

♪ C, B, G, B ♪ ♪ G, B, D, B ♪ ♪ G, B, D, B ♪ ♪ D, F sharp, A, F sharp ♪ ♪ C, B, G, B ♪ ♪ G, B, D, B ♪ There's my turnaround chord if I want to carry on.

So that is one way that you can play the walking bassline.

Nice and low in your keyboard or piano.

Using your left hand if you can.

Still one, three, five but reversed.

Five, three, one.

We want that walking motion.

Step, step, step, step.

First.

Then return.

Back down to G.

Go up D.

Up C.

And then G.

Right.

If you fancied doing a walking bassline not on a keyboard or a piano or an app and you actually want to use a bass, a guitar or ukulele, in the next few slides, I'm going to show you something called a tab school.

And it's a way of writing down pitches for guitars, string instruments and ukuleles and bass guitars where it shows you really clearly where the pitches are and where you need to put your fingers on the fingerboard of your instrument.

Just have a read of the information in the green box at the bottom.

Reading tab.

If you've done it before, brilliant.

But here are your instructions.

One, the lines of the tab are the strings of your instrument.

Number two, the number tells us in which fret you place your finger.

So remember, in string instruments, there are vertical fret lines and the number tells you which fret you need to put your finger in between.

If you see a zero, it means it's an open string.

It means you don't need to put your fingers on any of the fingerboards, you just play the string as it is open.

Here are the tab scores for bass guitar and ukulele if one of those is the instruments that you want to play to play the walking bassline.

So, what I want you to do now is pause the video, think about which instrument you want to play you're walking bassline on.

Keyboard or perhaps, a keyword app and then you've got the tab scores for ukulele, bass guitar and guitar.

Remember, you can rewind the video and go back to that tab so that you can read it for your rehearsal.

So, what I'd like you to do for your final performance is can you put the walking bassline with one of the blues drum patterns that we tried? Okay? And here's two ways that you can do it.

If you get the opportunity to do a paired performance, either with maybe somebody in your household or somebody at school, then one of you could take the chair drum or an actual live drum kit double shuffle that we learned and one place the walking bassline with it.

Or you could record one of the parts and then play the other with it in a live performance.

So, I'm going to give you a little demonstration of the second option now.

So I've recorded my.

Let's make sure you could see my drum.

I've recorded my walking bassline.

Okay, that's recorded, ready for me to go.

And I'm going to have a go at playing my chair drum live with it.

Let's see how it was.

One and two and three and four.

And try and jump in with the drums. Here we go.

One, two, three.

Remember accent two and four.

One.

Two, three, four.

Okay, so that is one way that you can get a live performance of your walking bassline with your drum double shuffle.

Good luck.

Off you go.

Great work today, everyone.

I hope you've really enjoyed and are starting to feel almost like we are in a blues band now.

Great work for our first few lessons for this unit.

I hope you've enjoyed today.

I've definitely enjoyed going through all of this with you.

Don't forget to go and show me everything you've learned and take the quiz for lesson three.

And please go and share your brilliant blues performances with either somebody at school or somebody in your household.

Take care and I'll see you in the next lesson.

Bye.

I've finished the video