Lesson video

Hello, my name is Miss Charatan and I'm going to be your music teacher for today.

I'm really excited to be teaching you.

In today's lesson, we are going to be doing some singing so we can just start with some vocal warmups.

If you're feeling a bit embarrassed, that's fine.

Just sing or hum or talk quietly, and that's going to help you just get ready.

I'm now going to do some tongue twisters.

You are going to repeat after me when I point to you.

First one goes like this: boom, chicka-boom! Boom chicka-boom! Boom-chicka-rocka-chicka-rocka-chicka-boom! Ah ha! Oh yeah! Once again! Like this, we're going to whisper it, just so we don't disturb anybody! Really, really enunciate your words! Boom chicka-boom! Boom chicka-boom! Boom-chicka-rocka-chicka-rocka-chicka-boom! Ah ha! Oh yeah! Once again! Actually let's stop, great, well done.

We're now going to do one with our "mm" sound, so we're just going to start getting ready by doing a bit of an "mm", all the way up from the bottom of our voice to the top.

My voice is a bit tired today, can you go even higher than me? Excellent, if you need to have more time to do those, just pause me and you can spend a bit more time.

We're going to do something with our "muh", maybe my mummy will go to Miami, maybe my mummy will go to Miami.

Maybe my mummy will go to Miami or maybe my mummy will not.

Now we're going to finish it off.

Maybe my mummy will go to Miami or maybe my mummy will not.

Mummy made me mash my M&Ms, yum yum! Normally, we would sing this, but actually let's just get our mouths warm and ready.

So you're going to try and say that as fast as he can, if you can do it faster than me and better than me, then well done, give yourself a virtual prize.

We ready? 1, 2, 3, 4.

Maybe my mummy will go to Miami or maybe my mummy will not.

Mummy made me mash my M&Ms, yum yum! Can we do it even faster, one more time! And, maybe my mummy will go to Miami or maybe my mummy will not.

Mummy made me mash my M&Ms, yum yum! If you did faster than me, well done, that's great.

Give yourself a pat on the back, we are now needing to get ready for our lesson.

Let's see what equipment we need.

In this lesson, you will need a piece of paper or something to write on.

You will need a pencil or pen or something to write with, and you will definitely need your voice.

If you have an instrument or an app, for example, virtual piano on the iPhone, that is great too.

Pause the video, get these things ready and come back when you're ready to start.

Today, we're doing some really exciting things.

We're going to expand our knowledge of Baroque instruments.

We're going to explore counterpoint and contrapuntal texture.

We will play Pachelbel's Canon in counterpoint, learn what a canon is and how to sing one and you will create and perform your own canon.

Let's start by expanding our knowledge of Baroque instruments.

which of these instruments were played in the Baroque period? They don't have labels on them, so take a moment now to check that you know what they are.

Here they are.

Which ones were played in the Baroque period, which ones do we need to get rid of? Take a moment to think.

Okay, let's check our answers.

So the clarinet and the piano did not exist in the Baroque period.

They had not yet been fully invented, even though they were in the process of being invented.

So therefore in the Baroque period, we had harpsichords, recorders, violins and trumpets, as well as some other instruments too.

The violins were played with a bow, this is a shorter bow than is currently the case with the modern violin.

So looking at these instruments, which one of these, which of these instruments still exist in the present day? Take a moment to think about these.

So the harpsichord still exists in the present day.

There is now the piano to rival it, so harpsichords are not the most common instrument, but they are still very much used widely and are now used particularly in performances of Baroque music.

Recorders are still used today, you may have even learned one in a primary school.

Again, these are associated with performances of Baroque music, but they're not chiefly and they're not only for Baroque music.

Violins, still very much used today in a whole variety of styles and genres of music, and trumpets.

The trumpet on the left is very much a modern trumpet.

The one on the right is a Baroque trumpet.

So that still is used today for Baroque performances, Baroque period performances of Baroque pieces.

You may have guessed that instruments have evolved very much like technology.

So you can see with all these mobile phones beginning at the one at the top that looks really, really old, all the way down to our touch screen models that we're used to today.

Instruments are no different, but they have taken quite a long time to evolve.

Modern instruments might sound a bit different to Baroque instruments.

Also, we don't quite know what Baroque instruments even sounded like because there were no recordings back then, in some cases, modern instruments might even be able to play more notes.

We're now going to look at three different instruments and look at how they've evolved from the Baroque period to the present day.

So let's go back to these trumpets.

We've got two trumpets here.

What is the difference between the trumpets? Take a moment now to have a look.

You may have noticed that the one below has valves.

These are the things that you press down, which shortens or lengthens the tube, which means you can play higher or lower notes.

Baroque trumpets didn't have valves and the players only used their lips to change the sound.

This meant that Baroque trumpets couldn't play as many notes as a modern trumpet can.

It also couldn't pay in many keys, they could only play in one key.

So for example, you might have a trumpet in D.

That trumpet could only play in the key of D.

If you changed key, you'd need to pick up another trumpet, for example, a trumpet in C and play that trumpet.

This meant that trumpets couldn't be used in loads and loads of pieces in the Baroque period and sometimes there are large parts of the piece where they couldn't play, because they couldn't play the notes.

Let's have a look at a flute.

So there are two flutes here, one from the Baroque period and a modern flute.

What is the difference? If you noticed for the modern flute is made of metal, you are correct.

Baroque flutes also had fewer keys, so they looked a little bit more like the recorder we know today, except obviously it's played on the side.

They were played in a similar way.

You might have modern flutes made of wood, but these wooden modern flutes will also have lots and lots of keys on them and they would probably have metal keys.

The Baroque flute couldn't pay quite as many notes and it was also quite a bit quieter than the modern instrument.

That wasn't really a problem because the Baroque ensembles, as we will later find out, were quite a bit smaller than modern ensembles.

Let's now have a look at two other instruments.

So we've got a bass viol on the left and we have got a cello on the right.

They look quite similar at first glance, but can you have a look and see what is different between them? Okay, I'm going to give you a hint, which one has more strings? The bass viol has more strings.

So the bass viol has six strings and the cello only has four.

They're also slightly different shapes.

You can't really see from these pictures, but the viol has a flatter back and the cello has a spike at the end, as you can see.

So this meant that the viol wasn't quite as loud as the modern cello.

The viol also has frets, a bit like a guitar.

So they're the kind of marks on the guitar, which show you where to put your fingers.

This meant that the viol was really good for playing chords.

And as I've said, it was quite a bit quieter than the modern cello and that meant that they needed to play and put more effort into their playing to make them sure they were heard above other instruments.

So let's now how to look at some of these ensembles.

So we have got an ensemble on the left, and that's a typical Baroque ensemble.

And we've got one on the right, which we would call a Baroque ensemble, even though they are playing in the modern days, they're playing in that Baroque style.

You can see here that we have very few players per part, so there might only be one or two per part.

Some players are playing their own parts, they're not maybe playing a solo, but they're playing on their own.

Let's now compare this to a modern day orchestra.

So the picture here is of a modern symphony orchestra.

What is the difference between these Baroque ensembles and the modern symphony orchestra, can you find me two? So the modern symphony orchestra, you probably noticed, has many, many more people, many more players.

There'll be four players on one part.

So for example, the first violin, there would be maybe 10 of them and they'd all be playing roughly the same thing.

You might also see that the modern symphony orchestra has many more instruments.

There are many more woodwind instruments such as the clarinets, they weren't invented yet in the Baroque era, we haven't really mentioned the bassoons.

There would have been bassoons in the Baroque era, but there's now many more.

You'll see there's many more brass and there's many more exciting percussion instruments.

So the modern symphony orchestra, you might have seen one at a concert hall, is much, much larger.

And part of the reason why it developed was in the Baroque period, the performances were typically done in smaller places.

They weren't commercialised, we didn't have big concert halls.

Later, particularly in the Romantic period, we started seeing these really large concert halls and therefore the orchestras grew to accommodate these concert halls.

So they can give big performances of new pieces written for these orchestras.

Let's go back to the Baroque ensemble.

So you can see this picture here, it's another typical Baroque ensemble and all these Baroque ensembles divided into roughly two main parts.

We have the Ripieno, which is the main group of instruments.

They're not playing solos necessarily, they're playing the main parts.

We also have a Basso continuo, they pay the bassline and the chords.

Can you have a guess what instruments would play the basso continuo in a Baroque ensemble? I'm going to give you a hint, one of those instruments can pay chords and another instrument can also play chords.

I mentioned it earlier.

So the harpsichord and the bass viol, which is now a place by the modern cello.

So in a Baroque ensemble today, it might be the cello is part of the Basso continuo.

Can we spot them in the picture? We've got the cello here, the bass viol, sorry, and we have got the harpsichord here.

So let's have a quick quiz to check our understanding.

What is the difference between a Baroque trumpet and a modern trumpet? Take a look now.

And choose your answer.

Let's check it.

The modern trumpet has valves and can play more notes.

It is also a little bit more flexible in terms of what it can play, so it not only plays more notes, but it can play notes quite close to each other in all parts of the trumpet.

What is the difference between a Baroque flute and a modern flute? This one I'm not going to give you a choice, you just need to think yourself, what is the difference? Take a moment to think now.

Okay, I'm going to give you answer.

Hopefully yours will be the same.

So the modern flute is metal, Baroque is wood.

The modern flute can play more loudly and the modern flute, similar to the modern trumpet, can play more notes.

Our last quick quiz, what instruments form the Basso continuo group? Take a moment to think about your answer and give it to me.

If you said bass viol or cello and harpsichord, you are correct, well done.

So where are we up to now? We have expanded our knowledge of Baroque instruments and we are now going to explore some more sophisticated terminology, counterpoint and contrapuntal texture.

So let's have a recap, which texture was most common in the Baroque period? Monophonic, polyphonic, or homophonic? Give me your answer now.

Yes, it is polyphonic.

Polyphonic texture, what does it actually mean? Here is a diagram to give you a clue.

Tell me in two sentences, what is polyphonic texture? Okay, let's check.

It is many independent layers.

So that's the first point you should have made.

Of equal importance, that's another point you need to have made.

So these layers are all working together, they're all interweaving and they're all basically equally as important.

Let's have a look at contrapuntal texture.

So contrapuntal is very similar to polyphonic texture in that we have multiple layers of equal importance.

So contrapuntal is the same as polyphonic texture, they are used pretty interchangeably.

However, contrapuntal texture is generally used in Baroque music.

There are strict rules on how the melodies should fit together.

So when we are talking about polyphonic texture and contrapuntal texture, they often mean the same thing, except in Baroque music, we often refer to contrapuntal texture because there were strict rules on how these melodies fit together and how these layers fit together.

Let's now go back to some prior knowledge.

What is a countermelody? Tell me now.

If you put a countermelody is a secondary melody that fits with the main melody, you are correct, well done.

What do we think counterpoint means, then? They share that word, counter.

So counterpoint is basically creating countermelodies under the parts, but again, with strict rules.

So counterpoint is associated with the Baroque period.

We can write counterpoint in the modern day, but counterpoint is associated with that and it has very strict rules on how they fit together.

So we've briefly explored counterpoint and contrapuntal texture, and we're now going to have a look at playing Pachelbel's Canon in counterpoint.

Playing Pachelbel's Canon in counterpoint is not as difficult as it sounds.

We know that Pachelbel wrote these melodies to work together in counterpoint so to play them in counterpoint all we need to do is play them on top of each other.

We don't pay them after each other, we pay them at the same time.

If you haven't seen his melodies before and are not quite sure what to do, there are other lessons on Oak Academy where we cover the melodies here, and they will teach you how to play them.

I suggest you look at those now.

If you know how to pay these melodies already, the best thing to do will be to play them on top of each other.

If you are an advanced pianist, you're able to play them with two hands.

If you have people at home that you can play with, then absolutely play them at the same time.

You can be choosing melodies one and two or any of the melodies here.

If you're going to be playing the melodies by yourself, you can play melody one and two at the same time as melody three or four, pause the video now and start your work.

If you'd like to play with my backing track, then in a moment I will play the backing track and you can rewind the video as much as you like.

As you're playing, think about how these melodies fit together and think about what would happen if you started playing these melodies at different times.

I'm going to pay the backing track now so that you can play in counterpoint with Pachelbel's Canon.

Well done if you managed that all the way through.

If you'd like to repeat the backing track, absolutely go and do that now and resume the video going ahead once you have finished.

So you've just played in counterpoint.

How did the melodies fit together? Why do you think counterpoint has such strict rules and how many people do you think you need to play in counterpoint? Have a think about those questions now.

So they fit together because the intervals work really well.

We don't have clashing intervals at bad times.

We have constant intervals at the right time.

So for example, on strong beats of the bar.

Why does it have such strict rules? Back in the Baroque period, there were strict rules about what music sounded good and what music was acceptable.

Composers followed these rules to make music that people could enjoy.

Even now, music does follow rules so that it sounds good and so that we can enjoy it.

How many people do you need to play in counterpoint? Well, actually, you can play with only one person, because as long as you can pay two different things at once as a pianist, you can play in counterpoint.

All you need is two parts.

Obviously, having two people to pay in counterpoint makes things a little bit easier.

So let's move on.

Let's recap what we did before.

What is contrapuntal texture? Choose the correct answer out of these three below.

The correct answer is many interweaving, independent layers of equal importance.

Well done if you got that correct.

Let's again recap, what is counterpoint? Choose the correct answer.

It is also the green box, a polyphonic texture with strict rules.

We've now played Pachelbel's Canon in counterpoint, but what is a canon? We've been talking about Pachelbel's Canon all lesson.

So now we're going to learn what to canon is and how to sing one.

You might have sung in canon before without even realising it.

I'm going to demonstrate a canon to you now, and you're going to ask yourself what is singing and playing in canon? Here is a clue.

♪ Row row row your boat gently down the stream ♪ ♪ Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily ♪ ♪ Life is just a dream ♪ ♪ Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream ♪ ♪ Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily ♪ ♪ Life is just a dream ♪ So what did we think? A canon is when a person sings or plays exactly the same part but comes in later and therefore finishes later.

So I finish later than video me because I started later.

A canon is really the same as a round.

We use the word round more to describe singing nursery rhymes or folk songs.

A canon is just the same as a round.

In Baroque music, composers often write in canon to create a polyphonic texture.

We're now going to have a go at singing in canon again, but in a slightly different way.

Do join in with me this time! We're going to start here now.

So we're going to start a little bit earlier and see what happens.

I'd like you to think, what effect does that have on the texture? Let's sing.

♪ Row, row, row your boat ♪ ♪ Gently down the stream ♪ ♪ Merrily merrily merrily merrily ♪ ♪ Life is just a dream ♪ ♪ Row, row, row your boat ♪ ♪ Gently down the stream ♪ ♪ Merrily merrily merrily merrily ♪ ♪ Life is just a dream ♪ That was a bit trickier to sing, well done if you managed to do that with me.

Which had the busiest texture, and how did we know? So the pink box had a busier texture.

That is because I started more near the beginning, so there were many more notes, so it just felt much more busy.

It was also much harder to sing, as you could have guessed.

So we're now going to listen to Pachelbel's Canon in D in practise, so, you're going to write down your answers to these questions.

Can you spot the cannon, which melodies are in canon, and how does the texture change when the canon is starting? Let's listen now.

If you need to listen to it again, you can just rewind to the video.

Let's go through the answers.

So the canon started pretty soon after the start of the video, the audio.

Melody one was in canon, so melody one started and the someone else played melody one afterwards, and then melody two was in canon and the texture became more polyphonic, it became much much busier and if you listened to the whole track it will be much, much more polyphonic later in the track.

So the canon looks like, it's a bit like this in a diagram.

So the ground bass goes on all the way through and it stays exactly the same.

The ground bass is not in canon.

Melody one begins and then violin two starts melody one as soon as it's finished.

That is a canon because the parts are coming in one after another.

We call it an entry when a instrument comes in with a part.

So the melody one entry in violin three happens in bar 13.

You are now going to try and pay melody one or two in canon.

You can do this in a number of ways.

If you can play the keyboard with two hands, you can try it this way.

With one hand, you will start paying melody one.

When you reach the green box, so bar two, with the other hand, you will start melody one from the beginning, It will sound like this.

My hands finished at different times, so I know that I didn't make a mistake.

If they finished at the same time, I would've made a mistake because it wasn't going to be in canon.

If that's too challenging, which it might be, because it is really hard, you can try it a different way.

You can try playing with another person in the room.

So if you've got someone in your family who can play an instrument, try and play melody one in canon with them.

You could record yourself playing on your phone or another device and play in canon with yourself, a bit like I did earlier with "Row, Row, Row the Boat".

If you're finding it too easy, you could even try melody three in canon by yourself.

One final way you can try is with my backing track.

My backing track is melody one followed by melody two, so you've got the option of trying both.

You can rewind or fast forward the video as much as you'd like to practise.

I'm going to play the backing track now.

If you don't want to hear the backing track, pause the video to complete your task.

We'll all resume once we're finished.

If you're ready to move on, let's go.

If you're not ready, you can just rewind the video and try again.

So let's have some quick fire questions to check our understanding.

Firstly, what is a canon? Tell me now.

So a canon is when a person sings or plays exactly the same part, but comes in later, so they therefore finish later.

Well done if you got that correct.

So, we're nearly at the end of our lesson.

The last thing we're going to do is to create and perform your own canon.

You might have done some similar composition before.

Pachelbel's Canon is in the key of D, so we're going to be using the key of D major.

We're going to stick to the first five notes because that's going to make it easier for us to compose our melody.

Our melody for our canon is going to be really, really short.

It can just be two very short sections, just like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat".

You should try and start and end your canon on the note D.

You will only made two ideas to write your canon.

You will use the notes, D E F-sharp and A, if you'd like to use more, that is fine.

You're going to start your first idea on D and the idea will be four beats long.

It could be something like this.

I'm now going to repeat the idea for the second light blue box.

It will sound like this.

So my first two ideas are, I do one repeated, then idea two will start on A.

It could be something like this.

So now I've got two idea ones, an idea two.

And then, I could do idea one again, but I might want to do something a bit different and end on D, either one is fine, so I'm going to do this.

So my whole canon sounds like this.

I have only used four notes.

I might want to make it a bit more interesting using some more interesting rhythms and some more notes, but it's totally up to you.

The most important thing is that you can play it so you can play it well in canon.

You are now going to pause the video to complete your task.

You're going to create your own melody to play in canon using your voice, your instrument or technology.

You only need two ideas to create your melody following the structure that I've given you.

You just need four beats or one bar per idea.

Use the D major scale, start with four notes, D, F-sharp, or A, if you're finding it too easy, you can use more pitches, shorter note counts, or create a longer melody.

Resume the video once you have finished.

Well done for creating a melody for your canon.

Let's now do a checklist to make sure we know what to do next.

What will you do to play it in canon? What might a three part canon mean? And how will you know you can play it fluently? Let's answer that first question now.

To pay in canon, you will need to start or get someone else to start one idea later.

So you actually see that you have two idea ones playing at the same time, 'cause you've repeated your idea one twice.

If your canon is slightly differently structured, that is fine but the most important thing is you start one bar or two bars later.

The two parts need to be exactly the same for it to be a canon.

Let's now go back to the previous question.

A three part canon would simply mean there'll be a third part playing the same thing, so you would have an additional line of music underneath.

If there's two other people who could play your canon with you, great! And that will create a three part canon if you all start at different times.

Lastly, how do you know you can play it fluently? Well, one indicator is being able to do it off by heart.

So if you can play your melody off by heart, you can probably play it quite fluently.

So it's now going to be performance time.

You have got various options.

So if you're an advanced keyboard player or something else, you can play both the parts yourself.

You could teach it to a family member and they could play the part after you or you could record yourself playing one part and play the other parts over the top, it is totally up to you.

Pause the video, play your canon in any of these ways and resume when you're finished.

Let's now check and return to our key question: how do we know we are listening to Baroque music? Think about an answer in your head using the key words below.

There are two trick words in here which may not be part of your answer.

Resume the video when you are ready.

Okay, your answer should have contained a lot of these words.

So Baroque music often has counterpoint in it, which is polyphonic texture with strict rules.

Harpsichord is a really popular Baroque instrument so when you hear a harpsichord, it probably is a Baroque piece of music.

Countermelody is a slight trick one because Baroque music does have a lot of countermelodies in it, but also some more modern music does too.

D major is not a sign that something's in a Baroque period because there's many other pieces of music with D major from all sorts of musical genres.

A contrapuntal texture is a really key indicator of Baroque music, so contrapuntal texture, again, is polyphonic texture but with strict rules.

Canon is another slight trick one because we can sing many other styles of music in canon, for example, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" but canon was also a feature of the Baroque period.

One that is definitely not allowed, however, is the piano, because the piano was in the process of being invented then, and it wasn't ready yet.

Well done on your hard work in today's lesson.

If you'd like to share your work with Oak National, please ask your parent or carer to share it on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging Oak National and using the hashtag #LearnWithOak.

Don't forget to click on and complete the quiz to show how much you have learned today.

All that's left to say is well done for today.

Take care and see you next time.