Lesson video

In this lesson you will need a pencil, and a piece of paper to write notes with.

You will also need your body to make some body percussion sounds.

This lesson is better with headphones, though they're not required.

If you can, find a quiet space to do this lesson in, as you will be doing lots of listening and playing.

If you need to pause the video now, to prepare for the lesson please do so, and click resume when you're ready.

Do now, match the structures.

Copy out the tables on the right, and label them with the correct structure structure name.

We have, song form ternary form and rando form.

Its your job to match those names to the correct table.

How can we turn two sections into a ternary form structure? On screen I've put a big A and B and you might notice the lines and the dots above those sections.

Those dots are very vaguely indicating the melodies of those sections, and I'll play them on the piano so you can hear them better in your head.

So, section A sounds something like this.

And section B.

So as you can tell, they are contrasting sections.

The question is how do we turn these two sections into a ternary form.

Write one sentence explaining, and then click resume when you're ready to go.

That's right we know that ternary form is a three section structure, that follows the A,B,A pattern.

So to make that into a ternary form structure, all we would need to do is, repeat that a section in the beginning.

So I will try and play that ternary form now, and hopefully I play the same A section.

Here we go.

There we go, I slightly altered the a section at the very very end, so it finished on the tonic.

But, that is how we can turn two sections into a ternary form structure.

We simply just repeat the first section, the A section.

So putting this into the context of West African music, we could have the A section being the start signal, lets play djembe, maybe 8 times.

However B section, will be call and response, potentially for 4 times.

And then to make it a ternary structure, we would have to play the A section again, so the Let's play djembe for 8 more times.

So that would sound something like this.

And then back to the A section.

What do you notice about the returning A section? There is an apostrophe after the A.

We could call this A-dash.

And it means that its been altered in some way.

When you see an A-dash you know that section is going to be very similar to the A section you've heard before, but its going to have been developed somehow.

How do we do that, well we can add or take away notes, we could can the texture, we can change the dynamics, or we can the sonority or the instrument.

Let's do a demo of that right now.

So if my A section is Let's play djembe, like this.

Then maybe I could try adding some notes.

Perhaps I could change the sonority, so I could use the a different body percussion sound.

Or change instruments entirely.

Or I could change the dynamics, so that is how loud or how quietly I play.

What I would like you to do now is come up with an A-dash section, so A section that repeats the first A section with some kind of development.

You can pick one, two, three or four of the bullet points, and then play your completed ternary structure.

I encourage you to record this so you may share it but that is not required.

Pause the video to complete your task, and click resume when you're ready to move on.

Another way we can add interest to our ternary structure, is by adding a link section between A and B.

So what could we add to let the drum circle know that we are moving on the section B.

Well, we could have a new signal, we could have a buildup, we could take one bar and repeat it, what else could we do? Can you come up with two more ideas? For my link section I'm going to do a hybrid between a new signal and also a build up.

My new signal is going to be I'm moving on to section B.

Very simple.

I'm just going to clap that.

When my drum circle hears me clap that, they're going to know that we're going to go on to this buildup, and for the buildup, I'm going to tap my chest once and then they will click once, then I will tap twice they will click twice I will tap three times they will click three times.

And you guessed it, I will tap four times and they will click four times.

I will then repeat my new signal, I'm moving on to section B.

And then we'll go straight into the call and response section.

So lets hear that in action.

And I'm going to try and be both the master drummer and the drum circle, but I will also narrate over the top so you know where we are in the structure.

So here is section A, Link and B after four.

One, two, three, four I'm moving on to section B one, one two, one two three, one two three four, I'm moving on to section B call response, response Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

So, your turn, try and come up with a link section between A and B, you can use mine for inspiration, or you can use the bullet points that you came up with yourself.

Pause the video to complete the task, this should take you around five minutes, and then click resume when you're ready to move on.

So, how can we add interest to a musical structure? We can develop a section.

Developing a section that repeats, ensures the listener will not get bored.

How can we develop that section? Well we can add, or remove notes, we can change the texture, we can change the dynamics and we can change the sonority.

We can also a link section.

Adding a link section, can further add interest for a listener.

And how do we link? Well we can have a new signal, we can build up, we can take one bar and repeat, and we could also do the things you wrote down as extra points.

The fact is we can be as creative as we want here.

And as the composer, you can make those choices yourself.

So, that wraps up the lesson on how to add interest, and how to compose within a musical structure.

I hope you enjoyed it, and I look forward to seeing you in the next lesson.