Lesson video

Hello Year Eight, my name is Mr. Chapman, and I'm really excited to be introducing this first lesson in the West African music unit.

In this unit, we'll be exploring a variety of complex rhythms, textures, and structures and there'll be plenty of opportunity to perform, improvise and create new music, that embraces the traditions of djembe drumming, as well as the contemporary music of West Africa.

In today's lesson, we're going to focus on answering the question, what role does rhythm play in West African music? So without further ado, let's take a look at what we will need to be successful in today's lesson.

So in this lesson, we're going to need a piece of paper, and a pencil to make notes with.

Musicians often use pencil, just because it's easy to rub out any mistakes or changes in the music.

We're also going to be using our body to create sounds today.

So we will not need a djembe.

Now lucky for me and unlucky for my neighbours, I do have djembe here just lying around, so I'll be using this later to demonstrate some rhythms, and also some features of the djembe.

If you need to pause the video here, please do so, and join me when you're ready to start this lesson.

So let's get warmed up with some call and response.

I'll clap a rhythm that I want you to copy back to me.

Call and response is something that we're going to be doing a lot in these lessons, as we learn some traditional African songs and rhythms. Let's get started, and we'll start nice and simple.

Here it goes, one, two, three, off you go.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

Good, last one.

One, two, three, four, well done.

Let's move on.

So if my call was, one, two, three, four, you'd respond, one, two, three, four.

If my call was one, two, three, four, you'd copy that, one, two, three, four, perfect.

Let's get started.

It's just a warmup.

We'll do it nice and simple to start with, and there'll be plenty of time to get increasingly more difficult rhythms involved in this lesson and in future lessons.

So, here we go.

Here's our pulse, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four Good, my turn.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

Excellent, we should be all warmed up now.

So let's dive in to the next part of this lesson.

Let's see how closely you studied those countries.

Which of the following countries are not in West Africa? Senegal, Guinea, Nigeria, or Kenya? Say it to your screen.

Three, two, one.

The correct answer was Kenya.

Well done if you've got that right.

Let's do one more.

Again, which of the following countries are not in West Africa? Chad, Mali, Egypt and Ghana? Say it to your screen once more, three, two, one.

And the correct answer was Egypt.

Well done.

Originally from Mali, the djembe is said to be between 400 and 800 years old.

'Dje' means gather, and 'be' means everybody.

Traditionally, the djembe has very important roles in traditional village rituals and ceremonies such as weddings, and it's one of the most popular and well-known instruments from Africa.

So let's take a look at the instrument in a little bit more detail.

The skin.

Traditionally, the skin is made out of goat skin.

The skin of the djembe is stretched tightly over the top of the drum.

The ropes are used to secure the skin to the drum.

The tighter the skin and rope, the higher the pitch of the drum.

Body, is made up of strong local wood, and it's hollow.

It's also often engraved with patterns and images, as you can see here.

Musical elements.

Musical elements are the building blocks that can be used to describe all music.

These elements include structure, melody, harmony, texture, rhythm, dynamics, and sonority.

Speaking of elements, let's take a look at some definitions.

Show me a thumbs up if the word on the left, matches the description on the right, and a thumbs down, if it is incorrect.

So, does tempo describe how loud or quiet the music is? Thumbs up or thumbs down? No, thumbs down, well done.

Does it describe how high or low a note is? Thumbs down.

Does tempo describe how fast or slow the music is? Thumbs up.

Great, let's do another, pitch.

Does pitch describe how high or low a note is? Great, thumbs up.

Dynamics is next.

What do we think? Do dynamics describe how fast or slow a piece of music is? Thumbs down.

Does it describe how high or low a note is? Thumbs down again.

What about how loud or quiet the music is? Great, thumbs up.

Now that we have some definitions, let's use them in our first task.

You will hear a 30 second clip of some djembe playing.

Describe the djembe playing in terms of these elements: dynamics, tempo, and pitch.

You can use the sentence starter to help you answer this in full sentences.

You will hear the extract twice, but feel free to rewind the video if you need to hear it more times.

If you need some help starting your sentences off, feel free to use the rest of the sentence starters on the screen now.

If you have finished, try the stretch question.

Can you think of the musical Italian terms for your answers? So for tempo, perhaps allegro, or for dynamics, forte.

But note that these terms would not be used to describe West African music traditionally.

Here are the correct answers for that task.

Make sure to give yourself a tick if you got it correct, and if you didn't get it right this time, make sure you write the correct answer down.

Sounds of the djembe: strokes and sonorities.

On screen now we have the main sounds that the djembe can produce.

The slap is a piercing tone created by slapping the edge of the drum with your fingertips.

The tone is a high pitch tone created by striking the drum with your fingers together.

The bass is a lower pitch sound made by striking the drums with a flat palm in the middle of the drum head, and a flam is where two slap or tone sounds are played in very quick succession.

Let me get my djembe and show you this in real life.

So, here it is, I have my djembe, and when we play the djembe, we put it in between our knees and tilt the drum is slightly forward.

Now, can you remember any of the sounds that we talked about? That's right, we had the bass, the slap, and the tone.

Let's start with the bass sound.

Can you remember how I said to play it? We use a flat hand and the palm in the centre of the drum, and it will sound something like this.

The tone used the top of our fingers somewhere on the outside edge, and it sounds like this.

Then we had the slap sound, which used our fingertips and we slap the edge of the drum, and it would sound something like this.

Bass, tone, slap.

Hopefully you can hear the difference.

We also have that other word.

Can you remember what it was? Yes, flam, which is when we played two either slap or tone sounds in very quick succession.

In fact, we play them almost at the same time, and it would sound like this.

In slow motion, they're nearly played in the same time.

Normal speed again.

Let's take a look at how we can mimic some of these sounds using just body percussion.

Okay, so as a reminder for our slap and tone sounds, we're using our fingers and fingertips, and for the bass sound we're using our palm.

The flam is where we play two of either the slap or the tone sounds in very quick succession, almost at the exact same time, and that circle in the middle of the screen represents the drum head.

The bass is produced by hitting the drum in the middle, whereas the slap and tone sounds are created by hitting the edge of the drum.

Let's get back to performing some body percussion, and translate what we just learned about how to create different sounds on the djembe, into producing different sounds with our own bodies.

Great, so let's get back to some body percussion and some call and response.

For the remainder of this video, instead of a bass tone on the djembe, we're going to tap our chest for the bass sound.

For the tone sound, we're going to- click our fingers, and for the slap sound, we're going to- clap our hands.

So let's try that together by just doing bass, tone, slap, tone.

Let's repeat that twice, after four.

One, two, three, four, bass, tone, slap, tone, again bass, tone, slap, tone.

Very good.

I'm going to do a four beat rhythm, and you're going to do it back.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

That last one was a little bit hard.

Let's slow it down and break it down.

It was bass, tone, slap, tone, bass, tone, slap.

Let's speed it up again.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

Excellent, well done.

You don't have to do bass, tone, slop.

You can come up with your own sounds.

There are many, many different sounds our bodies can make.

We can rub our palms together, but these are the ones that I've picked for this lesson.

We can even experiment with creating the flam sound.

So it's- almost clicking at the same time- for our flam sound.

Give it a go.

If you want to pause the video and have an experiment to see what other sounds you can make, maybe- with tapping on our lap, shuffling our feet, then do so now and press resume when you're ready to carry on.

Next, we're going to be learning some rhythms from the song "Kuku".

Rhythms from Kuku, context.

Kuku is a song that originates from the Manian group of Guinea and the Ivory Coast.

It is a celebration song that traditionally is performed by the women of the community after a successful night fishing.

Today, it is one of the most popular djembe pieces in West Africa.

Kuku can be played with accompanying singing and dancing, with the lyrics roughly translating to, "Let's play drums in the moonlight with our friends to celebrate catching fish." First stretch question.

Why might this particular song be so popular? Okay, so we're just about to dive into some of the rhythms from Kuku, but there are a few things we need to know first.

One, is that a master drummer is the leader of the drum circle.

Now traditionally, and maybe in your classrooms at school you would play the djembe as part of a group in one big, big circle.

It means that everyone can see each other and communicate really easily.

The master drummer is similar to a conductor in an orchestra who is bringing people in, telling people when to start and when to stop, and they do this by using signals.

So a start signal is a rhythm played by the master drummer that tells the other musicians within that circle when to join in.

So let's start off by learning that start signal.

Now, I use a sentence to help me remember the rhythm, and that sentence is "Play the djembe and here we go." I'll do that again.

Play the djembe and here we go.

I'm going to say it, and then I want you to say it back to me.

Play the djembe and here we go.

Excellent, now let's try playing that rhythm using different body percussion sounds.

I'll start with my lap.

One, two, three, and four.

Play the djembe and here we go.

Very good.

I'm going to now do my chest.

I'll play it, then you play it.

One, two, three, four.

Play the djembe and here we go.

Very good.

Let's try some clicking now.

Play the djembe and here we go.

Play the djembe and here we go.

Good.

Finally, let's try clapping it.

This time I'm not going to speak, just the clapping.

Very good.

Okay, so that's the start signal.

And when any of the musicians in that drum circle hear that rhythm, they know they got to be ready to come in with the next part of the music.

Great, so we know what the start signal is.

There's another signal that is used, and that's the stop signal.

I'm sure you can guess what the stop signal means.

Right.

When the master drummer plays the stop signal, everybody knows that they need to stop playing.

The stop signal is quite similar to the start signal.

I'm going to say it, and I want you to tell me, or write down on your piece of paper, what the difference is.

Here it is.

Play the djembe and say Africa.

Let's hear it again.

Play the djembe and say Africa.

Okay, so the ending is quite different.

I'll do the start signal, followed immediately by the stop signal.

Play the djembe and here we go.

Play the djembe and say Africa.

Okay let's go through tapping our lap, our chest, clicking, and clapping this new stop signal.

Play the djembe and say Africa.

I'll play it, then I'll give you four beats to play it back to me.

Call and response.

And we'll do lap, chest, click, clap.

Here's our pulse.

One, two, three, four.

Play the djembe and say Africa.

Play the djembe and say Africa, chest.

Play the djembe and say Africa.

Play the djembe and say, good.

Play the djembe and say Africa.

And this time with no words, well done.

Fantastic.

We're going to test our knowledge on the stop and the start signal in just a moment.

If you would like to pause this video and practise, so you really, really, really get it perfect, then you may do so and click the zoom when you're ready to move on.

Okay, so I'm going to play either the start signal or the stop signal, and your job is to either say or point to whether you think it's the start or stop.

For the first time, I will say the words and I'll tell you whether it's start or stop, and then I'll stop saying the words and then it's all over to you.

So here we go, which one is this? Play the djembe and say Africa.

That's the stop signal.

Well done.

How about this one? Play the djembe and here we go.

That would be the start signal, well done.

So this time I'm not going to say anything.

I'm just going to play the rhythms and it's up to you to tell me whether it's the start signal or the stop signal.

So here it goes, here's the first one.

Stop or start? If you said start, that's correct, well done.

How about this one? Stop or start? That was also the start signal, correct.

How about this one? Stop signal, Africa at the end.

One more.

The start signal again.

Okay, now in today's lesson we're going to learn one more rhythm from the song Kuku, and then we can try to put it all together in a structure.

Let's find out what that next rhythm is.

Okay, so we've learnt the start signal and we've learnt the stop signal.

Now it's time to learn this thing right here, which is an ostinato.

An ostinato is a repeated pattern or phrase.

And in this song, that repeated pattern or phrase is "Let's play djembe, let's play djembe." Now you might be able to hear that when I say that sentence, I'm putting a slight emphasis on the word "play." Let's play djembe, let's play djembe.

And the reason is because the word "play," falls on the strong beats of the bar.

Beats one, let's play, like that.

So when I'm counting in, I'm going one, two, three, four, let's play.

Okay? Let's practise that, and we'll do just clicking first.

I'll do it first, and then you can copy.

One, two, three, four.

Let's play djembe.

Let's play djembe.

Let's play djembe.

Let's play djembe.

Let's see if you can do that yourself.

After four, one, two, three, four.

Let's play djembe.

Let's play djembe.

Let's play djembe.

Let's play djembe.

Good, let's do it together now, and let's use our chest this time.

One, two, three, four.

Let's play djembe.

Let's play djembe.

Let's play djembe.

Let's play djembe.

Excellent, let's try and put those all together.

So we'll do the start signal, followed by the ostinato, followed by the stop signal.

Try and join in with me, and then I'll give you an opportunity to try it by yourself.

Here we go.

One, two, three, four.

Play the djembe and here we go.

Let's play djembe.

Let's play djembe.

Let's play djembe.

Let's play djembe.

Let's play djembe.

Let's play djembe.

Let's play the djembe and say Africa, the end.

Although that sounded very boring, because I only used one sound.

As we've already discovered, there are many sounds we can play using our body.

So I would like you to pause the video, and try and come up with your own rhythm using different sounds of your body.

On the screen now is a potential structure for your Kuku performance.

Section one, our start signal.

We need to have a start signal, so we know when to come in.

Section two is our ostinato section.

Let's play djembe, let's play djembe, which repeats on and on.

And then we have our stop signal, and I've put that at section four, because I thought that if you wanted to, and you were feeling adventurous, you could add in a third section which would be an improvisation section.

To improvise is to make something up on the spot, and that would be a really great opportunity for you to see what different sounds you can make and what different rhythms you could produce.

What would be really great is if you could use different sounds of your body.

Not just using your chest, not just using the click, not just clapping, but mixing those three sounds, or other sounds, together to create something much more complex and enjoyable to listen to.

For example, instead of just doing play the djembe and here we go, I could stomp, clap, click, rub my palms together, and maybe do something like this.

One, two, three, four.

Play the djembe, and here we go.

Something like that.

For the let's play the djembe section, I could do let's play djembe, let's play djembe, let's play djembe, let's play djembe, et cetera.

It's up to you to be as creative as you would like to be.

Crucially, we have the start signal followed by the ostinato section, followed by the stop signal.

Like I said, you can add in an improvised section.

I will do one, two, three, and four as an example, and then your next task will be to come up with your own version of that.

So, here goes.

One, two, three, four.

Play the djembe and here we go, let's play djembe, let's play djembe, let's play djembe, let's play djembe, improvise.

Play the djembe in South Africa.

There we go.

And that was my Kuku performance.

Now it's your turn.

So, your task now is to play the whole of the Kuku all the way through.

So that's the start signal, the ostinato, optional improvisation section, and the stop signal.

Try as hard as you can to play a variety of different body percussion sounds, and maybe you can get brothers, sisters, parents, carers involved, and you can teach them the ostinato for example, and teach them how to come in after the start signal, how to come in after the stop signal.

If you would like to, you can record your performance on a device, such as a phone or a tablet, and you can pause the video now while you practise that performance to get it perfect.

In this lesson, we've been introduced to West African music.

We've looked at the djembe, and its different strokes and sonorities.

We've performed rhythms using our body, and we've also performed rhythms from the song "Kuku." I hope you've enjoyed this lesson, and I can't wait to see you at the next one.