Lesson video

In this lesson, you'll 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.

Okay, so let's recap the singing section of the song Kuku as we will be using it later on in today's lesson.

So let's just do the lyrics first of all.

I'm going to say them I would like you to repeat them after me we have ♪ Kuku wei ni tara bora ♪ One two three, your turn ♪ Kuku wei ni tara bora ♪ Good.

Let me add on the next part so it's ♪ Kuku wei ni tara bora ei ♪ ♪ Kuku wei ni tara bora ah ♪ ♪ Ni tara bora ah ♪ Remember? After four just to sing that first part.

One two three four.

♪ Kuku wei ni tara bora ei ♪ ♪ Kuku wei ni tara bora ah ♪ Very good and then the last little bit is ♪ Ni tara bon tara ye ♪ Ni tara bon tara ye after four.

One two three four.

♪ Ni tara bon tara ye ♪ Good.

So let's add the melody so ♪ Kuku wei ni tara bora ei ♪ Three four.

♪ Kuku wei ni tara bora ei ♪ Then it goes.

♪ Kuku wei ni tara bora ah ♪ Two three four.

♪ Kuku wei ni tara bora ah ♪ Put that together.

♪ Kuku wei ni tara bora ei ♪ ♪ Kuku wei ni tara bora ah ♪ Let's do that one mo time after four.

One two three four.

♪ Kuku wei ni tara bora ei ♪ ♪ Kuku wei ni tara bora ah ♪ Then the last bit is ♪ Ni tara bon tara ye ♪ ♪ Ni tara bon tara ye ♪ Your turn.

♪ Ni tara bon tara ye ♪ From the top.

♪ Kuku wei ni tara bora ei ♪ ♪ Kuku wei ni tara bora ah ♪ ♪ Ni tara bon tara ye ♪ Very good.

If you want to recap that again, you can pause and rewind.

Otherwise, let's move on to today's lesson.

Okay, so I'm really excited to teach you this new song.

I'm going to sing all the way through first, so you know what it sounds like.

And then it'll be over to you to learn it.

It goes like this, ♪ round and around ♪ ♪ and around ♪ ♪ and around ♪ ♪ and around ♪ ♪ and around ♪ ♪ and around ♪ ♪ and around, ♪ ♪ and around ♪ ♪ and around ♪ ♪ and around ♪ Oh sorry stop.

Okay.

I thought it was, you don't like it.

Let's have a think about why, that wasn't a very good song.

If you're thinking about structure, that song didn't really have any structure.

It was the same thing looped over and over and over and over again.

There was no development.

It wasn't interesting.

And it got very boring very quickly.

Have that in mind as we go through today's lesson, and don't worry, I'm not going to teach you how to sing that song.

Spot the difference.

On screen now are three musical structures in tables.

You may already know the names of these structures, but even if you don't, can you list some similarities and differences between the three structures on screen.

Western structures.

The first structure we have on that previous slide is called Ternary form.

Ternary form has three sections.

It's a three part structure with an opening section or A that repeats after a contrasting Section B.

So we have A B A, and this is known as Ternary form.

The middle structure was called Rondo.

That's A B A C A.

A structure that alternates between a refrain.

So that's something that repeats that A section, and contrasting episodes.

So that in this case would be B and C.

Notice that B and C have different colours.

So they would be completely different to each other.

And if the Rondo section was to continue, we would have D A E A F A, etc.

So we're always returning back to that refrain section.

And each episode in between is different to the last.

Song form.

Song form is a popular structure used in modern pop songs that contains an introduction, a verse, a contrasting repeating chorus and an outro.

If we structure a piece of music in sections, then there is a sense of a beginning, middle and an end.

Listening activity.

I'm going play a very well known song twice.

When I play it for the first time, see if you can try and figure out how many sections there are, whether it's Ternary, Rondo or Song form.

When I play it for the second time, stand up when you hear the B section, and sit down when you hit the A section.

Then think about the following questions, what is the structure? and what might happen, if the piece ended after the B section? So here is the music for the first time.

Here it is for the second time.

Stand up when you hear the B section, and sit down when you hear the A section.

Very good.

So let's try and answer these questions.

What is the structure of the music? Was is it Ternary form, Rondo form or Song form.

If you answered Ternary form then you are correct well done.

We know this because, it was in three sections, A B and A.

And the A section repeated.

So we have A, B, and A again.

So this final question what might happen if the piece ended after Section B? Well, let's hear it.

It's almost agonising, isn't it? We really want it to sound finished.

And we really, as a listener, want the A section to repeat.

So we feel at rest.

I mean, it actually sounds like it's ended instead of just stopped randomly halfway through.

The next activity is what was the question? I've given you the answers for three different questions.

And I want you to try and come up with what you think the question was.

So the first one is, a structure with three sections, A B A.

So what would the question be here? Two, the introduction and outro sections.

What might the question be in this one? And finally, it gives the music a sense of direction, beginning, middle, and end.

What was the question? Pause the video, have a go and press resume when you're ready to move on.

Above my head, I have the structure of the song Kuku.

What I would like us to do is go through the structure.

And this time, I would like it to be over to you.

I'm going to narrate where we are and where we're going, as well as provide a pulse, but I want you to do the rhythms or the singing.

So let's warm up our hands and warm up our voices and let's start after four.

Remember the start signal is ♪ play the djembe and here we go.

♪ The ostinato is ♪ let's play djembe ♪ ♪ let's play djembe, ♪ we have a call and response we just improvised and what's feeding a joe.

We have the singing portion of the song.

Improvisation we make it up on the spot another ostinato section or if you want to polyrythm section and the stop signal is ♪ Play the djembe and say Africa ♪ After four.

One two three four.

♪ Play the djembe and say Africa ♪ ♪ Let's play djembe ♪ ♪ Let's play djembe ♪ ♪ Let's play djembe ♪ ♪ Let's play djembe ♪ ♪ Let's play djembe ♪ Two more.

♪ play djembe ♪ ♪ Let's play djembe ♪ And.

Call and response section after four.

One two three four.

♪ What's feeding a joe ♪ ♪ What's feeding a joe ♪ ♪ What's feeding a joe ♪ ♪ What's feeding a joe ♪ Singing section.

♪ Kuku wei ♪ Stop.

Improvising in four.

One two three four.

One.

We'll do eight bars.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Our ostinato section two, three, four.

♪ 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 djembe ♪ ♪ Let's play djembe ♪ Stop signal.

♪ Play the djembe and say Africa ♪ Hopefully we ended at the same time.

Well done for making it all the way through the structure.

Now just a little bit of analysis, we started with the start signal, and we ended with a stop signal.

That much is fairly obvious.

Now did any sections repeat? Yes, the ostinato section.

I think, ostinato here, ostinato here.

Great.

somewhere in the middle of the song, we had a very big development in that we started singing.

And that was sort of in the middle, which is an appropriate place to have that.

Something to aim for.

And then either side of that section, we had a call and response, and then improvised section.

So you can see that there's lots of variety here, but also, we do have some familiarity, and it makes logical sense to start with the start signal and end with the stop signal.

Later on we're going to be coming up with our own structure using these sections.

So just have all of these things in mind.

And if you want to, you can repeat that exercise by clicking pause and rewind, you can have another go at playing it.

For now, let's move on to another task.

I have put two very random structures on the screen for you.

The first one starts with the improvisation section with the start signal, stop signal.

Two sections of the ostinato back to back, a call and response section and ending with a singing section.

And the second structure is very much the same as the song around and around from the beginning of the lesson, where it's just an ostinato all the way through.

What I would like you to do is write two sentences for why these structures are not effective.

To stretch yourself, suggest a way to add interest or to make them slightly more effective structures.

Pause the video now and click resume when you have finished.

So on now over to you.

Arrange the sections you see on screen into a full structure.

Writing a justification for your choices.

You may repeat sections, and you don't have to use all of the sections on screen.

But again you have to write a justification as to why.

Pause the video here and click resume when you're ready.

How do we decide how to structure a composition, so that it has a sense of direction? Make sure that it has a strong opening.

The start of any piece of music should grab the audience's attention and set the scene for the rest of the piece.

Contrasting middle section.

A contrasting B section adds interest and ensures the listener does not get bored.

Closure.

The ending should draw the piece of music to a close.

It should sound finished.

And speaking of closure, that brings today's lesson on structure and how to make a piece interesting to a close.

Hope you enjoyed the lesson.

Remember to do a quiz.

Well done for your hard work and I'll see you in the next one.