Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to lesson two of the West African Music unit.

My name is Mr. Chapman, and in today's lesson, we will explore the ways in which signals are used in some West African music.

We will learn some signals from the song "Kuku," as well as compose some signals and a call and response section of our own.

So let's take a look at what we'll need to be successful in today's lesson.

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.

To warm up, let's do some call and response.

I will play a four beat pattern, that you will copy right away.

After four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

Great.

Hopefully you recognise that last rhythm as the stop signal from "Kuku." So far, we have learned three rhythms from the song "Kuku:" the start signal, the stop signal and the ostinato pattern.

Remember an ostinato is a rhythm that repeats.

Can you remember the sentences we use to remember each rhythm? The start signal was 'Play the djembe, and here we go!' Play the djembe, and here we go.

You might notice that on the word 'play' I did a flam.

That's where I play two notes in very very quick succession.

The ostinato rhythm was 'Let's play djembe, let's play djembe, let's play djembe, let's play djembe.

' And the stop signal was 'Play the djembe and shout Africa!' Can you have a think about why the word play is in bold? Play the djembe and here we go.

Let's play djembe.

Let's play djembe.

That's right.

It's because the word play comes on the downbeats: beat one, or the strong beat.

So the word play is accented and an accent in music is when we emphasise a note or a beat.

I'm going to play some rhythms now, and it will either be the start signal, the stop signal, or the ostinato.

I would like you to say to your screen, which rhythm you think you can hear.

I will not say the words of the rhythm, so try and say them in your head yourself.

Here it goes.

Which rhythm do you think that was? Good, it was the ostinato.

Let's move on to a different rhythm.

Which rhythm do you think that was? Good, the start signal.

The end was, 'and here we go,' not 'and say Africa' or 'and shout Africa.

' Another one.

Good.

The ostinato again.

And one more.

Excellent.

The stop signal.

Well done if you got all of those correct.

Now that we know the rhythms of the song "Kuku," let's take a look at the structure.

The song starts with the start signal followed by the ostinato, the repeated pattern, let's play djembe.

We know that the song is going to end with a stop signal, but we can also see on screen that we have a call and response section.

So let's learn that now.

The call would be performed by the master drummer and initially that master drummer is going to be me.

And I'm going to play a rhythm that sounds like this.

What's for dinner, Jo? What's for dinner, Jo? And I might move that rhythm around different sounds using my body.

The response, which will be played by you, is going to be improvised.

When we improvise, we make something up on the spot.

So I will do the call.

What's for dinner, Jo? And you will have four beats, one, two, three, four, to improvise something using body percussion.

Let's take a look and see what that might look like.

One, two, three, four.

What's for dinner, Jo? What's for dinner, Jo? Okay.

So now you know what to do.

Over to you.

I'll do the call, what's for dinner Jo, and you will have four beats to improvise.

Let's get started.

What's for dinner, Jo? One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

Well done.

So I think it's about time that you became the master drummer.

So you're going to play the rhythm, What's for dinner, Jo? And then I'm going to improvise.

I will give you four beats in and I will keep saying the pulse to keep us both in time.

Let's try doing it four times and then you can try doing the stop signal.

Okay.

Let's see how we get on.

Ready? One, two, three, four.

What's for dinner, Jo? One, two, three, four.

One two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

Well done.

Start signal: Tempo.

We've looked at the definition of a tempo and we know that tempo describes how fast or slow the music is.

Start signals are really, really important because they tell the rest of the musicians the tempo or the speed of the piece.

So if the start signal is played really quickly by the master drummer, then the rest of the musicians will have to play the ostinato pattern really quickly.

And likewise, if the master drummer slows the tempo down and plays the start signal slowly, the other musicians will adjust and come in playing the ostinato pattern really slowly.

Let's put that into practise.

I'm going to pay the start signal at different tempos and what I want you to do is click or clap the pulse depending on how quickly I play that start signal.

So for example, play the djembe, and here we go.

One, two, three, four.

Try that again, I'm going to change the tempo.

Play the djembe, and here we go.

One, two, three, four.

Good, okay.

Let's try a much slower tempo now.

Good.

So hopefully you're now, now you can see how powerful that start signal is.

If the master drummer wants to make everyone play really quickly, he's going to play that start signal really quickly.

If he wants them to play nice and slowly, he will just slow the start signal down.

If you have friends or family that you can teach the ostinato and the start signal to, maybe you can experiment at home with changing the tempo of the piece.

Stop signal.

Ending in unison.

Unison comes from the Latin root words uni meaning one, and sonus meaning sound.

To end our performance in unison would mean ending at the same time.

Have a think about what the difference might be between melodic unison and rhythmic unison.

Melodic unison would mean that we're playing the same notes, the same pitches, whereas rhythmic unison would mean we're playing the same rhythm.

So in "Kuku" because it's rhythmic based and it's untuned percussion, we are going to be in rhythmic unison.

So when the master drummer plays the stop signal, play the djembe and shout Africa, the response from everybody else, and you in this case is going to be a click and a clap.

So, play the djembe and shout Africa, click clap.

And everybody does the click clap together.

And everybody finishes in time and together.

Let's hear that one more time.

Play the djembe and shout Africa, click clap.

So looking at that in practise now, here's the stop signal.

So let's try together now.

I'll be the master drummer and I'll play the stop signal, play the djembe and say Africa, and then we'll both click and clap at the same time.

Let's repeat this four times.

Here we go.

Two, three, four.

Two, three, four.

Two, three, four.

Hopefully we ended at the same time there.

Well done if we did.

So let's take some time to practise what we've learned so far and come up with a performance.

Teach the ostinato and the stop signal response to a family member and try performing the following structure as the master drummer.

As the master drummer you will play the start signal and you will decide when you want to stop the performance by playing the stop signal.

Ensure that you and the family member click and clap at the same time to end the piece in unison.

The start signal, as a reminder, is 'play the djembe and here we go,' the ostinato is 'let's play djembe, let's play djembe, let's play djembe,' and the stop signal is 'play the djembe and say Africa.

' Enjoy! Composing signals.

You will now compose a start and stop signal.

Start signal.

Think of a memorable sentence, e.

g.

"Play the djembe and here we go.

' This will be performed by the master drummer only.

Your memorable sentence could be absolutely anything.

For example, I have cereal for breakfast every day.

It can be random, but just make sure that it's memorable.

The stop signal can be similar to the start signal, but the end of the signal should be noticeably different from the start.

The stop signal should end with a unison response.

You can use the same unison response as "Kuku"'s stop signal.

Click, clap.

Top Tip.

Use different body percussion sounds to make it interesting.

Clap, click, tap, chest, shuffle, and stomp.

Pause the video now and write down what sentence you're going to use for your start and stop signal.

Composing: Call and Response.

You will now compose a call and response section.

For your call, which will be done by the master drummer only, this can be a fixed call, which means it's the same every time, or an improvised call, which means the master drummer improvises.

Your response should be short and simple.

For example, "What's for dinner, Jo?" If you wanted, your response could also be improvised.

Top Tip.

Again, use different body percussion sounds, claps, clicks, taps, chests, shuffles, and stomps.

You may want to write down your sentences so you can remember them.

Use the sheets on screen now to write down your memorable sentences for your call and response section.

Creating a structure.

Now you have composed your start signal, stop signal, call, and response sections, we can put them into a structure.

An example structure is on screen now.

Starting with the start signal, then having your call and response sections in the middle, and ending with the stop signal, although you can do whatever structure you would like.

You could also add some extra sections into your composition.

An improvisation section, perhaps, or compose an ostinato.

Experiment with arranging different sections in different orders.

Your task is to perform your final structure either by yourself or with a family member.

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