Lesson video

Hi, everyone, and welcome to lesson nine of unit seven, looking at fusion music.

We're going to be continuing to work on composition today.

Before we do, let's get into a quick rhythm activity to see if you can remember some of the rhythmic ideas that have been in the fusion pieces that we've listened to so far.

We're just going to focus on two, and then we're going to go straight into our lesson, so we can get on with our compositions.

Here's the first rhythm.

I want you to tell me what is the name of the rhythm.

I want you to tell me which tradition or style is it from.

And what instrument would it be played on.

So, what is the name of the rhythm? What a tradition or style of music it was originally from? And what instrument it was played on? I'm going to do a bit of body percussions.

So hopefully you can hear me, okay.

Here we go.

So here is the rhythm.

Okay, take a moment to think about it.

What rhythm was that? What is it called? Where is it from? What style and what instrument would have originally been played on? I'm going to take your answers.

I want you to tell the screen or write it down if you're ready and you've got a piece of paper.

In 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two.

And I'm looking for that it is the chaal rhythm played on the dhol from Indian music, yeah.

And you can hear it in the background as well.

Well done.

So it was the.

And you spotted that? Well done.

Okay.

Here's our second rhythm.

Same questions.

What would it have been played on? What type of rhythm is it? And if you can tell me which tradition or which piece of music we heard this from? Okay.

Here it is.

I'll do it again.

take just a few seconds to think about it.

Okay.

I'll give you 10, nine.

eight, seven, six, five, two, one, okay.

Let's get answers.

So the rhythm is from.

It's from "Release" by Afro Celt Sound System.

It was originally played, it was played in that piece of music on the Bodhran drum, which is a drum from Ireland.

And the rhythm is really syncopated.

And you can find it in both the West African style and the Irish folk style, that they use to combine to create "Release." Well done if you recognise both of those.

Keep them in your mind.

We're going to do some rhythm work this lesson.

Let's go on and see all the resources and things you need for today to go really well.

Right, let's get everything you need for today's lesson.

You're going to need a piece of paper or a book to write your notes in.

I suggest you also grab any notes that you took from the previous lesson around melodic and harmonic ideas.

It will help you with your composition practise today.

You're going to need a pencil certainly, because you'll be changing your mind, rubbing out ideas, going again, and also a different kind of pen for marking and annotating.

You also going to need to bring with you either your voice if you going to be singing a part of your composition, an instrument, keyboard, or an instrument of your choice.

And if you're working from technology and app as well, but remember we're doing melodic harmonic ideas, so you're going to either need a keyboard app or a different instrument app.

If you need any of these things, please pause the video now, go and get them and then come back and we'll get started.

Right, let's get through our structure for today's lesson.

The first thing we're going to do is we're going to do a bit of work exploring different styles of fusion.

Okay, so we're going to be looking at two pieces in particular and about how they are based around fusion ideas and how they've come together to create that song.

Then we're going to recap the rhythmic ideas that we've listened to, we've been exploring in our fusion styles over the last few lessons.

And then, we're going to have a look at texture in music.

This is really important for your compositional development.

Then, we're really going to delve into our fusing and developing our compositional ideas for our new fusion and style.

Okay, here's our first type of music that we're going to explore today.

This is Esperanza Spalding, and we're going to listen to a piece of music of hers called "Black Gold." She is an amazing musician and composer, and I'm really excited for you to hear this clip.

The two questions that you're going to need to answer, so have your piece of paper and pen at the ready, is can you identify the two styles that have been fused to create this song? Okay, so we know it's a fusion, but what are the two styles that have been fused together? And can you name two musical features to support your answer? So if you're saying it's rock and indie, what two features can you hear of rock? What two features can you use in indie? That's just an example.

Okay? Let's listen to the clip and then you'll have time to write your answer.

♪ Hold your head as high as you can ♪ ♪ High enough to see who you are, little man ♪ ♪ Life sometimes is cold and cruel ♪ ♪ Baby no one else will tell you so remember that ♪ ♪ You are Black Gold, Black Gold ♪ I hope you enjoyed listening to that.

"Black Gold" is an incredible song.

One of Esperanza Spalding's most famous collaborative pieces, and it has a really, really strong message.

The lyrics are great.

It's really promoting racial equality and celebration of Black history.

And actually she released this song on the first of Feb, 2012, which is the first day of Black history month, when they celebrate it over in America.

So if you get the chance to listen to all of it, please do, please do go and do that, it's a great song.

Okay, did you identify the two styles that have been fused together? I was looking for R&B and jazz.

Okay, so the more modern R&B with traditional jazz sound.

And the features from each of those are vocals.

So the vocal lines and the way that they've been structured is definitely more of a commercial R&B sound.

And also Esperanza Spalding plays the bass in this, but she plays the electric bass.

Okay, that's how we know it's more modern.

If it was a more traditional jazz piece, then she would have played the double bass, which has an acoustic sound.

The jazz features that you can hear are the horn instruments, the saxophone, the trombone, the trumpet, the parts that you can hear in between the vocals is very much a jazz style.

But there are lots of jazz chords and jazz organ that you can hear throughout the piece.

So that's the jazz influence of this fusion music.

Well done.

Let's listen to another one.

Okay, we're going to listen to a short clip of a piece called "Borders" by an artist called MIA.

Same questions.

Can you identify the two styles that have been fused to create the song? And can you name two musical features to support your answer? Let's have a listen.

♪ Borders, what's up with that ♪ ♪ Politics, what's up with that ♪ ♪ Police shots, what's up with that ♪ I really liked that piece.

Again, it's another one that if you get the chance, please go and listen to the whole thing.

So, a bit of a background about MIA because that will help us work out around why she chose to fuse the styles together to create this song.

She's originally from Sri Lanka, Her and a family moved to England, into London, actually, as refugees.

She calls her stage name MIA, as in, it comes from Missing In Action.

It's a really clever sort of play on words around the fact that she moved from Sri Lanka to the UK to escape a really terrible civil war that was happening there.

And then her and her family became essentially refugees here in the UK.

So the lyrics are so powerful and so topical to what's happening still now in lots of different countries.

So what are your answers? So, the two styles that she's used together are: electronic dance and Asian folk, in particular inspirations from Sri Lanka, so where she was originally from.

The features from each, from the electronic dance, you can hear there's lots of synthesised sounds.

This is a drum machine.

And leading up to that chorus that it builds to, you can hear in the drum beat.

And then there's a break and a drop, which is really commonly heard in electronic dance music.

The Asian folk is two things.

There is a wind instrument that you can hear, the Horanawa, the Asian instruments, there's a wind instrument you can hear, the Horanawa, which is from Sri Lankan music.

And it's playing sort of a wobbly melodic riff, which you can hear throughout the chorus.

Also just before the drum drops, she sings a segment that is in a very, almost like Indian influenced intonation.

She says the das and the nas in her vocal riff that we would hear in Indian music.

And don't forget, you know, Sri Lanka is an island on its own, but it's very close to India.

So that's where the musical influence is from.

Great listening activity.

I hope you enjoy listening to those and found the information really interesting.

Let's carry on.

Okay, now we've had a look at different types of fusion.

Let's recap the rhythmic ideas from the pieces that we've learned so far.

Here's the first two.

We have looked at Afrobeat rhythms and tango rhythms. Let's just really quickly recap these.

We'll do a little call and response, just so it's clear in your mind what the differences are and how to establish the style for both.

So here's the Afrobeat.

So here's the Afrobeat, I'll call you and answer, this is just a recap, so that the rhythms are clear in our mind.

It's been a little while since we've looked to Afrobeat music.

Here's the first rhythm.

One, two, three, and.

Let's do the second rhythm from the Afrobeat tango that's underneath.

One, two, my go first.

Your go.

Great! Good recap.

Let's have a look at the tango rhythm.

That top line, one, two, me first.

Repeat it.

Your go.

Repeat it.

Great.

That's the first tango rhythm.

Let's have a look at that second line.

Ta-ta, ta-ta-ta.

One, two, my go first.

Repeat it.

Great.

Okay, let's have a look at the other two that we've explored in the fusion unit.

And then we'll talk about how you can go on to develop these, 'cause remember at the moment they're just rhythmic ideas.

So we've done both of these in our intro earlier on, but let's just really quickly recap them and you have a go at playing them, so that's really clear.

So we'll do the chaal rhythm.

Again, I will do just those eight beats and then you can copy back.

One, two, three, four.

So,.

Okay, you have a go with me.

One, two, three, four.

That's an I simplified version of the chaal, just to help you remember.

And then the Bodhran rhythm from "Release," played on the Irish drum.

One, two, me first.

Your go, two, three, four.

Great! Okay, so now we've had a look at all the different rhythmic ideas that we've looked at in different styles and traditions.

Let's have a think about how we can develop them.

A lot about rhythmic development is having a look at the patterns of notes that you've got, the long and short notes that you've been given from the style.

And we're going to look at repetition.

We're looking at adding some more rests.

We're going to look at reversing it like we did with melodies, splitting up the parts, giving them different endings, those kinds of things.

So I will take, I'm going to take the Afrobeat rhythm, just to give you as an example, and I am going to play, or I'm going to clap, sorry, the first rhythm four times.

So I'm just going to repeat it.

And that can be four bars of my rhythmic idea.

So we've got them,.

In fact, on the fourth bar, I'm going to do something different and then change the rhythm.

So it would go like this.

I'll vocalise it actually, so it's really clear in your head.

So I'm going to use this as a structure, four bars, one, two, three, four, then repeat five, six, seven, eight, Afrobeat rhythm one.

And I've already got a full beat rhythm.

Sorry, a full bar rhythm.

, okay? But we need to create a minute long piece.

That's been our brief for the next few lessons.

So we're going to do another four bars, but I'm going to take the second Afrobeat rhythm underneath for the first three bars.

And then return back to the normal Afrobeat rhythm for the first one to finish off my eight bars, okay? So here's bars five, six, seven, and eight.

Try and picture it in your mind while we're composing.

Okay, so that's me taking the second Afrobeat rhythm there on the page, but putting the first one to mark the end of my eight bars.

Let's do the whole thing.

I do this just because it helps me picture my bars and the rhythms that I've got in each of them.

You've find whichever works best for you, but I find it much easier to visualise it.

So, I went into four and five to eight.

Afrobeat.

And there, just from those two rhythms, I've created an eight bar rhythmic section for my fusion composition that I might use with something else.

Let's take a different one.

Let's take the Bodhran rhythm, okay? Here's another way.

You could take the first part of a bar.

So I'm going to take this bit,.

So I'm going to split the bar and take just part of the rhythmic idea and then go on to repeat it and develop it.

So I'm going to take.

And then I put that one on the end of the fourth bar.

Now I might take the second part of the bar now and play around with that as a rhythmic idea, I make that bars five, six, seven, eight.

I know I've got five, six, seven, eight, and I finished on the bar that we know really well.

So here's all eight bars and I've split the rhythm in the Bodhran rhythm of "Release." And that's another way of developing rhythmic ideas.

So, we go.

That's the second half of the bar.

And all of a sudden we've taken a two bar idea.

And again, we've made it an eight bar idea.

That's how you go about developing, you take parts of the pattern and you either split them, extend them, repeat them, structure them in different bars, in different places.

And that's how you go on to develop your rhythmic ideas.

So you need to choose which one of the rhythmic ideas that you want to take.

Practise playing it on a drum, if you've got one or you can use body percussion or vocal percussion or clap, whichever you'd rather, and then just like I've shown you, think how are you going to develop it.

How are you going to take a bar or two bar rhythm and make it an eight or 12 or a 16? Are you going to repeat it? Are you going to split it? Are you going to shorten it? Are you going to take just part of the bar and repeat it? Are you going to put more rests in? Do you want to take some rests out? There are so many things you can do, but be really clear with which style you've taken your rhythmic idea from.

So don't lose sight of the tradition that you're taking as part of developing this into your own fusion piece.

Great, enjoy.

Pause the video and off you go.

Okay, hopefully you're starting to develop a really great rhythmic part that could go into your new fusion style.

Hopefully, you've got at least eight bars, like I demonstrated, of a rhythmic part at the moment.

Let's have a look a bit about texture.

'Cause as we delve further into this composition, we need to think about texture and music because it helps us decide what to do with our parts.

Take a few moments.

I suggest you pause the video and just read everything on this slide.

It is the three-key forms or the three main ways of creating texture or working with your parts in music.

So pause now and read through everything.

Okay, great.

And if you've pressed play, that means you've read through everything about texture in music.

And you now have a clear idea of what monophonic, homophonic, and polyphonic means Essentially to sum up, monophonic means you can only hear one part, homophonic means that you can hear several parts, but they've all move in a similar way, so they might have the same rhythm, they might be in complete unison, that they sound like they are moving together.

And polyphonic means that there are lots of different layers happening and that all playing different parts at the same time.

Keep those in your mind because as we delve deeper into our composition, you're going to need to think about this to help the development of your piece.

Let's just recap a few things that we need to bear in mind while making a fusion song.

How to your melodies and harmonies work together? Consider the notes you are using.

So in the last lesson we looked at melodic and harmonic ideas.

What notes did you pick? Did you pick a key? If you chose chords, did you pull notes from the chords to help you make your melody? If you've chosen a drone or you're you building a melody or an improvisation around that drone? Think about the tempo of the original style.

So what tempo would you hear tango in, what tempo would be Afrobeat? If you were listening to Indian classical music, in which part of the piece would there be a really set tempo? Then think about the tempo you want for your piece, and if the rhythms that you've chosen are going to fit with that tempo.

And then you're going to need to consider the texture, 'cause this is going to help you develop and build up your piece.

Okay, so here's my example for our big task to carry on with the development of your new fusion piece.

I am going to take the harmonic idea of a drone.

I'm going to choose two notes like Indian classical music.

It's going to be low and I'm going to hold it throughout.

At the moment, that's an octave.

I want to add a second note, I can.

I quite like that actually.

I'm going to put the C in there.

So I've got two Fs and a C.

So, that's my drone.

Over the top of that, I'm going to take the notes of the Aeolian scale and pick a vocal.

So, because I've picked F, I need to choose the notes, the Aeolian scale, that fit.

So, drone on F, Aeolian scale.

Okay, and I've picked a synthesise sound just because I might want to start thinking about a more modern edge.

I'm going to need to think about the notes of my riff and how they fit, and I'm going to just structure those riffs so they're memorable, okay? But I'm going to do those riffs in vocals.

So I like those two Fs.

Okay, same thing, really simple like that, but because I'm using an Aeolian scale, it has that Irish kind of folky notes that I'm looking for as part of my tradition.

On top of that, I've decided that I want to use, my rhythmic idea is going to be Afrobeat-inspired.

And one way that you could do it is music software.

You could create the drum pattern using your app, like I've demonstrated before.

Focusing on drums. Do you remember the drum app I showed you before? And then you can put in your own drum patterns.

That's what we did with Afrobeat before.

Or the other option is actually using some music software on the computer and playing along with it.

And that's the demonstration I'm going to show you.

So there are lots of free music software that you can use.

I'm going to be demonstrating on BandLab.

All I've done is I've found an Afrobeat drum pattern that fits that , it's got that , semiquaver syncopated pattern from the loops here.

And then I'm going to put over the top.

Okay, now I'm starting to fuse and develop those two together.

Here is what my drum beat sounds like.

So, I've got drone inspired by Indian classical music.

, my two melodic riffs that I've taken from the Aeolian notes, and that's Irish-inspired or Afro Celt inspired.

And I've got my Afrobeat drum.

Three traditions all for using together.

Now, I want to think about texture.

I would like to start my piece with a monophonic texture.

So that means just one part.

So I'm going to have, I think, to be a bit different.

I'm going to see what it sounds like if I sing as my intro, an acapella voice.

♪ One, two, one, two ♪ Okay, and that should record in there, let's just test.

Let's see, we can hear it.

Great, there's my two riffs.

And I think that sounds nice.

This tempo.

Oh, it's a little bit quick, so I'm going to turn the tempo down and you can do that by reducing the beats per permanent, just here.

I'll try 95.

The best.

And let's listen to drumming now.

Yeah.

Quite like that.

So let's try it, I'm going to put my metronome on, I'm going to hit record, I'll do vocals first.

Oh, I've made a mistake here.

We'll be really careful with this.

Make sure that if you want to record voice, you've clicked on the voice track.

So I'll delete that and we'll go again.

Okay, let's see how that sounds.

What was that? So here, my texture is monophonic, but here it becomes polyphonic, 'cause I have this part and this part play at the same time, but they're playing different parts.

So let's do the same again.

Let's add a track.

I'm going to record it using a microphone, because I'm playing the drone on my piano.

And I think I'm going to have the drone come in when the drums do.

Okay, let's hear how that sounds.

Record.

Okay, let's hear how it sounds all together.

And we've already got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

It was at least eight bars we were looking forward to begin with.

I've got a bit further on the way to 12.

Let's have a listen.

Yeah, I'm quite happy with that in terms of my starting ideas of how I want to fuse them together.

I think the drone works well with my melodic vocal riffs and that Afrobeat drum loop over the top fits really well.

So we've got a fusion there of three different traditions.

So your task to finish today is to add a rhythm part to your melody and harmony line that you created last week.

Again, we want it to be around eight bars, okay? We really want to be extending these.

So we've got at least the first section of our piece complete.

And for a minute long piece, about eight bars will work.

One, choose a rhythmic idea and extend into a drum pattern.

We should have done that already.

We had a go at doing that before.

Then, you're going to play or record this along with your melodic and harmonic ideas from last lesson, is the fusion successful? And we're going to look at what that sounds like in a minute.

And please consider your texture.

Is there a part of it you want it to be just monophonic? Maybe at one point you want your chords and your vocals to be moving together at the same time, so it becomes homophonic.

Or all the way through it you want it to be polyphonic? There's lots of parts playing together at the same time.

Things to keep an eye out for for this initial first section of your composition to be successful: make sure that we can clearly hear at least the two different features of the different styles you've chosen.

They develop with one another to make eight bars.

Okay, so either through repetition or you choose to do it in sequence, or you create a question and an answer and then lay a rhythm part underneath, they need to develop together to create eight bars.

And this is really important now that we're looking at rhythm, all three parts should be in time with one another.

That doesn't mean they play at exactly the same time because that would make it homophonic all the way through.

It means that your melody part, your rhythm part and your harmony part, even if they're playing different things are all following the same tempo.

Right.

Enjoy, good luck.

Can't wait to hear about what you come up with.

Off you go.

I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson.

I've certainly enjoyed exploring how to create fusion pieces.

Don't forget to record it and save it, 'cause we're going to finish this off in the next lesson and you want to have all your notes or your recordings or your ideas down, so you don't forget.

Go and play this little starting part to either teachers or anybody in your household, get their feedback and what they think.

And also don't forget to go ahead and take that quiz, so that I can check everything that you've learned around how to develop and different ideas and the two songs, the two fusion styles that were listened to earlier on by Esperanza Spalding and MIA.

Well done today.

And I'll see you for the final unit seven fusion lesson next time.

Bye!.