Lesson video

Hello everyone, Ms. Friar here, and welcome to your seventh lesson in unit seven looking at fusion music.

We've got a really exciting lesson today where we're going to be exploring a really famous band in fusion music.

But before we get into that, let's complete a musical activity to get us all warmed up and ready.

Today, we're going to focus on vocals and we're going to learn a really short, melodic idea from a particular style of music.

Now it may be one that you recognise straight away, but we're going to delve into it.

While we're singing, be thinking about what style of music you could have heard that kind of melody from before.

I'll break it down into two parts, I'll model the first one and you'll sing, model the second one, and you'll sing, and then we're going to mix it up a bit.

So, he is the first part of the melody.

♪ Da da da da da da da ♪ ♪ Da da da da da da da ♪ Now you have a go.

Me first.

♪ Da da da da da da da ♪ Lovely.

If that's a bit too high, you can always sing it down an octave.

♪ Da da da da da da da ♪ That also is a bit low for me.

♪ Da da da da da da da ♪ You have a go.

♪ Da da da da da da da ♪ ♪ Da da da da da da da ♪ Good, well done.

Any of you who have a slightly lower pitch of voice, that one would probably be a bit easier to use.

The second part of the phrase in higher octave.

♪ Da da da da da da da da da ♪ ♪ Da da da da da da da da da ♪ Your go, cold response.

♪ Da da da da da da da da da ♪ ♪ Da da da da da da da da da ♪ Lower octave.

♪ Da da da da da da da da da ♪ ♪ Da da da da da da da da da ♪ Good.

Let's see if we can put both parts of that melodic phrase together.

I'll go first, then you have a go.

♪ Da da da da da da da ♪ ♪ Da da da da da da da da da ♪ ♪ Da da da da da da da ♪ ♪ Da da da da da da da da da ♪ Well done.

Let's all sing together.

I'll sing the lower octave this time.

One, two, three, go ♪ Ba ba da da da da da ♪ ♪ Da da da da da da da da da ♪ Again.

♪ Da da da da da da da ♪ ♪ Da da da da da da da da da ♪ Well done.

I wonder if you are starting to recognise where you might have heard this type melody before.

In fact, this tune is taken from a really traditional Irish folk song.

It's why it has that kind of folky, almost jig-like feel.

And it's got that swung rhythm ♪ Da da da da da da da da da ♪ Okay, a jig is a type of dance, which is where you'd hear that rhythm a lot.

♪ Da da da da da da da da da ♪ In fact, it's traditionally played on a tin whistle.

Let's see if we can have a go at doing that melody using a whistle.

Now, if you really struggling with whistling, and it's not for everyone, don't worry.

Just join in, but singing it instead.

Let's see if we can do the whole phrase whistling or singing altogether.

One, two, three.

La la, there's our start note.

One, two, three, and.

Again.

Well done.

Good work.

Okay, the fact that we've been looking at traditional Irish folk is a bit of a clue into what we're going to explore in the rest of today's lesson.

Now let's go and get everything you need to start assessing really well.

Well done.

Right, let's make sure that you have everything you need for today's lesson to go really well.

You're going to need and piece of paper, or perhaps a book that you're writing your notes on.

You're going to need a pencil.

And I suggest a pen in a different colour so that you can correct and mark your answers as we go along.

For our music making, I'm going to give you some options here.

You can either use your voice, an instrument of your choice, which could be one you already play, but perhaps a keyboard or piano.

Or if you'd rather use technology, you can grab one of the apps that we've talked through in previous lessons.

I suggest one that has a keyboard facility.

If you don't have any of those things, please pause the video now and go and get what you need.

Right, let's have a look at our plan for today.

It's really important that you have really clear picture of exactly what we're going to do and what you're going to achieve today.

So the first thing is that we are going to recap some of the features of the fusion music that we have looked at so far.

Then I'm going to introduce you to a really exciting band called Afro Celt Sound System.

We're going to look at some tonality and I'm going to explain to you what Aeolian mode is.

Then we're really going to challenge you today and do some analysis of the musical ideas found in the song Release, which is a song by Afro Celt Sound System.

Then to finish off, you're going to get an opportunity to perform some of the parts from that song Release.

Let's get going.

Okay, here's our first recap task.

There are seven questions on your screen.

All are asking you information around the different fusion styles we've looked at in previous lessons.

Pause the video now, read through those questions, and take the time you need to answer them.

Okay, let's go through those answers.

Different colour pen at the ready.

Number one was naming two percussion instruments that you'd find in West Africa.

We've looked at claves and congas, which were commonly used.

But you could also said djembe and talking drum, which we have discussed and seen in some pieces of music.

The second question was to name two instruments you would hear in a horn section.

This we looked at in Afrobeat lesson.

It's saxophone and trumpet.

But if you picked any other brass instrument, that would also be correct.

Number three was name two features of Western electronic dance music.

Drum loops, synth sounds, or use of a synthesiser, and then creating music on music software is all very common in electronic dance music.

Five was to name two different tonalities.

Major and minor or the most commonly known.

And it is the key that you decide to create a composition to be in.

Six, what was the name of the system of notes used to improvise in Indian music? The answer was a rag.

And seven, how is a drone in music created? So it is one or two notes held together for a long period of time, often continuously throughout a piece of music.

Well done if you got any of those right.

Great recap from our previous lessons.

Let's carry on and introduce you to Afro Celt Sound System.

So we are at the second stage of our lesson for today, introducing you to the band.

I'll read through the information on the right hand side of the green box.

It's going to give you some key facts around this band that we're looking at today.

In 1991, guitarist Simon Emmerson from London performed in a collaboration with Afro-pop artist Baaba Maal.

After hearing similarities in West African melodies and Irish airs, an Irish air is another word for a song, he decided to begin an experiment and see what would happen if he brought together musicians from different cultures to improvise over techno drum grooves.

So this guitarist, Simon Emmerson, after performing with somebody from West Africa, felt inspired to see if he could collaborate and bring over other musicians from lots of different parts of the world.

Really exciting band.

Let's see how he did that.

Emmerson decided to invite two members of Baaba Maal's band from West Africa to play with traditional Irish musicians to see what music they could create.

He then added a modern sound by inviting English dance mixers, so electronic dance music, to create electronic beats.

Now, what's really interesting about this band is they are more a group of musicians that come together and collaborate on pieces of music rather than being a set band all the time.

So they do have four fixed members in the band, but they regularly use guest artists and additional members to play on their albums or to perform with them.

And we're going to talk about one of those in the song Release.

If you want to pause and rewind any of the video to write down the notes about Afro Celt Sound System, please do.

Otherwise, let's carry on.

I love this quote.

"Musicians understand each other "through a means other than speaking." What do you think this means? Take some time now to think about what this quote is telling us about fusion music.

Pause the video and write down some ideas.

Right, I'm hoping you've written some notes onto your piece of paper or your booklet, and make sure you share this with your teachers or with somebody at home.

For me, this quote musicians understand each other through a means other than speaking is that music is a language that could stretch across all countries, all languages, and all cultures.

It's like a language in itself that we all understand.

And it doesn't matter if you have five people in a band that all speak completely languages and don't understand what each other were saying.

When you will learn a piece of music together, it doesn't matter.

We all have the same feelings and enjoyment around playing that music.

And that's what Afro Celt Sound System are all about.

They would have played with lots of artists who maybe didn't speak English and yet they still created amazing fusion music.

Well done.

Right, let's have a look a bit more at the name, Afro Celt Sound System.

How do you think they created their name? And I've given you a bit of a clue with the images on my screen.

From what we've learned so far, how do you think they created their name? Pause the video now and take a minute to write out your answer.

I'm excited to see if you've come up with the same thing as me.

Because the Afro Celt Sound System is a group of musicians who create music from lots of different other cultures and styles, they've decided to put this into their name.

The first image is a talking drum.

We know that's from Africa.

So that's where they get the Afro from their name, the sounds of West African music.

The middle instrument is called a low whistle, traditionally used in Irish folk music.

And so they've taken celt because Irish traditions are, because Irish traditions are known as being under the umbrella of Celtic traditions.

So the celt is the sounds of traditional Irish music.

And then the sound system is when Simon Emmerson from London brought in Western pop and electronic dance music through drum grooves and drum patterns and the use of technology.

So it's literally the different fusion styles put together and they've created their name.

West African, Celtic, and Western electronic dance music.

Well done if you worked that out.

Great work.

If not, write that down on a piece of paper so you've got it really clear in your mind what are the main fusion styles Afro Celt Sound System use to create their music.

Great work.

Let's look at where we are in our lessons so far.

We have done our recapping task.

We've looked at who Afro Celt Sound System are and what they're all about.

Now it's time to look at tonality, the key of this piece of music, and it's built around something called Aeolian mode.

Take 20 seconds just to read what's on the screen.

So that's what tonality means.

It's about arranging notes and chords around a specific key or a tonic note.

And that will be the focus.

We've already discussed two commonly used keys in Western music.

Do you remember what they are? I'll give you 10 seconds to think about it and write it down.

Which two keys are commonly used, or two types of keys, tonalities, are commonly used in Western music? Five, four, three, two, and one.

It's major and minor.

Well done, give yourself a tick if you got that right.

If you weren't sure, don't worry.

Make a note now, and you'll remember next time.

Here is the Aeolian mode.

The scale that Afro Celt Sound System decided to base the song we're going to perform, Release, around.

Musical modes are a bit like scales, but they are much older.

Musical modes have been a part of Western classical music thought since the Middle Ages, and even far back as ancient Greek theories.

They're commonly used in folk music, folk music being one of the earliest styles of music from lots of different countries and communities.

This Aeolian mode starts on C, but you can start this mode on any note you like.

Let's play through this Aeolian mode now so that you can hear all the different notes and tones and what it sounds like.

Okay, so I've got my piano here and I'm just going to demonstrate what the Aeolian mode sounds like.

So we start on C.

That is the note that we've just decided we're going to play the Aeolian mode on, C.

E flat.

C.

D.

E flat.

F.

C.

D.

E flat.

F.

G.

A flat.

B flat.

C.

Okay, our first creative task.

You are going to use the scale in Release, Aeolian mode on C, to improvise a short riff with a C drone.

So if you're really comfortable with singing that scale.

C, D, E flat, F, G, A flat, B flat, C.

If you think you want to have a go at singing that, please do so over a C drone.

Okay, so there's our C drone.

If you have an instrument at home, you might want to use that to have a go at improvising.

I felt inspired to have a go at doing this on my flute.

They use things like flutes and whistles in Irish music, which we know is Celtic, and Afro Celt Sound System use lots in their music.

So again, we're just improvising a short riff so creating a short musical idea to go with this drone.

And then you just take the notes as you go on.

So we just want to have a go at playing around those notes and getting your ears really in tune with that folky Aeolian mode.

Enjoy, off you go.

Well done.

I hope you enjoyed that task.

I'm sure your riffs around the Aeolian mode on C are sounding great.

All right, we're at another stage in our lesson.

We have recapped fusion.

We have looked at the band Afro Celt Sound System.

We know what Aeolian mode is and we've played through it.

Now it's time to start doing some analysis of the different parts that we're going to have a go at playing shortly in the song Release.

So what do we know so far? We know that Afro Celt Sound System are a collective of musicians who combine elements of traditional West African, Celtic, and Western pop or dance music to create a fusion.

Although Afro Celt Sound System has four fixed members, they regularly use guest artists and additional members.

Release is an example of the band's collaborative ethos.

Sinead O'Connor was invited to write and record this song with them.

She is an Irish vocalist.

Let's listen to a small clip of Release about halfway through the song.

You will be able to hit so many different traditions and instruments of music.

♪ Don't argue amongst yourselves ♪ I'm sure you'll agree that's a really interesting piece of music.

There's so much going on, yet it works so well.

Let's look at how it breaks down into the fusion of different cultures we've discussed already.

So first of all, we're going to have a look at melodic idea from Irish and African song.

So Simon Emmerson, the one who created Afro Celt Sound System believed that there were similarities in the melody lines of African music and Irish music.

They're both traditional folk, but they're just from two different countries.

So let's have a go at singing and analysing this.

This is that first line we just heard Sinead O'Connor singing.

♪ Don't argue amongst yourselves ♪ ♪ Don't argue amongst yourselves ♪ So then it's all don't argue amongst yourselves, but you could just la or da.

I'll go first, and then you copy.

We'll just do a da.

Okay? So you don't have to worry about the words.

♪ Da da da da dum da da ♪ Your go.

One, two, three, four, and one.

♪ Da da da da dum da da ♪ Good.

Now because Release, like lots of African music and folk music are built up on repetition and riffs, we're going to do this twice.

So I'll sing it twice and then you copy it back, and we've got the vocal melody line for just a short part of the song clear in our minds.

One, two, Margot first.

♪ Da da da da dum da da ♪ ♪ Da da da da dum da da ♪ ♪ Da da da da dum da da ♪ ♪ Da da da da dum da da ♪ Good, well done.

Lovely voices.

Okay, now we're going to put the Bodhran rhythm to that.

Now, the Bodhran is an Irish drum.

It's a hand drum that's also played with a stick that's held between the hands and then move the hands that way.

So they use both ends of the stick on a round drum that's held like this.

I'm going to clap the Bodhran rhythm for you.

And then I want you to answer me a question before we go on to do it together.

Is the Bodhran rhythm straight or syncopated? Hopefully you'll feel quite confident with this because we've looked at what syncopated means.

Here we go.

One, two, three, four.

I'll repeat it.

What do you think? Do you think that's a straight rhythm or a syncopated rhythm? Tell the screen or write it down on a piece of paper in five, four, three, two.

It's syncopated.

That's why I've circled the little semiquaver arrests.

It causes the next part to be slightly off the beat.

I'm putting up a sniff.

'Cause that's the rest that's causing it to be syncopated.

Okay, let's have a go again.

It's a rhythm that's repeated, so we'll play through it twice.

You can clap it, you can body percussion it, whichever you'd rather.

I'm going to do just tapping for now.

My turn first, then your turn.

First time.

One, two, three, four.

Okay, your go.

One, two, three, four.

Good, well done.

There's a tricky bit, isn't there, just before that rest of the semiquavers.

♪ Da da da da da da da ♪ ♪ Da da da da da da da da da ♪ Let's see if you can do it twice, and then you'll feel really confident with it.

Second time.

Your go.

Great, well done.

We're really starting to unpick some of the key musical ideas and features in the song now.

So we've looked at the vocal melody and that typical, remember we've got the E flat and the B flat, which are both written into that Aeolian mode scale that we've just looked at.

And this kind of flow of melody can be heard in sort of West African melodies and in Irish airs.

And then we've got this syncopated rhythm, and we know the syncopated rhythms in African style beats, and it's played on an Irish drum, so already starting to fuse ideas.

The next one I want to look at is a harmony part.

So we've looked at melody, rhythm, and now harmony.

Before we play, take 20 seconds or so to read through the text at the bottom.

Okay, So the question I'm asking you is what does polyphonic mean, and what is it called when there are repeated musical patterns? Now I'm pretty confident you're going to know what a repeated musical pattern is.

If you know already what polyphonic is, great.

Write it down.

If you're not sure, don't worry, I'm going to go through the answers and look a lot more at textures in the next few lessons of our fusion unit.

Writing your answers down, ready to tell me.

10 seconds.

What does polyphonic mean and what is a repeating musical pattern? Okay, let's go through our answers.

Polyphonic means there are different parts playing at the same time.

So like that little clip of Release I showed you earlier on, you could hear there were lots of different things going on.

There was a drum pattern.

There were vocals in two different languages.

There was a bassline, there was synthesised chords, there was a different rhythm played on a different drum.

It was really busy texture.

That's called polyphonic, lots of different parts playing at the same time, all doing different things.

Hopefully by now, you know that we're talking about riffs, repeated musical patterns.

Let's have a look at the synth harmony.

This is the Western electronic influence in the Release song, synthesisers or electronic sounds using software.

I'll do this demonstration on an app in case that's what you've chosen to use today.

So there are lots of different keyboard apps that you can use.

I've been using GarageBand in my demonstrations.

You want to choose their keyboard option of your tracks.

Okay.

Every time, turn the volume up.

Okay, so C is the note underneath.

And essentially that's all the drone is all the way through.

Now, if you feel quite confident with playing chords that you can see written here, then you can have a go.

So we've got C, G, E flat's the first one, but the C stays underneath.

C, G, B flat.

So it goes one, two, three, four then F and A, E flat and G.

Oh.

My big fingers got in the away.

Let's have another go.

C and E, G and B flat on top, two, three, four, then change F and F, C still on the bottom.

Oh, nearly got that one.

So that is our synth pad part underneath.

Pause the video now and have a go at playing through that either on an app, or if you've got a keyboard or a piano, using that at home.

It's the easiest thing to play these chords on.

Okay, let's put your listening skills to the test.

Can you recognise these clips from the Release track I played you earlier on? This first question is which clip is the drone in Release? Clip one, clip two.

Here we go.

All right, they're just short little clips.

But remember, we're looking for just one feature.

Could you hear a drone in that clip? Here's the second clip.

♪ Don't argue amongst yourselves ♪ Which one do you think is highlighting the drone, left or right? Ready to point at your screen, or you can write your answer, left or right.

In five, four, three, two.

Yes, it was the one on the left, that low held sound underneath and the synth part, we just played it.

♪ Bum ♪ ♪ Bum bum ♪ I can't sing that low.

Which clip is the vocal line in Release.

Now, we've sang through this, so hopefully you'll recognise it.

Is it the clip on the left? Or is it the clip on the right? ♪ Don't argue amongst yourselves ♪ Let's see if you've got this one.

Quick answer.

Three, two, one.

Yes, it's the one on the right.

You can hear Sinead O'Connor's line ♪ Don't argue amongst yourselves ♪ So that is the vocal line we looked at in Release.

final one.

Which clip is showing the rhythmic part, that rhythm played on the Bodhran drum that we spoke about? Is it the clip on the left? Is it the clip on the right? Hopefully you heard that rhythm that we've clapped through together already.

Is it the left or the right? The left or the right? Three, two.

It's the one on the right.

You can hear that it comes in, bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum.

Well done.

Great listening skills.

All right, we are at the final section where you're going to put all learning together into a performance for someone at home or to share with your teacher.

So we've looked at a melodic, a rhythmic, and a harmonic idea from Release today.

So I'm going to give you lots of different options and ways that you can record this to give your best performance.

The first one is you could sing or clap to the drone and the chord backing track.

So I've got two backing tracks here for you I've recorded in the past.

I'm going to play one without a demo, so play them both without a demonstration.

And then you can use that backing track in this video to play your part along too.

So you could sing to the drone and the chord backing track.

So that's this one here.

One, two, three, four.

Nope, that is the Bodhran rhythm.

So, our drone and vocal backing track must be this one.

Yes.

So with that backing track, you could either sing the vocal line or clap the bottom rhythm that we looked up.

Maybe even do both if you're feeling confident enough to have a go at doing both.

So for example, you can play this backing track, and sing the melody line on top.

♪ Don't argue amongst yourselves ♪ ♪ Da da da da dum da da ♪ And you can repeat that many times as you like.

You could also do the Bodhran rhythm over the top.

Use that background as pulse.

One, two, three, four.

There's one way that you could add to the drone and the synthesised cords that were created.

The flip of that is that I've given you the Bodhran rhythm, and if you feel more confident playing the chords over the top and the drone, then you can do that with the rhythm backing track.

Let's see if I can show you and get my fingers working.

So here's the Bodhran rhythm.

Stop.

One, two, three.

Now go.

Busy on the fingers.

♪ Da da da ♪ ♪ Da da da da da da da da ♪ ♪ Da da da da da da da da ♪ Okay, so you could have a go at doing that either on your instrument, on the piano, or the keyboard if you've got one, or using an app like this.

If you're feeling really confident, then you can use your phone, or any other device that you've got to record two of the parts yourself and then perform along with it rather than using my backing tracks, if you'd rather do it like that.

So you could clap the Bodhran rhythm into your phone so that you've got it.

And then you can sit at the piano or sit at your keyboard and play the chords while singing over the top.

That's one way you could put all three together and be a really impressive solo artist playing all three rhythmic, all three musical features of Release.

Pause the video.

Go and take as much time as you need to put together your best performance of these musical ideas from Release.

Enjoy, have fun.

Off you go.

Welcome back.

I'm sure you've created brilliant recordings of these parts from Release.

I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson looking at the really interesting band that is Afro Celt Sound System.

And please go and share your recordings and your performances, if not with your teachers, and I'm sure they want to hear it, then certainly with somebody in your household because it's really impressive playing such a complex fusion piece like Release.

Well done, and I'll see you for your next music lesson.

Bye.