Leicester-Shire Schools Music Service Unit 1 – Pulse

Leicester -Shire Schools Music Service Unit 1 – Pulse – Year 4

In this unit, children will listen to a range of songs which are underpinned with ostinatos. They will learn a range of vocabulary which links to riffs, walking basslines and repeating patterns. Through these experiences, they will get t o develop their understanding and feel of pulse and the importance of keeping a steady pulse when performing. Learners will also begin experiencing a range of different time signatures in some of the activities, including working with bars which contain 10 beats.

Unit breakdown Unit Outcomes

Lesson 1: In this lesson, children get to experience graphical notation and how this can be Learning OuOutcomestcomes used to read and perform a range of rhythms and patterns. I can sing and play confidently Lesson 2: In this lesson, children get to explore the importance of pulse whilst also experimenting with ostinatos which are based around pentatonic (5 note) scales. and fluently, maintaining an appropriate pulse. Lesson 3: In this lesson, children get to listen to two versions of a song: Bach’s Pachabel Canon and a Coo lio song which sampled Bach’s original work. This is then built upon with I can follow and lead simple children playing the key bassline which underpins these songs, working with a strong performance directions. (eg call emphasis on maintaining a steady pulse. and response patterns) Lesson 4: In this lesson, children get to listen to and explore the theme song to Mission Impossible. This song works around an ostinato pattern which repeats over ten beats. The I can maintain an independent children can then use this as insipiration to construct and perform their own ostinato based part in a small group when piece. playing or singing (eg a drone, Lesson 5: In t his lesson, children take everything they have heard and learnt in the unit so ostinato, rhythm) far, to make their own original group performance. The children will then perform these to be recorded and assessed during the next lesson. I can offer comments about own and others’ work and ways to Lesson 6: In this lesson, children g et to watch back their performances from the previous lesson and make self and peer assessments. They will get an opportunity to share their improve, using appropriate thoughts and observations with the rest of the class. Children will be encouraged to use a musical vocabulary. I can range of newly learnt vocabulary to help support their answers. accept feedback and suggestions

from others. I can respond to basic symbols (standard notation and graphical).

Glossary and Acknowledgements

Glossary Bass line / Ground bass – A repeating bass line In this unit, children will explore pitch through singing Dronenursery – A constant rhymes, low note using their voice, using tuned and un-tuned instruments and creating simple graphic scores to support Internalisingcreating words simple – To compositions.hear the words in their Throughout head with out saying the unit,them out children loud Ostinatowill be– A developingrepeated musical their phrase skior rhythmlls to communicate their thoughts and feelings about the music they are creating and listening to. Pentatonic – A five note scale Eg C, D, E, G, A

Pulse ---- The regular ‘heartbeat’ of a piece, holding the core timing together in a song

Syncopation – Changes in rhythm and which notes are accented. Acknowledgements

Unit 1 – Pulse – Year 4 – Lesson P lans Lesson 1

LO: I can perform and lead simple pieces in 4/4 and ¾ using ostinato, drone, repeating patterns etc

Starter and input Plenary Clapping games – focus on maintaining steady pulse and In partners, 1 child claps the pulse and another claps the rhythm of a counting in 3s, 4s and 5s e.g. well known song. Eg nursery rhyme / song sung in assembly. Allow For example: Clap a four beat rhythm and get it established chn a few minutes to practise this and then ask them to show the class. with chn. Then, as a class, try performing the rhythm but by not Audience to make observations on whether the rhythm was clapped clapping certain beats of the bar. IE miss out the claps in the 1 st correctly and whether the pulse was maintained steadily. beat, then 2 nd beat and so etc.

Resources Flash cards, rhythm grids.

Activities Step 1 - Have rhythm grids on whiteboard / card (see resource folder). Use 1,2,3 syllable words related to topic e.g. Italy- Mask, Venice, Gondola (see resource folder). Arrange the flash cards on the grid using bluetac to stick the cards on. Note: Always give the last line of the rhythm grid as the introduction rather than counting in beats – this will set the pulse Get chn to clap the pulse (modelled and started by the tchr), while tchr chants the rhyme. Then, get the chn to recite the rhyme with tchr support. Now we are going to clap the rhythm of the words in our chant. Tchr to model the first line. Say the words as you clap. (Clap each syllable of the words). Repeat the chant of the first line getting the chn clapping and speaking with you. Now tchr performs the entire chant, clapping the rhythm and saying the words the whole way through. Add some rests by taking out some of the pictures (Eg take away the gondolas). Talk to the chn about how they learn rhythms. Do you find it easier to ususee the visual cues? To followfollow the pictures? To say the words in your heads? To listen and memorise? Or to watch other people? There is no right or wrong answer. Talk to the chn about whether they find it easy or difficult to keep the pulse steady and clap the rhythms. If it is tricky, what helps you learn? Step 2 - Try repeating the activity using untuned percussion instruments and creating different rhythms on the rhythm grids.

Unit 1 – Pulse – Year 4 – Lesson P lans Lesson 2

LO: I can perform and lead simple pieces in 4/4 and ¾ using ostinato, drone and repeating patterns

Starter and input Plenary Clapping games – focus on maintaining steady pulse and Groups perform their pieces – others appraise using musical vocabulary e.g. counting in 3s, 4s and 5s e.g. Which chn were playing the drone, ostinato? etc For example: Clap a four beat rhythm and get it established with chn. Then, as a class, try performing the rhythm but by not clapping certain beats of the bar. IE miss out the claps in the 1 st beat, then 2 nd beat and so etc.

Resources Tuned instruments.

Activities Step 1 - Note: this task uses tuned instruments. This works best using notes C D E G A which is a pentatonic (5 note) scale (see resource folder for information about pentatonic scales) Add a drone – have a child with good sense of pulse play the notes C and G together on a Xylophone – playing the pulse (mask, mask, mask, mask) Give some chn one note each from the pentatonic scale and ask them to play the rhythm of line 1 on their ‘note’. Now give the chn 2 notes and ask them to play the rhythm of line 1 using the 2 notes (model first) – a repeating pattern of notes is called an ostinato or riff – teach the word ostinato. Choose one of the ostinatos that has been created and ask the rest of the chn to chant this ostinato while the others play the instruments. Add other ostinato parts like this to build up the music into a pentatonic piece – adding a few more notes / different rhythms (see resource folder for example). Step 222 - Try varying the music already created using the following ideas. Try internalising the words and clapping the rhythms of the words – try line 1 over and over again to a steady pulse. This could be the drone. Try chanting line 1, 4 times and then having a line’s rest (saying line one in your head once and then starting again etc) Do the chn all start playing after the rest at the correct time? Tchr models musical language – ostinato, rhythm, pulse Ask chn to suggest different ways to perform the rhythm grid. Add untuned percussion. Add drone and notes from pentatonic scale. Try 3 and 4 beat grids. In small groups, chn to create their own 3, 4 or 5 beat rhythm pieces with repeating patterns, drone and a clear beginning and end.

Unit 1 – Pulse – Year 4 – Lesson P lans Lesson 3 LO: I can maintain an independent part in a small group and offer comments about my own and others’ work and ways to improve.

Starter and input Plenary Clapping games – focus on maintaining steady pulse Groups perform individually and appraise each other’s work using musical and counting in 3s, 4s and 5s e.g. vocabulary. For example: Clap a four beat rhythm and get it established with chn. Then, as a class, try performing the rhythm but by not clapping certain beats of the bar. IE miss out the claps in the 1 st beat, then 2 nd Resources beat and so etc. Instruments, ground bass composition.

Activities Step 1 - Play the Pachabel Canon again – Coolio version or Bach version – both use the same repeating basslinebassline or ground bass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5pdkfq4R0g – instrumental without verse rapping https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOF_ydhmHBo Tchr to model the process of playing the ground bass. NOTE: Count 4 beats in a bar; play on beats 1 & 3. Ground bass Pachabel Canon

All chn try singing the notes – what do chn notice about the note C (the first one has a ‘ sign beside it – this indicates that it is a higher C). What do they notice about the rhythm of the ground bass? (it is very even consisting of 2 beat notes ‘minims’). Now split the chn into 3 groups. Try adding melody parts over the top of the ground bass – see below – the blue box at the bottom of the grid is the bassline – other boxes are melody part 1 and part 2.

Step 2 - In small groups chn work out their own versions of the Pachabel Canon – they can improvise using notes of the chords or notes C D E G A (Pupil copy attached). Focus on keeping the steady beat / pulse and adding layers of rhythm / melody Note: Chords for the ground bass are as follows (The pupil copy has these notes already written on it) C notes CEG G notes GBD Am notes ACE Em notes EGB F notes FAC

Unit 1 – Pulse – Year 4 – Lesso n P lans Lesson 4

LO: I can maintain an independent part in a small group and offer comments about my own and others’ work and ways to improve.

Starter and input Plenary Learn a song with a repeating pattern / ositnato e.g. What have we learned? Recap musical vocabulary by activity - This is the Nanuma from Banana Splits by A and C Black. Listen to answer – think of a question e.g. some extracts of music from different styles and cultures. The answer is a repeating pattern of notes - the question might be: What is Talk to chn about repeating patterns in music – can they an ostinato? think of some pop songs / TV themes that have repeating Syncopation - What is a musical term for an off beat rhythm? patterns? Riff - What is another musical term for ostinato, often used to describe Go to www.popmusictheory.com/what-is-ostinato for repeating patterns in pop music? several audio examples. Off beat - AnotAnotherher term used to describe syncopation is?

Resources Instruments, Mission Impossible ground bass.

Activities Explain that all of the ground bass patterns that we have worked with in the past few lessons have been on the beat – this week we are going to try an ostinato that is off beat or syncopatedsyncopated. Step 1 - Teach the chn the following syncopated (off beat) rhythm. Tchr counts steady pulse of 10, chn clap on beats 1,4,7 and 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 It may be easier to repeat the rhythm by counting (the 1s represent the strong beats for the clap). Write this on the board if it helps. 1 2 3, 1 2 3, 1 2, 1 2 Step 2 - Add some notes on the strong beats using keyboards / tuned percussion / chn sing the bassline. Learn the following 2 lines of music. (See resource folder). The comma symbol indicates notes that are higher than the starting note. G G Bb’ C’ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 G G F F# 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Listen to the opening of the theme from Mission Impossible www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAYhNHhxNOA. Ask the chn what they notice about it (the extract above is the opening ostinato from Mission Impossible). Step 3 - Set the chn the task of learning the ostinato on keyboards / tuned percussion or their own instruments. If chn have lessons on an instrument, this would be a good opportunity for them to bring it in and learn the ostinato on it. Extension task: Make up an ostinato with a syncopated (off beat) rhythm. Step 4 - Chn perform either the learnt bassline or their own composed bassline. Ask the class to listen to and evaluate some of the performances.

Unit 1 – Pulse – Year 4 – Lesson P lans Lesson 5

LO: I can compose, perform and lead simple pieces in 4/4 and ¾ using ostinato, drone, repeating patterns etc

Starter and input Plenary Recap learning from this unit of work. Ask chn At the end of the lesson, the tchr is to record the performances using a digital camera. to work in partners to tell each other what pulsepulse, rhythm and ostinatos are. Then listen to some descriptions and ideas from the class, addressing misconceptions and encouraging appropriate use of vocabulary.

Resources Recording device to record performances, tuned and un-tuned instruments.

Activities Step 1 - Composition Task – Grounded Your Mission is to compose a piece called ‘grounded’. Try using the following recipe. Compose a repeating pattern or ostinato (groundground bassbass or riff). You might decide to use one of the ground bass or riffs that you have learned in this unit or you may decide to make up your own. You could use the notes C D E G A. Use this ostinato as the bassline of your own piece. Add some more repeating patterns or riffs. The groups will need to plan an introduction and ending and serve to the class. Tchr to move around and support groups as necessary. During the composition process, set regular targets, ask students to demonstrate their progress – give feedback, teach others to appraise and evaluate the work by focused questioning about the use of the repeating patterns, rhythms and the structure of the compositions.

Unit 1 – Pulse – Year 4 – Lesson P lans Lesson 6

LO: I can offer comments about own and others’ work and ways to improve, using appropriate musical vocabulary. Starter and input Plenary Ask chn to remind us of what we did last lesson. What musical vocab have they learnt during this unit? Tell a partner. What did we perform and record? What were some of the key success crcriteriaiteria for the performance?

Resources Playing device and performance recordings from previous lesson, evaluation sheet.

Activities Step 111 - Tchr to have uploaded last lesson’s performances up to computer / laptop to display and play for the class this lesson. Tell chn that we will be watching the performances today and the audience must look and listen for the following: People who you think are playing in time. People who are listening and looking at others in their group. People who are playing at a steady tempo (not getting quicker or slower). People who are playing their instrument at a sensible volume which works with the rest of their group. Tchr then to play the performances and chn to offer feedback / suggestions / opinions about the performance. Listen for chn who are beginning to use a range of musical vocabulary with increased confidence in their feedback and answers.