Rhythm Play-Along. Invite family and friends to join in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEOTsPUUvsY
Assuming that you were 80% successful learning the most basic rhythm patterns, how many times did it take you to reach that goal, and was the video helpful?
Were you somewhat successful with syllables as rhythm? If not, do it again Rhythm is muscle memory.
Be prepared for some fun hands-on sections. You may wish to invite a family member or friend to join in the hands-on projects.
Agbekor Bell Videos: featuring a youtube video demonstration. This graph demonstrates, through color patterns, just how the rhythms work.
The African Agbekor Bell and polyrhythm (several different rhythms being played at the same time) graph is easy to follow and for some, it may appeal to your learning style.
The Bell Graph Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irR4qlFMuyA
How far into the BellGraph video clapping various rhythmic patterns did it take you to achieve some success clapping correctly? Did you find the initial bell-beat pattern to be the easiest to clap, why why not? as other patterns entered?
Did following and participating with this graph provide a better understanding of polyrhythms? Explain.
What did you learn from this experiment about creating both melodic and harmonic intervals?
Which was easiest and which was most difficult to maintain a steady beat?
What did you discover when trying to keep a steady beat and playing just the meter pattern? We did not include any rhythm patterns within these metric patterns, just the beat, and meter.
What did you learn so far from all of the exercises above? Be specific!
Was the 7-beat meter pattern easy for you to achieve or a little complex? explain.
The Ostinato pattern: play an ostinato rhythm and note pattern. Ostinato is when one part plays the same exact rhythm on the same exact pitches over and over. A great example is this piece by Chopin, pronounced, (Show-pan). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_iI1J0bALE Watch and listen from timestamp 3:17 to 4L25 as the left hand plays the ostinato while the right-hand part plays the actual music. (As a side note, the Nazis outlawed the playing of Chopin’s music in Poland.) This was another example of cancel culture rampant in history.
Watching the two hands playing completely opposite music parts, can you understand and explain why music performance on an instrument or even voice is a total physical acrobatic sport in addition to art? I need more than a “yes”
Now for your ostinato: Choose the order in which you will play an ostinato pattern on the glassware then repeat the exact rhythms and pitches in exact order over and over. suggest a 3 or 4-beat ostinato pattern. You may wish to use a friend or family member to play the ostinato as you improvise rhythms against it on another glass.
How many times did it take to succeed playing an ostinato and what did you learn about repeating an exact rhythm on the same exact glasses? Be specific
Word syllables: Lastly, find any words, lyrics, etc. from any source such as a poem, comic strip, or favorite source. Read the sentence out loud.
You may wish to make up your own words. Find the syllabic (syllable) rhythms within the words, and speak them over a steady heartbeat tapped on the glasses or on a flat surface.
What was difficult and what wasn’t so difficult?
You may be on your way to becoming an amateur “rapper”.
Write a conclusion: What did you learn about beat vs. rhythm and your ability to perform these hands-on exercises?
Music Texture:
Watch this short video on music textures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teh22szdnRQ
Next, Look at Mindtap Chapter 1-4c harmony and texture.
What was most useful from this texture video and how did it help strengthen information from Mindtap Chapter 1-4 “harmony and texture?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNjroFNi7mA Debussy’s monophonic texture for Syrinx: Watch at least a minute of this. Answer this: Why is this piece a good example of monophonic texture?
Most pop music is homophonic with a lead voice singing ONE melody accompanied by backup instruments or vocals or both.
Next is the Polyphonic texture: Bach Little Fugue in G minor with a graph: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddbxFi3-UO4&t=72s The Bach Fugue is a polyphonic work of two or more melodies working together but separately. You witnessed polyrhythms from the Agbekor rhythm graph at the top of the page. Now watch and listen to a JS Bach Fugue. It is a polyphonic work where all melodies are independently traveling at the same time also creating polyrhythms. Follow the timestamps below:
(watching and listening to this short section of Bach’s “Little Fugue” at what point did your “critical listening” become stronger and able to identify the subject, main melody, as it traveled and broke off into several independent parts? Describe your biggest challenge as you listened. If you listened only once then it was a minimal effort not worthy of your answer.
For the eyes and ears: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhRa3REdozw A live organist plays this same Bach fugue that we just watched on the color graph: Focus especially on the subject/theme as played by the two feet at timestamp 0:54. Imagine hands and feet playing a keyboard with all parts being independent. Keep in mind that this is a written work, not improvised. Also, keep in mind that Bach is not the organist in this video as he has been dead for several centuries.
What must a composer, (one that writes the music) keep in mind as to the physical limitations of a performer when writing such a work? There are no wrong answers, but the effort is important. PS very few composers write a successful fugue. Most never bother because they can’t. . To compose such a fugue for an organ may take a skilled composer at least 50 to 100 hours to write.
Which hand played the subject from 0:23-0:30? What is the other hand doing with the countersubject?
At timestamp 0:39 – 0:45 which part is the left hand playing?
At timestamp 1:30 the left hand is clearly playing the first part of the subject, but how is it different from the previous subject entrances?
At timestamp 4:17 to 4:22 is a perfect example of ostinato in the left hand but what is the right hand playing from4:29 to 4:34 and is it the same rhythm values as 0:09-0:15?
