Time for Music Y5 and Y6 1st June

Moving On In Music - Y6-7 #6 Explore

Listen Up!

Now put this continuous beat on in the background. 120 BPM is the speed of the beat. This means that there are 120 beats per minute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7absfMBJatM Complete the following activities using this beat to help you.

Counting in twos, practice clapping on beat 1 and resting on beat 2.

1

2

1

2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yExwkQYcp0 In this short clip the dancers are dancing to a piece of music called Unsquare Dance.

It was composed in 1961 by Dave Brubeck who was an American Jazz pianist.

Now counting in fours: (count the blue boxes in your head.)

1

2

3

4

There is something very unusual about this music.

Can you work out what it is?

And then fives: 1

2

3

4

5

Extras

Create

When we organise beats in a piece of music, we usually arrange them in groups of 2, 3 or 4 to help us count

Now try the activities in the EXPLORE section a little faster by clapping to this continuous beat instead:

and keep time easily. In Unsquare Dance, the beats are organised in groups of ‘7’.

Try repeating this pattern 4 times to the continuous backing beat.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

It doesn’t feel right, does it? The 7 beat pattern makes the music feel unbalanced or ‘UNSQUARE’!

At the start of the film clip, the dancers clap to the music on beats 2, 4, 6 and 7 like this: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Practice this using the continuous beat from earlier, then, try to clap this in time with the music on the film clip.

If you really like a challenge try keeping this toe-tapping rhythm in time to the beat, then the film clip: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

https://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=OKFCw50rFdI Did you manage it?

Key Words: PIZZICATO: a playing technique on a stringed instrument where the string is plucked with the fingers.

DOUBLE BASS: the largest instrument in the string family.

JAZZ: a style of music that has its roots in Blues and Ragtime. It developed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

And now for the Ultimate Challenge……

Switch on the SLOWER continuous beat and practice putting the two patterns together like this: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Remember not to rest at the end, just go straight back to the beginning again and don’t miss a beat!

If you find this too difficult to do yourself, ask someone in your house to keep the foot tapping pattern going and you keep the clapping pattern going.

Can you do this all the way through the film clip?

Listen again to the music. Can you hear the very low sound of the Double Bass plucking a repeated pattern?

The double Bass player plucks the strings with the fingers of the right hand. This type of playing is called PIZZICATO (pit-sih-kah-to).

Can you work out on which numbers does the double bass play? Which pattern does it match – the hand claps or the foot taps?

More about the Double Bass.

Watch this short clip of Adam Ben Ezra playing the Double Bass. He plucks the strings (Pizzicato) and he uses the body of the instrument as a drum.

Can you spot how many strings the double bass has? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyUZh_Cbw6Q

Apart from plucking the strings, there is another way to make a sound on the double bass. Find out what this is.