Download Baroque Dance Music – Unit 1: Dance Music

5G African Music continued – Unit 5: World
Music
♫ 5G African music continued ♫
Unit 5: World Music
Icons key:
For more detailed instructions, see the Getting Started presentation
Flash activity. These activities are not editable.
Composing
activity
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Listening
activity
Performing
activity
Teacher’s notes included in the Notes Page
Sound
Accompanying
worksheet
Weblink
2006
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Learning objectives
To understand the main instruments and playing
techniques employed in African drumming music.
To understand the way singing is used in traditional
African music.
To make connections between the improvised nature
and call and response patterns of drumming and
singing.
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2006
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Using rhythm
African drumming groups will usually put layers of different
rhythms together at the same time. This creates a
polyrhythmic texture, which could look something like this:
Master drummer plays a rhythm
Other drummers enter playing a second rhythm
More drummers enter playing a third rhythm
Another rhythm played on other percussion
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Cycles
African drumming is made up of layers of rhythmic cycles.
Often, one drummer will have a rhythmic cycle that is a
different length to another drummer.
This creates an
interesting effect, as the
rhythms come in and
out of sync in phases. It
is similar to when car
indicators or windscreen
wipers appear to move
in and out of time with
each other.
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Rhythmic displacement
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Improvising
♫ Listen to this rhythm and imitate
what you hear. Then play it in a
group and take turns to improvise
over the top. What effects can
you create? ♫
African notation:
1.2.3.4.
B .OO . SS.
♫ Can you work out how
this rhythm might be
notated in African and
Western notation? ♫
Western notation:
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Polyrhythmic composition
♫ In a group of four or more, compose a piece of drumming ♫
music which incorporates each of the elements listed below:
call and response
repeating cycles
improvised solo
polyrhythm
rhythmic displacement
cross rhythm.
You will need to indicate what instruments are being used,
the main rhythms played and the overall structure of your
composition.
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Other instruments
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African song
Singing is a vital part of all
aspects of African life.
Songs and chants are used
for amusement during
everyday tasks, but they
are also a significant part of
special occasions.
Songs may be passed down from one generation to the next
or improvised on the spot by an individual with others joining
in on the response, or improvising harmonies.
♫ Listen to this song and try to
identify call and response and
close harmony. ♫
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Vocal improvisation
Melodies in many African countries are generally based
around the pentatonic scale, with singers improvising freely
around the pitches and rhythms.
Pitch bending is often used to alter the notes slightly, and this
technique eventually led to the blues scale.
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Harmonization
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Call and response
Call and response is a prominent feature of African song, just
as it is in African drumming music.
There is a strong social aspect to all forms of music in Africa.
Every member of the community will be involved, no matter
their level of musical ability. Just as in drumming, there will be
a leader who sings a call. The group will then respond.
The advantage of using call and response is that the song
can go on indefinitely, which means that the musicians are
in control of the length of the song and can adapt it to the
event taking place.
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Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a male choral group from South
Africa. Many of their songs make use of the typical call and
response structure:
Monophonic call
Homophonic response in close harmony
Monophonic call
Homophonic response in close harmony
♫ Listen to the track ‘Halala’ by Ladysmith Black
Mambazo to hear the call and response format. ♫
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Chant
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The African influence
African music has influenced many other musical genres.
Listen to any spiritual, gospel or jazz song and identify how
each of the African music techniques has been used.
Call and response
Repetition
Parallel harmony
Cross rhythm
Pitch bend
Solos
Pentatonic scale
Improvisation
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Summary: African music
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