Three short contrasting extracts of recorded music will be played by your Teacher.
Music can be understood and analysed with series of elements:
pitch, duration, tempo, dynamics, structure, texture and timbre.
In Groups discuss each element and what you think they mean. Tell the class your group answers.
Listen to 3 examples of music played by your teacher. Consider each music element and see if you can make some distinctions between the recordings by referring to Pitch, Instrumentation, Duration, Tempo, and Dynamics. Go through them one at a time:
Is the Melody:
High/Low
Steps/Leaps
Ascending /Descending
Is the Harmony:
Major/Minor/Atonal/Unpitched
Chordal instruments
Clear Bass Line
What instruments can you hear?
Brass -
Strings -
Woodwind -
Percussion -
Keyboards -
Electronic -
Are the Patterns:
easy enough to clap?
able to be written into a one or two bar pattern?
in the time signature of 4/4, 3/4, 2/4, 6/8 ____
straight/ swinging?
Is the Speed:
Fast: Allegro?
Medium: Moderato?
Walking pace: Andante?
Slow: Adagio?
Getting faster/slower?
Is the Volume:
Loud: Forte?
Medium Loud: Mezzo Forte
Medium Soft: Mezzo Piano
Soft: Piano
Getting louder: Crescendo
Getting Softer: Decrescendo
Listen to Example 2 and 3 and repeat the process.
Can you compare the 3 pieces of music using music elements?
African drumming music is based around the ideas of rhythm, pulse and
tempo. Performance groups create interesting and often highly complex (polyrhythmic) pieces by combining individual rhythmic patterns and ideas, forming cross-rhythms and syncopation. Groups are directed by the master drummer. The master drummer is mainly responsible for conducting the music though he would also be playing a drum himself.
African drumming contains sections of music, some of which might involve different patterns or a change of tempo. The master drummer would decide when to change the pattern or tempo, with a specific rhythm pattern that acts as a signal for the other players. African vocal music often follows similar rhythmic patterns with the addition of call and response melodies. The drum parts could be said to be accompanying the vocal parts.
Listen carefully to the music without writing anything down initially.
Listen to the piece a second time, this time making brief bullet point notes
about what you can hear.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
Describe musical features: Can you work out the correct musical terms?
_______________________________________________________
Listen to the extract a third time to allow them to check over
their responses and thoughts and compare notes with your brain buddy (the person next to you).