All about rhythm - part 5

What is Rhythm?

Did you try out what was in the last post? By now you would have realized that not all music is written like this. This is just for practice only and to get you started on getting used to seeing how music is written. If you take the exercises and repeat them often enough, you will feel more at ease when you see music like this. It will free your mind and you will be relaxed enough to be able to feel the rhythm building in you.

In this week's post, we will be trying out some exercises which are longer and a little more challenging. Have a look at the three examples below. They are now a mix of what we discussed in the last post but still in a bar of 4 counts. These are actually 4 bar rhythm patterns.

Example 1



Example 2



Example 3



Let’s take a closer look at Example 3. The third bar is quite tricky. This is called a syncopated rhythm. The word syncopate also comes from the word Syncopation which means the displacement of the usual rhythmic accent away from a strong beat onto a weak beat. Strong beats are on the first and third beats. When we clap to four beats or listen to any form of music, we can usually feel the first and third beats much stronger. Even in dancing, the movement of our body would swing a little bit more on the first and third beat. In the third bar of example three, there is a note on the first, second beat but it stops on the third beat which makes us feel as if there is a gap in the rhythm. This feeling of that gap is what rhythmic accent is all about. Most of today’s modern pop and alternative music would have this syncopated feel. As with always, I have included some audio clips for you to clap along.
Example 1


Example 2


Example 3


Have a go at clapping the above rhythms and in the next post, I will include some longer rhythms with some modern drum beats and we can have some good interesting fun together.

All about rhythm - part 4

What is Rhythm?

I hope by now you can remember the last three notes we went through, that is, the semibreve, minim and the crotchet and also their respective values. In this post, we will take a look at how it is all put together to make rhythm happen. I will put these notes within boxes or what is called in music, bars, with no more than 4 beats to each box or bar. There will be two bars for each one of the examples and they will look something like this.
Example 1




Example 2




Example 3




As you may have noticed, the notes are all the same. Each of the two bar examples will form what we call, a rhythm. A rhythm can be formed with anything from one bar to any number of bars. Now we will try to clap out these three simple rhythms. In order to know when to clap, we will put a count under each note like below, to help to show you when to clap. Keep a steady count like 1, 2, 3, 4. At any time you see a note above the number that you are counting; you clap your hands together. Remember, that it is very important to try to keep your counting at a steady pulse.
Example 1




Example 2




Example 3




In the next step, I have included 3 simple audio file that you can use to help you clap at a steadier pace. Try it out for yourself. It is based on exactly the same examples as above except there are 4 bars of rhythm plus one extra bar at the beginning. The first bar you do not clap because that is the first 4 beats which we call the “count-in”. That is to give you an idea of the speed you need to count at. The sound of the bell is to let you know it is the first beat. So, are you ready to try? Let’s go.
Example 1


Example 2


Example 3


See you in the next post for some more exciting rhythm playing stuff!

All about rhythm - part 3

What is Rhythm?

By now, you might have realised that rhythm is simply the backbone of whatever music that you want to make. You can create rhythm even by simply clapping your hands together, but before you can make any rhythm sound proper, you need to have pulse. What is pulse, you might ask?

This pulse has a tempo or speed to which listeners can feel and tap their foot or dance along with the piece of music, and is usually called its common name the ‘beat’. In music and music theory, the pulse consists of beats in a repeating series.

How can we describe a beat? A beat can be described in a way a coin gets its value. Like a 10 cent coin has a value of 10 smaller one-cent values in one coin instead of in 50 coins. So in that way, each one-cent value would represent a 'beat'.

In music, one of the first things that are usually taught to students are note values. Traditionally, students are required to recognize these values and recreate the rhythm from memorizing patterns. These are good disciplines but sometimes do take away the 'feel' of the rhythm and will make music sound very mechanical. You will want to make music that feels 'alive' and not robotic.

Let's have a look at these note values and understand how they work. We will start with the simple ones first.

The first of these values would be the long note which is called the semibreve. This is long because it holds a value of 4 beats. Think of a semibreve as a 4 cent coin which has a value of 4 one-cent values in one coin. A semibreve would look like this.

Next would be the minim note which has a value of 2 beats which is halve of a semibreve. A minim looks like a semibreve but with a line down the side of it.

And the next would be the crotchet note which has a value of 1 beat, again which is half of a minim. A crotchet looks like this.

A simple way I would use to help me remember the values of the three notes above is that the first note has a value of 4 beats, if it has a line beside it, then that would make it half which is 2 beats, and then if it has the color black in the middle, that would half it again making it 1. Try to remember this and in the next post we will be able to see how all this is going to work.

All about rhythm - part 2

What is Rhythm?

The simplest form of rhythm can be described in the way our heart beats. If you place your ear against your friend’s chest, you will be able to hear his heart beat. It beats in a certain kind of regular time. This time is almost very even. When the person is active like after walking up the stairs, you will hear it beat faster, but as the heart beats faster, it is still in an almost regular speed. That is rhythm. That is a simple example of how rhythm affects our lives directly.

In continuing from the last post, if you had looked around you, you would have found lots of things that could make sounds like drums. Some of them would be your parents' kitchen simple stuff like a frying pan, wok, a cooking pot and even your school lunch box. Besides these items, others would be an empty shoe box, a dustbin and even empty plastic buckets. All these items can be used to make sounds like drums although not exactly with the same sound as an actual drum but still it is a sound.

You can also make sounds with other stuff like beating a pair of chopsticks together, spoons and other stuff that is hard. When you hit these stuff to make a sound in a regular pattern, you have a rhythm. In this post, I have included a music clip which contains the sound of tribal drums. Tribal drums look something like this.


Listen to the clip. You can use two pencils or a pair of chopsticks to hit each on a shoe box to make a sound. Hit them together and try to follow along with the audio.


Now in the next clip, you have some sounds made with a set of modern drums. Modern drums look like this.


You will find a lot of these modern drums when you see bands playing. Now listen to this and you can hear quite a lot of difference between tribal drums and modern drums.


Assignment:
After listening to the above two clips, can you spot at least three differences between tribal drums and modern drums?

All about rhythm

What is Rhythm?

In this post and with the following posts, I will attempt to explain the very basics of rhythm and how important it is to music. It is very important that students and parents understand this element as it forms the very backbone of how music is created and how rhythm makes music more interesting. We will start at the very beginning and work

on it step by step along the way. We will also look into some history of the early beginnings of rhythm and the instruments used. Some posts will also have a little quiz at the end. See if you can figure it out.

To begin with, other than the melody, rhythm is one of the most basic important parts of music. Rhythm is just the timing of notes or sounds that are made. Hmm, that sounds simple enough. If you look around you, you will be able to notice that, rhythm happens almost always in our life.

Many early forms of music were made up of only the sound of beating of drums, sticks or anything that will make a sound even clapping of hands.

Early tribal people would beat on drums for many reasons. In Africa, the drum is used to communicate across distances, something like the way we use our phone today.

This beating of drums was also an important part of a performance carried out in religious and community rituals like in a funeral or marriage ceremony.

In western America, the native Indians used drums and chants (a kind of singing with not much musical form) to bring the rain!

In China, red drums have always been a symbol of the power of the ruler and the destiny of the army. Drums are brought out whenever there were ceremonies or festivities. Weddings and funerals and all ceremonial occasions demand the insistent beat of drums. The two oldest drums found in China came from the Zia dynasty, the first dynasty of China, approximately 4,000 years ago. They were found near the Yellow River at a place called Taosi.

One of the drums is a meter high and made of a hollow tree trunk. In its day, it had a skin across the upper opening and was painted red, as drums of China often continue to be. According to ancient writings, human blood was rubbed into drums for magical purposes, but the colouring on this ancient drum came from another source.

The other drum from Taosi is made of clay. A pot used as a drum was also quite common in ancient times.

Assignment:

Can you look around your house and find out what are the things that you have, that can make drum sounds?

Music Is Fun

Music Is Fun – Colombo, Sri Lanka

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Bishop’s College Lobby

It was my first trip to Sri Lanka and I found it to be a very nice place to visit. On my second day there I managed to take a visit to the National Museum. It contained a lot of artefacts from the many archaeological dig sites around Sri Lanka itself, thus telling us much about the history of Sri Lanka’s past.

The Music Is Fun activity was set for Wednesday 23 February 2011 at the Bishop’s College Lobby which was actually more of a big hall. The hall was decked out with banners and flags and a traditional oil lamp.

This was one event that really took me by surprise as the event was a mix of formality with an opening ceremony complete with speeches and lighting of candles and then the fun and games of our activities.

Our MC for the day was Ms.Sounthi Thavam of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Station compeering this programme for us.

The first agenda on the list was the lighting of the traditional oil lamp by Mrs.Usitha Samarakoon, Director Educational Ministry (Western Music),

Mr.Dushyantha, Chairman/ Managing Director of Symphony (Pvt.) Ltd., Mrs.Mano Dias Abeyegunawardene, Director of Symphony (Pvt.),

Mrs.Anurukshi Bandarathilake a teacher from Kandy, and me.

After the lighting of the traditional oil lamp, the national anthems of both countries were played. Next up was a welcome address that was delivered by Mr.Dushyantha, who is the Chairman/Managing Director of Symphony (Pvt.) Ltd. He mentioned that his company was delighted to be organising an activity of such a nature for the first time in Sri Lanka.

Mrs.Usitha Samarakoon, Director (Western Music) Education Ministry was also invited to present her speech. She thanked Mr. & Mrs. Dushyantha for taking the initiative in organising this workshop (Music Is Fun) for the first time. She mentioned that a workshop of this nature would go a long way to help develop the children’s mind.

Finally after MY “speech” which was something like 2 sentences, the fun and games began. We started with grouping the students into six groups. Then we started with note values and rhythmic movements to help keep pulse.

Sometimes even with students who are already learning music the conventional way, feeling pulse and rhythm can be quite challenging. You need to feel the rhythm within your body. Once we got down to sorting out getting the right feel, the children got down to playing card games. This activity helps to reinforce what was done earlier and at the same time also serves to stimulate the children's sense of creativity since no rules were set to play the games. There were many open choices to getting the cards right so they need to remember what they saw earlier.

Half way through, I got a surprise visit from a very special guest who attended our activity to see what we were actually doing. She is none other than Mrs. Rosy Senanayake a Member of Parliament and former High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to Malaysia. She watched the proceedings of the workshop, and before she left, she had a chat with me while I explained what we were doing with the children. She was highly impressed with the program and thanked us for arranging this activity.

Continuing with the Music Is Fun activities, we came to the section where we did pitching and singing. This is always my favorite segment. The whole exercise is to let children experience a sense of harmony by doing simple canon singing.

By now you can probably see why this is my favorite!! If you may notice, it is not just the children who can enjoy the music but also the PARENTS who can participate!!! If you look carefully we have some shy participants, but after the first two rehearsals, the shyness actually disappeared!

Music is Fun concluded at 5pm and one of the senior teachers who attended this event with her students, Ms. Shanti Goonathialke concluded the event with her appreciation address on behalf of all the teachers, parents and students.

Overall, from some of my conversations with parents and teachers, they seemed to enjoy how we approach teaching music by using simple but unconventional methods like games and fun movements to stimulate the learning process for children.

The children also reacted very positively to the whole process without anyone feeling shy or left behind. One observation during this activity was that, although we purposely group students of different levels and instrumental studies together, the activities of Music Is Fun does not leave anyone out from the whole exercise.

We never got any student who felt that they could not cope or lagging behind which was a very good plus point. It makes the whole learning process a very interactive group activity where everybody needs to be involved.

We also saw that throughout the process of playing the card games, peer learning or learning with the help of your friends, actually helps to speed up the learning process of the children and the things that they learn is much better stored in their memory.

Then finally, it was time for group photos.

So Sri Lanka, thank you for inviting me there and I wish you all the best and hope to see you again in the near future.

Music Is Fun

Do we really "Know" Music?

We all know that giving our children a good music education is very beneficial to them. We send them to music lessons, take the grade exams and then get their certificates. Once they get all their certificates, that will make them into a musician. Right? Wrong!! What is missing here?

Ever so often, we think that by sending a child to a music class, is the beginning of a music education. The teacher will be able to handle the rest. Do we all know that learning music is as complex as learning the alphabet? It takes just a few weeks to LEARN the alphabet and make words out of the alphabet but it takes years to UNDERSTAND a language.

Just like music, learning music is just about the same as learning the alphabet. In order to understand music, a student needs to take all that music knowledge he has learnt and try to relate it to his surrounding. This may sound complicating but it is very simple. Take for example, in music lessons, we learn about rhythm. When we look at the basic fundamentals of rhythm, we soon can see that rhythm is found all around us in our daily life, for instance, when we walk, we walk in rhythm otherwise we will find ourselves tripping over. Our heart also beats with a constant rhythm unless otherwise agitated.



Tones or pitch that we hear during a music lesson can also be related to the hum of an engine or the honking of a horn or the even the breaking of glass. Every sound that can be created, can be related to music. Every experience that we encounter every moment can be in some way related to music. Music practically surrounds our daily life, even when we sleep.

The activities conducted in “Music Is Fun” are specifically designed to highlight most of these areas to children and to help them make those connections which will, in turn, help them to feel their way around music. Music education is no more confined to just what they have learnt during the lessons. The focus of “Music Is Fun” is to provide an avenue for children to explore their musical minds and “see”, “feel” and “touch” their music with what knowledge they have. It does not necessarily mean that they have to be playing an instrument to be musical. Music can be produced in many ways and forms. And did you know that singing is also part of music education? In fact it is the simplest form of instrument available to EVERYBODY!



In a recent similar event, we realised that “Music Is Fun” is able to bring many benefits to those who already have prior music knowledge by stimulating their minds to reflect on their past music knowledge to overcome certain musical barriers within the activities. For those who did not have prior music knowledge, the activities actually helped them realised the significance of what they would gain by learning music. The most stimulating exercise would be using unconventional methods to highlight the learning of certain topics.



Music and music learning is both in their true form creative and forever evolving. In order to stay on top of this, you need to be unconventional and keep a sharp look out for new stuff all the time. The mind of a creative musician needs to be forever evolving and changing. Someone once asked me,"What does it take to learn to play an instrument?" My answer was simply, “Are you going to learn to play an instrument and be an instrument player or do you want to be a musician?” The fact is, anyone can learn to play an instrument but not everyone can be a musician. Just like anyone can sit down and play the piano or guitar or violin but can they play "MUSIC?"

If you would like to participate in this very engaging experience, please contact:
Rhythm MP at +60-4-587 3689
Mr. Seng at +60-12- 295 0830

• Music Is Fun • Colombo, Sri Lanka