Teaching Sequence

Part A: Irregular Rhythms
Part B: Syncopated Rhythms from Africa
Part C: Playing With Rhythms
Part D: Putting it Together

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Part A: Irregular Rhythms

Step 1.

Play this game, which is inspired by contemporary composers who avoid the power of bar lines.

Game process: Invite students to sit in a circle with one percussion instrument each. When it is their turn, each student decides whether to play one long note or several quick notes, as a variable beat passes around the circle.

Step 2.

Study Peter Sculthorpe‘s Port Essington and discuss the dotted rhythm with students.

Clap out the rhythm. This will teach students:
1. Regular and Irregular phrase patterns (refer to The Bush from Port Essington)
2. Syncopation (refer to The Bush from Port Essington)
3. Referring to dotted rhythm (refer to Theme and Variations from Port Essington)

Discuss these aspects with the students.

Part B: Syncopated Rhythms from Africa

Step 1.

Explain to students that syncopation refers to creating an emphasis on the off beat. Teach the following rhythm, using the words, and clapping on each note:

Step 2.

Ask students to describe how the rhythm feels. Explain that the rhythm is typically African, syncopated, and borrowed by many cultures.

Step 3.

Now split the class in half to create a one bar canon/round:

Step 4.

Ask one student at a time to improvise a melody on tuned percussion over the top of the Candy Candy Ca Cha Cha round.

Part C: Playing With Rhythms

Step 1.

Students will benefit from the understanding that rhythms are the most important part of writing a fanfare. Fanfares often have fast, regular rhythms with lots of momentum - crotchets, quavers and semi-quavers.

Play the video below which highlights how Sam Weller (2015 Fanfare Competition finalist) used rhythm to create his fanfare.

Fanfare Competition - Rhythm Inspired Composition (https://youtu.be/0Ai4OwPcF5Q)

Step 2.

Invite students to experiment with rhythm by writing 8 bars of rhythm for 2 different instruments.

Start with a layer of regular rhythms (eg. in the brass) and introduce some triplet rhythms and/or syncopated (irregular) rhythms in another instrument (eg. percussion).

Step 3.

Further explore a great example of mixing up regular rhythms with a few triplets by listening to one of the winners of Fanfare 2014 - Lachlan Penninkilampi's "Fanfare 1".

Part D: Putting it Together

Step 1.

Ask students for a definition of 'syncopation'. Syncopation is an element of jazz and multicultural music. Syncopated rhythms put emphases on the OFF-beats. One example of syncopation is the African rhythm: candy candy ca ... cha cha

Step 2.

Suggest that students pair up, with one person clapping the ostinato "candy candy ca ... cha cha" while the other plays their regular rhythm (from the above activity). Does the syncopated layer enhance the compose, or make it messy?

Differentiated activities

Provisions for Learning Support: Instead of writing eight irregular bars of rhythm, some students might improvise eight bars using long notes and fast notes at random.

Instead of writing a melody in canon, ask lower ability students to invent a rhythm on untuned percussion, which can easily be turned into a canon.

Homework and extension opportunities

Activity 1.

Ask your students to find examples of multicultural music that features the rhythm:

Ask students to study the details of the Fanfare Competition. Explain to students that they will be encouraged to write their own 30 second piece of music to enter into the competition (https://artology.org.au/fanfare/). Students can start recording their ideas about composing their music using some of the ideas explored today.

Activity 2.

Introduce your students to the body percussion techniques outlined on the following website: Body Percussion

As a class, perform the brief 13 step performance outlined on the Body Percussion website i.e. Boom, Snap, Clap, Ba-boom, Snap, Clap, Snap, Boom, Snap, Clap, Ba-boom, Snap, Shh.

Take the Body percussion performance that you have just performed and write the pattern on 3 drum lines, then a 16 box drum grid, and finally into percussion staves. This activity can be further extend by using free online programs such as Pizza Groove.

Fanfare Competition - Rhythm Inspired Composition

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