Performing Activities - Songs & Scores |
Starter & Plenary Activities |
Learning, Listening, Composing & Evaluating Activities |
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This unit explores the main rhythmic musical features and devices used in African music, particularly the African drumming tradition of West Africa. Pupils learn to perform different drum strokes on a drum before composing, performing and improvising simple rhythms, turning these into cyclic rhythms. These are then combined to form a polyrhythmic texture, characteristic of much African music. Pupils explore the effect of syncopation on rhythms learning about its offbeat feel and its emphasis on weaker beats before exploring how call and response is used in African music, improvising, composing and performing their own call and response rhythms. Pupils look briefly at African musical instruments before combining their learning of cyclic and polyrhythms, syncopation and call and response into an African-inspired piece. Element Focus - Rhythm, Texture, Timbre & Dynamics |
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Secondary/Key Stage 3 Unit - African Music |
Supporting Activities - Cover & Homework |
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Exploring Polyrhythms |
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MIDI 1 - Duns Bass Part A (with metronome click) - repeated 8 times; MIDI 2 - Duns Bass Part A (without metronome) - repeated 8 times MIDI 3 - Duns Bass Part B (with metronome click) - repeated 8 times; MIDI 4 - Duns Bass Part B (without metronome) - repeated 8 times MIDI 5 Duns Parts A & B (with metronome click) - repeated 8 times; MIDI 6 - Duns Parts A & B (without metronome click) - repeated 8 times MIDI 7 - Djembe Part (with metronome click) - repeated 8 times; MIDI8 - Djembe Part (without metronome click) - repeated 8 times MIDI 9 - Duns Parts A & B & Djembe Part (with metronome click) - repeated 8 times MIDI 10 - Duns Parts A & B & Djembe Part (without metronome click) - repeated 8 times |
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Audio 13 - 144bpm pulse MIDI 11 - Madagascar Rhythm; MIDI 12 - Chad Rhythm; MIDI 13 - Ethiopia Rhythm MIDI 14 - Algeria Rhythm; MIDI 15 - Egypt Rhythm; MIDI 16 - Tanzania Rhythm MIDI 17 - 6 African Rhythms added one by one |
Song Sheet 1 - Wimoweh & Score 3 - Wimoweh Song Example on Audio 4 Audio 5 - Wimoweh melody without and with syncopation MIDI 18 - Verse & Chorus Song Melody; MIDI 19 - Verse & Chorus Song Melody (with metronome click) |
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Song Sheet 2 - “Nsansa Censele” & Score 4 - “Nsansa Censele” (Piano Accompaniment) (Song Example on MIDI 20 with Piano Accompaniment on MIDI 21) (Taken from Year 7 Unit 3 - “Form & Structure” & Year 7 Unit 11 - “Voiceworks” |
Song Sheet 3 - Three African Call & Response Songs MIDI 22 - Owe Nsawila song melody MIDI 23 - Byowa song melody MIDI 24 - Na ya la mu song melody |
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Song Sheet 4 - Six African Songs MIDI 25 - Miawoe gbona afega me (song melody); MIDI 26 - Atia de menye (song melody) MIDI 27 - A-B-C-D (Kpanlogo song) (song melody); MIDI 28 - De oyo dio (song melody) MIDI 29 - Tuu-tuu gbovi (song melody); MIDI 30 - Abang (song melody) |
Song Sheet 5 - Tumba (African Chant) MIDI 31 - Tumba Part 1; MIDI 32 - Tumba Part 2 MIDI 33 - Tumba Part 3; MIDI 34 - Tumba - All 3 parts together |
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“Where in the World?” - World Music Card Sort (uses Audio 1) |
African Drumming in Action |
African Dance from Ghana |
Listening to African Drumming
(uses Audio 3) |
On the beat - off the beat |
Wimoweh (alternative version) |
I want a cup of tea! Call & Response warm-up (uses Audio 8) |
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African Call and Response Drum Rhythms |
Listening to Call and Response in Spirituals, Gospel and the Blues |
African Musical Instruments
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My African Music Learning |
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African Drum Techniques - Bass, Tone & Slap |
African Drum Techniques Djembe Heads |
How to play an African Drum |
Wimoweh Evaluation Sheet |
African Call and Response Rhythms
(uses Audio 10 & MIDI 35) |
African Music Composing Sheet |
African Music Evaluation Sheet |
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African Music Assessment
(uses Audio 12) |
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Scheme of Work |
Lesson Plan (PDF) |
Lesson Plan (DOC) |
Lesson Bundles (ZIP) Download all the resources you need for each lesson (excluding video files) in a ZIP file. |
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Lesson 1 Exploring African Drumming Techniques |
Resource Bundle |
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Lesson 2 Exploring Cyclic and Polyrhythms |
Resource Bundle |
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Lesson 3 Exploring Syncopation |
Resource Bundle |
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Lesson 4 Exploring Call & Response |
Resource Bundle |
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Lesson 5 Exploring African Musical Instruments |
Resource Bundle |
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Lesson 6 Exploring African Musical Features |
Resource Bundle |
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Drums around the World (requires internet access) |
The Music of West Africa |
African Musical Instruments |
African Music |
West African Music |
African Popular Music |
African Music Word Search |