Celebrate your own culture - podcast

Be interested and resourceful to investigate and share the music of your own cultural heritage.

Research

1. Interview an older family member to learn about your cultural heritage. Ask about the traditional music of your culture and how important it is/was.

2. Listen to some recordings of music from your culture. Put together a list of common musical characteristics.

   • what are the instruments used?

   • do rhythms or melodies repeat?

   • are there lots of instruments playing at the one time or just a few?

   • is the music loud or soft?

   • is the music accompanied by dancing?

   • what is the music used for? ceremonies? celebrations? hunting?

   • does it sound happy or sad? could it be using scales different from what we hear in popular music?

3. Read what has been written by musicologists about the music of your culture.

Write

Write a speech about the music of your cultural heritage.

1. Begin writing about your culture by talking about your family.

   • My cultural background is _______________

   • My (parents/grandparents/great grandparents etc) came here in (year) to/for _________________(reason they came here...eg: a better life, work, family, sent here as convicts).

2. Then move on to the music.

   • The traditional music of ___________(country) consists of .........(instruments, voices sounds etc).

   • List some of the other musical characteristics.

   • What is the music used for?

3. Are there any artists today creating a pop fusion with the music of your culture?

Sample

My cultural heritage links to Scotland.

My great (x5) grandparents came here in the 1800s to seek a better life.

The traditional music of Scotland consists of bagpipes, fiddle, accordion, cittern guitar, tin whistle, and bodhran (drum).

Musical characteristics of traditional Scottish music differ between regions, however, some common features include highland bagpipes, sung melodies in folk music with frequent use of a fiddle and strong dance-like qualities.

Traditionally, music in Scotland was used for entertainment, religious ceremonies, and even to accompany wars. It was believed that this began in the Battle of Culloden where Scottish Pipers would play war tunes while marching their troops into battle.

There are many contemporary artists who have incorporated the Scottish bagpipes to create a traditional Scottish and contemporary music fusion. Examples include; AC/DC’s 'Long Way to The Top', Paul McCartney’s 'Mull of KinTyre' which also shares other Scottish folk music characteristics, and Australia’s own 'You’re the Voice' by John Farnham.

Record

1. Record yourself saying your speech. You could do this simply on your phone or your could use an app or a program on your computer such as adobe audition, audacity, band lab, or sound trap.

Compose

1. Import your voice recording into a program like the ones listed above.

2. Choose 1-2 recordings of music from your cultural heritage.

3. Experiment with placing these recordings under your vocal recording. You will need to place this on a separate track in the software.

4. Experiment with the volume, fading, or cutting tools in the program. By doing this you may be able to include more than one recording under your speech.

5. Once you have finished experimenting and are happy with the finished product, export your composition as an audio file, MP3 works best.

Share

1. Share your composition with your teacher by uploading your audio file to your school's digital learning platform.

2. Consider other ways you might be able to share your recording.