By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
Aurally identify the meter of musical examples that use asymmetrical meters (i.e. 5 and 7-beat meters)
Perform rhythms in asymmetrical meters by clapping or tapping alongside recordings and reading from notation
Understand the difference between isochronous and non-isochronous beats.
Sight read and transcribe melodies that incorporate skips and leaps to scale degree 6.
Sight read and recognize triplet and duplet rhythmic patterns in more complex examples (continued work from previous lesson).
"Bulgarian Dance Rhythms (uneven)" (FolkDanceFootnotes.org) - Read and listen to the examples up through the section on 11/16. Try to count the S (slow) Q (quick) patterns described in the reading along with the recordings.
How To 'Speak' in Odd Time Signatures
(Adam Neely, 7 mins)
74 Songs in 7/4 Time
(David Bennett, 23 mins)
Common Time Signatures and Divisions in Bulgarian Folk Music
(From Vessela Stoyanova, "Against The Odds: an Exploration of Bulgarian Rhythms")
Auralia:
16th note rhythm recognition & dictation
Latin American Rhythm ID review
Asymmetrical Meter ID
"All music is in 4/4 if you don't count it like a nerd": Isochronous vs. non-isochronous beats
In Adam Neely's video above, he talks about short beats and long beats and how they undergird many asymmetrical time signatures
For instance, the theme from the TV show Mission Impossible is written in 5/4 time, but its main musical idea has 4 non-isochronous beats - 2 long and 2 short
Is it easier for you to embody these rhythms by thinking about the change in beat length, or by keeping an isochronous underlying pulse and treating the rhythm as syncopated?
Why do you think Western notation emphasizes the notion of isochronous beats rather than the flexibility of non-isochronous beats?
Performing Rhythms in "Turn the World Around": Sing through the interlocking melodies in Harry Belafonte's "Turn the World Around" using solfege syllables. (See the transcription in the anthology with the asymmetrical meter examples).
Aurally Identify Asymmetrical Meters: Open the playlist of songs provided in the anthology. Shuffle the playlist, then listen to each song and identify:
The meter (e.g. 5/4, 7/8, 9/8)
The underlying isochronous meter and non-isochronous beats
The grouping of beats (e.g. 2+3 or 3+2+2)
Counting Along with Balkan Music: Learn the counts for each of the dances listed below (see the PDF here). Sing the repeated rhythms with counts or Takadimi while conducting. Then, play the videos and count the beats along with the dancers.
Ruchenitsa (female version); Ruchenistsa (male version)
Sight Reading:
Rhythm: Continued work with triplets and duplets.
Melody: Melodies with skips/leaps to scale degree 6
Critical Listening/Dictation: Sight singing examples using asymmetrical meters
Meter in Radiohead: Check out a video by David Bennett looking at asymmetrical, mixed meters, and polyrhythms in Radiohead.
Jazz Improvisation: Check out this video by Rémi Bolduc on adding in 5/8 and 7/8 clave rhythms into your jazz solos.
David Bennett, "How Radiohead use Time Signatures" (12 mins)
Rémi Bolduc, "Improv with 5/8 and 7/8 Claves" (2 mins)