World Music: Song-basedA resource pack for Key Stage 2

Janet WoodAugust 2018

0

Contents

Introduction2

About the artist 3Warm ups 4Project 1 – African Music

6Project 2 – Indian Music 9Project 3 – Polish Music 13Ending the Project

15Appendix 1 – Akilela Score 16Appendix 2 – Lots of Ways to Say Hello Score 17Appendix 3 – Woza Hambalami Vocal Score

18Appendix 4 – Zola Score

19Appendix 5 - Kisnay Banaaya Score 20Appendix 6 – Children of the World Score 21

Introduction

World Music is of course a huge topic and covers a vast number of different musical styles. You may want to choose music from countries you are studying elsewhere in the curriculum, or from those linked to some of the children in your class. Either of these is a great starting point, but don’t ignore following your own tastes and preferences and exposing the children to a wide variety of styles and musical genres.

There is an abundance of music to find on YouTube of course – I also subscribe to Songlines, a magazine dedicated to world music which includes a free sampler CD, and there are also educational websites with pages dedicated to songs from other countries:

https://www.singup.orgSing Up is an excellent resource for songs, lesson plans and ideas for development. It requires a yearly subscription

http://www.vocalunion.org.uk/Vocal Union is another excellent source of songs, managed by The Sage Gateshead, several of which are from other countries and in languages other than English – this site is free

https://www.mamalisa.com/Mama Lisa is another great site especially as a source of songs for younger children, although older children enjoy the songs too, especially if they’re in different languages – this site is free

I feel it’s important to say that caution should be used with teaching songs in other languages and I always do my utmost to check correct pronunciation and meaning, if possible from a native speaker.

I was hugely helped in my research for this project by our local EMTAS, Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service, who for a small yearly fee loan out books, puppets, instruments, artefacts etc. that greatly enhanced my sessions, and who are also a useful resource for checking the pronunciation and translation of local languages.

2

Finally, don’t underestimate the resource sitting in front of you every day – the children and indeed their adults may well know and love songs from different cultures and would love them to be celebrated!

About the artist

An experienced workshop leader working with people of all ages and abilities, Janet Wood is a singer/songwriter in the British folk tradition and has particular expertise in leading a cappella choirs. A member of the Natural Voice Network, she is passionate both about singing and about learning music from other cultures and in different languages. She has spent a considerable amount of time in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, where she performed with the groups Umdumo Wesizwe, Siyaya and Sunduza, writing, recording and performing songs in both English and Ndebele. She runs three adult community choirs and enjoys working in schools to create original songs for three annual big singing events in Doncaster. Janet is a Core Artist with darts (Doncaster Community Arts).

3

Warm ups

AkilelaCall and response. It’s good practice to warm up the children’s voices before singing and call and response is a good way to get them going, as you can model singing quietly to start off with and gradually get a stronger sound as their voices warm up. Call and response is a popular song style in Africa, and usually involves a soloist doing the call and the rest of the group singing the response. In this case the response is a repeat of the call:

Akilela (Akilela), Akilela (Akilela)A maruwa maruwa maruwe (A maruwa maruwa maruwe)A pritti pritti kumba (A pritti pritti kumba)A pritti pritti musa (A pritti pritti musa)

Keep changing the key and singing higher each time. See Appendix 1. DOWNLOAD ‘AKILELA AUDIO FILE’ FROM WEBPAGE.

Note – when I was taught this I was told that the lyrics, while sounding similar to an African language, were just nonsense sounds. I’ve searched for the origin of the song but can’t find anything to contradict that.

Lots of Ways to Say HelloThis is a framework song I wrote to get children singing in other languages. It makes a useful start to each lesson and is very popular with children of all ages, whether they are showing off their knowledge of other languages or enjoying having their own home language celebrated by the rest of the class. The only problem is telling them it’s time to stop!

Chorus: There are lots of ways to say hello (x4)

Verse:(e.g.) Bonjour, Amy, there are lots of ways to say helloAsalaam aleykum, Sadiq, there are lots of ways to say hello

I teach the chorus, then the verse, inviting the children to put in different ways of saying hello. See Appendix 2. DOWNLOAD ‘LOTS OF WAYS TO SAY HELLO’ AUDIO FILES FROM WEBPAGE.

4

Body Percussion Round This can be used as an introductory warm-up or to change energy and move on to the next activity in a session. I also used it as a movement sequence in the Indian Music project (see page 9).

Part 1 – (4 beats to a bar – here each line is a bar of 4 beats and the numbers refer to each beat)

1.Slap knees, 2.clap, 3.click fingers (rest on beat 4)1.Slap knees, 2.clap, 3.click fingers (rest on beat 4)1.Slap knees, 2.clap, 3.click fingers, 4.clap1.Slap knees, 2.clap, 3.click fingers (rest on beat 4)

Part 2 –

1.Stamp, clap 2.clap clap 3.clap 4.clap1.Stamp, clap 2.clap clap 3.clap 4.clap1.Stamp, clap 2.clap, 3.stamp clap 4.clap1.Slap knees, 2.clap, 3.click fingers (rest on beat 4)

This works as a two-part round – once the children are confident with both parts, divide the class into two groups and count in the first group. Once they have completed Part 1, bring in the second group to do Part 1 as the first group moves on to Part 2. DOWNLOAD ‘BODY PERCUSSION ROUND AUDIO FILE’ FROM WEBPAGE.

5

Project 1 – African Music

It is worth telling the children that Africa is a continent, not a country! My main inspiration comes from southern Africa – South Africa and Zimbabwe – where there is a rich vocal tradition.

Lots of Ways to Say HelloThere are many countries in Africa and within each country many languages may be spoken – there will be an “official” language taught in schools –determined by which European nation colonised the African country - and then several tribal languages spoken informally. I used the following:

Jambo – Swahili – spoken in Kenya Sawubona – Zulu – South Africa Mhoro – Shona – Zimbabwe Sabona – Ndebele – Zimbabwe Asalaam aleykum – Arabic – Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria – this is a Muslim

greeting meaning Peace be with you and the correct response is to say Waleykum salaam – and also with you

Woza HambalamiSimple song with movements (beckoning for Woza – come – and walking on the spot for hambalami – walk/go with me) - from Zimbabwe. See Appendix 3. DOWNLOAD ‘WOZA HAMBALAMI AUDIO FILE’ FROM WEBPAGE.

Woza, woza, hambalami, hambalami…

You could develop this by putting a child’s name in place of second woza, and walk around the room adding children one by one. This would also be a useful song for telling the story of e.g. ‘Handa’s Surprise’ by Eileen Browne, using it as Handa walks along with the various animals following her.

The language here is Ndebele which is spoken in Matabeleland (the capital of which is Bulawayo) in Zimbabwe and also parts of South Africa. It is closely related to another South African language – Zulu.

Note – the word “hambalami” is shortened in the song to “hambalam”.

New Instrument Children are fascinated by instruments from other cultures. You may have other African instruments in your school or available to hire. If so, a useful

6

way of letting every child have a go in a time-limited and structured way is to sit them in a circle and pass the instrument carefully around whilst singing a song.

I used a talking drum from West Africa – the one I have can be bought relatively cheaply here:

https://www.knockonwood.co.uk/Dondo-kente?fv=440&gclid=CjwKCAjwwdTbBRAIEiwAYQf_EyJVjaFgM2YBMUPfJ8SukEebz7lCzNXxcEWuE6RFK11fVCGsTH1JqhoC9MwQAvD_BwE

Here is a clip of it being played by an expert:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4oQJZ2TEVI

The talking drum is played by squeezing the strings under the player’s arm whilst hitting it with the stick. The strings tighten and loosen the skin of the drum head producing a different note to sound a bit like talking.

I used the song Zola Zola to pass it around – it’s very simple and gives everyone something to do whilst each child takes a turn. See Appendix 4. DOWNLOAD ‘ZOLA ZOLA AUDIO FILE’ FROM WEBPAGE.

Zola zola, zola zola X 2, then child has 16 beats to play the drum, before the next Zola zola etc.

Extra use of Zola – with younger children you could sing it while pretending to be different animals and moving around the room.

I also used, in a different lesson, another African instrument called the mbira – a traditional instrument of the Shona people of Zimbabwe:

https://youtu.be/rPWmWk8uv-I

A simple version of the mbira is the kalimba which can be bought here – this one has all the notes of the major scale:

https://www.knockonwood.co.uk/Roots-sanz08

The Lion Sleeps Tonight This is probably the best known song from South Africa, originally written by Solomon Linda in 1939 and called Mbube (the word for lion in Zulu). It became very popular and was adopted by American group The Weavers in the 1950s, who thought it was a traditional Zulu song and misheard Mbube as Wimoweh. It has become so popular worldwide that these days even some African groups sing Wimoweh! It is good to talk to the children

7

about this in the context of respecting songs and languages from different cultures – it took Solomon Linda’s family until 2006 to reach a settlement and earn some money from his song. The children will almost certainly know it from The Lion King but here is a nice version by the South African group Ladysmith Black Mambazo with some narrative and film of Zulus in traditional dress:

https://youtu.be/ZOeW3jBD0r8

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight X 2In the village, the quiet village, the lion sleeps tonight X 2Hush my darling, don’t fear my darling, the lion sleeps tonight X 2

Project 2 – Indian Music

8

Again, the children may not know that many different languages are spoken in India.

Lots of Ways to Say Hello Sat sree kal – Punjabi - used by those of the Sikh faith Namaste – Hindi – another religious greeting - usually spoken with a

slight bow and hands pressed together, palms touching and fingers pointing upwards, thumbs close to the chest

Asalaam aleykum - Arabic greeting used in all Muslim cultures

Kisnay Banaaya This is a lovely simple Indian song in Hindi about the creation of the world. See Appendix 5. DOWNLOAD ‘KISNAY BANAAYA AUDIO FILE’ FROM WEBPAGE. It can be enhanced by hand movements. I used Makaton sign language, a sign system to aid communication alongside speech (see illustrations on page 10), but you could also research the beautiful hand signs from traditional Indian dance.

Kisnay banaaya poolon ko? X 2 (Who made the flowers?)Poolon ko, poolon koKisnay banaaya poolon ko?

Other verses follow the same pattern:

Kisnay banaaya machlee ko? (Who made the fish?)Kisnay banaaya taaro ko? (Who made the stars?)Kisnay banaaya tum ko mujh ko? (Who made you and me?)

You could put in a drone (a long sustained note on a hum or a vowel sound like ooo) to make this sound more authentically Indian - half the class sing the drone while the rest sing the verse; keep swapping the groups over so everyone gets a chance to sing the drone and the words. You could also use a keyboard or other instrument to play the drone.

There is a lovely version of this with extra harmonies in an arrangement by Mona Zaidan on Sing Up:

https://www.singup.org/nc/singup-songbank/songs-and-warm-ups/song-detail/view/445-kis-nay-banaayaa/

MAKATON SIGNS

9

Flower (under nose as if sniffing) Fish

Stars You

MeIndian instruments

10

Although probably too expensive to get hold of, it is worth mentioning two instruments which help to give Indian music its unique sound:

The sitar is a very important traditional Indian instrument which incorporates a drone (a repeated or long sustained sound on one or two notes) and a melody over the top:

Tabla are a distinctive pair of Indian drums with a bass sound on the larger drum, played with the heel of the hand, and a higher sound from the smaller one played with the fingers:

These instruments can be heard in the following track, Discovery of India by Ravi Shankar:

https://youtu.be/XPJS-PkR2Hg

I used this track to accompany a reading of this story set in an Indian market ‘To Market To Market’ by Anushka Ravishankar:

http://amzn.eu/d/75vRsSg

For this part of the project I borrowed sari material and other Indian artefacts from our local EMTAS resources, to create a colourful setting for the telling of the story.

11

Go through the book – the story is in rhyme and fits perfectly over the track – I have recorded part of it as an example. DOWNLOAD ‘TO MARKET! TO MARKET! AUDIO FILE’ FROM WEBPAGE.

I then asked the children to choose sounds for each page of the story – e.g. we had a wooden bangle stand complete with bangles which we shook to make a jangling sound.

Although strictly speaking a book for younger children, the illustrations are so engaging and evocative of an Indian market, and the rhyme scheme is so accessible and rhythmic that the Y5 class I was working with loved it. The technique of using music as the backing track to a book is a very useful way of putting across the narrative and adding the sounds enhances the children’s understanding and engagement with music they may not be familiar with.

Slumdog Millionaire It’s almost impossible to appreciate Indian music without reference to dance and the final scene in this famous film is really popular with children, as is its soundtrack, Jai Ho (which means hail, let there be victory, may you succeed).

I am not a dancer, but the children and I really enjoyed this activity. First we watched the film clip of the Bollywood dance in the station - this is the best one to use:

https://youtu.be/xPvPUk96vb0

I gave the children a task while they watched - to identify moves we could use in our own dance. We chose the most clear and simple ones.

One of the boys who had been particularly good at identifying moves from the film clip stood at the front with me and we directed the class between the body percussion round (see ‘Warm ups’ on page 4) and the moves from the film while we played the soundtrack.

12

Project 3 – Polish Music

Doncaster has a sizeable Polish community so I have been able to consult with children as to what to include here.

Lots of Ways to Say HelloThe Polish greetings we used were Czesc (informal greeting) and Djen dobrje (good day) – please note there are some accents missing from these words.

Tanczymy LabadaThis is a traditional Polish song and dance which is performed in a circle. The words below are a pronunciation guide for non-Polish speakers. The full song and teaching notes are available on the Sing Up website here:

https://www.singup.org/nc/singup-songbank/songs-and-warm-ups/song-detail/type/song/view/74-ta/)

Tanchymy labada, labada, labadaTanchymy labada, shmyeshnehgoh valchykah

(We are dancing the Labada, a funny kind of waltz)

BalkanicaThis pop song by Polish band Piersi was suggested to me as a favourite of some Polish children:

https://youtu.be/Pqaxe5o2Apo

Once we had listened to the track we did a couple of activities based on the song. First we added percussion (e.g. drums/tambourines on beat 1, shakers on 2, 3, 4) and played along to the recording.

Then I asked the children to write new English words to the chorus – the direct translation of the original is:

There will be! There will be fun! It will happen!And the night will be short again.It will be loud, It will be joyfulTogether we’ll dance the whole night through.

13

So I asked the children to write something that would suggest the party theme of the original but that would fit the tune so we could sing over the original track (I found a karaoke version on iTunes).

The class’s words were:

Music, it fills my earsThe drums are playingThe disco balls are sh-sh-shining while I’m dancingThe clock is tickingThe night is passing, soon the party’s gonna end

Ending the Project

14

In the last session I asked the children to look back on all we’d covered and achieved in the six weeks of the project. After a quick brainstorming session we wrote a song from scratch in which we incorporated what they felt were the best things about the music we’d covered.

You may feel a little unsure about doing a songwriting activity like this but children always come up with wonderfully original ideas and you can always choose a tune you already know, or you could use our song as a framework for your own.

Here is Warmsworth Primary School’s song – see Appendix 6. DOWNLOAD ‘CHILDREN OF THE WORLD AUDIO FILE’ FROM WEBPAGE.

Children of the World We are, we are the children of the worldWe are, we are the children of the world

From the Indian market to the African jungleFrom Polish village dances to train station Bollywood

We are, we are the children of the worldWe are, we are the children of the world

From call and response to body percussionFrom Zola to the drone to a Polish rock band

We are, we are the children of the worldWe are, we are the children of the world

Koyo, satsreekalCzesc, priviet,Bore da, konichiwa, Salut, Namaste – hey!

We are, we are the children of the worldWe are, we are the children of the world

Appendix 1 – Akilela Score

15

Appendix 2 – Lots of Ways to Say Hello Score

16

Appendix 3 - Woza Hambalami Score

17

Appendix 4 – Zola Score

18

Appendix 5 - Kisnay Banaaya Vocal Score

Appendix 6 – Children of the World Score

19

20

21

© darts (Doncaster Community Arts)www.thepoint.org.uk01302 341662Registered Charity 1056799