Learning Page: Year 8 Unit 1 Rock Music

What is Rock music?

What are some famous bands/artists that call themselves rock musicians?

Rock In the 50s - Elvis Presley

Rock music Really began in the 1950's Elvis Presley was certainly a pioneer in this area. His powerful stage presence and personality made him very popular and in the early days - he was a symbol of Rock music.

Task...

Brainstorm

What are elements that contribute to rock music? How is it that we can call something rock music?

- Musical features

- Social features

- other

Watch Presley perform 'Jail House Rock' what elements discussed above can you see here?

Performance Task 1

First we will learn some chords on piano and guitar.

Click HERE for chords piano and guitar diagram.
Click HERE for a downloadable copy of the 12 bar blues

Twelve bar blues in the key of A

- Try to play the above progression on either piano or guitar using the Diagrams provided to you in class.

- Once you have mastered the chords you can work in small groups and have a go at some improvisation using the minor pentatonic scale (scroll down to find)

Watch this for some fun...

60s Rock...The Beatles

The sixties was the start on what was know as the British invasion. Formerly, Rock 'n' Roll had been dominated and owned by Americans - it was their own music. The Beatles started a major phenomenon which would be followed by Bands The Rolling Stones and Cream.

The development of the recording studio and technology lead to a change in the form of the band and the sound and quality of recording. It also lead to the formation of the group rather than the soloist supported by the band. The Beatles demonstrated this by each sharing an almost equal load in writing and performing the music.

Listen to
The Beatles - "I Wanna Hold Your Hand"
Compare to
McFly - "I Wanna Hold Your Hand"

What are similarities/differences?

How can you see that these bands are groups? does each member have a equal roll?

What elements of Rock and Roll can you observe?

Performance Task Option 2

Keep learning chords/ I want to hold your hand

Listening

Beatles I want to hold your hand

Here's a video that may help you play "I Wanna Hold Your Hand"

The 70s... The Riff

Listening
Deep Purple - Smoke On The Water

Cool riffs of the 70s

Walk This Way Aerosmith, Layla (Derick and the Domino's) Money (Pink Floyd), Black Dog other

Discussion...what is a Riff?

Composition Activity

Composition Task: Compose a riff on your instrument you can use the pentatonic scale as a starting point.

The pentatonic scale Click here for a downloadable copy

Listening Layla

- List the instruments you can hear in the recording

- Explain what function they each have

- Identify the use of repetition

- Explain how Unity and Contrast are created

- UNITY: All that is the Same

- CONTRAST: All that is different

Research Task:
Research a rock group from the 1970s.
List the following
- The members names
- Standout features that made them famous
- Instrument line up
- Hit songs
- Listen to one of their songs describe briefly what each instrument is contributing to the recording
Report your findings in a short presentation to the class.

The Allman Brothers

The 80s...Hair, Leather, Denim,

The 80s brought yet further advances in studio recording capability and the progression of music technology. This was largely, if not entirely, to do with the surfacing of computer technology amongst the everyday progression of life. The 80s is notified as the beginning of the Digital Age where computer technology changed the sound of amplification (guitar sound), the process of recording (now multiple digital track not tape) and some cool new instruments hit the streets such as the synthesiser and keytar.

Roland AX-Sythn (keytar)

Reverby snares (snare drum), 'FX'pedals and the Keytar (synthesiser) were all major contributors to the sound, the Tone Colour of 80' Rock.

Key word search...

Reverb (in relation to sound effects)

Keytar

Snare Drum

Multitrack Digital recorder

Synthetic

Listening

Van Halen - Jump

What instrument is playing the opening riff?
Describe the tone colour of this instrument
List the instruments you can hear
Draw a graph of the structure of this piece to show where the riff is played
Describe the rhythm played by the bas guitar

Tone Colour

What is tone Colour? (write a definition)
Click here for a list of adjectives (describing words) that can help you describe sound
Listen to the Bon Jovi's 'Livin' On A Prayer' Click Here
List three instruments you can hear.

For each instrument write two sentences to describe the tone colour (use the list of adjective above)

How do the music arrangers and composers create contrast and interest in the piece?

Rock in the 90s - The Grunge Movement...

Focus Tone colour move away from studio production
Three piece band reduction in texture

Here's a closer look at the "Seattle Sound"

Listening - Silverchair "Tomorrow" (Australia's answer to the Seattle Sound)

Rock in the 00s...focus on Texture, Tone Colour and Structure

A return to studio sound high quality recording

Many layers multiple guitars and effects

Inclusion of non-typical instruments (like the 80's) thanks to a progression in computer technology

Key Terms/focus outcomes

Texture: Layers of sound,

Tone Colour: The quality of the sound (describe the sound of an instrument)

Structure: Sections that build a piece, form, construction from different sections

Blurb..."Neutron Star Collision" from Muse is almost a perfect culmination of all the decades of rock music we have studied so far. It combines elements from many other eras. Check out the likeness with this particular track from bands Like Queen ('Don't Stop me now') (70's) the similar pounding bass line from Dream Theatre in the (80's) and elements of Avant-garde and progressive rock.

List some similarities

Draw A graph of texture (layers of sound) in this piece

last week we talked about the 90's and the move away from the studio recorded sound. Muse is certainly a demonstration of the return to heavy study production. Describe the overall Tone colour of this recording compared to last weeks Silverchair. (consider recording choices)
what do use notice about the start and finish of the piece? how is this a structural technique?

here is the official assessment task sheet click here to download and print if desired

Rock music...at church?

Thanks to artists like Petra and Michael W. Smith, church music began to grab rock music fans in the 80s. This trend has certainly continued right up until now. There has often been debate over whether it is ok to play loud, fast and even aggressive music to worship God. There is a famous song by Larry Norman called "Why Should the Devil Have all the good Music". But I think this way of thinking sums it up perfectly. As in everything, we should play music for God music genre (style) is no exception.

What do you believe about this topic?

- Can any style of music be used as worship music? Explain

- What is worship?

- What is the purpose of worship?

Listening
Pillar - "Battle Cry"

1)Should rock music be allowed in church?

2) can you worship God with this type of music?

3)describe the tone colour of the Guitar in this piece

4) how do you feel when you listen to this piece?

Recap

Rock summary H/W summaries the meaning of Texture tone colour and structure in terms of music

How would you describe the genre of Rock? How is it that a particular kind of music can be called Rock music?

List five elements

Listening: "Who Did You Think I Was?"

1. Identify the main riff.

2. Describe the tone colour of the guitar how is this similar or different to the vocals?

How do the lyrics relate to the Rock genre? Do they?

KEY terms Genre, Texture, Tone Colour, Structure

So now that we have talked a little about rock music as well as musical concepts Texture, Tone Colour and structure, we have some idea about the impact that Rock music as a style had on the music we listen to everyday. We have some understanding of the origins of Rock in Jazz and Blues as well as some of the influences along the way such as classical and the power of the recording studio.

We also had a go at writing and recording some of our own material as we partook in the writing and recording process. Now, take a couple of minuet to reflect on your project...

What did you like about the project?

what did you dislike?

Did you feel like you learnt valuable skills if yes what?

if no what would you have liked to have learnt?

What worked well? think about you skills, group, individual performance etc.

What went wrong? how can we manage these things better for next time?

What mark would you give yourself out of ten?

Let us talk briefly about the impact of the recording studio and recording technology on rock music.

Something inspirational for the guitar players
The Classical music world and the Rock world collide
Steve Via For The Love of God
Check this out for a Guitar

12 Bar Blues Performance
Eric Clapton 'Drifting' https://youtu.be/Tkm3UOhGN-A