KS3 KS 5

Simon Rushby is director of music at Reigate Grammar School and is the coauthor of Rhinegolds Edexcel GCSE Listening Tests (Book 4)

Teaching composing using film and TVmusic

by Simon Rushby

Introduction
Ask any composer how they get their ideas, and the answer you will probably get is by listening to music. People get the majority of their musical experiences whilst watching television and films, so it makes sense to tap into the huge repertoire of TV and film music to help youngsters with composing work. Young composers encounter two main problems having ideas in the first place, and then working out what to do with them. Yet so much inspiration can be derived from studying the very music they spend most of their time hearing. Here are three activities that can be worked into lessons at any stage of the Key Stage Three music course, or even into early GCSE lessons to provide ideas for first compositions. Key words, which should be emphasised to the students at every opportunity, are highlighted in bold.

Activity 1 soundtracks to adverts

Remember to check all YouTube videos prior to showing them in class, in case there is inappropriate content.

As a starting point, find an advert with only music no voiceover to play to the class. Either or both of the following examples from YouTube, could be used. The first is instrumental and can be found [here], and the second is an existing song synched to an advert, found [here]. Play the soundtrack to the class without the picture, and get them to write down answers to the following questions: Describe or name the product you think this music is advertising Describe the images that you think are showing while this music is playing Say what it is about the music that has made you come to these decisions. Use words like melody, rhythm, chords, instruments, texture and mood You will probably need to play the soundtrack two or three times while the students consider their answers. Follow the exercise with a discussion and write up the key words and ideas that the students come up with. Now play them the advert again, this time with the pictures. Use the following questions to start further discussion: In what ways were you correct? What surprised you? At this point it might be good to ask which elements mentioned above (melody, rhythm, chords, instruments, texture) contributed the most to the advert.

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Teacher notes

Porsche Family Tree advert Melody: the only discernible melody is a falling ostinato (riff) in thirds, perhaps to indicate the reliability of the product. Rhythm: a steady pulsating beat (anticipation? Constant motion?) gives way to faster bass notes and military-like drums, and eventually a slow rock groove. Chords: a held tonic note (known as a pedal), followed later by growling distorted guitar chords all very repetitive. Instruments: an interesting combination of synth and bell sounds with rock guitar and drums. This combination of instruments perhaps does the most to communicate what the advert is about style combined with power and excitement. Texture: whilst the texture is quite full throughout, there is a definite increase in complexity as the music progresses. The advert shows a multitude of classic Porsches from years gone by driving in formation and splitting off, one by one. The modern Porsche (the focus of the advert) is represented by the rock guitar as it negotiates a path through the other cars and emerges as the dominant force.

Britain moves at RightMove advert The song in this advert, Parkbench Blues by Ralfe Band, is deliberately low-fi and simple with lyrics about settling down. RightMoves agency clearly chose the song partly for these reasons, but it would be good to discuss with the class why it might be suitable for this advert perhaps because it highlights the simplicity of moving house with RightMove, the ease of having access to their website on the move, or the normality of the people in the advert (the song performance is deliberately simplistic, in the style of the blues which was, after all, a form of folk music).

The other way around Now try a similar task but the other way round. Show the class an advert without the soundtrack, and get them to write down some simple thoughts as they watch (again, show it about three times). Here are two ideas for adverts to use: Coca-Cola, found [here] Polar (Nissan), found [here] The students may write down things like: Melody high pitched, low pitched, simple, step-wise, lots of jumps Rhythm fast notes, slow notes, smooth, jumpy, syncopated, funky, strong beat Chords simple, complex, concords, discords Instruments strings, woodwind, brass, percussion, electronic, rock, piano, many instruments, few instruments Texture thick, thin, varied They could also think about dynamics and articulation. In all cases, their focus needs to be on what sort of mood is needed, and how best to create it.

Show the Coca-Cola advert that starts at 1:04 (the other adverts are excellent but musically not quite so suitable for this activity). Show the Nissan advert that starts at 5.44.

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Once the students have made some notes and/or you have discussed ideas with them, let them loose on keyboards or other instruments in groups, to devise very simple soundtracks to the advert. Give them a relatively short amount of time to come up with something (perhaps fifteen minutes) and get them to focus on one or two elements for example chords and rhythm, or melody and instruments. Hold a class performance where each group performs their soundtrack live to the advert. Get them to review each others compositions, focusing on the positive aspects of how each soundtrack enhanced the mood of the advert.

Activity 2 Theme and Variations in TV idents Among the many devices used by TV and Film composers, the simple technique of writing variations of a theme is very popular. Barrington Pheloungs Inspector Morse Theme, for example, includes a Morse Codelike ostinato that appears in various guises in every episode, often written into the underscore. Pheloung has said that he has often played games with this ostinato, giving out clues in Morse Code as to the identity of the killer. For this activity, we are going to turn our attention to TV idents the little five or ten second musical snippets which identify a product or, in this case, a channel. Ident examples Start by showing, playing or getting the class to think of a range of well-known idents. Examples include: Intel, found [here] Thames TV (very old), found [here] BBC 2, found [here] E4, found [here] Channel 4, found [here] CBeebies, found [here] BBC One idents In 2006, BBC One commissioned composer Imran Hanif to provide the music for their new Circle Idents which are still seen on the channel today. The idents all contain a circular theme where a circle formation is created by animals, people or plants, and they often have something in common with the programme they are introducing, such as a footballers ident for Match of the Day. Hanifs music for these idents is all based on a simple three-note idea:

that is sometimes heard in this rhythm

Play this idea to the class and then watch eight of the idents to hear how the theme is incorporated. You can see these idents on Hanifs web-page: go [here] and scroll to the gallery section. Alternatively you can find them here on [YouTube]. The eight idents that work best for this are called Bikes, Roses, Kites, Moon, Surfer, Windows, Football and Hippos.

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Ask the class to write down their ideas about how the three-note theme is used. What do the idents have in common musically? How does Hanif vary the idea? How does his music complement the pictures? Some ideas to help discussion: Bikes the three-note rhythm repeats over simple guitar based chords of E and A, with emphasis on electronic sounds that are intended to mimic the revving of the motorbikes. A constant rhythm can be heard underpinning the whole piece. Roses the overriding sound here is mandolins, high guitars and violins, giving a positive, summery sound to the music. Again only two chords are used E and F sharp minor and though the three-note idea is more subtle in this ident, it is still very evident, especially at the end. Kites this is a very string-based ident, with syncopated rhythms perhaps emphasising the unpredictable behaviour of the kites. Again the three-note idea appears at the end, when the circle is formed. Hanif continues to stick to the key of E major. Moon this ident is very much about atmosphere, with only subtle repeating arpeggios (E major again) keeping the rhythm going. A solo violin repeats the three-note idea. Surfer lots of watery sounds and a funk rhythm with guitars give this ident an energetic feel. A guitar picks out the three-note idea. Windows Hanif emphasizes the heat of the sun with lots of electronic sounds and a fast dance-like beat. The three-note idea runs right through the ident, using its original electronic timbre. Footballers the most rhythmic ident, with the incessant beat in sync with the kicking of the football. The music is very simple, with repeating notes (again the notes of the E major triad) and an upbeat drum part. Hippos the comedy of this ident is enhanced by the ballroom and swing band nature of the soundtrack, suggesting that these hippos are dancing. Again the original three-note idea and timbre run through the ident.

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Composing Organise the class into groups and decide whether they are going to compose using keyboards, percussion (tuned and untuned), their own instruments or computer software such as Garage Band, Cubase or Sibelius. Set them the following brief.

Ident composition Compose a new ident for BBC One using the existing three-note idea. The ident is for a 30-second film of stock cars going around a banger-racing track. It consists of a lot of quick cuts between close ups of car wheels skidding, drivers spinning steering wheels and cars knocking each other for position. It ends with a top-down shot of the cars going around the track, forming a circle with BBC One written in the centre. Your ident should be between 20 and 30 seconds long. The three-note idea must be clearly heard in the ident at some point. Here are some ideas:

Ostinatos or riffs A fast/regular drum beat Discords Get the students to talk about their ideas and then discuss them with you and the rest of the class before you start them on this task. Again, give them a relatively short amount of time to complete it before you ask them to perform their composition.

Peer Assessment When listening to students compositions in class, get them to appraise each others work by completing this simple peer assessment for each composition:

Name(s) of student(s): Brief: Banger racing BBC Ident What musical elements (melody, rhythm, harmony, texture, timbre, dynamics) really stood out in this composition? What single idea or concept would you most like to borrow from this composition to use in your own future work? What one piece of advice would you give to these students if they asked for ways to improve their composition?

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The students might appreciate this model answer to guide them in filling out the assessment:

Name(s) of student(s): Joe Bloggs and Emily Smith Brief: Banger racing BBC ident What musical elements (melody, rhythm, harmony, texture, timbre, dynamics) really stood out in this composition? They used fast syncopated rhythms and sudden changes in dynamics. What single idea or concept would you most like to borrow from this composition to use in your own future work? Using a repeating rhythm (riff) to give the sense of the cars going round and round. What one piece of advice would you give to these students if they asked for ways to improve their composition? Use a wider range of pitch (high notes and low notes) to give even more contrast in their piece.

This form of peer assessment can be useful in a number of ways: It gets students to think creatively and analytically about their composing It makes them think about how they can be influenced by other music It allows them to be constructive and helpful to each other, in a positive way

Classroom work review

Now is a good time for a brief review of the most common ways to contrast and develop ideas through the elements of music, especially when writing for film and TV: Melody: should it be stepwise (conjunct) or leap about (disjunct). What range of pitches are you going to use? Rhythm: are you going to have quick, busy note patterns, or long slow ones? Are you going to use syncopation or polyrhythms (many rhythms at once)? What is your tempo going to be? Will it change? Harmony: are your chords going to be consonant or dissonant? Tonality: are you going to have a major or minor key? Or is your piece going to use a pentatonic, whole tone or chromatic scale? Perhaps it is going to be completely atonal? Texture: are you going to have full, thick textures or sparse, thin ones? Is your texture going to be simple, with all parts moving together (homophonic) or complex, with many different parts (polyphonic). Dont forget you can also have single lines all by themselves (monophonic). Timbre: what instrumental sounds and combinations are you going to use? Dont forget that some instruments, like guitars, percussion and string instruments can produce a variety of timbres depending on how you play them (strummed, plucked, drum rolls etc). Dynamics: are you going to use gradual changes (crescendo, diminuendo) or sudden ones (accents, sforzando). Additionally it would be a good idea to have a short glossary of specific words and techniques found in film and TV music, including: Cue Sheet: a sheet made up by a composer prior to starting work on the music for a film. This sets out the most important music cues desired by the director.
Remind students about the importance of contrasting these elements.

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Leitmotif: an operatic term that describes a musical idea that represents a character in the film. Leitmotivs can also represent objects and moods. There is more detail about this in the next activity. Synchronising: matching music with exact moments in the film, often known as hit points. These days, composers use computer software to do this. Tension and release: every film composers holy grail the art of building up tension and then relaxing it at the right moment. Theme: many films have opening/closing title themes, and/or a main theme which runs through the film, such as the Star Wars theme which accompanies the titles of every Star Wars movie, and snippets of which also appear in the underscore. Underscore: music played in the background to a scene, which enhances the mood it without being too noticeable.

Activity 3 The James Bond Leitmotiv One of the most common film music techniques used by composers is the leitmotif, which like many techniques has been borrowed and adapted from opera, specifically those of Richard Wagner. The basic idea behind the leitmotif is that a character in the film has a theme that appears in the accompanying music in various guises, as the character makes his or her appearance on screen. The James Bond Theme is a great example of this, as is Crocketts Theme from the 80s TV series Miami Vice, Laras Theme from the 1939 film Gone With The Wind, and of course the Jaws theme from the iconic Spielberg film. The James Bond theme Begin this activity by playing Monty Normans James Bond theme to the class, best heard in this YouTube clip, of the original theme from the 1962 Bond film Dr. No, found [here]. For this activity, explain that you are going to focus on the famous four chords that accompany the guitar melody. These chords are actually simple variations of the E minor chord, as follows:

Give the students five minutes to work out these chords for themselves on keyboards or tuned percussion, and to experiment with playing them in different rhythms. Now its time to have a brief look at the way John Barry and other composers of music for Bond films have used this idea as a leitmotif. Show some or all of the following clips, and get the class to discuss how the leitmotif has been used.
This can be found here on [YouTube]

Diamonds are Forever (John Barry) The theme begins, with lower strings playing just the first two chords, when Bond makes a surprise entrance. The four chords cycle round, getting gradually louder and more rhythmic, as the dialogue finishes. As the scene cuts to the departure of the hovercraft, the recognisable melody, played on brass, begins.

Visit YouTube to listen to it [here]

You Only Live Twice (John Barry) This scene, where Bonds burial at sea in Hong Kong harbour is faked, the theme is used very slowly at the start of the scene.

Find it here, on [YouTube] Find this track [here]

Goldeneye (John Altman) The orchestral version of the theme is cut up and used in snippets during this memorable tank chase scene. Casino Royale (David Arnold) This climactic scene at the end of Casino Royale is the first and virtually the only time composer David Arnold used the theme, on lower strings at first, and very effectively.

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Composing Give the students a choice of Bond scene storyboards to write the music to. These can either be actual scenes, shown without the soundtrack, or written descriptions of scenes such as the one below:

Long panoramic shot of beautiful Lake Geneva, with twinkling lights and small boats. Cut to a shot of a sleepy restaurant on the shoreline, with couples enjoying romantic candlelit meals of high-class food. Suddenly the peace is broken by a speedboat exploding into view very close to the restaurant, causing diners to drop glasses, scream, shout angrily etc. Its Bond, in black tie, standing at the wheel of a speedboat, hotly pursued by two men wearing black polo jumpers in another boat. The chase unfolds with the men firing shots at Bond as the two boats charge around the lake, pulling tight turns, smashing jetties and other boats, and causing carnage. One of the shots hits Bonds outboard and it blows up, propelling him into the water. The empty boat crashes into a party of onlookers onto the shore, and the bad guys boat pauses for a few seconds, surveying the remains of Bonds boat, before departing.

It is up to you whether you get the students to use keyboards, live instruments or technology to do this exercise, but if you do have access to computers running Sibelius, Cubase, Garage Band or a similar application, this might be a good time to use it. Get the students to work out a timeline so that they know how long each section of their music needs to be. For example: 0.00-0.06 Long shot of lake

0.06-0.11 Restaurant 0.11-0.20 0.20-0.34 0.34-0.38 0.38-0.47 Boats appear Chase continues, shots fired Shot hits engine, boat explodes Explosion dies down, other boat waits, then departs.

They then should make up a cue sheet to show how the four-chord leitmotif can be used to enhance each of these segments. An example could be: 0.00-0.06 Long shot of lake

Violin sounds, high pitch, very slow moving chords 0.06-0.11 Restaurant Continue as above, lower string sounds enter (playing root notes) 0.11-0.20 Boats appear

Loud chord followed by exciting beats and rhythms 0.20-0.34 Chase continues, shots fired

Brass stabs build in volume and excitement 0.34-0.38 Shot hits engine, boat explodes

Loud held chord, cymbal crashes 0.38-0.47 Explosion dies down, other boat waits, then departs.

Low bass note remains and holds. I have mocked up an example that you could play to the class as an example, hopefully to inspire them and help them get started. You can download this here.

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Discuss with the class which elements particularly stand out in this mock-up. The only real melodic or harmonic aspect is the use of the four chords, used in three different ways: As slow-moving chords in high violins (at first) and then lower strings As repeating, rhythmic chords in the strings, during the chase sequence As stabs in the brass, matched by percussion, at various unpredictable points in the chase (including the use of syncopation) The rest of the mock-up focuses on percussive sounds, both rhythmic (the kick drum), syncopated (the toms and snare) and to create an explosive effect (the cymbals and orchestral bass drum). I also cheated slightly and added a thunder sound and a synth pad at the end of the cue.

Final assessment
All the way through these three activities there have been ample opportunities to assess the students, and for them to carry out peer assessment and self-assessment. As a final activity you may like to give them the following listening exercises, based on two pieces of film music that can be found on YouTube, itunes, Spotify and other streaming and downloading sites.
This can be found [here]

Danny Elfman: Theme from Batman (1989) Play from the beginning to about 1:25. 1. Draw a graphic shape which best represents the five-note motif heard at the start of the extract 2. Most of the extract is based on this motif. Name two ways in which the composer achieves variety 3. Give two ways in which the composer creates a dark atmosphere in the first 40 or so seconds of the extract 4. Give two ways in which the composer creates a sense of building up suspense in this extract 5. Two of these words apply to this music which two? Triplets canon ornament sequence drone

Suggested answers 1. Any shape which shows that the five notes rise to a longer final note 2. Playing it at different speeds; using different pitches; using different instruments and timbres; playing it backwards (glockenspiel), overlapping it with itself etc 3. Minor key, low notes, low brass sounds, lots of held notes, slow crescendo etc 4. Increase in dynamics, increase in texture, increase in number of instruments, gradual rise in pitch, gradual increase in tempo 5. Triplets, canon
This can be found on YouTube [here]

John Barry: Goldfinger (The Raid on Fort Knox) (1964) Play from the beginning to about 1:20. 1. The first entry of the violins begins with two notes. Are the two notes: The same A second apart A fifth apart An octave apart?

2. How does the composer build up excitement in the Raid on Fort Knox? 3. Name one tuned and one untuned percussion instrument playing 4. Two of the words below apply to this music which two? Adagio March Glissando Ostinato Verses

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Suggested answers 1. An octave apart 2. Repeating rhythms and motifs; gradual increase in texture; gradual increase in pitch; gradual increase in dynamics; use of more percussion; increase in number of instruments ; cross rhythms etc 3. Tuned: Timpani, xylophone, untuned: snare drum, bass drum, cymbals 4. March, ostinato

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