Lesson 107

Kye Kye Kule

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Hello and welcome back! I'm Joseph Hoffman,
and today we're going to learn a traditional African call-and-response song, "Kye Kye Kule"
Call-and-response is a special musical form where you have a soloist who sings a phrase as a solo,
a soloist who sings a phrase as a solo
and then everyone else answers back.
Like you see here:
Let's try singing "Kye Kye Kule" together as a call-and-response.
I'll be the soloist, and if you're watching I'd like you to echo or repeat the phrase back.
Excuse me Mr. Hoffman, can we do the call-and-response too?
Yeah, we want to sing too!
Sure, why don't you all sing along and repeat along with everyone else watching at home.
Okay, let's sing "Kye Kye Kule".
I'll start.
♫Kye Kye Kule♫
♫Kye Kye Kofinsa♫
♫Kofisa Langa♫
♫Kaka Shilanga♫
♫Kum Aden Nde♫
Together! ♫Kum Aden Nde Hey!♫
Let's dictate the rhythm for "Kye Kye Kule".
It starts off ♫Kye Kye Kule♫
What did you hear in rhythm words?
That rhythm is TA TA TA TA
The second phrase goes ♫Kye Kye Kofinsa♫
Let's try that in cow language. Let's see
if you can tell what's happening.
Now what was happening in this first beat?
You probably heard two sounds which we
could write as two eighth notes.
You probably heard one sound on the
second half of this second beat,
but what was happening here?
In the first half of
beat 2, this eighth note was actually carrying on.
How would we draw that?
Well, we could use a tie.
This is actually what was happening. We had a TI-TII-TI,
instead of TI-TI TI-TI
This eighth note tied into the next eighth note to
make one longer sound. TI-TII-TI.what
And then happened in these 2 beats? TI-TII-TI TA TA
We had two quarter notes.
Now let's think about how we would count this using our
subdivided beat.
Remember that each beat can be divided into two parts: a 1 and an &, or a 2 and an &.
Since in "Kye Kye Kule" we're in 2/4 time signature,
let's add a time signature and some bar lines,
and the subdivided counts.
So now
you can see that we have: 1-& 2-& 1-& 2-&
Can you clap and count that with me?
Let's go a little slower than normal.
This fast: 1-& 2-&
Try it with me, ready go: 1-& 2-&
1-& 2-& Let's try it a little
faster now. 1-& 2-&
1-& 2-& 1-& 2-&
and that makes ♫Kye Kye Kofinsa♫
When we have notes happening on the second
half of the beat like this,
in music we call that syncopation.
It makes a fun exciting sound.
I'd like to show you another way you can draw this same
rhythm.
Remember that eighth notes can be drawn
with flags like this.
Now when two eighth notes are tied together, remember that one eighth note
plus one eighth note is the same value as one quarter note.
So instead of drawing it like this we could take this out,
and substitute it with
this, and it would have the exact same sound.
So this rhythm you see here is the
same rhythm that you see up here.
Sounds the exact same. 1-& 2-&
this quarter note only gets half a beat in beat 1,
but a quarter note needs a full
beat, so it's actually getting half of this beat,
and half of this beat, and
together that makes one quarter note.
1-& 2-& 1-& 2-&,
TI TA TI TA TA
Try saying this rhythm in rhythm words. Ready, go: TI TA TI TA TA
TI TA TI TA TA ♫Kye Kye Kofinsa♫
Echo that with me, go: ♫Kye Kye Kofinsa♫
That's called syncopation,
because we have notes happening especially on the & part of the beat.
Now when we look at the score in just a minute you'll see that this is the way that it's notated.
It's a slightly simpler way because we don't
have to deal with this time,
but remember whether you see this or this, it's the
same rhythm.
This is also the rhythm for ♫Kofisa Langa♫ and ♫Kaka Shilanga♫.
Now the last phrase of the song is ♫Kum Aden Nde♫.
Tell me what you're hearing there. ♫Kum Aden Nde♫
We had one sound in this beat ♫Kum♫
And then did you notice
that there was one sound in here ♫A-♫,
but it wasn't at the start of the beat.
There was a quick rest,
and then an eighth note. ♫Kum A-♫ Remember an eighth rest only takes up half of the beat.
1-& 2-& let's try counting the
subdivided beat while we clap this rhythm.
So we'll count 1-& 2-& while we clap 1-& 2-&.
On 2 just open your hands to show there's
silence there 1-& 2-&
Try it with me, go: 1-& 2-&
and that makes ♫Kum♫ rest ♫Aden Nde♫
Let's add in the subdivided counts,
and once again we'll have ...