Track 2 from Charanga / Saydisc / Christine Richards project - 'Listen to this' for Key Stage 2. Chinese music for solo pi-pa from Saydisc album 'Like Waves against the Sand' (2'27")
Main features: pitch, tempo, structure.

This traditional Chinese piece is played by a pi-pa (a Chinese lute). The Track Explorer has three tracks focusing on instrumentation, descriptions of the different sections of the music and structure.

Picture of rebabs, part of the middle eastern lute family such as the Oud.

Picture of this stringed instrument, often seen as the predecessor of the western lute. Heard usually in middle eastern music such as Track 12 Sama'i Thaqil from the Saydisc material

Track 9 from Saydisc "Percussion Around the World" - notes from Maureen Hanke.

'The King of the Fairies/ The Lilting Banshee' is an example of Irish music. The familiar sound of traditional Irish music comes from violins, piano accordions, penny whistles, the Celtic harp and the Ullieann pipes but supporting the spirit of the Irish sound is the Irish drum or the bodhran. Bodhran means "skin tray". It is a type of wooden frame drum that appears in cultures across the world. The Irish bodhran is characterised by a crosspiece behind the skin head which is held in one hand whilst the other hand hits the drum skin with the hand or a stick. The wooden rim and crosspiece are made from the Ash tree and the skin stretched over is from goat, sheep or deer.

In The King of the Fairies/ The Lilting Banshee the bodhran part is based around the steady beat. It is struck on each beat but gradually decorates each beat it plays with increasingly elaborate rhythmic patterns.

(In a music session the class could listen to The King of the Fairies and tap along to its steady beat in groups of 4. The piece can be heard in units of 8 groups of 4. The class could also tap along to the rhythm pattern of the tune which is good and bouncy.)

Track 2 from Saydisc "Percussion Around the World" (Also Track 1 from Saydisc "Listen To This! KS3) - notes from Maureen Hanke.

Amanecer Andino is a piece of Andean traditional music featuring the Bolivian pipes and the bombo drum.The bombo is the double-headed frame drum of Spain and South America.

The music is in two sections. You will hear the bombo and sticks start the piece playing a rhythm pattern that is repeated throughout the first section and can be heard just once to close the piece. A repeated pattern is called an ostinato.

The 'now and next' functions in the Live Sequencer tool allow students to create their own arrangement of the koto melody from Saydisc Listen To This KS3, track 4 Aki No Shirabe (Autumn Tune). Students also type in their own descriptions of each phrase so they can easily identify each one and demonstrate use of musical language. They can then trigger the phrases live to play in any chosen order. Perhaps this could be used to provide music for a dance or similar performance.

A video demonstrating a solo on a Greek bouzouki. The bouzouki is member of the 'long neck lute' family and is similar to a mandolin. The instrument is usually played with a plectrum and has sharp metallic sound. It is very popular in modern Greek music.

Greek, Greece, bouzouki, folk, mandolin, lute

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWFrEl_vNdI

This shows a Japanese Shamisen orchestra. The shamisen is a 3 stringed instrument.

Keywords:
Shamisen, Japan, Japanese, folk, world music, plucked strings

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFanfx0g3sA

Image and audio music example of the cithara (kithára) which is wooden type of the Greek lyre.

Alam Khan, son of the great Ali Akbar Khan, talks about and plays the Sarod.
Footage from
www.travelswithmusic.org