GCSE music to go series Unit 4 Edexcel World music introduction

1. Music GCSE Unit 3
Area of Study 4 : World music –
Background notes
GCSE Music to go
Rob Jones

2. Folk music – background info
• Not written down – handed down from an
‘aural tradition’ (sung and copied), then
memorised
• Simple lyrics
• Sung by ‘ordinary people’, usually workers to
make boring jobs interesting – also sung in
pubs, fields

3. Types of Western Folk music
Work songs
• Sung by farm
labourers, builders, sailo
rs and miners
• Unaccompanied (no
instruments).
• Sometimes in call and
response style (where
one person would sing
and others respond)
• Example : Call and
response sung by Masai
Mara (Kenya)
Ballads
• These tell stories – love
stories, legends, tragedi
es usually and often
end up with someone
dying
• Some tell about real
events such as battles
and shipwrecks (sea
shanties)
• Ballads were important
because many people
couldn’t read so they
were a type of news
• Simple instruments
such as mandolin or
drums sometimes
• Sometimes
monophonic (solo
voice)
Dance music
• Party music – weddings
and special festivals
• Usually played in the
street
• Instruments such as
flute, drums, brass
instruments
• Morris dancing, sword
dancing, Scottish
country dancing etc.
• Example : Geese in the
bog – Irish Jig

4. The melodies in Western folk music
• Usually strophic. (Verse Chorus Verse Chorus
with different words for each verse)
• Sometimes the verses have a slight variation
to keep things interesting
• Usually use the pentatonic scale (5 note scale
– think the 5 black notes of the keyboard)
• No semitone intervals (notes do not go up by
a half step e.g. C to C sharp)

5. Indian Classical music – The Raga
• A raga is a set of 5 or more notes used in
Indian Classical music
• There are lots of different ragas. In North
India, they are linked with times of the day or
different seasons
• A lot of Indian music is improvised around the
notes of a raga – a bit like jazz.

6. Indian instruments – Tabla Baya
• A tabla-baya usually plays the
rhythm. The tabla is the smaller
drum and the baya the
larger, deeper one. Good players
will bend notes on the baya and
create other sound effects like
pitch bends.
• Rhythms are called talas. Each tala
has a different number of beats
divided in different ways. Tabla
players improvise around the tala.
For example, a Jhaptal tala has 10
beats divided up into 2+3+2+3
beats.

7. Indian instruments - Sitar
• A sitar is a large stringed
instrument. The frets can be
moved for different ragas.
There are drone strings and
melody strings. The notes are
often ornamented
• Look at the picture of the
strings. You can see the 3
small drone strings and the 4
strings used to play the raga
Drone strings melody strings

8. Indian instruments - Tambura
• The tambura is a drone
instrument with 4 strings which
is used as an
accompaniment, while a singer
or sitar plays the melody. Think
of the tambura as the left hand
of a piano part
• Listen to the clip which has a
tambura playing a drone, which
is actually an ostinato (repeated
pattern) of 3 notes. This time a
vocalist is improvising notes of a
raga

9. How much do you know?
• What are the main characteristics of Western
Folk music? Use and explain as many terms as
you can. Remember SPAG
(spelling, punctuation and grammar)
• What are the main characteristics of Indian
classical music? Use and explain as many
terms as you can. Remember SPAG
(spelling, punctuation and grammar)

10. Extract question
1. What type of song is this? Where might it
have been sung?
2. The texture changes in the chorus (‘Rolling
down to old Maui me boys…’). Explain
3. This song is strophic. What does this mean?
4. Is this in a major or minor key?
Turn to the next slide for answers

11. Extract question - Answers
1. This is a ballad. It is really a sea shanty and
would have been sung onboard a ship. The
words give this away
2. The song is sung a capella (unaccompainied) and
begins with a solo singer in monophonic texture.
Then the other male voices join in harmony in a
homophonic texture for the chorus.
3. Strophic means that it has verses with different
words and a chorus in between each verse
4. It is in a minor key

12. Glossary
Strophic – verse chorus structure with different words for each verse
Homophonic – sung in harmony in block chords
Monophonic – a single melody line
Drone – a repetitive sound played on the bottom strings of the sitar or by a Tambura
Raga – an Indian scale. Each raga is associated with a different season or time of day
Tabla-baya – Indian drums, consisting of a small high pitched drum (tabla) and the low sounding deeper
drum (baya)
Ballad – a song conveying a story, such as a battle song or love story or ship’s voyage
Sea shanty – a ballad sung on a ship
A capella – unaccompanied song without instruments
Accompanied – with instruments
Ornaments – ‘twiddly bits’ when a musician bends notes etc.
Improvisation – when a musician makes the music up around a scale
Tala – an indian pattern of rhythm played on the tabla baya
Pentatonic – a 5 note scale on which much Western folk music is based
Ostinato – a repeated pattern of notes
Semitone – the smallest distance between 2 notes, e.g. C to C sharp
Call and response – solo singer answered straight away by many other voices (don’t confuse this with a
solo singing the verse and a choir singing the chorus)