Riptide lesson 1: Verse 1

Summary

Mix and match activities to create a fun lesson in which students will learn Verse 1 of the song “Riptide” by Vance Joy. Integrate Solfeg.io in teaching the basics of piano, ukulele, guitar, bass, percussion and singing.

🎲 What’s included in the activities:

• Understanding the building blocks of a song and their function
• Warming up with singing, rhythm and instrument activities
• Practicing the vocal part, chords, rhythm and bass line of the Verse 1
• Combining and playing the Verse 1 with chords, rhythm tracks and singing
• Reflecting
• Ideas for homework & further lessons (Beyond the lesson)

💻 Materials:

• Solfeg.io web app best used with Chrome browser
• Solfeg.io mobile app (optional)
• Projector or computer and access to WIFI
• Computers or tablets
• Ukuleles, guitars and/or pianos
• Percussion instruments

Dive into the song

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Analyze a song excerpt
• Describe and reflect on different musical elements and their function

🎲 Activity:

• Open the song “Riptide” on the screen.
• Listen to a section of the song, for example, Chorus 1.
• Discuss with students what you heard.

Do you know the song?

What is the genre/mood/tempo of this song?

What adjectives would you use to describe this song?

What instruments did you hear?

How would you describe the vocal part? What voice type did you hear?

Tuning

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objective:

Tune the ukuleles and guitars

🎲 Activity:

• Distribute the guitars and ukuleles to students.
• Ask them to open the Solfeg.io tuner. You can find it in the home section on the Solfeg.io mobile app.
• Tap on a letter to hear how the string should sound, find the corresponding peg on your guitar or ukulele and turn it to tune the string.
• When the encircled letter turns green and reaches the middle of the screen, the string is in tune.
• Repeat the actions with the other strings one by one until all of them are in tune.

Vocal warm-up

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Warm up the vocal cords
• Get familiar with vocal techniques used in the song

🎲 Activity:

• Sing the scale from A3 to E4 and back. You can use the note names or any syllables, for example, sing only vowels from the first phrase of the verse “I was scared of den…” , which would sound as “ah-ah-eh-oh-eh”. Sing each note one beat long, like this:

Rhythm warm-up

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Warm up the muscles and get ready for the movements of playing the instruments or body percussion
• Get familiar with the rhythm of the song

🎲 Activity:

• Choose a percussion instrument or body percussion type.
• Clap or play this rhythm:

Guitar, ukulele and piano warm-up

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Warm up the muscles and get ready for the movements of playing the instruments
• Get familiar with the chords in the song

🎲 Activity:

• Choose an instrument and open the corresponding visuals under the menu “Tools”.
• If you're not familiar with the Am and C chords, take a look at the chord diagrams in the song player and find the chords on your instrument.
• Play these two chords in this rhythm:

Bass warm-up

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Warm up the muscles and get ready for the movements of playing the instrument
• Get familiar with the bass line of the song

🎲 Activity:

• If you're not familiar with the A and G notes on the bass, select “Bass” under the menu “Tools” - “Visuals”.
• Play these notes like this:

Warm-up round

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Warm up the vocal cords
• Warm up the muscles and get ready for the movements of playing the instrument
• Get familiar with the vocal part, chords, rhythm and bass line of the song

🎲 Activity:

• Divide students in groups: vocal, rhythm, ukulele, guitar and/or piano and bass.
• Mute all the tracks except the 4 rhythm tracks under “Controls” - “Volume” .
• Loop the Chorus 1 by pressing the “Loop” button on the right side of the “Play” button and selecting it on the dropdown menu.
• Press “Play” and invite the groups to take turns to do their exercise from the aforementioned activities. Groups take turns and change every eight bars.
• You can also invite one student to conduct - show which group should play next.
• Do a couple of rounds until the class has warmed-up and is ready to sing and play the song!

Learning the vocal part

🕐 Time: 15 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Be able to sing Verse 1

🎲 Activity:

• First, listen to Verse 1 and read the lyrics.
• Repeat Verse 1 and speak the lyrics out loud.
• Sing the melody with syllables of choice, for example, “lah-lah”, “dah-dah” or just vowels - “ah”, “oh” or other.
• Sing the melody with lyrics.
• If comfortable with the slower tempo, you can try singing the verse at a faster speed and try to reach the original speed!
• Try singing Verse 1 with the vocal track muted - you can mute it under “Controls” - “Volume”.

Learning the ukulele, guitar and piano parts

🕐 Time: 15 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Be able to play Verse 1

🎲 Activity:

• Listen to Verse 1 and establish what chords are there (Am, G & C).
• Learn or recap all three chords, following the chord diagrams.
• If there are at least 3 people in the instrumental group, they can take turns to play chords - each person chooses one of the chords and plays it when the corresponding symbol appears at the red line on the screen.
• Try to combine all three chords one after another. To practice at an even slower speed, mute all tracks except the four rhythm tracks under “Controls” - “Volume” and play a new chord every 8 beats without looking at the chord symbols on the screen. When you're comfortable with this speed, you can gradually reduce the amount of beats between chords.
• If comfortable with the slower tempo, you can try playing the verse at a faster speed and try to reach the original speed!
• Try playing Verse 1 with the ukulele track muted - you can mute it under “Controls” - “Volume”.

Learning the rhythm section

🕐 Time: 15 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Be able to play or clap the rhythm of Verse 1

🎲 Activity:

• Mute all the tracks except the rhythm tracks under “Controls” - “Volume”. Listen to the rhythm section.
• Split into 4 groups and choose one rhythm track each. Choose rhythm instruments that suit best to each track.
• Play Verse 1 again and try to play or clap along.
• Take turns learning the rhythm - you can mute the other three tracks when learning your track.
• If comfortable with the slower tempo, you can try playing the verse at a faster speed and try to reach the original speed!

Learning the bass line

🕐 Time: 15 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Be able to play Verse 1

🎲 Activity:

• Listen to Verse 1 and find the three notes of the bass line on your bass guitar.
• Play along to Verse 1.
• If comfortable with the slower tempo, you can try playing the verse at a faster speed and try to reach the original speed!

Put it all together

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Practice playing in a band
• Be able to play Verse 1 in a band

🎲 Activity:

• Invite students to play Verse 1 together.
• Find a suitable tempo for all, slow the song down if needed.
• Have “Notation” selected under “Tools” - “Visuals”. If the piano, guitar or ukulele players are not comfortable with playing just from chord symbols without the diagrams, repeat Verse 1 with the necessary visuals selected.

Reflection

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Reflect on the learning process

🎲 Activity:

• Ask these questions to the class and have a short discussion

What was the most challenging in their instrumental/vocal part?

How was the experience of playing together (both in smaller instrument groups and the class as a whole)?

Homework assignment

🕐 Time: 3 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Improve the song section students learned at the class
• Get ready for the final performance

🎲 Activity:

• Ask students to practice their part of Verse 1 at home.
• Optionally, they could learn their part by heart.