Riptide lesson 2: Chorus

Summary

In this lesson, students will learn to sing and play the chorus of the song “Riptide” by Vance Joy. The lesson consists of a short warm-up which will equip students with the necessary skills needed in playing the chorus, a song practice session where students will learn to play and sing different instrumental and vocal parts in groups, a band practice with the whole class and a homework assignment.

⏰ Time: 50 min

🎓 Grades: 5-12

🎯 Objective(s): As a result of this lesson, students will be able to...

• Combine three simple chords
• Play a bass part consisting of three notes
• Clap or play a rhythm consisting of quarter, eighth and sixteenth notes
• Sing a melody with a range of fifth (from C4 to G4)
• Play together in a band
• Collaborate in groups and learn independently
• Understand the building blocks of the song

💡 Required Prior Knowledge and Skills:

• Basic chords
• Basic rhythm
• Basic notation

💻 Materials:

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

Song suggestion

Inspiration

🕐 5 min - Explore the song structure

-Open the song “Riptide”.

-Listen to the Chorus 1.

-Take a look at the song structure and discuss it with the class.

• How many choruses are there? (Four)
• What's the difference between the verse you learned in the previous lesson and the chorus you just heard?

Which one is more catchy?

Which melody is more repetitive?

Which one is more difficult to sing?

Are instruments playing something different?

Are lyrics covering a different topic?

Which one is longer - the verse or the chorus?

Tuning

🕐 5 min - Tune the guitars and ukuleles

• 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.

Warm-up

🕐 10 min - Get ready!

• Divide students in groups, the same as the previous lesson. There should be 4 percussion groups, at least one group playing the chords (ukulele, guitar and/or piano), one group playing the bass and one singing (optionally, some of the students playing instruments could also sing).
• Distribute the instruments to the students. If you don't have enough percussion instruments, students can do body percussion, tap the rhythm on tables or other everyday objects.
• Show a short warm-up exercise for each group. Alternatively, all groups could do the singing and percussion exercises together (as well as the instrumental part, if there's enough instruments).

• Vocal: sing the scale from C4 to G4 and back. You can use the note names or any syllables, for example, “ah”, “oh”, “lah” or “dah”. Sing each note one beat long, like this:

• Next, sing the C major triad, like this:

• Percussion: choose one rhythm track, for example, the 2nd one and invite all the percussion group to play this track. The rhythm tracks can be seen if “Notation” is selected under “Tools” - “Visuals”.

• Guitar, ukulele, piano: play these two chords in this rhythm:

• Bass: play these notes like this:

• Mute all the tracks except the 4 rhythm tracks under “Controls” - “Volume” .
• Click on the beginning of Chorus 1 on the timeline, press “Play” and invite the groups to take turns to do their exercise. Groups change every four 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 play the song!

Practice

🕐 5 min - Recap Verse 1

• Click on the beginning of Verse 1 on the timeline of the song player and invite the class to play along to the part they did in the previous lesson and as homework.
• Hit the “Play” button and have fun!
• Shortly discuss how they were doing.

Did they practice at home?

Did they manage to learn their part by heart?

How did it sound compared to the previous lesson?

‍

🕐 15 min - Chorus

-In this activity, students will work in groups to learn their assigned instrumental / vocal part of Chorus 1.

-Each group should have one device - either a computer or a tablet.

-Each group should select the corresponding visuals under “Tools” - “Visuals”.

• To play the rhythm tracks, “Notation” should be selected.

-Show them how to loop Chorus 1 on their devices (the “Loop” button on the right side of the “Play” button) and where to slow the song down (the “﹣” button on the left side of the “Play” button.

-Explain the steps for learning Chorus 1 to each group. First, give every group just the first task from the below mentioned lists. Only when students are ready to move on, explain the next step.

• Vocal:

First, listen to Chorus 1 and read the lyrics.

Repeat Chorus 1 and this time 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 chorus at a faster speed and try to reach the original speed!

Try singing Chorus 1 with the vocal track muted - you can mute it under “Controls” - “Volume”.

Move on to Chorus 2, Chorus 3 and Chorus 4. Try to sing them and find out if there are any differences compared to Chorus 1.

• Ukulele, guitar, piano:

Listen to Chorus 1 and establish what chords are there (Am, G & C).

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 chorus at a faster speed and try to reach the original speed!

Try playing Chorus 1 with the ukulele track muted - you can mute it under “Controls” - “Volume”.

Move on to Chorus 2, Chorus 3 and Chorus 4. Try to play them and find out if there are any differences compared to Chorus 1.

If comfortable with the chord changes, try to sing along: first, hum along, next, add the lyrics!

• Rhythm:

Mute all the tracks except the rhythm tracks under “Controls” - “Volume”. Listen to the rhythm section.

Split into the same 4 groups you did in the previous lesson and choose the same rhythm track.

Play Chorus 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 chorus at a faster speed and try to reach the original speed!

Move on to Chorus 2, Chorus 3 and Chorus 4. Try to play them and find out if there are any differences compared to Chorus 1.

• Bass:

Listen to Chorus 1 and find the three notes of the bass line on your bass guitar.

Play along to Chorus 1.

If comfortable with the slower tempo, you can try playing the chorus at a faster speed and try to reach the original speed!

Move on to Chorus 2, Chorus 3 and Chorus 4. Try to play them and find out if there are any differences compared to Chorus 1.

Walk around the classroom and check how students are doing in different instrumental stations. Guide them by suggesting the next step from the above-mentioned step-by-step learning process when you see that students are ready.

‍

🕐  5 min - Put it all together

• Ask students to choose one of the choruses (suggest it could be Chorus 4).
• Invite students to play the chosen chorus 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

🕐  5 min - 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)?

Beyond the lesson

• Assign homework:

Ask students to practice their part of chorus at home.

Encourage them to learn their part by heart.

‍