Riptide lesson 4: Bridge

Summary

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

💻 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

Discover the bridge

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Understand the building blocks of a song and their function
• Describe different song sections

🎲 Activity:

• Open the song “Riptide” on the screen.
• Listen to the bridge and discuss it with the class.

What are the differences between the bridge and the song sections you learned previously?

Are there any new chords in the bridge?

What are the lyrics about?

What are the functions of the bridge in a pop song?

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 this short part from the bridge  :

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 track, for example, the 3rd one and play it together. The rhythm tracks can be seen if “Notation” is selected under “Tools” - “Visuals”.

Piano warm-up

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

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

🎲 Activity:

• Play these bass notes with your left hand and these chords with your right hand:

Guitar and ukulele warm-up

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

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

🎲 Activity:

• Choose an instrument and open the corresponding visuals under the menu “Tools”.
• If you're not familiar with the F chord, take a look at the chord diagrams in the song player and find the chords on your instrument.
• Strum the new chord (F) in this pattern:

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, G, C and F 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 Verse 2 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!

Recap Verse 2

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Recap the song section that were assigned as homework

🎲 Activity:

• Click on the beginning of Verse 2 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?

Learning the vocal part

🕐 Time: 15 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Be able to sing the bridge

🎲 Activity:

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

Learning the ukulele and guitar part

🕐 Time: 15 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Be able to play the bridge

🎲 Activity:

• Slow the song down to the slowest setting and solo the ukulele track under “Controls” - “Volume”.
• Practice the strumming pattern you already did as warm-up (down-up-down-up in sixteenth notes). You'll strum this pattern for most of the bridge. In the last 5 bars, strum each chord just once in a downwards motion, as you can hear in the song.
• If you're already comfortable with the strumming pattern on open strings, press the chords with your left hand! If there are at least 4 people in the group, you can take turns to play chords - each person chooses either Am, G, C or F and plays only this chord when the corresponding symbol appears at the red line on the screen.
• Try to combine all four chords one after another.
• If comfortable with the slower tempo, you can try playing the bridge at a faster speed and try to reach the original speed!
• Try playing the bridge with the ukulele track muted - you can mute it under “Controls” - “Volume”.
• If comfortable with the chord changes, try to sing along: first, hum along, next, add the lyrics!

Learning the piano part

🕐 Time: 15 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Be able to play the bridge

🎲 Activity:

• Play the same bass line with your left hand as you did in the warm-up.
• Add the right hand chords - play both hands simultaneously when the chord symbol appears at the red line on the screen.
• Alternatively, half of the group could play the left hand part and the other half - chords with the right hand.
• If comfortable with the slower tempo, you can try playing the bridge at a faster speed and try to reach the original speed!
• Try playing the bridge with the ukulele track muted - you can mute it under “Controls” - “Volume”.
• If comfortable with the chord changes, try to sing along: first, hum along, next, add the lyrics!

Learning the rhythm

🕐 Time: 15 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Be able to play or clap the rhythm of the bridge

🎲 Activity:

• 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 the bridge 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 bridge at a faster speed and try to reach the original speed!

Learning the bass line

🕐 Time: 15 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Be able to play the bridge

🎲 Activity:

• Play along to the bridge - it contains the same four notes you did in the warm-up. in the same rhythm you did in the warm-up.
• 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 the bridge

🎲 Activity:

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

How did it go with the new chord/note/lyrics?

What did you find challenging in the bridge?

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 the bridge at home.
• Encourage them to learn their part by heart.