Reading : The Right Beat

The Right Beat by Ken Benn

Connected 3, 2005.

WALT: Read the text to extract greater meaning which we will display in our follow up activities.

Success Criteria: I can read the text to extract greater meaning which we will display in our follow up activities.

Answer the following questions in red:

Referring to the images and title of the story what do you think this text is about?

It looks like there doing maybe a play or a singing show but can’t actually get the right beat for the song.

Simon is the producer of Feilding, what would his job entail?

He puts the show together and he is like the boss he gets to tell other people what to do

Who is the fundraiser for?

The fundraiser is for people who has been affected by recent floods.

What will be done with the money generated from the fundraiser?

It will be donated to help maybe rebuild or build new buildings

What is Shona’s problem?

Shonas out of tune. In the text ; “ Simon likes the text , but it takes 65 seconds to sing it to Ben’s tune.”

Why is it important to sing in tune? (do your own research)

It is important to sing in tune because there doing a fundraiser and if its out of tune then they probably won’t raise anything or noone will listen.

What lasts for two beats?

A minim: Simon knows that each of the notes shown by an open circle with a stem ( the minim ) lasts for 2 beats.

What lasts four beats?

The semibreve : On the other hand, the big circle note without a stem, the semibreve lasts 4 beats.

What would happen if they double the tempo? What is the tempo? (do some of your own research?

The tempo is the rate or speed of motion or activity. If they doubled the tempo it will be quite fast and the song won’t be 65 seconds but 30 seconds and the dancers would have to do one movement per beat, so the dance would be totally frantic if he made the tempo faster.

Why is it important for the drummer to know about bounce?

so when the dancers come they don’t have to dance faster to catch up to Ben's beat.

Wednesday:

Why is it important to understand the rhythm when taking part in music?

Without rhythm, humans would have no sense

of patterns, and music would simply sound like nonintegrated noises of nonsense

Summarise what has happened in the story so far.

So a bunch of high school kids put together a fun show and raise a few money to rebuild/build new buildings for those who’s been affected by the recent floods but things became very complicated. Somehow their song isn’t sounding right maybe its too fast maybe the beats wrong or maybe their out of tune. Something horribly went wrong that caused an inconvenience to the producer and the dancers. What would they do ? Will the fun show go on ? Will they sound bad and look bad on stage ?

Describe and analyse the image and labels on page 27. What does each title referring to the musical bars refer to?

Semibreve : The longest note in a 4/4 bar is a semi breve. It lasts for the whole beat.
A minim : A minim lasts half as long as a semibreve, so you can fit two of them in a bar.

Kiwa has been listening to the argument with amusement, what does amusement mean?

Amusement means the state of experience of finding something funny.

Put amusement into a sentence of your own..

I went to an amusement park in the holidays.

What is Kiwas idea that will solve the issue?

In the text; At the moment, we’ve got 16.5 bars of music to play in four beats in each. SO that means we’re playing 4x16.5 = 66 beats, and at 3 beats a second , that gives us 66 divided by 2 = 33 seconds.

The ratio of crochets to minims to semibreves is 4:2:1. What does this mean?

It is timing, The crochets takes the  longest and the minims takes the second longest and the semibreves takes the shortest.

Define the word ratio? (You may research this)

The quantitative relation between two amounts showing the number of times one value contains or is contained within the other.

Put ratio into a sentence.

During the Vietnam war, it took like 500,000 rounds to kill or injure just 10 Vietcong: a total hit ratio of 50,000:1.

Friday:

What is a hasty decision? Simon says “let’s not make any hasty decisions, what does he mean by this?

Not to make a bad decision that could embarrass themselves

Why would knowledge of maths be important as a musician? Refer to the text on page 31.

They to multiply, add and divide the ratios and the beats of the song.

How was Feilding Idol a great success in the end?

The dancers do their thing with flair, and Shona is pleased to hear that all her lyrics will be used in the news clip.