Lesson Plan: Year 7

Polyrhythms

Purpose: Students are to understand polyrhythms, create/record their own polyrhythms using
traditional notation, whilst also breaking down words using their syllables to create rhythms for
their polyrhythms

Introduction: 2 Minutes

o Students line up outside the classroom with iPads, music books, pencil case, and diaries
o Students move quietly and quickly to the seats

Watch and Discuss: 8 Minutes

Students are to watch the Potter Puppet Pals to begin hearing what a polyrhythm
involves
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4
Students are to focus on the different rhythms of each different individual
Did every character have a different rhythm?
Were they all layered on top of each other?
So they were playing simultaneously?
Illustrate to the students that this is called Polyrhythm
Poly meaning many
Rhythms meaning the combination of notes such as taa, ti-ti, and ti-ka ti-ka in
succession creating a pattern
In Potter Puppet Pals they get their rhythms by breaking down words:
Example:
Sev-er-us Snape
Dum-ble-dore
Mis-ter Hen-der-son
What am I doing?
Breaking it down into syllables
Syllables/Answer Garden: 15 Minutes

Once students identify that words can be broken down into syllables have the students
play a game using Answer Garden in finding words that have a certain number of
syllables
Write the link on the board for the first syllable one and every time the task is
completed, change the numbers for the next one
www.answergarden.ch/488013 - One Syllable
www.answergarden.ch/488014 - Two Syllables
www.answergarden.ch/488015 - Three Syllables
Students are to open their ipads and go onto these websites so they can
complete the task
Explain to students that they will need to think of words that have the certain
number of syllables as indicated on Answer Garden
For example, if i write 1 on the board, you need to find words like: hat, cat, mat,
drum, snare, flute
State that this is the same when I change it to 2 or 3 for example: happy &
perfectly
These answers need to be appropriate and will be seen by the whole class.
If there is any inappropriate words, we will close our iPads and move on
There is no need for conversations or for comments when we are submitting our
answers, these must be done in silence
After each round, go through the class the answers that they have provided,
ensuring they have selected the right answers
When illustrating the 3rd answer garden with the 3 syllables, demonstrate how with the
syllables in each word, they can have different durations and different accents
Examples:
Hap-py (accent on the Hap) (ti-ti)
Per-fect-ly (ti-ti + taa) (accent on per and ly)
These accents help us to put them on the beat instead of the off beat
What is the beat?
What do i mean by off beat?
Process of Working out Rhythms: 10 Minutes

1. To figure out the rhythm of words we need to follow a few steps

2. Have students write down the process of finding the rhythms of words in their books:
1. Find a word and say it out loud a few times
2. Count how many syllables the word has: one syllable = one note, two syllables =
two notes
3. Clap out the beat and say the word at the same time:
3.1. Examples:
3.1.1. Bas-ket-ball
3.1.2. Mis-ter Hen-der-son
3.1.3. Ig-na-ci-o
4. Figure out the rhythm of these words:
4.1. Examples:
4.1.1. Bas-ket-ball (ti-ti + taa)
4.1.2. Mis-ter Hen-der-son (ti-ti + ti-ti + taa)
4.1.3. Ig-na-ci-o (ti-ti + ti-ti)
5. Write down these rhythms using notes:
5.1. Write notes on the board
6. Underneath the notes write down the words, using a dash to separate syllables:
6.1. Examples:
6.1.1. Write the rhythm of basketball and write underneath the rhythm
bas-ket-ball (using the dash)

Working Out Their Names: 10 Minutes

Once the students have the process in their books, they are going to do the process on
their own names, first and last names
Students are to follow the process in their books to create their own rhythmic name
Provide an example to the students like before:
Mis-ter Hen-der-son
Miss Mass-a-oi-li
 Use the process to do this for the students so they can have a visual on how to
do it
Say it first
Clap a beat
Say it with the beat
Work out the rhythms
Write the rhythms down
Put the words with dashes underneath
Students are to complete this task in their books

Line 1 of Polyrhythms: 15 Minutes

Students are now to use their first and last name and add it into a line of music with 8
bars, this 8 bars is about introducing yourself, pretending you need to tell someone
about yourself
Explicitly state that students will need to use traditional notation to complete this task
and underneath each rhythm, instead of taa and ti-ti it is the words that want to say
Ask students what they need to be able to use traditional notation
Time signatures
Bar lines
Double Bar lines
Evenly spaced out notes
Draw this on the board and provide students with the first two bars so they
understand what to do
My name is mis-ter hen-der-son
Demonstrate how this sentence did not complete the whole bar and this is when
they can use rests to fill the bar
State when we are in 4/4, how many beats in a bar do we need?
State to students that they need to complete the whole 8 bars
To fill in the 8 bars, provide some examples of what they can talk about
What school you go to
What age you are
How many brothers or sisters do you have
 Have students complete this task before the break, or they will have to finish it later
because they will need it

Break: 5 Minutes
Rules and expectations
Not allowed to leave the building
Not allowed to go down that hallway
Allowed to have some food or a drink (no nuts)
If you want to go to the toilet you must let me know

Revisit Polyrhythms: 5 Minutes

Illustrate what technique the Potter Puppet Pals were using in their music clip?
The use of Polyrhythms
Breakdown of words into syllables to create rhythms
What does polyrhythms mean again?
Many - rhythms
Explicitly state in more detail that polyrhythms is many different rhythms all played
simultaneously
State to students that during this period they will be creating their own polyrhythms and
recording these into Garageband

Creating their own Polyrhythm: 10 Minutes

In a polythm, you need to have more than two lines playings all simultaneously together
Students will be using 4 lines in the traditional notation format to create their polyrhythms
State that students have already created their first line in the previous lesson by
introducing themselves:
Line 1: introduce myself
Now because we want to use 4 lines all together, we need to create 3 more lines
Line 2: Something I Like (e.g sports, food, movies etc.)
 Line 3: Something Else I Like (e.g sports, food, movies etc.)
Line 4: Something that relates to the two above (something about the sports,
food or movies or both! etc.)
Students are to use the process of breaking down the words into syllables to create their
8 bars and 4 lines
Provide an example of the four lines and how they can begin to look on the board
(example in your folder)

Creating Their Polyrhythms: 25 Minutes

Students are to create their own 4 part - 8 bar polyrhythms in their books
If students are stuck in creating ideas for their polyrhythms, assist and push them into
the right direction to have the answers that they need
Monitor and assist students when needed

Recording into Garageband: 15 Minutes

Students will most likely not be completed the creation of their polyrhythms but go
through the process of how to record their polyrhythms once they have completed the
task
Students will be recording these 8 bar polyrhythms into Garageband band using the
recording feature
Students are to follow you on Garageband
Open up Garageband and go to My Songs
Press the plus (+) to open up a new session
Go to the audio recorder feature, this will be the one that records your voice into
Garageband
Press the bricks and go to this page (demonstrate)
This needs to all be in time, therefore, we need to set the tempo to a reasonable
65 BPM to make it easy to record, whilst also keeping everything in time.
Otherwise this exercise won't work
Press the spanner on the top right
 Click on tempo
Change this to 65 BPM by press the down arrows, then close the spanner part by
tapping anywhere else on the screen
On the left in the middle, drag the three lines to expand the track, like so
Just make sure that it is picking up your microphone and can see it will record
Before recording, you must practice each line with the metronome
To record you hit the red circle button at the top in the middle and after the count
in you can start recording your polyrhythms
Each line will have it own separate track/layer
After recording the first line in this first track, you go to the bottom left, hit the plus
(+) sign, hit audio recorder again and you will have another track.
Overall, you should have four different tracks for your four lines and they should
be 8 bars long
Students are aware that they will be marked on their polyrhythms and will need to submit
them at the end of the class
At the end of the period, allow for more time if students have not completed the task
Students will need to rename and send these to Google Classroom
Go back to My Songs
Tap on the one that you just completed and change the name to Polyrhythm,
then click done
After you have renamed it, hold it down until it starts shaking and click the box
with the arrow in the top left and send it to Google Classroom and into the folder
State to students that this will be an assessed Performance (their polyrhythms) so they
will need to complete their recordings either today or for homework

Consolidation: 5 Minutes

Students are to write into their diaries for when the task needs to be completed
Ask students what they need to finish?
Ask students what a polyrhythm is?
Ask how many syllables are in certain words?
Provide different words to the students and have them quickly work out the
rhythms:
 Music
Orchestra
Piano