Scottish Music

What instruments can you hear in this clip?

Vocal Music

Penny Whistle

Snare Drum

Bodhran

Acoustic Guitar

Clarsach - Scottish Harp

Accordion

Fiddle

Scots Ballad

A SCOTS BALLAD is a Scottish Song which tells a story. The form is STROPHIC, this means the music for each verse is the same!

Vocal music is probably the oldest form of music as it does not require instruments other than the human voice!

What is the tempo of this music?

What instruments can you hear?

Bothy Ballad

The BOTHY BALLAD is a folk song from north east Scotland. It tells a story of rural or farming life.

• Usually UNACCOMPANIED (A Cappella)
• Sung by a SOLO MAN (sometimes a group of men join for the chorus)

Bothy Ballad Task

Is the music sung by a male of female?

Bothy Ballads were STROPHIC. That means that the music for each verse is the same.

The chorus was often made up of nonsense words which everyone joined in with.

We are going to learn the nonsense words from the Bothy ballad

The Guise of Tough

What are the lyrics about?

Can you name any other instruments linked to Scottish music?

Write down any you can think of!

Waulking Song

This is a Scottish song sung in GAELIC by women while the waulked (worked) woolen cloth to soften and shrink it.

• CALL AND RESPONSE -where one woman sings the first part and the other women respond to her.

What is the concept used to describe solo voices with no accompaniment?

Mouth Music

(Puirt a Beul)

This is a Gaelic song used for dancing. When instruments were banned from Scotland people created mouth music to dance to made up of nonsense words!

What instrument is

providing an accompaniment

in this example?

Gaelic Psalm

This is sung in Gaelic and it is unaccompanied. The minister in the church lead the congregation who join in where they can.

Scottish Music

N3-5

The Pentatonic Scale

Task - compose an 8 bar melody at a keyboard or tuned percussion instrument using only notes from the Pentatonic scale!

Traditionally Scottish music was written using the pentatonic scale. The pentatonic scale is a scale that uses 5 notes.

Drone

Scotland is well known for its traditional music.

What instrument do you think people associate Scotland with?

Bagpipes!

The Pibroch is a solo piece of music for the bagpipes.

They make use of a Grace Note Rhythm. This is a quick note added in front of the main note!

Listen out for the long held note underneath the melody!

This is called a DRONE and is played by the drones on the bagpipes!

Waltz

Bag

Chanter

The waltz is the earliest dance introduced into Scotland.

• Slow
• 3 beats in a bar

March

The march is a dance with 2 or 4 beats in the bar.

Scottish Groups

Look at the groups below, what instruments do you think would be in each group?

Write down your ideas!

Reel

Pipe Band

Celtic Rock

Scottish Dance Band

Folk Group

A fast dance in simple time with 4 beats in the bar.

Now listen to an example of each and add in any instruments you have missed.

Folk Group

Scottish Dance Band

Pipe Band

Celtic Rock

Scotch Snap

The Scotch snap rhythm is found only in the strathespey.

The scotch snap is a short quick note followed by a long note

Jig

Simple Time

The music has two, three or four beats in each bar, and each beat is a crotchet (1 beat note) and each beat can be divided into 2.

Watch the video of the Red Hot Chilli Pipers, What group would they come under?

A Jig is a fast dance in Compound Time.

Try saying 'strawberry' along with the beat to help you identify compound time

Compound Time

The beat is divided into groups of three – if you say 'strawberry' as you listen to compound time music, the three syllables fit within each beat.