Description:A woman is standing in front of a turquoise background. She has long hair and a burgundy button-down shirt.
Juliana: Thank you for joining us. We're excited that you're here. At Daniel's Music Foundation, we believe in meeting our musicians where they are most comfortable, whether in person at our New York City music center and our online Zoom events and classes or through on-demand video library. Check out the description box below for all the ways you can join us and participate. Now please enjoy the video, and we appreciate you tuning in.
Description: The Daniel's Music Foundation logo is shown, a treble clef next to the name of the foundation, stacked.
A woman is standing in a turquoise room, in front of a selection of conga drums and bongos. She has short brown hair, and a black t-shirt that reads "Just Call Me By My Name".
Stefani: Hello, my name is Stefani, and I'm a teaching artist at Daniel's Music Foundation. I'm very excited to be teaching this activity to you. In this activity, we're going to learn all about articulation and improvisation in music. If you enjoy these videos and would like to see more of them, please click the Subscribe button down below to help us grow our channel.
Stefani: And just a quick reminder, if you would like to skip ahead to the activity portion of this video, take a look at the description box down below for the exact time the activity begins. If you'd like to learn the moves, stay right here with me. We're going to be exploring the concept of articulation through a song that really tugs on my heartstrings, "There's always something there to remind me".
Stefani: Before we get into the different types of articulations, let's talk about what articulation means. Articulation in music is essentially how we play or sing our notes. Now, "how" is a broad term because we know dynamics is how loud we play. Tempo is how fast we play. But what does just how we play mean?
Description: Stefani waving scarves slowly while a picture-in-picture of her talking appears in the corner.
Stefani: That's what we're going to find out today using the terms legato and staccato. Legato means smooth and connected so that there are no breaks in between the notes played, kind of like how there's no space between my words right now. Sorry. I promise I wasn't to hypnotize you. When I think of legato, I think of an astronaut floating through space or an ice skater gliding on the rink.
Description: Stefani pumping arms in the air with the scarves in a quick, steady pace.
Stefani: Staccato is the opposite of legato, which means we have a lot of space in between each note. When I think of staccato, I like to think of jumping up and down, how my words are jumping up and down right now. My words sound like-- I don't know-- a bunny rabbit or a leaping frog. Let's try and say these words together and feel the difference between them.
Stefani: Legato. Staccato. Legato. Staccato. Very nice. Throughout this activity, we will be improvising a lot of our movements. Improvisation means we make something up on the spot. For example, whenever we're having a conversation, we are directly responding to what's happening in the moment.
Stefani: We don't know exactly what the other person will say. So we listen and improvise a response. Unlike what I'm doing right now, which is reading a script. But that's a secret we'll keep between you and me. OK. I want you to think of our improvisation today as a conversation we're having with the music. How do we want to respond to it in the moment?
Description: Stefani takes out the various items as she mentions them.
Stefani: For this activity, all you'll need is yourself And if you'd like, some scarves to move with. Now, I know not all of us have scarves exactly like these at home. But here are some great substitutes, a bandanna, for example. Oh, I just realized I'm wearing one on my head. Maybe we have a T-shirt.
Stefani: Maybe-- I don't know-- a dish towel. What about a pillowcase? If you want, you can even use some paper towels or napkins. If you'd like to pause this video, you can take a moment to find some of these things at home before we get started. Even though we'll be making stuff up on the spot throughout the song, we can still practice what that looks like.
Stefani: Improvisation requires practice, just like anything else you prepare for. I mentioned that legato makes me feel like an astronaut. So maybe we can pretend like we're floating through space. My arms are out to my side, and I'm swaying slowly back and forth. Whoa, look over there. I think it's Saturn. And what about an ice skater? What does that look like?
Stefani: Maybe I can pretend to make a rink with my arms by bringing them out and around one arm at a time, maybe both at the same time. Sometimes when I think of legato, I also think of being underwater. One of my personal favorite moves of all time is the seaweed, where I bring my arms out to the side, elbows bent slightly, and I alternate my arms.
Stefani: Alternate is just a fancy word for switch in dance. Now let's move on to staccato. I mentioned hopping about like a bunny. Well, if you're standing, feel free to hop around. If you're sitting like me, though, we can hop around by punching our arms up and down as if our arms are hopping. We can punch them up. We can punch them to the side. We can go all around.
Stefani:We can do one arm at a time, both arms at the same time. We can shrug our shoulders. We can even tap our legs. These are just a few ideas for legato and staccato. I strongly encourage you, though, to try and find moves that make you feel connected to the song as we go along. Though most of the stance will be improvised, I wanted to give us a few quick moves to come back to as our home base before our cycle of legato and staccato repeats.
Stefani: When we hear-- (SINGING) I was born to love you (SPEAKING) we're going to bring both of our arms up above our head and give ourselves a nice, big hug. Then when we hear-- (SINGING) And I will not be free
Stefani: (SPEAKING) We're going to uncross our arms and fling them back. Which one of these moves did you think was legato? And which one did you think was staccato? Yes. That's exactly right. Our first move when we brought our arms up and gave ourselves a hug was legato. And the move when we flung our arms back was staccato.
Stefani: Well, now that you guys are articulation experts, should we test our improvisation skills? Let's do this with a little bit of music. All right, everybody. Grab your dish towels, grab your pillowcases, maybe your paper napkins, or maybe your bandannas. And let's get started. I'm going to do some of the moves that we were rehearsing earlier, like the astronaut or maybe an ice skater gliding on ice or maybe just a humble little seaweed in the ocean.
Stefani: Are you ready for the staccato? I'm bringing my arms out.
Stefani:[UPBEAT MUSIC] I may be shrugging my shoulders-- (SINGING) Always something there to remind me
Stefani: (SPEAKING) --maybe tapping my legs. Let's do our choreograph move. Bring your arms up. Give yourself a hug, and bring your arms back dramatically. Now what we're going to do is we're going to try and improvise this entire section. You can also follow me, of course. I'm going to bring my arms up slowly and down. Maybe I move my body side to side taking my time.
Stefani: Maybe I'm moving it backwards and forwards. And let's do a little improv for that staccato section. If you're in your living room, if you're hopping around like a puppy, we're doing a little bit of leapfrog. Let's bring our arms up and give ourselves a hug and uncross those arms. Beautiful.
Stefani: Now for this last section, I want us to try combining our choreographed moves with some improvisation. Are you ready? I'm just an astronaut floating through space. And I see my astronaut friend. I'm going to bring my hand out to wave. Hello, astronaut friend. Maybe I'm an ice skater in the Olympics, and I almost take a tumble backwards. I lean back, but guess what. I don't fall, and I win the gold.
Stefani: I'm leaning forward, keep my arms up, and I'm a little seaweed in the ocean. Here we go. Let's scuttle. Whatever feels good to you as long as you're feeling that articulation. And I'm going to bring my arms up giving myself a hug. And fling them back. Everybody, this is our final section. Do whatever feels good to you, whatever makes you feel like a superstar, an Olympic gold medalist, an astronaut flying through space.
Stefani: And maybe we can even throw our scarves up and catch them. That was fantastic. [CHEERS] How did it feel to be improvising all those movements? For me, it always makes me feel so free and powerful knowing I can create something beautiful like that on the spot. I'm really impressed with your courage today to try something new. And just a gentle reminder, if you enjoyed this video, please click the Subscribe button down below so we can continue to celebrate the joy of music together.
Stefani: Have a wonderful day filled with joy and music. Until next time.
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