Call and Response. Group work / In this collection we are practicing collaborative skills. Communicating and interacting by call and response, real-time improvisation of canons and other games to develop leading and following skills in a tonal idiom. 

1 - Call and Response with short melodies in Major. In this video we practice the basics of interplay. The first exercise is a call and response exercise, which is practiced in time. It trains the immediate response on ones instrument without inserting time to think. In the second part of the exercise the process becomes more continuous, and requires playing while at the same time listening to new phrases being presented. The simultaneous listening and playing is an essential skill for any musician. 

Practice: play along with this video and learn with the students! (the key is B-flat major)

3 - Variation on a repeating bass pattern. The exercise is expanded by the addition of a repeating bass pattern. First this pattern is played by two students, while the rest plays the responses to the phrases. In the next video the length of the phrases will be extended.

3A - Variation on a repeating bass pattern, longer phrases. The length of the phrases is extended. Two other students play the bass pattern while the others alternate leading and following roles. 

Practice: play along with the video and learn with the students! (the key is B-flat major)

3B - Variation on a repeating bass pattern in Minor. We change the key to C minor and the meter to 6/8. The repeating bass pattern is on the 1 and b7. We are complicating the interaction by a rotation of both leaders and students who play the repeating pattern. This is an important activity, training to combine listening, playing and thinking at the same time.

Practice: play along with the video and learn with the students! (the key is C minor)

4 - Dominos in 4/4. A variation on the regular call and response is introduced. It is called Dominos. In this variation only the last half of a phrase is repeated, and a new second half is improvised on the spot. It requires more speed of thinking and acting. 

Practice: practice this with a fellow student. Choose a key and find the tempo where you can comfortably respond and let the melodies flow. Slowly increase the speed and challenge each other.

4A - Dominos in 6/8. Dominos are now played in 6/8. The speed of listening, thinking and acting goes up further. 

Practice: practice this with a fellow student, choose a key and find the tempo where you can comfortably respond and let the melodies flow. Slowly increase the speed and challenge each other.

2 - Leading and following. This video is similar to the previous one, but now we practice one by one to be leading while the rest is following. Each student plays 4 phrases before handing over to the next. Without actually mentioning it, the students practice very elementary improvisational skills, to come up with a spontaneous melody in a concrete key and in time.

Practice: play along with the video and learn with the students! (the key is B-flat major)