Compound Meter and Duplets

Don't take big steps.

Just little steps. That's it.

And you'll be able to hang in there.

Now, can you find a place just with space for yourself?

Yeah. Nice. Now, let's just use the knees a little bit.

See if you can reflect those knees.

So we have a sort of a sideways swing.

And now you can ask the arms to join in.

But what I mean by

that is just let the arms follow the body.

Don't let the arms lead you.

Let the body swing all the way from the ground up.

That's nice.

Now, keep this sort of lilt going with yourself,

and you take a little step on each of the swings

so you're not covering much territory.

That's not the issue here. That's it.

Let us help.

Very good. Now can you find

another way to swing to keep the same?

There we go.

Keep it going. Yes.

Now come back to the original. Yes.

And when I say, oh, you're gonna do a new

one all on your own.

Oh,

Return and

Up return.

Now keep the swing alive. And then we're gonna take steps.

Okay. Here we go. Step and travel a little bit.

But keep that same lilt about you. Yes.

Wonderful. Now, don't forget about the little arms swing.

It doesn't have to be huge, but it has to there.

Allow the body to tell the arms

You are allowed to swing now.

Yes. Don't make them swing yourself.

Have the body swing them. Yes.

Now when I say, oh, this time,

we're gonna step those little divisions you did before.

Oh, bravo sir. Thank you. That's it. Keep swinging alive.

Yes. Return.

Now we're gonna have a little skip pattern.

So we'll say Ready. It's skip

return.

So let's say when I want skip, I'll say,

All right.

Woo.

There we go. Return.

Oh

Yeah, that's right.

Return. Bravo.

Now we have this pattern.

This sort of very strange.

Can you clap it for me? That's it. And step it.

Step what you wanna do.

Just a light, nice, relaxed swing.

Yes. Don't wear yourself out.

Now we're gonna try that last one again. Ready?

And it is short.

Long short, long. Short.

Long, short, long, short, long, short, long, short, long,

short, long, short, long, short, long, short, long. Yeah.

Ta

come here,

Blaine. Yes. Okay, let's

watch Blaine. Blaine's gonna do it for us.

Ready Blaine.

See each

Step, Occupy space.

He has one leg that is short and one leg that is long.

But both steps take space and notice something else.

There's a lilt. There's a little lift.

Ta ta.

If without that little lift,

it's very difficult though, to be on time.

Ready? Everybody try. Hey, Blaine. Bravo.

Don't play catch up. Don't play pony.

If you get lost. Watch Blaine. Take a look at it. Yes,

Bravo.

So these patterns have names.

This one, this, that, that Blaine did

so, well, we'll call it the Blaine pattern.

It actually has a Greek name. Did anybody know it?

That's right. iamb. Iamb. It's not i-am.

And if you say i-am, then you are using the British system.

But I am is the Greek Roman system,

which is the one that we followed through history

in the music world.

The iamb, iambic pentameter. People say, oh, no, no, no.

It's short long. No, no. Oh, no. Weak, strong, weak, strong.

Or something like that. Yes, yes, it is according

to the British system,

but according to the Roman system, it's short,

long, short, long.

And all their patterns started cruiscally.

So we'd have to say, iamb

or e-am, whichever language you want.

So iamb, iamb is English. E-am, e-am is French.

So iamb, iamb, iamb. So there's two steps.

And the first step is taken. Iamb. iamb.

So we have two spaces to complete, you see?

So it's not iamb.

iamb, or iamb. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Whatever the variations are.

I don't know what they're, so it's, iamb, iamb now.

Watch what I have to do to get back to the I. Iamb.

Iamb. Iamb. What am I doing? He was doing it too.

There's a little leap in there. See? Iamb.

And so my space is taken care

of in this lift from the floor.

Okay. So we have iamb, iamb. Let's try it. Ready? And iamb.

Iamb. Iamb.

Lift. Nailed it.

Ah.

Oh, congratulations. You are on time. Yes.

Now what's the opposite pattern?

Trochee. Yes. So trochee is crusic, again.

It's the trochaic foot. Okay. Long, short, long.

Now these patterns, we are,

right now we're in compound meter.

You all know that already. So everything is

two to one ratio.

But these same patterns can be three

to one ratio as well, right?

Trochee, iamb, iamb.

Iamb, iamb, iamb, trochee, trochee, trochee

So we're doing the, in this ternary world, compound meter

where everything's divided by,

every beat is divided by three.

So we have a two to one combination. So we have trochee, trochee.

And this pattern we can usually skip.

We don't have to skip it.

Sometimes, especially in music world,

you don't wanna skip this pattern.

But I was playing in such a way that I got you to skip.

You see? So you picked it up right away.

Oh, he, I think he wants us to skip now,

which was really a good, so we

notice something here about my skip.

Do you notice anything in particular?

Or is it just a normal old skip? Same foot. Foot.

I keep using the same foot. Yeah. Lemme switch.

I switch two. You did two and two. No one.

Yeah, you're blinking. Ah, that's what's right. That's it.

Yes. You see? So, and I sweep the floor.

Watch.

why do I sweep the floor?

'cause I'm swinging my leg.

I'm actually swinging my legs so that I get off the ground.

You see? I'm just not going.

Uh, you see,

and that takes so much energy.

You know, I don't, I don't get why people do that.

But anyway, that has happened. So we gotta lift.

We have you noticed so far? Everything lifts.

We gotta get off the floor. Yum.

And so you wanna kind of try to get that leg to help you

propel you off the floor.

Let's try. Uh, yum.

Oh,

excellent, excellent, excellent.

Okay, so we have long, long, just a walk.

Here we go. Now I'm gonna play a new pattern.

I'm gonna play one of those patterns we've been doing.

But you are not gonna pay any attention to changing.

I'm just gonna change. And you're gonna stay the same.

All right? And you're thinking,

oh, what is he doing?

He's doing, I am right

Now, when he changes to another pattern, I am going to do,

I am

now he's doing long as I'm doing.

I am. When he changes, I'll do the long.

That's that's right.

So I'm always a pattern ahead of you.

Yes. Trochee.

That's it.

Yes. You are trochee. And I'm iamb.

Iamb, iamb, iamb, iamb, iamb, iamb.

There we go. Nice pattern canon.

Now what, what time signature?

I'll say, but I usually say meter. Which meter are we in?

6/8 so far. Huh? 6/8. Yeah.

I probably don't You think? Yeah, I would say so.

Uh, if I, if we had to really

name it, we'd probably do that.

Okay. So do you know how you do arm swings in 6/8?

You wanna show me arm swings? Anybody?

So what you think some arm swings in? 6/8 would be.

Okay. Nice. Well, you know, it's not really difficult.

Why? 'cause there's only two directions, right?

So we either go side to side or up and down.

So I, of course

now when you open your arms,

the big problem always is people will go, you see?

So they'll go up and up and, and what do you notice?

Stop. Yes, I'm stuck. Yes. So we wanna go up and

Out, Think out, not back.

Okay? So up and back.

And I'm

Jack, I'm old.

So I I I'm forgiven and up and Yeah.

Now, what's crucial, what's crucial in all these movements?

What's the most important thing

that they come from the ground.

Now, how do they come from the ground?

How do we get 'em up from the ground?

We have to use our knees and our ankles. Yes.

So if I'm in front of a class

and I'm going, okay, isn't this liberating?

Isn't this wonderful? Here we go, everybody.

What do you notice? It's like, there's something wrong.

You might even not know what it is.

Most people don't know what it is you see,

but it's that I'm not doing it entirely.

Me.

Yes. The whole body has to,

You keep going young.

Ha, Bravo.

Now you notice I'm, I'm doing something funky, right?

As you're beautifully swinging and you're trying your best,

and you're go, oh, what's going on here?

Okay, so what's, what's happening?

You hear me play something else?

So I have these trio, I mean the,

well, whatever you wanna call 'em.

So

you notice there's something funky.

Okay? So when, uh, can you clap for me?

As you, now, now you got this,

you got the really beautiful body swinging.

Okay, now we're gonna, and if I say up,

you give me one time that funky thing, okay?

With your hands. Okay? Do you know what I mean?

If you don't know, understand what I say, please tell me.

Don't stay in the dark. Okay?

Was I supposed to say op or eep? Oh, o. Okay, good.

It's, it's it one time, right? Yeah, just one time.

And I, I, and it should be o okay, it really should be op.

I don't, I dunno where that came from. Okay. One, two, and

TW up,

up,

up, up.

Oh, oh, chip,

I almost said return.

I didn't, I don't wanna say return, you know, to return.

Oh, Excellent. So how would we step these?

Do you see? Can you find a way to step them now?

So if we have just swing, you know, step.

And when I say, oh, do something with your feet

and hands that tell me that you heard that moment,

that special moment, what are those things called?

You suppose? I think you're old enough

to understand duples.

Duplets. There's always, yeah.

So there's a little duplet that comes in there.

Now, this duplet, you see, it doesn't work there.

It's not supposed to be there. You notice that.

It's like weird, you see?

So this is sort of like a mutation.

It's something, it's like, no, you know?

So you have to sort of fight to put it in, right?

Okay, let me see you step. It.

Just, just, yes.

Up, up,

up,

up, up, up,

up, up.

Oh,

Sorry. Too late.

My fault.

Oh,

oh, oh.

Ah, Jack, jack, jack, jack, jack.

Oh, get out

back to my old days.

Okay, so,

so, uh, we have this sort

of plt happening every once in a while.

And I've also changed something on You did,

did you notice there was every subtle thing I did?

What happened? We have been swinging into, swinging into,

and all of a sudden I made you go to three.

So now you're in three beats.

So let's try this pattern,

two steps, or whatever you wanna call it.

So we wanna try to, whatever you do

for your two steps, you, you can do, you can take two steps,

or you could do a step up, which I particularly like.

Uh, 'cause I think,

but take your two steps.

I actually, I'm changing my mind. Just take two steps, okay?

1, 2, 3. And

now as you travel, find a friend.

Yes. And dance with him or her. You?

Yes.

There we go. Very good. Very good. Very good.

Greg, could you be my sure. Guinea pig? Yeah.

Okay, so we have a friend.

Okay, notice I have, we're taking hands. Okay?

And I can see him. He can see me.

But then we're gonna go shoulder, side to side. Hip to hip.

Sorry, not shoulder. So notice his arms in front of here.

My arms in front of there. All right, let's try that again.

Okay. So find your friend. Okay.

And just go off to the side. Yes.

So you'll decide, you'll naturally go.

All right, then come back.

Just for the front of it, go to the opposite side,

because you know, well, if we do it on one side,

we probably should do it on the other.

Okay. All right. You got that much? Yeah. All right.

Very good. Now we're side to side.

And I want to turn around now, which way,

what is the most common thing?

People will go like this,

but you're not gonna do that.

You'll see. You're gonna pivot in

place, huh?

Huh? We got that. No, no, no, no.

All the diseases already now. No, no, no.

Boys, boys, boys, boys. Stay. Go. Come back.

Come back, come back, come back where you were,

please each other, like, there we go.

Now your heads must stay here. Turn around in place.

Turn around in place. Yeah.

Oh, you don't have a friend? Oh, Greg will be your friend.

You'll be her friend, right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

So now one of us, one of us can walk forward,

but the other one must walk backward.

Okay? So if we're going around,

and Greg is going to walk backwards.

Sorry, Greg. Okay, here we go.

Pivot. Dumb jump.

So then I walk backwards and Greg walks forward. Okay?

Get with your friend. Let's practice. Okay.

Oh, okay. Honest. Okay, here we go. One,

Two, And one.

Just take a step, one step on each beat.

Don't get fancy on me. Now I'll say pivot.

And you just pivot in place

and keep going the same direction.

Ready? Pivot.

Oh, pivot,

pivot, pivot,

Pivot, pivot,

pivot, pivot, pivot,

pivot,

pivot, pivot, pivot,

pivot, pivot.

Bravo,

pivot.

Pivot.

Ah,

All right. Very

nice. Very nice. Oh, you're excellent.

You're excellent. You have no idea what I've gone

through in life with that exercise.

Okay, so, uh, now we had this,

and we also had this.

Somebody has to be

The,

And he must be

now, uh, can you guys, you're such good examples.

Okay. Okay.

So who should be what?

Going backward should be three

person going forward should be two.

Exactly the opposite.

Why should the person with the three, three

go forward and the person with the two go backward?

What's going to happen? Well, let's find out.

Find your friend. Let's find out what happens.

Then you'll say, oh, yeah, I get it. Yeah. Okay. So,

Huh, how Many steps do we take?

One person, take three steps

while one person takes two steps?

Absolutely. Okay. Yes.

So do you wanna practice just stepping the two steps first?

Maybe that will, that'll calm your nerves.

Okay, so here's a, okay, okay, okay.

Okay, let's do this. Let's all go counter the clock.

And so then we won't have any accidents. Okay?

So we're all stepping the two. Yeah, that's it.

Come right in here. Yeah. Chum tum.

Here we go. That's right.

And I say "eep," and you're gonna do the threes.

Ep, No, no pivot yet.

I say, "up" you go to the twos.

Oop. Yes.

Ep,

Pivot.

Pay attention, my friends.

Pivot.

Don't pivot on eep.

Pivot.

All right. Now,

if you are the three person,

that means you are going the forward.

If you are the two person,

that means you are doing it backward.

Okay? And if I say pivot, what happens? That's right.

Then you change roles that way. There we go. Okay.

So here, listen, here's the

three, here's the two.

Go. And it's

okay.

Now what I notice, and this always happens, you're

so polite, you see, so

you see the person, especially the person doing the three,

because the person who's doing the two only has two steps.

And I have three steps. So his steps must do what? Bigger.

Yes. And I'm going,

that's a boy.

Now you got it. That's it. You gotta go.

You're so nice. Don't be accommodating.

Yes.

Yes. So what did you sense? What was the physical sense?

Notice I didn't say. What did you feel?

I said, what is the sense you got from this physical sense?

Resistance. Oh, child after my own heart.

Yes, there. Who was feeling the resistance more? Two.

The two person. You see, that's why if they did,

if you did it the other way, it wouldn't work.

So the two person has to be going backwards.

So that three per you really feel like,

oh my God, I'm gonna fall.

And if I don't have my friend, I'm gone. Right?

So you start relying, if you notice,

and the, the looks on the faces are, are precious

when you're going around pivot.

Oh my god. Yeah. So you did, you did really well.

So we have this plt notice,

I'm not saying it's two against three, right?

It is, but I didn't say that. You see?

So what we're really studying is duplicate.

Now, why did I have to do the tree of the, the grouping of,

or the trio lay or the, uh, whatever you wanna call it.

What do you call it? You call it some triplet.

It's not a triplet. You see, that's the problem.

Why aren't I calling it that? A triplet?

Because triplets have the same quality

when they are in simple meter, you see?

So, uh, triplets

and duplets are very different animals you see from the normal

division of three or the division of two, huh?

Okay, so the division of three, why?

Well, what started in compound meter?

I laid out the ground for compound.

So everything's divisible by three.

That's our meter structure. Okay?

So, and then I added this plt,

which has resistance in it.

So when we meet a duplet in our music, we can do,

now it's,

we have to, we have to sense that person

you see pulling.

Oh,

oh, you see?

So we have to get that back and forth.

So those are the physical sensations you see, we have

to conjure up and then use them when we're playing

or when we're singing.

So the same things happen when we're singing. Okay?

So tell me something.

So I of course, uh, live in the world,

mostly a fixed do, the Dalcroze world.

But what is unique about Dalcroze solfège, that,

other than any other fixed system in the, in the universe,

what is the most unique thing about it?

You have to be flexible. No? Yes. Yeah. Yes, it's true.

You have to have scale degrees as well. Yeah.

So there is both fixed

and movable in a Dalcroze solfège system.

It's not just one.

'cause from the very beginning, we use numbers.

So you learn your scales with numbers

and letter names so that you learn the function

of each pitch in the scale.

So if I were in sol major

and I started on middle C, what number would I sing?

Four. He's quick, he's quick. Okay, that's good.

D major for which? What's that again? D Major.

Uh, flat seven.

I think we just call it seven. Okay.

Why do we have to call it flat seven?

I thought it was C natural. Oh, yes.

If we go to do major, what's, what's, what's,

what changes in do major

If we go, I'm sorry if we go to re.

Thanks. Thanks Greg. Greg keeps me on track.

If we go to re major, what changes in re major?

Yes, that's right. So this C sharp is seven. Yes, of course.

That's seven. That's a new one.

Okay, so, so, uh, here's do.

Now where's do sharp? There we go.

Do, now can you sing the scale, re? Do.

Yes. Painfully slow.

Try.

Okay. Why are you so afraid to go so fast?

What's the problem? What do you think?

Nobody wants to go fast. Why? You know what you're doing?

You are thinking half steps and whole steps.

See, you're thinking, okay, do sharp, then,

then we go half step, then we go.

To me, that's a whole step. Then fall sharp.

Then we have to go to soul. The half step.

See, that's why you're thinking where you gotta go next.

I'm not thinking where I gotta go next.

Notice I'm just singing through it. Now how did I get there?

By singing through it. You see? Let yourself go.

Let yourself. So let's try it a little bit.

Now, if we go numbers, now what is this going to be? Seven.

Seven. I use the word set,

but you can use anywhere you want to set on, uh, set.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, set. You may use any number.

You go, let's go a little slower just for the,

because you're going to use these words.

Set. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, set.

Yeah. So see it's easier in French

because they each have one syllable. "Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept."

so it's easier to do it with.

So I just substitute the seven in English for sept.

Okay, set. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, set.

6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, sept. Five, four.

Now, in the scale, what makes it the key that it is?

What makes the scale re major?

The leading, the leading tone. The

Location of tone. Yeah.

Say it again. Location of the semitone. Tone. Yes.

So we have these half steps in places in

the world, okay?

And there's always two of them.

And what numbers are they on? 4, 3, 7, 1.

Okay, set. Now where's four?

3, 4, 4, 3, 7, 1, 7, 1.

That's right. And I'd like to always end my scales with

that little, I call it the minor dyad cadence

because they're minor steps.

Okay? And so, uh, so, so yeah,

4, 3, 7, 1. Okay, try it again.

4, 3, 7.

Okay, now let's try singing the scale again with numbers,

and then end with the cadence set.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, set.

6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, set, four,

three Seti.

Now let's do it with syllable names.

Now what are these syllable names?

Are they, what language are they French?

La la?

Yes, Yes, yes, yes.

They're Latin. Yes. So this do used to be ut okay.

Until like six, 17 something or rather.

And some Italian guy, his name was Damani, so he changed it

to do, see he was a singer.

So do

re So the Latin.

Latin, all right.

So, uh,

and there, uh, became fixed as these syllables, uh,

by a certain other individual.

Again, another French guy.

And so, uh, the Latin world, you know, adapted them.

So that's why if you go to Spain,

or if you go to Italy, you go to Switzerland,

or you go to, uh, even China,

you'll hear these syllables instead of

do re mi fa so la ti do.

How did we get ti? Where did tea come

from for the movable people? Greg, John

Curwin. Who?

John Curwin.

Wasn't it the woman before him? Sarah? Oh, oh, yeah.

I think it was Sarah Glover. Sorry. Glover. Yeah.

John Curwin took up and he wrote the whole method. Yes.

Uh, uh, Ms. Glover. Okay.

Wanted to, you know, make a method.

And so she wanted to name this like we have, as you know.

So she ran outta syllables because if we have es

and es, so, uh, oh, so A, B, C, D and g.

H-J-K-L-W-Q-R-S-T.

Okay. So now this piece I'm gonna hand you,

this is a little duet.

Oh,

But it's not in re major.

 

Jack. Say it again.

Oh, no, that Jack. Oh,

Oh, that Jack. Oh, that's

Jack too. I didn't even notice Jack. Oh, Blaine.

I know. Yes. I mean, we're old friends.

Sorry.

Okay. So what, what key do you suppose this piece is

in? Say it again.

D sharp. Minor D.

Sharp Minor. C. C. Oh C. Thank you. Okay.

I didn't know what to do next.

I thought, okay, now Jack, this is a good one.

How are we, how are we gonna help her through this?

Yeah, so in minor, which we haven't done at all today, I ex,

excuse me, but,

and, uh, this key, we haven't done it all today,

which is totally not like me at all,

but I'm being different.

So, uh, what the key,

what's unique about minor scales is

that we use the harmonic miner scale mostly if

we're doing do-to-do scales.

And that not exclusively, but mostly.

And so what's unique about the harmonic minor scale is

that it has a funky interval called an augmented second.

So in this scale, where's the augmented second?

I picked this key because it's closest to,

um, movable do.

Go ahead. Where's the augmented second, Jack?

From A to B sharp. A to B sharp.

So a lot of, okay, so we have do,

and guess what we start on do?

Oh my God. So can you sing it for me? Do

Now what do you notice?

We have, do, do.

So we have right away our little duplet. Can you sing

this the soprano part for me?

One, two, and

 

 

 

Yeah, so that wasn't bad.

Okay. So let's try the bottom part. Here we go.

 

Good. One.

One.

Okay. You sing the top. You sing the bottom. I know.

We gotta go. Ready? And it's, uh,

thank you.

Thank you. See you next time. Thank you

So much.

You're welcome. Thank you for coming. I appreciate it.