Body Music & Body Percussion

Teacher presentation
Definition of body percussion and body music
Rules for practicing correctly body music

The four areas of the body
Head sounds: "surprise", cheeks, mouth clap
Controlling the vocal tract and the pitch
Practicing melodies
Combining head sounds

Hands sounds: stir, finger/s clap, hand clap, low clap, reverse clap, airball, roll clap, vertical clap, snap
Equalization of hand sounds and creating a "soundbox" with our hands
Accents and rhythmic melodies
Building grooves and improvising with hand sounds only

Body sounds: chest, belly, thighs, calfs
Feet sounds: weighted and unweighted
Don't damage your joints!
Practicing all body sounds from top to bottom and vice versa

The importance of the pulse
Feeling the pulse
Understanding subdivisions and over-divisions (e.g. clave)

Definition of downbeat and upbeat
Feeling the downbeat and the upbeat through the body
Eight note subdivision
Eight note triplet subdivision
Sixteenth note subdivision

Fundamental elements of the drumset
Creating the drumset sounds with our body

Practical examples of circular rhythm
Onomatopoeic sounds
Applying circular rhythm to a groove
Practicing on "I'm Not The Only One" (song by Sam Smith)

Definition of playing along
Eight-note-triplet groove of Sam Smith's song "One Last Song"
Sixteenth-note groove of Sam Smith's song "Baby You Make Me Crazy"

Chest or feet? The possibilities of standing up.

Switching from chest to feet on an eight-note groove

Switching the feet on an eight-note-triplet groove

Switching the feet on a sixteenth-note groove

Switching feels (eight note, eight note triplet and sixteenth note) at the same tempo
Creating our first grooves on an eight-note feel
Creating our first grooves on an eight-note-triplet feel
Creating our first grooves on a sixteenth-note feel

Reverse grooves
Examples of grooves with different subdivisions

Two types of swing feel (eight-note and sixteenth-note) and where we can hear them
Practicing straight eight notes and swing eight notes
Practicing straight sixteenth notes and swing sixteenth notes

Here are some songs for playing along!

Conventional and non-conventional music notation
Explanation of the symbols used
Practical examples of sight reading non-conventional music notation (4/4, 3/4, 5/4)

Non-conventional music notation for eight-note grooves
Rests in non-conventional music notation
Eight-note feel examples and practice with non-conventional music notation
Write your own grooves with non-conventional music notation

Practical examples of eight-note-triplet grooves with non-conventional music notation

Practical examples of sixteenth-note grooves with non-conventional music notation
Use of reverse clap in faster grooves
Write down you own sixteenth-note grooves with non-conventional music notation

How to write and sight read crazy grooves with non-conventional music notation
Eight note triplets and sixteenth note triplets in simple time signatures with non-conventional music notation
Additive time signatures in non-conventional music notation

How to establish independence between rhythm and melody while learning new a song
Reaching creativity

Practicing the samba groove
Learning the melody of "Peixinhos do mar"
Putting together groove and lyrics/melody
Using creativity and adding variations
Practicing the samba groove with feet

Learning the melody of "Thula mama"
Practicing the ijesha groove and finding the downbeat
Putting together groove and lyrics/melody
Practicing the ijesha groove with feet

Practicing the Brazilian groove coco
Adding variations to the groove every four bars
Learning the melody of "Siyahamba"
Putting together groove and lyrics/melody
Practicing the coco groove with feet

Practicing the New Orleans second-line groove
Straight or swing feel?
Learning the melody of "When the Saints Go Marching In"
Putting together groove and lyrics/melody
Practicing the second-line groove with feet

Practicing two disco-funk grooves

Practicing a samba-funk groove

Practicing two tango rhythms

Practicing the twist groove

Acknowledgements
Internet links for further study
Giovanni's contacts