Video transcript
A cappella choir workshop with Stuart Davis - 03. Part 2 - the outline

It's a particular kind of music, OK? And that music has been handed down through a couple of centuries from the African slaves who were brought from Africa. Stolen from Africa, brought to America, made to work, eventually they were freed and they now live freely as Americans. But the music that they brought with them from Africa transformed into this music which we now call black gospel music.

One of the main features of this music is that not much of it is written down. And it's all taught like this, I sing it you sing it, I sing it you sing it. It's called oral. Oral, meaning to do with the ears. So we're going to learn it like that. I'll sing the song for you, it's quite an easy little song, it's a bit like a nursery rhyme almost. But then it's what you do with that song that turns it into a black gospel style song. So here we go. I'll sing it for you.

Little children, go where I send thee. How shall I send thee? I'm going to send thee one by one. One, for the little, bitty baby. He was born born born in Bethlehem.

That's it, yeah? It's not too hard. So I'm going to teach you bit by bit. So I'll go, little children, go where I send thee.

Little children, go where I send thee.

How shall I send thee?

How shall I send thee?

Easy, you've already got like the first third of the song. We'll put them together. Little children, go where I send thee. How shall I send thee?

Little children, go where I send thee. How shall I send thee?

How shall I send thee?

How shall I send thee? Beautiful. I'm going to send thee one by one.

I'm going to send thee one by one.

One for the little, bitty baby.

One for the little, bitty baby.

Excellent, those two together. I'm going to send thee one by one. One for the little, bitty baby.

I'm going to send thee one by one. One for the little, bitty baby.

He was born, born, born in Bethlehem.

He was born, born, born in Bethlehem.

There you go, sort of the three bits. You ready? Shall we do it? One, two--

Little children, go where I send thee. How shall I send thee? I'm going to send thee one by one. One for the little, bitty baby. He was born, born, born in Bethlehem.

You got it? What else was I just doing then, that was in addition to singing? Clapping, exactly. Did it make it sort of sound sort of better, a bit more happening, the fact that there was that going on? It's important, isn't it? So again, because this music came from Africa, African music is based 100% on rhythm. OK, the rhythm of it is the number one thing. And then we might add some notes and a bit of a tune.

OK, so we're often used to the opposite. We're used to having music where we learn a tune, and we learn the chords, and we learn the harmonies. And then later on, we introduce some rhythm into it. But it's got to be the other way around with this music. So this one here, it's sort of like walking, that's the rhythm. So if I just get you to walk on the spot. So I'm going to make the rhythm like that to start with, we're just walking in this rhythm.

[CLAPPING]

Excellent.

Excellent. So we'll just do a little warm-up again, little warm-up-y exercise. So if we start off doing this, and when I say, we're going to go half, we're going to go--

[CLAPPING]

Because it's only half as many times, yeah? And when I say half again, two, three, four.

[CLAP]

Two, three, four.

[CLAP] Two, three, four.

[CLAP]

Got it? And when I say, double--

[CLAPPING] Well don't speed up, just take it easy. And when I say half-- got to pay attention, yeah?

[CLAP]

Then we go double.

[CLAPPING]

So double again.

[CLAPPING]

We half it.

[CLAPPING]

Half it again.

[CLAP]

Half it again.

[CLAP]

Oh, don't rush, guys.

[CLAP]

Relax. We're going to double it.

[CLAP]

[CLAP]

[CLAP]

[CLAP]

We're going to double it again.

[CLAPPING]

We're going to double it again.

[CLAPPING]

Beautiful.

[CLAPPING]

We're going to double it again.

[CLAPPING]

Thank you, haha. So, got the idea now? What I was doing before was just that. I was walking, but I'm doing this. It's a little bit different because I'm going, step, clap, step, clap, step, clap, step, clap.

[STEPPING AND CLAPPING]

Don't stomp your feet, we're just walking.

[STEPPING AND CLAPPING]

Excellent. Let's keep going. But we're going to try and sing.

Little children, go where I send thee. How shall I send thee? I'm going to send thee one by one. One for the little, bitty baby. He was born, born, born in Bethlehem. That was so interesting, wasn't it? It's harder than you thought that was going to be, yeah? It's a pulse. It's like your heartbeat. Doesn't rush, doesn't speed up. Nice and relaxed.

Little children, go where I send thee. How shall I send thee? I'm going to send thee one by one. One for the little, bitty baby. He was born, born, born in Bethlehem.

Number one thing is to be feeling that rhythm all the way through. OK, but have a listen to this, we can either go like this, little children, go where I send thee. How shall I send thee? I can sing like that, yeah? Or I can sing it with the voice that I'm using now, my speaking voice. So you listen, I'm speaking like this, little children, go where I send thee. It's kind of, more or less, the same voice that I use when I'm speaking, yeah? Understand? Am I right? Yeah. So if I get you to just say for me, little children, go where I send thee.

Little children, go where I send thee.

Feel that voice that you're using there and do it one more time.

Little children, go where I send thee.

Excellent, just do it a little bit stronger. Because you're actually saying it to someone who's over the other side of the circle over there. So you don't go, little children go, I'm going to save you. Little children, go where I send thee. I'm telling you, right over there. Ready set go.

Little children, go where I send thee.

Yeah, you don't have to shout it. They're not too far away. But we really want to say it like we mean it, and that's the main thing. Whenever you sing anything, it should sound like you mean it. You Should mean it. Yeah, what are you doing singing something you don't mean in the first place.

So, we're going to say it like we mean it. Little children, go where I send thee. It's an instruction. So here we go.

Little children, go where I send thee.

Think about that sound that we had then and see if we can sing it in the notes. Little children, go where I send thee.

Little children, go where I send thee.

Wow, did that sounds just a bit better than before? Yeah. Let's give it a go again. We're not shouting. When you shout, A, it's bad for your voice, and B, we lose all the notes. So we're saying it, but we're saying it like we mean it. Little children, go where I send thee.

Little children, go where I send thee.

Excellent. It should feel easy. It shouldn't really feel that hard to do that. Yeah, because when you're out in the playground, every day of your life, you use your voice like that all the time.

[STEPPING AND CLAPPING]

One, two--

Little children, go where I send thee. How shall I send thee? I'm going to send thee one by one. One for the little, bitty baby. He was born, born, born in Bethlehem.

Excellent. All right, so we've still got a couple of steps to go before it's really starting to happen.