Everyday rhythm the accessibility of music for everyone

[Music]

i’d like to pose a question to you what

does it take to create something with

somebody who you’ve never met

almost my entire life all i’ve ever

wanted to do is play music

in fact almost all of the most exciting

moments of change in my life have

involved music in some way

i spend most of my professional life as

a percussionist

which essentially means i hit things for

a living but it also means that the

majority of my life is based around

rhythm

there’s been music in my family since i

was very young my dad is a composer

and probably my biggest creative

influence every year from the age of six

or seven i would go down into town at

christmas

just a few hundred yards from where we

were supposed to be today pre-covered

and watched the hampshire county youth

band playing the christmas hits

i’d stand there utterly transfixed and

dream of a time when

one day that might be me although i

couldn’t articulate it at the time i

knew that this was something that i had

to do

the musicians with their music and their

rhythms had communicated something to me

it looked elating and complex and

terrifying but also it looked like a

kind of freedom

freedom to express create and inspire

by the age of 12 having played the piano

for a few years

my parents finally relented and allowed

me to have a drum kit in the house

whilst this was without doubt the most

exciting thing that ever happened to me

i think it’s probably fair to say i

didn’t endear myself to the neighbours

very much

especially one neighbor in particular

who needed to sleep in the day because

of work

but nonetheless i persevered and a

couple of years later i was able to join

the county youth band which i’ve been

watching for all those years at

christmas

about seven or eight years later being a

musician finally became

my career that’s just my experience of

music but it’s pretty clear that music

communicates something important to vast

numbers of people

for quite literally billions of people

music is woven into the fabric of their

everyday lives

they wake up to it commute whilst

listening to it go to see it performed

live

fall asleep to it and just listen to it

according to mrc data and nielsen music

in 2019 in america alone

1.15 trillion songs were streamed which

equates to an average of

roughly three and a half thousand songs

per person

now you may well think that beyond

consuming music as a listener

rhythm doesn’t have a part to play in

the rest of your life

the fact is that rhythm is a universal

integral part of life

and it surrounds us every day whether

it’s a song played on the radio the

repeated churning of your washing

machine spin cycle

or that irritating drip from the shower

that you’ve been meaning to get fixed

rhythm is virtually omnipresent but to

rhythm is much more than a constituent

part of a world in flux

it presents almost limitless

possibilities and crucially

it’s accessible to everyone

you might quite reasonably think that

you couldn’t possibly communicate or

collaborate musically with somebody else

unless you play an instrument

but the fact is that you all possess the

simplest tool required to do so

the human body in fact i’m willing to

bet that the majority of people watching

this have at some point already today

produced

a musical rhythmic pulse simply by

walking along

so why are rhythm and music important

well i believe that the benefits of

group music making are pretty obvious

and tangible and it would appear that

huge numbers of people in the uk

agree in 2017 voices now launched the

big choral census and found that there

are over 40

000 choirs in the uk even suspecting

that this number may be too

low this equates to over 2 million

people singing in choirs and is 300

000 more people than play amateur

football every week

at a time when communication and

collaboration seem more important than

ever on a societal level

the shared experience of group music

making affords people an opportunity to

meet

share ideas and produce a creative

output

but what about the rhythms that surround

us in our everyday lives

well when was the last time you simply

listened to what’s around you

it might not work for everybody but i

believe that being more attuned to your

surroundings can only be a positive step

i’m also fascinated by the accessibility

of rhythm because i believe that it’s

quite easy to be put off group music

making by the perception that

particularly classical music could be

seen as in some way elitist or to some

extent

judgmental in classical music circles i

often hear people extolling the virtues

being at one with your instrument or

your instrument being like an extension

of your body

but what if your instrument is your body

if you accept the human body as a

starting point for a creative process

you can immediately bypass the idea of

good and bad technique and you’re free

to create innovate or even develop an

understanding

with somebody else and this is where

you come in we’re going to make a piece

of music together

all we need to do is play two rhythms

using our bodies and nothing else

so we need the sound of our feet on the

floor

our hands on our knees and our hands

clapping

we have two rhythms rhythm one goes like

this

one two

so that’s pretty much like walking along

except you can stay in your seat and

move your feet instead

walking along with a clap on every

fourth so one two

three one two three

here’s your turn to join in here we go

one two

go now one two three four

one two three

three one two three

very nice i’m guessing that was fairly

straightforward for most people

so rhythm two is very similar but

slightly different at the beginning so

instead of this

one two three four we’ve got this

one two three four one two

three one two three

one two three now if you’re not sure

about the beginning bit of the rhythm

[Music]

then think of the name of our event use

the word

winchester sometimes using a word can be

really helpful

in learning a rhythm so think

if you need to say it out loud that’s

absolutely fine

there’s no one there to watch you accept

whoever you’re watching with so it

doesn’t matter how silly you look

um so now we’re going to practice

putting those two rhythms together

i’m going to go from rhythm one which is

this

into this one two three four

one two three

okay ready here’s rhythm one

and when you see this swap to the second

one one

two three go

fantastic so little tip if the second

rhythm

is too tricky or it’s difficult to keep

up either stick with number one that’s

absolutely fine

just stay there instead of swapping when

we get there or you can just do the

hands

okay all that’s left to do is to put our

music together

hopefully 200 people playing as one from

their homes

and i’ll see you at the end here we go

one two three four

[Music]

so i’d like to refer you back to the

question i asked at the beginning

what does it take to create something

with someone who you’ve never met

now you and i don’t know each other well

but as i hope we’ve just proven

when we really listen the possibility

for communication and collaboration is

much closer than you might think

especially considering we’re not in the

same room

if the rhythm of the body is all that’s

needed as a basis for creativity

then why not give it a go sometime and

see where it leads

thank you