Everyday rhythm the accessibility of music for everyone
[Music]
do
[Music]
[Music]
do
[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
me
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
of
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
[Music]
do
[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