Graphic Scoring with Yothu Yindi

A great unit of work on Australian Aboriginal Music – use the following worksheets which can be downloaded as PDF, buy the tracks from iTunes and extend your students with the integrated IT task for making an animated Graphic Score.  Your students will love it!

As part of the Australian Secondary Music Curriculum, there needs to be a focus on Indigenous Traditional or Contemporary Music.  In year 7 I introduce my students to the sounds and roles of Aboriginal instruments as well as getting them to listen to such pieces through the lenses of the 6 Concepts of Music (Pitch, Rhythm, Texture, Tone Colour, Structure and Dynamics & Expressive Techniques).  The students become immersed in listening and performing activities that build up to a final project of Graphically Scoring a work by the Aboriginal Group Yothu Yindi entitled Wirrkul Girl (available from iTunes).

I received permission from David Hudson to upload parts of his Didgeridoo making and playing DVD to YouTube and my students watch the 10minute clips while answering questions on their worksheets.

Each video watched, question answered and Aboriginal work listened to builds up their awareness of how pitch, structure and tone-colour are utilised in Indigenous music.  This will then culminate in the assimilation and synthesis of a project (thank you Blooms Taxonomy) using Apple’s Keynote software to create a graphic score showing pitch, texture, structure, tone-colour and other characteristics that feature in Aboriginal Music.

Here are some Videos of the Graphic Scores Animated in Keynote that I use to inspire my students for their final task:

The Task

• Each student is to download a package of a Keynote Template file (with the MP3 embedded) [or visit Aboriginal Art Store]

• Following the instructions on their school wiki page students place the provided ‘SYMBOLS’ onto the keynote slides

• Students complete the KEY slide listing and labelling each sound or instrument they hear

• Students then arrange their symbols into a time-line frame to depict the action of the music

• Students finally RECORD their keynote slides (with manual advances from space bar) and export as a QT Video

The following worksheets have embedded audio should you wish to use them as preemptive lessons building to the graphic score task.  Click on the worksheets to see and hear the listening activities:

If you have anything to share please do!

At the time of publishing this, I had permission to use these images for educational use. As an update, I am looking across my website to recommend educators contact this site https://www.aboriginalartstore.com.au/aboriginal-art-culture/aboriginal-symbols-glossary/ and request permission for your classroom. Any cultural use of symbols and art needs to be placed into a context that best represents those that have created it, been educated by it, and, feel it is a part of their identity.

Haider, Sabine. “Aboriginal Symbols Glossary.” Central Art – Aboriginal Art Store. Accessed October 03, 2020. https://www.aboriginalartstore.com.au/aboriginal-art-culture/aboriginal-symbols-glossary/.