How do musicians come together to create? BANDED is an experimental music documentary that chronicles the creative processes of five Boston bands as they take the spark of an idea and turn it into a reality. To capture the process, cameras followed the musicians as they wrote, reworked, recorded, and performed an original song. Along the way, each band was partnered with a Berklee College of Music faculty member to help hone their skills. The eclectic bands represent a spectrum of genres ranging from world-soul and indie-baroque to americana, psychedelic, and indie rock. BANDED connects music theory to real world musical collaborations, along the way capturing the struggles and successes of what it means to be a musician in todays creative landscape.

Through this lesson, students will gain an understanding of the relationship between musical and visual expression by creating a minor pentatonic composition for a chosen piece of media.

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Guide the composition process by examining the relationship between minor and major pentatonic scales using a variety of song forms.

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Grasp the relationship between the minor pentatonic and the blues scales. Then compose a melody over the harmonic structure of a standard blues progression.

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Using Zili Misik’s spirited performance as a jumping off point, this lesson will engage students in listening to and playing a variety of rhythmic grooves inspired by music of the African diaspora.

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Dive into the basics of a rhythmic pattern called “clave”, named after the traditional two-stick percussion instrument that forms the foundation for percussionists in most Afro-Cuban styles.

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Build on your rhythmic and melodic concepts with this activity that focuses on creating a groove around the 2/3 son clave pattern and other commonly found rhythms in Afro-Latin music styles.

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