CONNECT IT (ANNA MEREDITH)

Compose a piece of body percussion

Creative response lesson plan designed by Andrew Smith

Introduction
Anna Meredith’s ‘Connect It’ is quite an unusual piece in that the instrumentation is for body percussion only. It’s a
great inspiration for a classroom body percussion composition. Firstly, establish the idea of pulse with your class
using this game:

Mexican clap
Organise pupils into a circle (either sitting or standing) and get pupils to take it in turns to clap once, one after
another going around the circle – like a ‘Mexican wave’ but with a clap. After a couple of practices, you could
imagine that you are all listening to the same piece of music to which you have to clap the pulse (the beat), taking it
in turns to clap one beat each.

You can develop this by sending 2, 3 or even 4 claps round and see if your class can co-ordinate themselves!

Composing body percussion

Ask pupils to experiment with sounds that can be made with the body, for example stamp, clap, pat chest, vocal
sounds etc. Encourage pupils to think about applying movements to their sounds too, as Anna Meredith did in
‘Connect It’.

Each box in the grid below represents one beat (8 beats on both the top and bottom rows).

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Distribute the print out of page 3 of this document to pupils. They can decide where in the grid to put their chosen
body percussion sounds. Pupils should add one sound per box or 2 quick sounds if they would like them to be
performed quickly (like quavers) in the space of one beat.

TIP – Suggest pupils think about the use of silence and rests in their composition as these can be just as effective as
the sounds. Also suggest that pupils look at the pattern of their sounds and silences, for example perhaps there’s
symmetry or a repeating pattern.

Example of completed body percussion grid

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Stamp Chest/Click Stamp Clap Stamp Chest/Click Stamp Rest

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Shout
Stamp Chest/Click Stamp Clap Pat thighs Pat thighs Rest
‘Whoop!’
Ideas for development
Once pupils have a 16 beat body percussion piece that anyone can perform, they may like to develop their ideas
further.

Perform the piece as a round

To create a round, split the class into smaller groups and start them off at different times. For example, group 1
begin and group 2 join in from the beginning when group 1 gets to box 9. This is a simple two part round. For a
four part round, when group 1 gets to box 5, group 2 begin. When group 2 then get to box 5 group 3 begin.
Finally, when group 3 get to box 5 group 4 begin.

Create a section B
By slightly changing what they have already composed, pupils can create a second section that can be played
directly after their first 16 bars. For example, it could be that everybody plays boxes 1, 4, 7, 9, 12 & 15, but all
others are now rests. Another example is to reverse the order and play in what’s called retrograde motion. By
performing section A, followed by section B and then a repeat of section A, pupils will have created a short piece in
ternary form.

Use polymetre
To create an effect like phasing you can by split the class into 2 groups: group 1 will perform boxes 1-4 only and
repeat. Group 2 will perform boxes 1-3 only and repeat. If you use the example above, you’ll notice that both
groups start with same body percussion sound. As both groups repeat their rhythmic passages, it will appear that
they fall out of sync with one another, however eventually they will both arrive back at box 1 at a particular time. It
is possible to calculate when this ‘meeting’ ought to be: as group 1 performs 4 boxes (4 beats) and group 2
performs 3 boxes (3 beats) we multiply 3 x 4, and so it takes 12 beats for the cycle to complete and meet again.

It is therefore possible to create some very complex phasing effects using this technique. For example, if you split
into 3 groups: group 1 performs boxes 1-5 on repeat, group 2 performs boxes 1-4 on repeat and group 3
performs boxes 1-3 on repeat; this means the number of beats for the cycle to be completed is now 5 x 4 x 3 =
60 beats.

Perform
Once pupils have had time to practice their body percussion pieces, give them the opportunity to perform in their
groups to the rest of the class.

Vocabulary

Term Meaning
retrograde motion moving in a direction that is opposite
ternary form in 3 parts or sections in which the 3rd section is the same or nearly the same as the first
section
polymeter voices/instruments that play different meters and become desynchronised i.e. get out of
step or out of phase
phasing the effect achieved when two or more voices or instruments play the same musical
pattern at different times
 Body percussion composition
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16