Pathlines and Songlines

School Radio > Music > Join in with Music

A short, atmospheric piece evoking the geography and people of Australia, featuring didgeridoos.

The video

Pathlines and Songlines

A short, atmospheric piece evoking the geography and people of Australia.

The tradition of ‘pathlines’, ‘songlines’ and ‘dreaming tracks’ connecting the Aboriginal (First Nations) Australian people to their ancestors, special places and all their stories goes back many centuries. The music features the sound of the didgeridoo, a long pipe originally made from either eucalyptus wood or bamboo. The instrument is buzzed by the performer vibrating their lips with a ‘raspberry’ action at one end for a sustained drone, which can be varied with catchy rhythms and voice sounds. The technique is similar to playing a trumpet, horn or trombone but with special breathing patterns to keep the sound continuous. Children can discover a similar effect by buzzing cardboard tubes (or plastic piping, if made absolutely safe first).

Drone sounds from other instruments play throughout the 1 minute piece, starting with note C, gradually building up a chord or cluster of notes - C + D + F + B flat - the notes then disappearing symmetrically, so that we end up back on just C. A set of drone instruments can play this as a group: the video shows keyboard, melodica and harmonicas but violins and cellos and voices would work well too.

In the introduction, the first drone note is joined by a steady beat on instruments called clapsticks, which have also been an important part of Aboriginal Australian culture, playing beats and rhythms to go along with voices and didgeridoos. Finger clicks, claves and castanets can tap along to this steady beat, which carries on right through the piece.

The introduction is followed by five sections of around 10 seconds each:

• In Pathlines 1 the didgeridoos begin a pattern of phrases, mainly using low C, high C, and B flat. Some brown blobs (influenced by traditional artwork) suggest the up and down shapes of the first pattern, which then repeats. Children can join in with melody instruments or voices (humming and chanting) or informal buzzers such as kazoos.
• In Walking 1 the humming, chanting and buzzing continue to a steady walking rhythm: some children can step in time with this as they perform.
• In Songlines the drone continues while some of the children create and improvise sounds for Australia’s landscape and wildlife. The video has a few picture ideas which children can research further.
• Pathlines 2 and Walking 2 then follow the same patterns as before, the second of these ending with a brief rhythm pattern from didgeridoo to close, which everyone can join in.

Resources

School Radio > Music > Join in with Music