Stand By Me: Elementary rhythm and harmony exercises based on Ben E King’s masterpiece

A – Basic Rhythm exercises / Rhythm awareness:

Here is a series of rhythmic exercises based on the song to be executed over the bassline audiofile.

Bassline in G (written in F clef):

Students will clap on different rhythmic patterns over the bassline during one cycle of 8 bars:

1 – All students clap on beat 1 during one cycle of 8 bars.

Use a speaker and sing along!

> This should be repeated with all students, some students individually , and small groups of students.

2- All students clap on beats 2 and 4 (also called the “upbeat”).

3- All students clap 2 eighth notes on beat 2 and clap 1 quarter note on beat 4

4- All students clap beat one and the “and” of 2

5- All students clap on beat 4

Adding Melody / Harmony

Now that the students can feel and understand the rhythms of the song let’s dive into harmony:

Everybody sings the simplified bass line: beat 1 and & of beat 2 with the sound “Doo”.

This should then be executed while clapping on beats 2 and 4 of each measure

Practice individually and all together.

One interesting way to practice this is with a group is to do 2 measures per student and create a circle so each student gets to sing only 2 bars and follow the exercise.

Assign a bass group and divide the rest of the class in three groups to focus on the vocal harmony:

Voice 1 (high)
Voice 2 (mid)
Voice 3 (low)
Voice 4 (Bass)

In order to assign each group of students according to their appropriate voice, practice each voice part with all students before you assign them to voice 1, 2 or 3.

INTRO

Each group sings the sound “Doo” until the first verse.

Here are the 4 voices from high to low:

And the voice 4 (simplified bass line):

Then practice all parts together on intro

This should then be executed while clapping on beat 2 and 4 of each measure

On the verse, the bass group sings the full bassline with the sound “Doo” and voices 1, 2 & 3 sing whole notes with the sound “Ooh”.

VERSE

Voice 4 (full bass line):

Voice 1:

Voice 2 :

Voice 3:

Practice all parts together on the verse.

This should then be executed while clapping on beat 4 of each measure:

CHORUS

On the chorus, the bass group keeps singing the full bass line with the sound “Doo” and voices 1, 2 & 3 sing “Stand By Me”, using two different rhythmic patterns: the first one start on the first beat, and the second start on the second beat.