“Are you ready to play Rock Around the Clock?”
“This lesson is aimed at beginners and you only need to play one note.”
“It doesn’t matter what instrument you play. If you play a cornet play without any valves pressed down. If you play a trombone, play with the slide pulled fully in. I’m using a cornet/trumpet, so if you play a trombone it will probably sound lower than me, but that’s fine. It’s the rhythms we play that matters”
“We are going to play the rhythm along with a backing track – let’s listen to it”
(play backing track arranged tune with 2 parts)
(for the rest of this lesson, have a backing track with the beat playing quietly in the background the whole time)
“This is how the song goes:
One, two, three o’clock, four o’clock rock,
Five, six, sev’n o’clock, eight o’clock rock,
Nine, ten, lev’n o’clock, twelve o’clock rock,
We’re gonna rock, around, the clock tonight”
“Let’s sing it together, ready, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, ….” – repeat
“Let’s clap the rhythm, ready 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, (clap rhythm)” – repeat
“Let’s play it on the note C that’s – open valves on a cornet, slide fully in on the trombone, ready?”
“1, 2, 1, 2, 3, ..,” (play rhythm of first 4 lines as above) – repeat twice (i.e. play 3 times).
“That’s great, we’re doing well, but if you need another go just restart this video!”
“In the next section we’re going to play a simple rhythm to accompany the tune. It goes like this: ‘gonna rock, 2, 3, gonna rock, 2, 3…’ ”
(swung quavers on beat 4 and an accented crotchet on beat 1, then 2 beats rest, hold up 2 then 3 fingers on beats rest – repeat)
“Let’s sing it together…”
“Let’s clap it together…”
“Let’s play it together – you don’t play on the 2 and 3 – just think 2, 3 in your head – we call them rests – I’ll hold up my fingers to show you the 2 and 3, but you don’t need to do that – I’m doing it to help you!”
“We start after a 3, so I’ll count you in 1, 2, 1, 2, 3 (using fingers on the last 2, 3) – ready?”
(play ‘dar da dum, 2, 3’ 8 times – the tune requires 9 sets of “dar da dum” – although the last one is the start of the final rhythm)
“Shall we try it again?”
“Now we’re ready for the final rhythm which is ‘gonna rock, gonna rock, rock around the clock tonight’ and the ‘night’ is a long note lasting 4 beats!”
“Let’s sing it…”
“Let’s clap it…”
“Let’s play it…”
“I’ll count the 4 beats on ‘night’ with my fingers, then there’s another beat on 1 before we finish with ‘rock rock’, like this (play). Let’s try it”
….
“Let’s put it all together, let’s sing, ready? 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4,
One, two, three o’clock, four o’clock rock,
Five, six, sev’n o’clock, eight o’clock rock,
Nine, ten, lev’n o’clock, twelve o’clock rock,
We’re gonna rock, around, the clock tonight, gonna
Rock (2, 3) gonna rock (2, 3) gonna rock (2, 3) gonna rock (2, 3) gonna
Rock (2, 3) gonna rock (2, 3) gonna rock (2, 3) gonna rock (2, 3) gonna
Rock, gonna rock, rock around the clock tonight (2, 3, 4, 1) rock rock!”
“Let’s play, ready? 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, ..”
(play)
“Now we are going to play our rhythms over the backing track with the tune, ready?”
(play over backing track)
“Well done! Great effort! You will probably need more practice before you can play it successfully, so just replay this video and have another go.”
“When you think you’ve got it, you can play play along with the backing track whenever you want with the video below. Have fun!”
Return to Rock around the Clock