Learning design is a lot like playing the bass.
I went to my first African drumming class on Monday night, and it was a blast! We sat in a circle with drums (Djembe) provided if we didn’t have our own. The group were kind and welcoming and helped to create a psychologically safe learning environment. I grabbed a chair and a Djembe, ready to have a go. It was intoxicating, that feeling of playing in time and rhythm with other people (until, you know, my arms and hands become mutinous and start doing their own thing in defiance of my brains well-intentioned instructions! LOL). But that's OK too; all you need to do is to step out of the flow for a minute, listen, regroup and dive back in. At one point, we were doing a 'simple' rhythm exercise starting with the right hand, and then our teacher asked us to swap and start the same rhythm with our left hand. Cool, that seems pretty straightforward, I think to myself. But I just started flailing around like a woman possessed – I’m not as ambidextrous as I’d hoped!
Music has always been a part of my life – from my school years where I was the geeky classical piano student (with a bit of cello thrown in for good luck). To living in a hippy share house in Sydney with a bunch of ex-Navy jazz musicians who handed me an electric bass one day (a sliding door moment) because they needed a bass player (how hard could it be, after all, it only has four strings!). To studying jazz at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and playing professionally in broadway musicals. That was my first career, and now I'm a learning and development professional who has fun playing with community orchestras and the odd jazz jam.
The role of the bass in any musical genre (classical, jazz, rock, blues etc.) is to lay down the harmony and rhythm of the music. Our core purpose is to help create a stable and responsive structure that supports the musicians playing the melody, improvising and taking flight together. We are the groove J
The role of learning design is much the same. As learning designers, our role is to create the harmony and rhythm that enables our learners to learn, take up their professional roles and live up to their potential.
There are three core components that make music out of a collection of sounds and beats:
Melody.
Harmony.
Rhythm.
Without them, we have noise.
Melody
A melody is a series of notes played in an order that is memorable and recognizable as a separate unit’. (What is Melody in Music? A Complete Guide.)
The melody is the singable part of the music.
Think about your favourite song or piece of music.
What part sticks out in your memory? The chords? The bassline? It’s probably the melody.
Harmony and harmonic relationships
In music, harmony is
When more than one note is played simultaneously, this can be on one instrument (piano/guitar) or by groups of instruments, e.g. symphony orchestras, jazz, blues or rock bands, choirs or barbershop quartets.
The composite product when individual musical voices group together to form a cohesive whole.
In art, harmony is a principle that creates cohesiveness by stressing the similarities of separate but related parts.
One should note that harmony is not the same as unity. Harmony does, however, enhance unity in a work of art. Specifically, harmony uses the elements of art (color, line, shape, form, value, space, texture) as a vehicle to create a sense of togetherness amongst otherwise separate parts. (Unity, Harmony, and Variety – Principles of Art.)
In learning design, harmony is the consistent, logical and orderly arrangement of the learning elements; it is congruity. Harmony is one of the reasons why chunking and sequencing are so important for creating a logical flow that engages the learner in a meaningful learning experience.
Rhythm
Rhythm is music’s pattern in time. It is the placement of sounds in time, in a regular and repeated pattern.
Rhythm is ‘any regular recurring motion, symmetry.’(Liddell and Scott 1996).
The word 'rhythm' comes from the Greek word 'rhythmos’, meaning measured motion, measure, proportion, to flow (Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias).
Rhythm is all around us. Our breath and heartbeat are constant reminders of the natural rhythms that guide everything we do.
In the performing arts, rhythm can include the musical sounds and silences that occur over time, the steps of a dance, or the pace of spoken language and poetry. In hip hop, the lyrics' rhythm is one of the most important elements of the style.
A strong, reliable sense of rhythm and timing is an important aspect of any music-making endeavour. (5 Tips to Develop Your Musical Timing).
In learning design, rhythm is the timing of events on a human scale: the learning elements, the repetitions (interleaving) and the intervals between those repetitions (spacing). This timing of events creates a sense of rhythm and movement. A good learning design rhythm creates stability and predictability for learners and reduces cognitive load.
Tempo is also important.
Tempo (Italian: timing) in learning design is about the speed of the learning, and it is variable. For example, the learning tempo can be rapid paced when revisiting content the learners already know and slow-paced when covering new, unfamiliar, complex content.
Learning design tempo needs to meet the learners where they are.
Melody, harmony and rhythm
Check out this video of three of the world’s greatest (and my favourite) bass players playing the blues: Ray Brown, Edgar Meyer and Victor Wootten. Notice as soon as they start playing, the melody, rhythm and harmony are established before moving into Victor's solo (melody) with Ray laying down a very cool bass line (rhythm and harmony) and Edgar playing chords (harmony). Sorry that the visual quality is not so great, but the music quality is totally awesome! Link: Bass fun: Edgar Meyer Ray Brown and Victor Wooten
And just because I can’t help myself, here are Victor Wooten and Edgar Meyer playing a blues duet on one bass. Link: Bass Fun: Edgar Meyer and Victor Wooten coolest duet ever.
References
Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. https://world_en.en-academic.com/62749/rhythm
Hello Music Theory, What is Melody in Music? A Complete Guide. https://hellomusictheory.com/learn/melody/.
Liddell, Henry George, and Robert Scott. "ῥυθμός", in A Greek–-English Lexicon, revised edition, combining the text of the ninth edition with an extensively revised and expanded Supplement. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Online, Perseus Project.
StudyBass, The Role of the Bass in Music. https://youtu.be/iAx_XGk_eJU.
The Music Studio, 5 Tips to Develop Your Musical Timing, https://www.themusicstudio.ca/blog/2017/06/5-tips-to-develop-your-musical-timing/
The Virtual Instructor, Unity, Harmony, and Variety – Principles of Art. https://thevirtualinstructor.com/blog/unity-harmony-and-variety-principles-of-art.