La Raspa

Floaty mallet hands

Creating this video was a fun journey for me. I had an incorrect version of this song in my mind for the longest time, and doing the research and preparation for this video was a learning experience for me. Or rather, I should say an unlearning and relearning experience.

I tried to include the icons and representations of Mexico in this video, while making sure it wasn’t too exaggerated and feeding into the over-hyped OTT stereotype. For example, I coloured the sombrero in more subtle and less flashy colours and patterns. This also made sure the animation would detract from the actual music and performance of the students following the video. I really like cacti plants; they’re beautiful when they flower, and resilient too, and the background of the video is a nod to that.

The audio track is created using several musical instruments popular in Mexican music, like the guitarron, the guitar, trumpets, an accordion, and percussion instruments like the castanets, tambourines. My objective was to create a lively and rhythmic audio track that was easy for students to follow, and yet be able to feel the dotted rhythm pattern that is so characteristic of this song.

I debated with myself for the longest time whether to notate the song in a 6/8 or 4/4 time signature. Eventually I decided on 6/8 just because there are so many more 4/4 time signatured songs out there and I wanted something different for the students could experience, and maybe apply their knowledge of subdivision of beats in 4/4 to this other 6/8 time signature. This would also make it a good video to introduce quaver note (eighth-note) values to students.

This is also the first video that I have experimented with the floating hands to show students suggested hands to use for playing the melody on barred instruments. I thought initially that it might look a little creepy, but it seems to fulfil its function.

Let me know if you like the addition of floating hands in future videos - yay or nay? Perhaps animal paws instead of human hands (which I know could have been drawn better, but I’m no artist…)