Individual Assessment - Critical Evaluation

Critical Evaluation

In this essay, I will be critically evaluating the production of my individual study composing task. I will be assessing both the positive and negative aspects of my recording, the ideas and intention behind the piece and how they could be improved.

To begin with, I will look at the negative areas in my piece as opposed to the positive after. The first negative point I have in mind about the recording was the lack of richness, I believe my piece felt empty and could have been filled with harmony and other things such as ad-libbing to help the song to feel like an actual track. It is important to include these things as they add to the wholeness of the piece, sounding less harsh on the audience.

'Harmony supports the melody and gives the music texture or mood. You can change how a piece of music sounds by changing only the harmony.' (The Music Lab. 2015.)

Even if one harmony was included it would have made the piece more interesting and varied rather than it sound the same all the way through.

The second point is the tuning of my ukulele, as a beginner I have struggled to learn the instrument. As I have always only sung I sometimes find it hard to hear anything other than voice. Tuning is one of the most important things in music and I was disappointed that I couldn't tune my ukulele myself, as well as doing this the instrument was brand new and therefore kept falling out of tune (it would have benefited me to use an older one).

'I admit it is a little hard to detect the Interference beats at first if you are new to instruments, but after time you will be able to detect it easier.' (Get-Tuned. 2015.)

If I were to make an improvement on this point I would watch YouTube videos to help me with my tuning problems, which would instantly make my performance better.

In terms of improvements, re-recording my track would also enhance the song, recording the instrument and vocals separate would let me have more control over the levels and editing, it would also make both parts sound more comfortable until I am confident with doing both together.

 

One positive point I have to make about my recording was the audience intention. The lyrics for me were one of the hardest parts as I am a creative writer but I have never put this to test in terms of song writing. I struggled with where to start therefore I used research to find others tips regarding beginning a new song. 'Good songwriters use song craft to give their songs emotional impact and make them memorable for listeners.' (Frederick. 2015.)As I can only write from experience I tend to stray away from the cliché love ballad as this is not interesting to me. I prefer to make my audience laugh and this was achieved. 'Comic texts make an immediate impact.' (Arias. 2001.) My lyrics reflected my personality, with rhyming couplets and comedy elements it was fresh and new which everyone seemed to enjoy.

Overall, I think my recording could have been improved with more time and practice. Each point made could easily be improved with the right guidance, excelling my instrumental skills and vocals as well.

Enrique Alberto Arias (2001). Comedy in Music. 1st. ed. USA: Greenwood Publishing Group.

Frederick, R (2015) LEARN HOW TO WRITE A SONG: a step-by-step guide. [online] Available from: < http://robinfrederick.com/learn-how-to-write-a-song/> [14/01/2015].

Get-Tuned [online]. (2015). Available from: <http://www.get-tuned.com/tuning_science.php>. [Accessed 14/01/2015].

The Music Lab [online]. (2015). Available from: <http://www.sfskids.org/templates/musicLabF.asp?pageid=16>. [Accessed 14/01/2015].

Analysis

Music Theory for Beginners

The book that I have been reading for the past couple of weeks is 'Music Theory for Beginners' by Usborne. (Music Theory for Beginners. 1996.) I have found the book really simple to follow and quite easy to read, it’s a light-hearted sort of children's book that is easy understandable because of this I have been able to get a better grip on theory and how it works. However, because my keyboard is still broken I haven't been able to put into practice my reading yet, although I feel it will be successful when I do. I would recommend this book to others as it has given me more confidence when it comes to theory in that I would be able to understand when learning more in depth things now that I have started to study the basic, it has also made me want to take this further and by other books that would teach me how to play. The reason I have found this book so interesting is the way it is set out and the simple-ness of it, it is so quick to read and would be great for children beginning theory themselves as it is illustrated profoundly and the text is simple too, with no long terms or complicated descriptions.

The book also encourages those to learn further as it ask questions and quizzes the reader whilst they are learning to make them think about the subject instead of just reading and it going over the readers head. When reading the introduction of the book it encourages it further by asking the reader to test themselves after they have read it and offers answers at a section at the back in order to make the reader feel as though they have learned something indefinitely.

Something else I found positive within the book was that it also shows you scale charts at the back of the book, this could really help the reader when using the book practically (in which I intend) as it is demonstrated clearly and has options to choose from so that the reader can learn different things.

The book gives options for those who play different instruments which I believe it really helpful because if I also wanted to learn the violin or flute I could because it is not biased to one instrument therefore I would not have to purchase another book.

Overall, I believe the book to be really helpful and with its simple-ness come easy learning, for adults or children. I would highly recommend the book as it is colourful and light-hearted which means there is no awful pressure that is added like when buying big heavy books.

Jane Chisholm (ed). (1996). Music Theory for Beginners. London: Usborne Publishing Ltd.

Individual Assessment

Chords

With my individual project going well so far, I have been able to create some chords and a tune for my composition. I had decided to take the route of using an upbeat tune which is not about love or heartbreak as the stereo-typical pop song. After researching artists such as Lucy Spraggan it gave me the inspiration to use a night out or a party as one of the main areas of my lyrics.

As a beginner to song writing and creating music, my chords are not complicated. They are just 4 simple chords of G, D, F and C for the verse which is repeated three times then on the fourth they change to G, D, F and Am which give it a different feel. The chorus then progresses into, G, F, Am and C which is repeated twice. Then moves into verse two and so on. I have made the decision to have a bridge too but have not yet come up with the chords for this.

The chords already have created the more upbeat and light feel creating an easy-listening track. The use of the ukulele also gives it this effect.



Indivdual Assessment Research

Lyrics

Continuing with my research surrounding my individual composition I have been struggling a lot with the writing side to the composition. As I am new to song writing and creating my own music I have struggled with some elements to it.

The main reason for my struggle with creating lyrics is that I have no idea where to begin. I have a theme and an idea that I want to use in order to create my song however no idea as to how to go about it. Therefore, I have been using the internet to find out how I can learn to create my lyrics. As well as this, how will I know if my song is good enough? How will I be able to know if people will enjoy it.

'Good songwriters use song craft to give their songs emotional impact and make them memorable for listeners.'  (LEARN HOW TO WRITE A SONG: a step-by-step guide. 2014.)

In order to create a 'good song' it needs to be emotionally powerful not just from my behalf but to others as well, however I do not want to create a love song and have steered away from this path as I find it cliché and cringe worthy. I want to be able to take my listeners on a journey, not through a love song but maybe something that makes them want to dance or they can listen too and feel good.

I have been using videos and websites to help me to start my song and I feel a bit more confident in starting to write the lyrics now.

 

 

(HOW TO WRITE A SONG: Tip #2 Write a Great Title.2013.)

 

 

 

LEARN HOW TO WRITE A SONG: a step-by-step guide [online]. (2014). Available from: <http://robinfrederick.com/learn-how-to-write-a-song/>. [Accessed 22/12/2014].

 

Robin Frederick (2013). HOW TO WRITE A SONG: Tip #2 Write a Great Title. [online]. Available from: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Ijn_V3ZSg>. [Accessed 22/12/2014].

Group Assessment

Rehearsal Two

This week we had a really productive rehearsal as we have our completed piece we just needed to ensure it was being filled out with backing vocals and that the bass and choreographed movement was on time and in place. We managed to get it fully completed and where happy with the outcome of the rehearsal. Scrapping the piano was our best idea as now we are completely acapella with our song which adds an even more extreme element to the performance and it is more enjoyable to watch.

We must make sure that the song feels full in order to gain recognition for this performance as it would be boring without any backing or vocals. As you can hear from the rehearsal this week we have made a lot of progress and the song is really coming together as a piece.

I don't have much to comment on this week as we have really just progressed with the rehearsal time and have made more of a solid form for our performance.
 

Research for Individual Assessment

Individual Research

For my individual assessment I have been thinking of playing the ukulele and writing lyrics. As I am new to this I have never had much experience in writing and creating music. To give me an idea of what I would like to do with my song I have been researching different ukulele players and tips in order to gain some inspiration from it to therefore start creating my own piece. Using YouTube videos to support my research I have found a number of different ukulele players which have gave me inspiration such as 'The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain':

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLgJ7pk0X-s)

This group take popular songs and perform them in front of audiences around the world, they have a very comedic element to there style of performance and can keep an audience easily engaged with their talents.

Although I have struggled to find videos of peoples own compositions I have still been working on playing and how to play therefore I have been learning how to play songs in order to remember chords as I find this the most easiest way to learn them. I have been watching videos such as:

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9voTwpEyP4)

I use these videos a lot as they explain clearly and easily the best ways to play the songs you want, they offer alternatives to hard chords which will help you to build confidence also.

As I have been working on my own composition I have an idea of what I would like to look at as lyric writing is my weakness within this I am struggling to get an idea of what I can write about and how to start it. I have started with finding chords for my piece in which I know pretty well, I just now need to continue with the practice of finding lyrics. I have been using my time to research into different songwriters which I think give me most inspiration such as Lucy Spraggan, this artist interests me as she doesn't always write about love and break-ups which are typically what is seen in the charts these days. I wanted to write about something fun and upbeat so I have been looking into her work:

 

 

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzcytiq8ZOo)

 

 

This song is the one that inspires me the most as all audience can relate to it and it is fun to listen to, its easy on the ears and easily keeps and audience engaged with the witty lyrics. Songs like this are what most people would prefer to listen too instead of a ballad and using a ukulele I think would really be a good opportunity to write an upbeat feel good song like this one.

lucysVEVO (2013). Lucy Spraggan - Last Night (Beer Fear). [online]. Available from: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzcytiq8ZOo>. [Accessed 06/12/2014].

The Ukulele Teacher (2014). Blank Space - Taylor Swift (Ukulele Tutorial). [online]. Available from: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9voTwpEyP4>. [Accessed 06/12/2014].

UkuleleOrchestra (2010). The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. [online]. Available from: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLgJ7pk0X-s>. [Accessed 06/12/2014].

Group Assessment

Rehearsal One: Starting the Composition

 

Now that the usual sessions have finished it is time for us to focus completely on our assessments. The rehearsal period is as important as lesson time as it is essential that we are able to compose our pieces in plenty of time before the performance whether in lesson time or outside. Today was our first main rehearsal and it was very productive for our group. The members of my group are; me, Kayleigh Johnson, Jenni Cunningham and Gil Parker. The reason why we work together so well as a group is because we all have similar interests and ideas within music and work really well as a team, challenging and pushing ourselves. We had ideas from the start as we are really creative people, we took a lot of inspiration from the sessions and especially the arrangement session.

So once discussion had started we thought of firstly creating two separate pieces both being around 3 minutes long, however once we had started creating our first piece we then decided to make this around the full time limit as we were enjoying it so much.

The piece we have decided to do is an arrangement of songs using the four chord progression being: CGAF which is included in most pop songs so we had a lot to play around with. We took inspiration and done research into this before making any hasty decisions, we had researched the four chords and used groups like Pentatonix which had previously been used as an inspiration when creating our last piece which is where the original idea stemmed from.

Groups like Pentatonix used their voices to create the music and voices which is what we wanted to infuse into our performance, their videos such as their 'Evolution of Music' which takes you through the years of music is really interesting and creative and definitely would be the path we are wanting to take however we would be using typically pop songs of old and new therefore we thought that the 'Evolution of Beyoncé' video was more appropriate for us:

                                  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkR4asPMip4)

 

For us this video really helped me especially when thinking about the idea and how we could use sounds and voices to create the music behind our to create a filling performance. However, it is not unknown that the four chord progression has been done before as groups are famously known for it. Some of these in which we also learned from, The Axis of Awesome are YouTube sensations for their performance of this in which they also took pop songs. However, for us to take on something like this but infuse our own songs into it filling it with harmony and other sounds just like Pentatonix do is a really big challenge.

                                    (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOlDewpCfZQ)

When starting the piece ourselves we just kept naming songs from the top of our head when we were listening to the chords as it became easier to find songs that fit once we had started to sing another song. What we have done is tried to overlap and introduce the songs while other songs are being sung to show off the four chords and add layer and dynamic to the song. Once this has been perfected then the ideas of harmony and sounds will be introduced to build the song up and fill in any empty spaces. We have came up with around 19 songs to include as the song is going to be 5 minutes long. The songs included are a mixture of old and new songs so that we could show how long these chords have been used for which also give the audience versatility and therefore a wider audience will be engaged.

Personally for me the song became easier towards the end as we all started to engage with the music and be totally into the performance. We have a lot of ideas and paths we want to go down with the song and there is still a lot of work that needs doing but this is the result of our first rehearsal and it can only get better!:

PTXofficial (2013). Evolution of Beyoncé - Pentatonix. [online]. Available from: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkR4asPMip4>. [Accessed 23/11/2014].
The Axis of Awesome (2011). The Axis of Awesome: 4 Chords Official Music Video. [online]. Available from: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOlDewpCfZQ>. [Accessed 23/11/2014].