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].
 

Week 7: 04/11/2014

Arrangement

Today's main focus was arrangement and the piece we had created to present back to the class. Overall, this week has been my most enjoyable week as it was fun to create something and mix things up. Arrangements can be a range of different things from vocal rearrangement to completely changing the genre of the song. 'In pop music, above all, the role of arranger has merged with those of musician, programmer, producer and writer, to become a vital part of the creative process.' (http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb98/articles/arranging.html)

It has completely changed the face of music we know today. As more artists have begun to play around with this producing their own versions of songs already known.

The piece we had created had taken inspiration from groups such as Pentatonix:

 

 

 

 

This group take well known songs of all genres and make them there own by vocally adapting the songs and creating an acapella piece with full effect of the actual song. They recreate everything from the bass line to the lyrics adding their own touch and this is what we wanted to do.

At first we just thought of arranging the song 'Stand By Me' but once actually beginning to perform it we then thought of another song that would mix really well with this as it was originally taken from the same tune which was; 'Beautiful Girls' by Sean Kingston. Bringing both the old and the new together we created a new sound that hopefully would enlighten audiences.

 

 

PTXofficial (2013). Evolution of Music - Pentatonix. [online]. Available from: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lExW80sXsHs>. [Accessed 21/11/2014].

Sound on Sound [online]. (2014). Available from: <http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb98/articles/arranging.html>. [Accessed 21/11/2104].

Ukulele Lesson

 

Individual

As previously mentioned I have tried my hand at playing the ukulele, the reason for doing this was simply because my brother was given one from his school and so when listening to him play I asked for a try and really enjoyed doing it. I have literally had a few goes at it and enjoy learning, so this week when home I asked to learn a song. so he taught me how to play let it go, with use from the internet it has really helped me to develop my skills and I would really like to take this further. I have recorded a clip of me playing the chords, this was after only a few practises so it is really messy, but I am going to keep on trying until I can perfect it.

At first I decided to learn the chords before actually playing, the thing I find most difficult about playing it moving your fingers from one chord to another.

E minor

 












C









D

It is really tricky to quickly do it and therefore slows down the process, however after a few practises I started to get the hang of it once I could memorise the chords, this showed me that I it would only get easier once I kept going and repeating. I also find it difficult to strum which is why my brother provided me with his plectrum because my fingers kept getting caught in-between the strings, however I also think that this will come in practice and I think it was because I was strumming to hard on the ukulele.