Brief:
Your school is hosting an awards ceremony for local
community organisations. You have been asked to compose a soundtrack for the
opening of the event.
TASK 1 Planning:
My statement of personal aims:
Through my contribution to the event I would like
to achieve the following goals:
- For me to achieve what i want for my compositions i need to be more
confident when making my compositions. Through composing a portfolio
of compositions that are played to a real audience will go towards
boosting my confidence of my musicianship. I need to work on a piece
I am happy with and improve it to the best off my abilities after
I have received feedback from my peers and my teacher. Once this
has happened and I am happy with the result, I think
my confidence will be boosted for the remaining 15 minutes.
- I would
like to write a portfolio of 4-5 compositions that are
around 3 minutes each and are completed.
- I would like to improve my writing of chord progressions
- I would like to start experimenting with the structure of
compositions and I often just go from one idea to another without
returning to any ideas (this has previously led to short pieces).
I think that I have the following skills which I
will use to help me achieve these goals:
- I enjoy creating pieces of music that will work with lots of
different beats and in different genres of music.
- I have previously explored music technology to
create compositions.
- I can play different instruments so I can get
different ideas for my compositions.
- I help out a lot with the music department and the stage crew, so I
have learnt many different musical techniques by watching other people.
I will know if I’ve achieved it because I will have
a checklist and tick of what I need to do when it is done - this will be based
on the brief criteria and my written plan. I will also collect in question
sheets to some members of the audience so they can share their
thoughts. I will then meet with my teacher to discuss my compositions.
How I will meet the expectations of the audience:
For me to meet my expectations of the audience, I will make the music relaxing and calm that can easily be played in the background whilst the audience talk and wait for performers on stage. I will also use high bitrate audio quality when exporting from Garageband. I will listen to my compositions at every stage of the composing process and will work on features that I may not be happy with. If I cannot fix these, I will listen to other tracks in the genre to see what other composers and done, I will use Google, ask my peers and will ask my teacher for advice. This will make sure that I have confident with my compositions before they are played to the audience.
Plan of my contribution to the performance:
The requirements of the brief and
how I will meet them:
For me to meet my requirements of the brief I will need to work as hard as possible to improve all my compositions within the tight deadline. I will need to make sure I have the required amount of compositions that last 15 minutes, for example, 5 compositions lasting 3 minutes each, or 4 compositions lasting around 4 minutes each. I will compose using genres that will appeal to a wide and varied range of ages, as the audience will be mixed (both young and old).
What I intend to do:
I intend to play my
compositions in front of the audience when everyone has stopped performing
before, during and after the event. I will play all of my songs, but maybe at
different times. I will compose my 4 or 5 songs in two main styles - Jazz and
media music.
How I will do it:
I will prepare what songs I will need to work on and see if anything will need to be improved. I will spend the first few lessons sketching ideas. I will then use a lesson to develop each of these ideas into full compositions. I will make sure I get regular feedback from peer and my teacher for suggestions of what I could improve.
Who I will need to involve:
The audience, the teacher, and my peers to ask for
feedback. This will ensure I also have a mixture of ages to receive opinions
from.
Resources I will need:
For each composing session I will need Garageband iOS,
iPad, Speakers and Headphones. I
have chosen to use GarageBand to compose, because I personally think
it is a good app to compose music and I like the way it is graphically laid out and that I can hear my ideas instantly.
The time needed for each song/activity:
Each song will need to last 3-4
minutes each. I
will need to make sure that I have a minimum of 15 minutes of music by the
dress rehearsal date. I will also need to finish one or two compositions quite
early on so that I can get feedback from peers and the teacher before I
continue to work on more ideas. This is important because I may
start working on songs that I think are suitable, but other people
might disagree. Getting peer support early on will limit any mistakes.
Health and safety issues for
composition writing sessions and the performance of them:
· Volume: I will need to mix my songs so where are no
sudden loud peaks in volume. I will need to talk to the sound crew before hand
and sit with them whilst we test sound levels through the PA system.
· Drinks near equipment: I will be using an iPad
that will open be plugged in to the mains. I will need to make sure I have no
open drinks nearby to avoid risk of electric shock and damaging the equipment.
· Tripping: If I am connecting the iPad with wires I will need to make sure
that these are safely tucked away or taped down to prevent trip hazards.
My composition set list:
Song 1 - Shane Calvert Comp 1 - 4:15s (Mixed)
Song 2 - Shane Calvert Comp 2 - 3:16s (Mixed)
Song 3 - Shane Calvert Comp 3 - 3:08s (Mixed)
Song 4 - Shane Calvert Comp 4 - 4:49s (Mixed)
Total length of compositions: 15 minutes 28 seconds.
Composition Writing Schedule
Rehearsal 1: 4th January
I started to write ideas for 4
compositions using the piano and guitar instruments is one GarageBand project.
I then used 15 minutes of the lesson to finalise composition 1 – I did this by
adding a few more instruments (bass and drums). I also made sure that the music
changed at the correct time using the ‘quantize’ function.
Rehearsal 2: 9th January
I took a simple melody from my first
composing session“sketching project” and started on my composition 2. For this composition I planned
on using a wider range of instruments, to build on the texture of the
composition – this will help build the excitement for the audience.
Rehearsal 3: 16th January
I used this time to work on a
repeating structure for composition 1 and then worked on string different chord
progressions for the strings in composition 2. For this part opened a new
project and I started to place the music into composition 2, making sure I didn’t edit
anything accidently in composition 2.
Rehearsal 4: 23rd January
I arranged the chord progression of
Composition 2 into a simple structure that would keep interest – I don’t want the
audience to get bored of a simple repeating chord progression. I then started
composition 3. For this composition I used the skills I had learnt from the 1st
and 2nd composition to create an even better piece of music – this time the
chords would be played on the piano.
Rehearsal 5: 30th January
I finished composition 3, and
started on my fourth composition. This was after having got feedback from peers
and my teacher on how to improve the structure of composition 4. I chose to
focus on building the texture by adding and subtracting instrument layers (see
the screenshot for composition 4).
Rehearsal 6: 6th February
I began to finish composition 4. For
this composition I took all feedback from my peers and teachers. And pushed my
skills to the limit to create this piece of music by exploring melody notes
that go together with the chords I was using.
DRESS REHEARSAL (Compositions to be
up to time limit by: 8th February
(2 hours)
I finished composition 4. I also
made sure that all of my compositions were at high standards. I began to mix
and export my compositions. I then listened to them through speakers to see
what they sounded like. I then edited the volume of some of the instruments and
experimented with panning some instruments a little to the left and a little to
the right to create an interesting stereo field. I didn’t want to
pan them too much in case the audience members close to one speaker could only
hear one stereo part.
PERFORMANCE: WEDNESDAY 22nd February
My compositions were played to the audience and got marked by the teachers with positives and improvements that could be made. I provided feedback sheets to audience members and collected in more suggestions for improvements and what they liked (as you'll see lower down).
TASK 3 Evaluation
Strengths
Reflection:
I managed to pick a wide range of instruments to create good and
catchy beats. I build on my knowledge of chord progressions by sticking with C
Major and focussing on C, G, F and Am (with a few additional chords). I am very
happy with the structure of my songs and I think they develop well, but also
come back to previous ideas. To this extent, I think I have successfully
achieved my own goals. To make my compositions successful to the brief I think
I achieved that for each song by:
Composition 1: In this composition I used Strings for the introduction. I also
used Piano, Bass, Drums, Electric Piano. This has created an up beat and catchy
song.
Composition 2: In this
composition I used a wide range of smart drums for the introduction. I also
used violins and bass. This created a nice beat with the drums and the
Bass. It is a nice relaxing song.
Composition 3: In this
composition I used Smart piano for the introduction. I also used the house drum
machine. I also used the orchestra band to create the build up in tension. I
think this third song added some excitement for the audience.
Composition 4: In this
composition I used String Chords, a Hip Hop Jazz Beat, and Guitar. This has
created a fast and up beat composition that people of all ages will like and made
a nice climax to my set.
Improvement Reflection:
My areas of development:
Skill 1: Use a more wide range of Instruments.
Skill 2: Get familiar with
getting the different beats to work with each other.
Skill 3: Begin lyric writing.
Improvements for my compositions:
Improvement #1:Structure
Strategy: Make it clear what part is the main and the chorus.
Improvement #2:
Strategy: Make my compositions in a different key, such a G Major or F
Major, or even a minor key.
Improvement #3:
Strategy: Write a melody to create the composition, to more advance
levels.
Feedback from others:
· These compositions have a clear structure with an interesting
development of instruments and melody lines.
· Experiment with changing keys in GarageBand - there are many good
YouTube clips of how to do this. Research the Circle of 5ths to help you.
· Make sure to use the 'quantise' function after you have played a
line in live - some of the melody notes in your songs are a fractin of a
section delayed.
· The set list of your songs is very consistent. There are no pauses
between sections of your songs, and the songs flowed nicely from the first song
to the last.
· The mixing of your lower pitched instruments did sometimes distort
the speaker - you might not have noticed this when listening to headphones, and
it was only a very minor distortion at times.
How this feedback helped with my evaluation of my
compositions:
The comments and feedback helped me figure out where I could
improve on my compositions. I have reflected on this in the above writing.
Conclusion:
In conclusion I feel my compositions could be used at award
ceremonies to fill in the silence in between the awards. I think they did a good
job in doing this with a well thought out set of compositions. I am really
happy to have a finished portfolio of compositions that I can now use after the
course to demonstrate my skills. I have definitely improved my chord
progression skills and my understanding of how to structure songs. I am now
looking forward to working with a singer to add lyrics into my songs.
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