First rehearsal-Last Term
Today we started our year 9 music arrangement on a song of our choice. We were told what to do then Sophie and I chose to be in a group together. We took sometime to decide which song we were going to arrange but Sophie and I chose the song Feeling Good, we liked this as it is a well known jazz standard and thought we could add some improvisation and change the chord progressions around a bit. We thought it would be good with me on piano and Sophie playing the melody on trumpet. Illit then joined our group. Sophie and I tried to convert the song for a b flat instrument, initially before we started to arrange, because piano is in concert pitch and trumpet is a b flat instrument, we got the melody in b flat for piano and converted it into c for trumpet. We started to just play through the melody and the backing to get the feel of it. Illit wasn't sure which instrument to do so we suggested congas and showed her the basic beat to play through the song, so once she got the hang of that she could add in her own flavor to the song. This is all we did today, we just played through the piece and got the feel of it.
Second rehearsal- Start of term 2
Today we were told we only had 1 more lesson which was today to work on our piece, so we got to work immediately. We played around and immediately we knew what we could do to make it our own. I suggested that Sophie play the trumpet for the start as a solo playing the original melody. Then piano and congas come in with the original chords, while Sophie does trills over the top to make it interesting. After this I thought it would be good to add and improvisation section with the same chords but with improvisation playing over the top of it in b flat scale first me improvising then Sophie then Illit. We all agreed this was what we would do. We each worked through that and played it a few times over to get our head around it, working out how long each of our solos would be we then decided after Illits solo Sophie and I would take a few short Solos one after another switching between our instruments. We thought after this we would end with the original melody of Sophie playing the solo. We played through this a few times, but I felt it was lacking in character, so i thought we could do another part after the improvisation, sticking with the same key but transitioning into the blues scale eventually just doing a 12 bar blues to keep it simple, and then going back to the main melody which Sophie was playing. I feel like this added a bit more contrast and character our arrangement was lacking. Sophie and Illit agreed with this idea so we played it through. It sounded messy though it was coming together. Illit was having trouble with her solo part and keeping the beat so we stopped for a bit to help make sure the beat was steady and show her ways to make her solo sound good but by still keeping it simple. This is what we did today, i feel like our song changed in tone,
Today we started our year 9 music arrangement on a song of our choice. We were told what to do then Sophie and I chose to be in a group together. We took sometime to decide which song we were going to arrange but Sophie and I chose the song Feeling Good, we liked this as it is a well known jazz standard and thought we could add some improvisation and change the chord progressions around a bit. We thought it would be good with me on piano and Sophie playing the melody on trumpet. Illit then joined our group. Sophie and I tried to convert the song for a b flat instrument, initially before we started to arrange, because piano is in concert pitch and trumpet is a b flat instrument, we got the melody in b flat for piano and converted it into c for trumpet. We started to just play through the melody and the backing to get the feel of it. Illit wasn't sure which instrument to do so we suggested congas and showed her the basic beat to play through the song, so once she got the hang of that she could add in her own flavor to the song. This is all we did today, we just played through the piece and got the feel of it.
Second rehearsal- Start of term 2
Today we were told we only had 1 more lesson which was today to work on our piece, so we got to work immediately. We played around and immediately we knew what we could do to make it our own. I suggested that Sophie play the trumpet for the start as a solo playing the original melody. Then piano and congas come in with the original chords, while Sophie does trills over the top to make it interesting. After this I thought it would be good to add and improvisation section with the same chords but with improvisation playing over the top of it in b flat scale first me improvising then Sophie then Illit. We all agreed this was what we would do. We each worked through that and played it a few times over to get our head around it, working out how long each of our solos would be we then decided after Illits solo Sophie and I would take a few short Solos one after another switching between our instruments. We thought after this we would end with the original melody of Sophie playing the solo. We played through this a few times, but I felt it was lacking in character, so i thought we could do another part after the improvisation, sticking with the same key but transitioning into the blues scale eventually just doing a 12 bar blues to keep it simple, and then going back to the main melody which Sophie was playing. I feel like this added a bit more contrast and character our arrangement was lacking. Sophie and Illit agreed with this idea so we played it through. It sounded messy though it was coming together. Illit was having trouble with her solo part and keeping the beat so we stopped for a bit to help make sure the beat was steady and show her ways to make her solo sound good but by still keeping it simple. This is what we did today, i feel like our song changed in tone,