Today I finalised my composition. I finalised the percussion played along with the second verse. When adding percussion, I noticed that my melody was slightly out of time but I left it because I was still happy with it. From verse A to verse B, the song calms down, particularly from percussion in verse A to percussion in verse B. The melody is rather different from verse A to B but the tonality is the same. I included call and answer (commonly used in African music) in verse A, as well as verse B being a longer answer to verse A. After completing my African composition, I am very happy with my interpretation and composition of African music.
In my third composition lesson, I completed my 16 bars. Ms Heggie then suggested I add another 16 bars to work on in the next two lessons. I completed a melody (for the second 16 bars) and added a basic clap in the background. I have also experimented with different drum and accompanying beats but have not yet found suitable beats for verse b of my composition.
Today was my second lesson working on my African composition. I added a marimba call and answer as well as many orchestral percussion such as claps, drums, etc. The percussion helps create a steady rhythm. I am very happy with my progress and am almost done with my African composition.
As I had missed the past few lessons, at the start of the class I decided to arrange a Mexican composition - focusing on mariachi bands. I started by recording my melody using the piano with the sound of a trumpet. I then added trombone for harmony and strings for accompaniment. I was then disappointed with my arrangement and did not believe that it sounded like a mariachi band. I then deleted my progress and restarted focusing on the music of Africa. I quickly developed a suitable marimba melody and added rhythm and harmony. I was really happy with my progress focusing on African music. I then completed the sheet about our style of music and discovered how African music usually uses lots of repetition and ostinato as well as call and response. I would like to use call and response in my composition as well as a lively rhythm and strong harmonies.
In the first Term 3 music lesson of Musical Passport, we were introduced to the topic and Ms Dixon gave us a detailed, informative introduction to Balkan music. We were played multiple folk songs and were asked to reflect on the musical elements used in each song. At the end of the lesson we all played the start of Ajde Jano. There were three parts. I chose part 1 but struggled with the music as the melody moved very fast and was high with many sharps.
On Monday the 10th of October, we were lucky enough to watch the Romanian group Vardos perform traditional Romanian music. They performed multiple folk songs and engaged us (the audience) in traditional dancing and singing. In the group, there was a violinist (in their style of folk music, the violinist is the lead), a bass and an accordion player. The violinist was very dramatic which strongly engaged us. She explained that the style of music often tells a boring story but they play the music in a fun and engaging way. Listening to a real Romanian group perform made the topic of a Musical Passport come to life. I found the stories and musical elements used very interesting because they are very different to the type of music I would usually listen to. I was fascinated by the way each member of the group played multiple instruments to a high degree of skill level, and were so engaging using body language and facial expression. I found that the music moved very fast and was very lively. The melody moved rapidly with a range of notes. In one song the bass player only used one string to play the entire song and used a thick, authentic bow. I had never seen this technique used and I was very interested in why it was used and how it was used. In another song the violinist used a ring to play percussion on a metal can and the accordion player played guitar while the bass player played violin. I found this song more familiar and sort of 'gypsy' like. Throughout each piece of music, the violinist played the melody, the bass player played the rhythm and the accordion would play the melody when using the piano keys, and the rhythm when using the buttons. It was great to see an authentic Romanian group perform.
I have decided to assess the song Take Five, originally performed by The Dave Brubeck Quartet. I chose this song because I believe that it gives an accurate representation of how cool jazz style was commonly used in the 1940's-1960's. This song uses an interesting time signature of 5/4 (which is why the name is Take Five) and also uses a common structure for jazz music which is AABA.
I am proud of my investigation because I was able to gain an understanding of the key signature 5/4 - I had not previously seen this key signature. I was also able to learn how cool jazz usually contains very simple melodies, harmonies and accompaniments, but can create a smooth tone. If I were to do this task again, I would have liked to have further researched the musical elements in this song and compare them to the common musical elements in cool jazz standards. Overall, I think my work demonstrates my clear understanding of Jazz music and the musical elements involved in Jazz music. Today we had our second rehearsal of All The Things You Are. We also listened to Ms Dixon’s class perform their song, Desafinado.
All The Things You Are is really coming together. We, as a group, have majorly improved. The trumpets are a bit better tuned and are able to play most of the notes. We still have a lot of work to do but once it comes together, it will be great. In our song, we finalised the structures, and adjusted some solos. Asher and Marcels solos have now been combined into a question and answer. This works a lot better because their sounds work better separate, instead of mixing their different sounds together (which was how it originally was). David was also here today, so David and I were able to perform a question and answer. Our sounds matched because we are both Bflat instruments, so we both used the same scale. Zennon's solo was also added to our song and it sounds really great because it brings out the guitar, as it is rather hard to hear behind the brass and woodwind. Jacky's ending on the drums has really improved, and Luca's end is really great - he is doing a small solo as Jacky ques a ritardando for the band, and brings the piece to the end. We also listened to Ms Dixon's class perform Desafinado. I really loved this song, and I thought that the whole group sounded great. I couldn't really hear the piano but Benji was really strong on the guitar because he played the correct chords and stayed in time with the drums. Sam on the drums was amazing. He held a really relaxed feel to the song. His solo was really great because he didn't try and overpower everyone, but kept it simple and clean. Rose sounded great on the solo and Riley was a strong trombone in the background. Justin helped keep the tempo on the vibraphones, and incorporated a range of notes. Overall it was a really strong performance, demonstrating many musical devices. Today was our first group rehearsal of All The Things You Are, for the MYP curriculum night on the 14th of June. We are playing as a whole music major class: two pianists, two vocalists, one drummer, one percussionist, two saxophonists, four trumpets and one trombonist.
There are four trumpets: Steven, Illit, Marcel and myself. I felt that we were having some very large and obvious intonation problems that we need to sort out. Not all of the trumpets could play the head, even though we have been playing it for four weeks. This was rather disappointing, but hopefully we sort it out before the performances. Our class has decided to involve question and answers between different instruments. We have not finalised who will be doing these, and who will be performing solos, but hopefully the question and answers will demonstrate what our class have been learning. Our structure that we worked on today, was: Head (only percussion, drums, trombone, guitar and piano), head (same instruments plus vocalists), head (everyone), multiple solos, question and answer, multiple solos, head. This structure works well, but we need to finalise the soloists. I found that Luca and Scout's solos (on vibraphone and vocals) were really great because they both used the correct notes, and had a strong sense of rhythm and dynamics. Hopefully by the time of the performance, the trumpets will be able to play the head in time and with the correct pitch, and everyone else will be able to do the same. If so, it should sound great. Today we performed! Scout was not there but Mel, David and I still performed.
I thought that we started off strong. Our head was together and in tune. David's solo on the saxophone sounded amazing. He incorporated a wide range of notes from the G blues scale, creating a very nice tone. Mel and David's question and answer (trading) worked very well and they also used a wide range of notes. In my solo, I used the notes from the G blues scale, but it did not sound right. It sounded a bit off key even though I am pretty sure I was playing the right notes. I was disappointed by that but I was still happy because I included trills and a range of notes in my improv. Mel's solo sounded very good and our head at the end of the piece was together and stayed in time. Although we were missing Scout, we managed to perform strongly. |
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November 2016
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