Today we practiced referencing in preparation for our final major.

Referencing books…

Example 1)

Winterson J et al (2013) Pop Music: The Text Book. Germany: Edition Peters.

Example 2)

Longhurst B (1995) Popular Music and Society. Second edition. New York City:Wiley.

Example 3)

Massey H(2000) Behind the Glass. San Fransisco: Miller Freeman Inc.

Example 4)

Goodall H(2013) The Story Of Music. London: Chatto& Windus

Referencing websites…

Example 1)

Soundonsound (2018) Mixing Hip Hop- The definitive guide for producers. Available at:https://www.soundonsound.com/news/mixing-hip-hop-definitive-guide-producers

(Accessed: 18th March 2019)

Example 2)

Ankeny J (2019) John Williams. Available at: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/john-williams-mn0000232480

(Accessed: 25th March 2019)

Example 3)

Petidris A (2018) Interstellar overdrive: Pink Floyd take Spandau Ballet on a psychedelic trip. Available at:   https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/sep/20/saucerful-secrets-interstellar-overdrive-pink-floyd-take-spandau-ballet-on-a-psychedelic-trip-nick-mason-gary-kemp

(Accessed 25th March 2019)

Example 4)

Mackin C (2018) MusicTech Magazine Issue 187: Composing in the Cloud. Available at: https://www.musictech.net/news/magazine/musictech-magazine-issue-187-composing-in-the-cloud/

(Accessed 25th March 2019)

 

we were given the task of writing a 32 bar composition. For this we could do whatever we thought would sound good but we had to include an audio file or sample of some sort and we had to have an A and a B section in it. I started by creating an audio file using the bass guitar. I started off with a short riff in the key of G major. However, because it wasn’t as simple, I was struggling with a musically different section that I could use. So i decided to change it and use the singular notes but with it harmonics. Next I focused on getting an acoustic guitar on there, I used Logic’s software instruments for the rest of the elements. For this I just used the same chords that were being played on the bass guitar but with only 1 strum each time a chord was played. Next was the drums. To be totally honest I had no  idea what I could do for this so I started off by using just the kick drum and adding bits in like the  high-hats, cymbal and some clapping. Then I added the piano. this was created just by using an arpeggio of the chords. Finally I added some studio cellos from logic just to try and fill up the song a bit more but was played using contrary motion. Follow the link below to listen to how it turned out.

https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/546189771%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-32kNQ&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true

This weeks goal was to start planning and preparing for our first gig outside of the college.

On Monday we spent the morning assigning roles to each other in the class. My role is to be band leader for my group. This means that I select new songs for us to cover, control the bands social media pages and website and I also organise sound recording sessions for the band to take part in. In the afternoon we were continuing what we were doing the week before- listening to a song and picking out the samples. I found this quite difficult compared to others as I’m still unsure on how to use logic, so I decided to stay a little later to try and get more of the work done.

For most of Tuesday we spent our time trying to find suitable venues for our gig. At first we had a list of 20 but as we discussed the pros and cons of each venue, the list was only 3 venues long. We needed to consider the types of audience that would be there and the location so some of them were unsuitable for us at the minute- we could consider playing there in the future. The rest of the day was a practical lesson where we rehearsed our single.

Our Wednesday morning was split into two sections. In the first half we were learning about harmonics and how to write them on manuscript paper. I found this pretty easy as I have done previous work on musical notation. In the second half we were shown how to change the plastic skins on the drums and how to tune them. We didn’t get to tune one ourselves but I think it could be quite easy. Our afternoon was also split into two-in the first section we had to set up the mics for the drum kit in the recording studio. This took some time so some of us stayed in there and set up during our break. Finally, our band had booked out the studio for that afternoon so we managed to get our recording done for the drums in our single. We have planned that next week we will have the studio for two days so we can focus on getting the guitars and vocals recorded. We then have only a couple of weeks to edit our final recording and add in some ornaments if we wanted.

On Monday our main focus for the morning was to start researching for ideas for our single. We looked at this in a theoretical and practical sense. For the first half of the morning we were give the task to talk about and write down as much as we know about a given genre from a certain era- my group was given the 1960’s. At the beginning I wasn’t really able to contribute that much information as I hadn’t learned about this era in much detail before so I was unsure as to what it was about, however by the end of the lesson I learned about fuzz distortion and bands that had developed in that era such as The Kinks. We were then given the task to perform a cover of “Schools Out For Summer” by Alice Cooper in a different genre. By Monday afternoon we were in the computer room working on and developing our quantising skills on logic. This was to ensure that we were comfortable with how to use it correctly.

Tuesday morning we spent as much time as we could trying to get together a set for our first gig in the Danish at the college. For this my band managed to come up with a melody and some lyrics for our “funk jam” original song. We also made some progress on developing our cover of You Know I’m No Good by Amy Winehouse- We thought that what we were playing as a group was too busy in a way so we made it more simplistic by just playing the chords with less of a melodic pattern, this helped us to also lock in as a group better. We also practised in the afternoon on Dakota by Stereophonics as well as the other two songs.

On Wednesday we spent the morning learning how chords are constructed on a guitar. this led us to being taught how modals worked. I found this lesson quite difficult as it was so much new information, it’s definitely going to take a couple of lessons to get it into my head properly. For the rest of the afternoon we had practical with John. This gave my band time to perfect our three songs as much as we could. By the end of the first half of the lesson we managed to finally get all of them to a good enough quality to be played at an acoustic setting. After performing to the teacher, we spent the rest of the afternoon jamming along with each other to give us some ideas of the different genres we could play and how well we were able to pick up some easy riffs to fall back on if we needed them at a gig.

As a group our strengths were…

•we played on time

•we were well practised

• we didn’t show our nerves as much

•the songs sounded clearer without so many symbols on the drum kit

However we did have some weaknesses…

• our endings weren’t sharp and defined

•we lacked communication at times

•we only had half of a drum kit to use, because it was an acoustic gig

•there wasn’t much room for us to move about the stage so we all stood kind of awkwardly instead of moving around

•I had to use an acoustic bass instead of an electric which I wasn’t used to playing

We have opportunities such as…

•booking the studio for a day to record some covers and our original song

•we could all choose a song individually that we would like to play as a band

But also threats…

•it takes time to learn new songs

For the whole of Monday morning we discussed the different types of jobs in the music industry. This includes amateur, pro, and semi-pro. With this knowledge we then discovered  how to create better revenue, bigger opportunities and more chance of us becoming a semi-pro or pro. In the afternoon we were asked to record the structures and bars per section for the songs we listened to at home ( see ‘song structures’ ) on logic.

On Tuesday we worked on our websites and updating them with recently completed coursework ( you can see this under my portfolio menu at the top of the page). in this lesson i managed to complete a couple of blogs by linking some videos from my YouTube channel onto the page, allowing viewers to check out some of the work me and some other classmates have been creating. After our tutorial lesson on radicalisation and how to spot it, we proceeded to get together in our bands and practice a few acoustic covers of song which we will be performing in two weeks. my group decided to cover Dakota by Stereophonics, You Know I’m No Good by Amy Winehouse and an original song that we are currently developing- it has a sort of funk vibe to it.

lastly, on Wednesday morning we recapped what we did last Wednesday about the circle of fifths, dominant and major 7ths and scales. as a group we are finally starting to understand how it all works and how we can use this knowledge to help us to create chord progressions in any given key.

 

So on Monday we talked about the 8 tasks we need to have completed by the Christmas holidays. This includes having a single performed and recorded and to have completed multiple risk assessments. For the rest of the afternoon we looked at song structures. We listened to loads of songs so that we could figure out the structure of different genres of music.

On Tuesday we spent the morning in our bands to practice with each other. This helped us to get to know one another and how well we could play together. After that we were given the chance to develop our ‘beginners guide to the music industry’  Powerpoint. I was already quite far ahead on that project so I managed to complete the task quickly. For the rest of the afternoon we were able to continue developing our band skills.

Finally, on Wednesday, the first half of the day was spent learning about major/minor/diminished 7ths. We were then quizzed at the end of the lesson to see how much of the information we managed to soak up. I found this lesson relatively easy as I had previously done this during school, so it was a bit of a refresher for me. The rest of the day was spent doing practical band work, after looking at how we can use the circle of fifths to work out a major scale. My band was able to come up with a decent composition in the key of E minor which could possibly be developed into a single, it’s currently titled “funk jam” as we didn’t get as far as creating lyrics. This was a great way to round off the end of a long theory-filled week.

Flashed Junk Mind- Milky Chance

Intro : 4 bars

Verse: 16 bars

Chorus: 16 bars

Interlude:8 bars

Verse: 16 bars

Chorus: 16 bars

Bridge: 12 bars

Chorus: 16 bars

Outro: 12 bars

Run To You- Bryan Adams

Intro: 8 bars

Verse: 16 bars

Pre chorus: 4 bars

Chorus: 8 bars

Verse: 16 bars

Pre chorus: 4 bars

Chorus: 14 bars

Bridge: 20 bars

Chorus: 30 bars

So this week we had a lot of theory lessons.

On Monday we spent most of the day learning about chord progressions in the key of c major. This was our theme for the week. It became apparent that in order to know about chord progressions, we needed to know about how the circle of fifths work. So we then spent the rest of Monday afternoon learning about that and some other scales.

We also spent Tuesday recapping this as it was a lot of information to take in all at once.

On Wednesday morning we learnt (if we didn’t already know) how to play simple scales on our instruments. I discovered that the knowledge of arpeggios and harmonics is my weak area so it is something I will be working on in my own time to keep up with others in my class.

Wednesday afternoon was a bit more practical. After spending the first half of the afternoon learning different chords that sound good when played together, we put our knowledge to the test. We had to create a composition in small groups using the chords we were given. Despite taking a few attempts to record the final production, my group did pretty well.

This week we were interviewed for the tq5 record label. In order to do well we had to complete 5 tasks that were to be completed for Monday. The first task was to write a few facts about ourself, our musical experiences, our musical influences and our ambitions: which were to be presented on either a PowerPoint or to be out in our bio. Task number 2 was to put together a group performance and perform a song to the rest of the class and the 2nd years. This wasn’t the easiest thing to do as our theme was money, so we were limited as to what song we could choose and it had to be something that the whole group decided together. My group decided to perform Jessie J’s price tag but as an instrumental.



Then, for task 3, we needed to write an essay with a minimum of 500 words based on how our favourite band made money in the music industry. Here we had to include at least 8 different ways including PRS, merchandise, ticket sales etc. This was also quite difficult depending on the band/ artist we chose (mine was The Red Hot Chili Peppers) as most websites only explained it very vaguely. Task number 4 was that we needed to come up with a solo piece with or without a backing track to perform to the 2nd years as they were the judges. I feel as though I did pretty well on this, despite a few slip ups however I managed to quickly recover from them and carry on playing in time. And finally for task 5 we were asked to write a small blog on our website for how our first week went and what we did.

On Tuesday we spent the whole day with the level 3 second years. We had a quick introduction to what we were going to be doing for the day and then we got straight to work. Our task was to write a small composition in individual groups and we had to perform this in the studio to everyone else. I think we all expected this to be slightly easier than it was. It was very difficult as we had to include: every member of the band’s style of music; how everyone likes to play their specific instruments; the advice that the teacher gave to us regarding on how to write a song that would interest the audience. Luckily I still had some notes on the songs that I wrote last year for my GCSE’s so we were at an advantage. Obviously we changed a few things so that others were able to perform it in a way that they liked. Unfortunately, not that long before we needed to perform, a band member was unable to play so we had to quickly change the song to fit with the rest of the band but I personally think that we would have done great if we was to of had a bit longer to practice the new composition together as a group.

Finally, on Wednesday we spent the first half of the day updating our websites to make them look more appealing and were shown how to use photoshop help us to do this. We were also shown how to insert a YouTube video onto our sites. I found this more difficult than others as I was getting all confused about what to do and where everything should go but I managed to do it in the end with some assistance from classmates. In the afternoon we learned how to set up a studio and how to do a small recording of the drums on Logic. This took a while as there are so many adjustments that needed to be made to get the perfect sound. Then we had a short break and returned, only to find out that we needed to set up the studio as part of a team without the teachers help. My group did quite well and managed to finish this quicker than the other group so we started to adjust the mics on the different parts of the drum kit to get different sounds.

Overall this week was a success.