Re Arranging Song based on Workshop

As I was inspired by the arranging workshop I wanted to take a popular song and arrange it to make it different and so I chose Mr Brightside by The Killers (TheKillersVEVO 2009). This song is normally fast and upbeat, but similar to I Will Survive that we arranged during the workshop, it has quite serious lyrics and meaning behind them. I feel that the seriousness of the lyrics is often missed with the original song and because of the popularity of the song but I really wanted to emphasise the meaning behind them. I did this through slowing the song right down, and adapting my vocal tone, making it simplistic and pure. I also musically adapted the melody at points, going against the unexpected, for example going down in pitch where normally the song would go up. I felt it was important to make the piano not the important part, so for the majority of the song just played sustained chords and let it build slightly by playing broken chords and making the piano higher as this keeps in interesting and varied. I used this piano accompaniment  to enhance the lyrics and not detract from them.

Composing Workshop - Lesson 4

In today's session we looked at what makes a good song and decided that it is an expression of feelings that resounds with others which is why some people prefer and like different songs to others. People connect with different songs. We decided that we wanted to compose a sad song and therefore I automatically started to play a minor based chord sequence and just start improvising around broken chords up in the higher octave. When playing I asked how it made people felt and Yahya and he said it made him feel quite melancholy as it felt quite sad with re assurance. It related to a previous chorus I'd wrote in the past and didn't know what to do with it.

No one said that life's a paradise, tomorrow brings what tomorrow brings.

I know today has troubles of its own, but tomorrow brings what tomorrow brings.

Then from this we developed a middle eight and put harmonies with this. However after this we hit a bit of a block and therefore I suggested the idea of doing free writing for a minute to try and devise ideas. From the writing and pictures developed from this task we then managed to use these to form the verses and by having a verse each it enabled each person to really connect with what they were singing which conveyed the emotion and feeling. Then this helped decide the structure and then I added harmonies to make this more musically engaging. This then also helped me decide on more interesting piano parts to accompany the vocals but allowing the vocals to be the focus as this was more important. We used a male and a female voice to show two sides of a relationship and I think this worked really well as was really clear and suited the song.

Walking everyday through the door step.
Waiting for your friendly warmth but your not there.
I don't know how to feel no more.
People talking, can't hear what they say. 
But,

No one said that life's a paradise, tomorrow brings what tomorrow brings. 
I know today has troubles of its own, tomorrow brings what tomorrow brings.

I know I know, I know, I know, your heart is heavy.
But believe, believe, believe, believe me, temporary. 

No one said that life's a paradise, tomorrow brings what tomorrow brings. 
I know today has troubles of its own, tomorrow brings what tomorrow brings.

Sleepless nights and troubled throughts.
Tryna find the demons in your head.

No one said that lifes a paradise, tomorrow brings what tomorrow brings.
I know today has troubles of its own, tomorrow brings what tomorrow brings.

These are the lyrics of the song with who sung them. The pink represents the girl voice of the piece, the male voice is represented by the blue and both of them singing together is the green.

https://soundcloud.com/musicianship-1/tirangle (Musicianship-1 2016) 

Creating Own Song based on Meaning and Emotion Workshop

Upon being given the task to create a song based on the Meaning and Emotion workshop we started to write a serious song and something that we could all relate too. Therefore we started to develop the chorus about being a performer around a chorus that Amy had previously composed and decided that the genre would be Musical Theatre and like Glee and the upbeat tempo with the major key helps show this. However we then took how we were feeling that day which was quite annoyed and sassy and through me just playing through the chords developed lyrics over this. We created the relatable lyrics to connect with the audience, such as use of names, and a topic that we felt passion about so that we could express the emotion through the performance. The rap/speech was used to communicate this but to also keep the song musically engaged and using this alongside the pauses in the piano added comical effect. It was evident that this was successful from the audience's reaction as they understood the humour behind it and we got the desired reaction. To develop this piece further we could add extra harmonies especially due to there being three of us. We could also make the speech bit longer as this bit was very effective and there is a lot more that we would be able to passionately talk about. The final aspect that I could develop is the piano playing because this remained the same throughout the piece.

Our Song: https://www.facebook.com/groups/751682068277287/permalink/976401852471973/

Lyrics:

Monday morning 9am lectures, really get to me.
It's not just Monday infact it is any 9am start that makes me want to scream.
Shannon never brings her card, Yahya is always late,
Erin's never in because she's probably on some Tinder date.
I tell you what overwhelms me, that really pisses me off,
It's all the blogs, the essays, the deadlines, the people, the groupwork, the rehearsals, the tutorials not that I've ever had one.
The price of chicken Mayo sandwiches, the fact that I have to get the bus, Chevie and by the way Hayley we haven't done the reading, sorry we love you.

Breathe it in. Breathe it out.
Say the words and say them loud.
To the ones who always told us that we can't.
So come on, show them all,
Like a blazing star it is our turn,
Just forget what you've been told before,
Just smile and let your worries go away,
Today.

I'm always in, I'm always in, your never in it's always me.
I do my work, I do my work, I even wrote this song for Hayley.
And when I do my work, I always make sure it's on time.
Not like Yahya whose a skiver, and was late to his assessment. 

Break it down now.

We never have swivley chairs, no we only have the plastic ones,
Which really hurts her back and really pisses me off.
I can't even play the piano, because I don't even know the piano code.
God knows how we wrote this song, without a pissing piano what.
But hey ho it's still brilliant though, yeh this songs fab.
Abi when does it go back into the chorus? I don't know but I accidentally brought my kitten into uni yesterday.

Breathe it in. Breathe it out.
Say the words and say them loud.
To the ones who always told us that we can't.
So come on, show them all,
Like a blazing star it is our turn,
Just forget what you've been told before,
Just smile and let your worries go away,

Today.

REPEAT CHORUS

Meaning and Emotion - Lesson 3

Expression in Music Performance is extremely important because it 'shapes how listeners experience Music' (Juslin and Sboda 2001) ) and therefore connects you to your audience. Juslin and Sboda argue that there are two types of people when listening to Music and this is absolutist and referentialist. An absolutist is someone who analyses the theory behind the piece, the technical building blocks such as the key and dynamics and musical elements such as that. A referentialist focuses on the emotive state and how the piece makes you feel and what expediences it relates you back too. However this theory can be argued because it can depend on the piece of Music and can also overalp which is a problem of putting things into boxes like this theory does.  In this session we looked at three different pieces and explored what musical techniques allowed them to express the emotion in the song which I will then use to help with my Independent project of composing my own song. It has allowed me to understand how the building blocks can influence the emotion of a song such as key, dynamics, texture and so I will focus on these when composing my own piece. 

Arrangement Workshop - Lesson 2

In this session it was a workshop based around arranging a song of our choice. We were given the sheet music with chords and lyrics for a few songs and from this we picked I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. We chose this because it allowed a challenge as this is a very well known song that we wanted to adapt and change. Something that is clearly well known about the original is it is upbeat tempo and we wanted to change this to focus on the lyrics which upon reading without the music are actually quite sad. We took the tempo and made it slower, and even when the audience would expect it to get faster we remained it at the same tempo and just layered the texture. The emotion that I got from it was a weak reassurance that the person 'will survive' and therefore we also wanted to look at it from both angles of the relationship, thus using a female voice and a male voice at different parts during the song. A relationship is about two people and we wanted to convey this in our arrangement. Another musical technique we used to communicate a melancholy feel was sustaining notes in the vocal part that normally wouldn't be sustained in the song as this suggests a desperation. In the original there is quite a thick texture in terms of lots of instruments and this is something we also wanted to change and took a more simplistic approach instrument wise and just had the piano. Then as it approaches further on in the song the tempo picks up as the echoes in the vocals become apparent to layer the texture so that it makes it engaging for the audience but still keeps it quite simplistic. The final musical technique we used for the piano to express the emotion of the song was at the end I took it up the octave and played broken notes up there to give the piece a calmer, sadder atmosphere to end on to reflect the negative effect of the relationship and the situation.

Original:

                                                       (Wesley Tai 2007)

Our Arrangement: 

https://soundcloud.com/musicianship-1/i-will-survive (Musicianship-1 2016) 

2nd Year - Lesson 1 - Intro

In today's session we reflected on last year looking at the positives and the negatives so that we can then improve upon this and be encouraged by this. Last year I learnt how to accompany on piano and worked on my skills in this area by constantly putting this into practice and taking opportunity to accompany others. I've learnt how to compose within a group situation and with this has come learning how to adapt others ideas and combine them with my own such as When I last year which I composed and then brought to the group and adapted others suggestions to improve upon it. To improve upon last year I need to do a lot more practice so that this will hopefully enable me to not only expand and improve in my skill but also allow me to gain more confidence in my abilities. 

Today we also looked at creating a piece based around the Thunder Word - Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnereonntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnkuk. To begin with we each just chose a drum as we felt this was appropriate for thunder and then picked part of the word that we wanted to focus on. The first part of the word we did as a group and decided that this would be our motif that we'd play in unison with a beat underneath and structure the piece around this. We then each found a different part of the word and took it in turns to play this as a solo to create different sections thus then ending with us all playing are rhythms over each other to create a poly-rhythm affect. We then worked on layering the texture and adding dynamics to make it more interesting and engaging and to reflect a thunderstorm gradually building. To improve upon this if we were to do it again, I would suggest some aesthetic elements such as movement to make it more engaging.

(Hayley Jenkins 2016)