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)