Week Six 28/10/14

Work in Lecture

Within this lecture the group focused on how to create an effective adaptation of a song. This benefitted us greatly as it provided us with useful knowledge and assistance in terms of ideas for both our final individual performances and our final group performances.

To begin with we viewed the abstract or aleatoric pieces created in individual groups. Myself, Devin and Jen used our given object as inspiration and incorporated the whole group to use chance and improvisation. We asked the group to select an object in the room and when pointed at, create music with their object. The only stimulus the group was given was the object they selected, we asked them to respond to the egg using their instrument. This means the piece would include personal response. The feedback we received is as follows;

• There was no meaning or aim to the piece so it definitely fit the abstract genre.
• The piece was more chance than abstract. The instrument choice was unknown to us as we did not give a specific focus, we just said a 'random object'. It was also completely unknown what the final outcome/product was going to be.
• There was a strong element of improvisation within the piece in terms of structure. The participants simply responded to what was asked of them. The result of this is that every time the piece is performed it would be completely different which adds a sense of excitement to the performance. This is rather similar to the 'Storm' piece we had previously created.
• We were commended on how well thought out the piece was. Everyone within the group responded to the sound the egg made and really embodied the idea created.

We then focused on arrangements of songs and considered how arrangements are made. Our final performances, both individual and group, can be either an original piece or an arrangement so it was vital that we were educated on the characteristics and stylistic features included;

'An arrangement involves decisions about the choice of instruments and voices, the distribution of the pitches among the various instruments and voices, and the disposition of the diverse sections of the music, along with indications of dynamics, phrasing and so on.' (Shepherd 2003)

Within a group consisting of myself, Jen, Devin, Gil, Sophie and Kirsty we created an adaptation of the song 'Somebody That I Used To Know' by Gotye. The original piece is an adaptation in itself as it includes the classic nursery rhyme 'Ba Ba Black Sheep' played on the glockenspiel. The music video also relates to the meaning of the song by using abstract art. The lyrics within the song communicate that there is no meaning in the relationship anymore. This relates to the 'abstractness' of the video as abstract art also has no meaning. We adapted the piece by removing any instruments used and replaced them with voice. We used voice for the bass line and the melody. The original track and our groups adapted track is displayed below;

Individual Vocal and Instrumental Work

When considering my independent instrumental and vocal work, I feel that this piece has developed my ability to change instruments to vocal and create a whole new sound. The arrangement of this piece really influenced me in terms of my independent work as I now feel a lot more confident when arranging an original piece to make it different. I have now decided that I would feel more comfortable arranging an already existing piece rather than writing and creating an original song. Although I have made this decision, I am still going to work on developing my song writing in terms of both music and lyrics.

I personally really appreciate Billy Joel as a song writer and performer. His style of writing tells stories, evokes emotion in the listening audience and creates an image so vivid that it is imaginable. He is an extremely talented lyricist and song writer who inspires me to write myself;

“I notice that when I wake up in the morning, I’m singing something or humming something,” says Billy Joel. “I have something going on in my head – some music, some kind of theme – just about every day.” (American Songwriter 2014)

I think when I develop my ability to write lyrics I am going to use Billy Joel's work as inspiration. Songs such as 'Tell Her About It' tells a story and has a background to it which makes it relatable;

'Billy Joel talks about when he first started dating Christie Brinkley. He says that she was the first person he could ever just talk to, and they would spent hours just talking - this was the basis for "Tell Her About It."' (Song Facts 2014)

The song such as 'It's Still Rock And Roll To Me' presents ideas and concepts to the listening audience; Billy Joel was making a comment on musical styles and trends. (Song Facts 2014)

I am going to attempt to create lyrics in both of these styles of writing and use Billy Joel as an influence.
 

 

Work in Lecture

The group task for Week 7 includes creating our own arrangement of a section of an original song lasting between one and two minutes. The piece is to be performed rather than recorded and within the group we must try and make the piece our own. Myself, Devin and Jen had the idea of using the song 'Stand By Me' by Ben E King. We are planning to make the piece acoustic and tranform the instruments to vocals to create a whole new dynamic. For example, using our voices to create a baseline as well as using vocal to create the tune. We thought it might be effective to vary who sings which section; base, tune or lyrics, in order to add diversity to the piece as well as challenge ourselves vocally. The original song is displayed below;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTCfQ6Bb8QE

(Riahsha 2013)