Week Twelve 16/12/14

Individual Work For Assessment

When beginning to write my lyrics, I realised that the track I had selected did not reflect the idea I wanted to portray. I decided to change my track selection to an acoustic version of the song 'Crazy' by Gnarles Barkley. I have sampled this acoustic guitar track within my performance. The track does not sound anything like the original recording meaning that I am not tempted to sing my lyrics in the same style; I am able to put my own stamp on the performance.

When writing my lyrics, I took a lot of inspiration from the book titled 'Fragments' (Buchthal, S and Comment, B 2010) using poems and diary entries from Marilyn Monroe herself. I also used some very well-known quotes from her. I carried out a lot of research into Marilyn Monroe including her earlier life so I could get an insight into her thoughts and her feelings. Hopefully, my lyrics will capture her personality and my audience will understand the aim of my performance.

I have wrote the whole song including two verses and a number of chorus sections. All I have left to work on is the end section of the performance where I am going to include riffs and trills to communicate to my audience what I am capable of doing with my vocals. I am also going to use my improved ability to harmonise in various areas of the song to make it more entertaining and interesting to listen to for my listening audience.

The quotes I took inspiration from include;

“I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.” 

“I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”   

“This life is what you make it. No matter what, you're going to mess up sometimes, it's a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you're going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends - they'll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, some go. The ones that stay with you through everything - they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them. Also remember, sisters make the best friends in the world. As for lovers, well, they'll come and go too. And baby, I hate to say it, most of them - actually pretty much all of them are going to break your heart, but you can't give up because if you give up, you'll never find your soulmate. You'll never find that half who makes you whole and that goes for everything. Just because you fail once, doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.”   

“A wise girl kisses but doesn't love, listens but doesn't believe, and leaves before she is left.”   

“Beneath the makeup and behind the smile I am just a girl who wishes for the world.”   

“You believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself.”   

(goodreads 2014) 

I also took a lot of inspiration from the song 'I wanna be loved by you', performed by Marilyn Monroe herself, for the chorus section within my song;

My lyrics and rehearsal recordings are displayed below;

Verse One

Beneath the make-up and behind the smile,
I'm just a girl, who wishes for the world.
And I try to give them enough,
But they want too much.

Please don't talk about me when I'm gone,
It's all wrong, that's not what I want.
So you think you know,
Who is Marilyn Monroe?

Chorus

I just wanted to be loved by you,
Just you, nobody else, just loved by you.
I didn't want nobody else, I just wanted to be loved by you,
You, only you.



Verse Two

People change so you can learn to let go,
Things go wrong, things go right, but then you know,
That you can trust no one but you,
Not everything you hear is always true,
This life is what you make it.

I'm out of control, I make mistakes,
There's only so many times a heart can break,
A wise girl kisses but she does not love,
She listens but she doesn't believe,
And before she's left she leaves.

Chorus

Chorus
(sang a lot softer to range dynamics)

Final Chorus (including riffs over the original lyrics to showcase my vocal abilities)

End

When I next work on my individual performance, I am going to complete the recording process by recording the piece as a whole and then add in harmonies, sounds such as 'oo's and potentially incorporate elements of body percussion. I am going to use a trial and error approach to see what works and what does not and hopefully I will be able to make my performance the best it can possibly be.

Week Eleven 02/12/14

Group Work For Assessment

In this rehearsal, the groups main focus was to perfect our song including vocals and staging. This was done to ensure that all performers were confident in preparation for the final performance. We now have an audience to perform to so it is vital that the performance looks effective as well as sounding precise.

We began by incorporating additional extra harmonies and 'oo' sounds to add texture to the piece, in particular to the more empty sections. Some songs such as Wreckin' Ball sounded extremely empty as there was only one voice singing. By adding extra harmonies and other vocal sounds, texture was added making the piece a lot more interesting to listen to. We broke down the entire song to work on and tighten all of the individual harmonies so that the piece sounds clean and precise. As so many harmonies are included it is extremely important that no one is off key as it will disrupt the whole performance. An extra harmony we devised is displayed below;



After working through the vocals, we worked on polishing the movements incorporated within the performance. There is a very varied order of movement including clicks, claps and stamps to make the performance visually interesting. We have worked on the idea of being similar to a barbershop layout so we must all perform in exact unison. Similar to our vocals, if one person performs one movement out of sync, it will ruin the whole affect of the piece.  

We continuously worked on the performance as a whole making sure all vocals were in time with the clicks, claps and stamps which are used as a beat to follow. After this rehearsal, I feel extremely confident for the final performance as all aspects have been polished and the piece now feels performance ready. As long as we all perform with great confidence and conviction, the piece will communicate successfully. A full rehearsal of the song is displayed below;

Individual Work For Assessment

When focusing on my individual work, I have thought more in depth about the type of stimulus I want to use within my lyrics. I have decided that I want to base my piece around Marilyn Monroe but I thought it may be interesting to potentially use diary entries that she had written. Using a poem would be much easier as the rhymes are already present and the poem would simply just need to be put to the music. Using diary entries would challenge me as a song writer as well as giving me the opportunity to explore my own writing style using a stimulus. I am going to select certain lines from the extracts I have found and include them within the song. I am going to write my lyrics around the selected lines; the diary entries are the inspiration for my writing.

Marilyn Monroe was a very troubled character in history and wrote a lot about her personal feelings, as well as writing unpublished poems. I think it would put a complete twist on the original recording of Pumped Up Kicks if I were to perform Marilyn Monroe's words from a first person point of view. Some examples of extracts are displayed below with the highlighted sections which I intend to either directly use within my song or use as inspiration to write lyrics;

1. “I haven’t had Faith in Life
meaning Reality—what
ever it is
or happens
There is nothing to
hold on to—but reality
to realize the present
whatever it may be
—because that’s how it
is and it’s much better”

2. “Fear of giving me the lines new
maybe I won’t be able to learn them
maybe I’ll make mistakes
people will think I’m no good or laugh or belittle me or think I can’t act.”

3. "life starts from now
trust in the
Ida—I have still
faith in the simple Been obeying her—
it’s not only harmful
for me to do so
but unrealality [sic] because
in my work—I don’t
want to obey her any longer
and I can do my work as fully
as I wish since as a small child
intact first desire was to be an actress
I have
I will not be punished And I spent years
Play acting until I had jobs
Or trying to hide it
enjoying myself as fully
as I wish or want to
I will be as sensitive as
I am—without being ashamed of it"

4. "trust in the
faith in the simple
objects and tasks—(sense
memory—outside and inside
objects)"

(Vanity Fair 2014)
 

I have looked at the song titled Don't Forget Me from the series SMASH as inspiration as this song is sung from Marilyn Monroe's perspective, similar to my idea. I thought it could help me with the delivery of my piece as my song will be from the same point of view;

 

My aim for next week is to begin to write lyrics, hopefully a first verse and chorus. I will use my stimulus of the diary entries as well as using chance methods if I become stuck within the creative process. I am going to carry out intense research into Marilyn Monroe's life and look into her work so I have thorough knowledge of what I am writing about. I am still planning to steer away from a story telling theme as the original piece is written in this way. My song will be similar to a personal auto- biography, as if it is coming from Marilyn herself. This completely flips the original song by giving it a personal twist as well as using a totally different style and genre.  

Week Ten 25/11/14

Group Work For Assessment

In this rehearsal, the group began by working on creating an ending for our performance. After receiving some feedback from Hayley, we have realised that to some audience members our piece may not communicate well. It may just seem like we have crammed numerous random songs into a five minute time slot. By creating a running theme or having a poignant conclusion, the whole piece will tie together. We thought it may be effective to each select a section of one song to sing at the end of the piece over the top of the main tune, as shown in Fig.17.

 

Fig.17

We also worked on adding harmonies into the performance to make it a lot more interesting to listen to. As well as this, we introduced the idea of staging to make the live performance visually interesting, therefore maintaining audience engagement. The harmonies we have created are displayed below;

'Don't Matter' with Devin singing the main tune, Jen and Gil singing the harmony.

 

 

'I'm Yours' with Devin singing the main tune, myself and Jen singing the harmonies.



'Hey Soul Sister' with myself singing the main tune, 'Where is The Love' with Jen singing the main tune and myself singing the harmony, 'Best Song Ever' with Devin singing the main tune.

 

We are planning on adding numerous additional harmonies and vocals underneath the main vocal tune, including 'oo' sounds. When considering staging, I was given the responsibility of planning what would look effective from an audience perspective as well as incorporating sounds using movement. I decided to maintain a repeated section of movement including simple stamps and clicks which we can constantly come back to in order to create a recurring theme. On songs such as 'Wreckin' Ball', we are using numerous stamps followed by a click to mirror the original music used. Within the song 'That's What I Go To School For', we perform a repeated section of slapping our legs to create sound. We also incorporate the use of the microphone stand to create a strong base sound that everyone can follow.

 

After this rehearsal, I am feeling a lot more confident about our group performance. Once the planned harmonies are tight and everyone is comfortable with the movements, the performance will be very effective. The only aspect of the performance I am worried about is that certain members of the group are not confident with performing harmonies as well as performing alone as they feel too exposed. A lot of pressure is put on the singer who is carrying out the harmonies because if they are out of tune, the whole section will be spoilt. We need to work on developing the confidence of the group as we rehearse so that the final live performance is successful.

Statement of Participation
Kayleigh Johnson - selected the songs to incorporate, planned the staging of the performance, choreographed/blocked the movement used within the performance

Jenni Cunningham - selected the songs to incorporate, devised harmonies to include in each section, performed chords on piano for rehearsal purposes

Devin Gilbraith - selected the songs to incorporate, assisted with the movements included within performance

Gil Parker - selected the songs to incorporate

Equipment Requirements
4 microphones
4 microphone stands


Individual Work for Assessment

When looking at my individual work, my main aim was to select a track to write lyrics to. I have found an acoustic version of the song Pumped Up Kicks originally by the band Foster The People. The lyrics are written in the style of writing that I really admire which portrays a story;

'The lyrics are spellbinding, around the issue of gun violence and absent parents. It can be very effective to almost belie the profundity of a lyric by setting it to a cheerful, bouncy chorus. The starkness of the vocal production in the verse helps give a sense of isolation and aloneness.' (Ewer 2011)

The lyrics featured within the original recording are displayed below;

Robert's got a quick hand.
He'll look around the room, he won't tell you his plan.
He's got a rolled cigarette hanging out his mouth, he's a cowboy kid.
Yeah, he found a six shooter gun in his dad's closet hidden with a box of fun things.
I don't even know what but he's coming for you, yeah, he's coming for you.

[Chorus 2x:]
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run, outrun my gun.
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run faster than my bullet.

Daddy works a long day.
He be coming home late, he's coming home late.
And he's bringing me a dark surprise.
'Cause dinner's in the kitchen and it's packed in ice.
I've waited for a long time.
Yeah, the sleight of my hand is now a quick-pull trigger.
I reason with my cigarette
And say, "Your hair's on fire, you must've lost your wits, yeah."

[Chorus 2x:]
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run, outrun my gun.
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run faster than my bullet.

Ru-ru-run, run, run, run [4x]

[Whistling]

[Chorus 4x:]
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run, outrun my gun.
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run faster than my bullet.

(AZLyrics.com 2014)

The version of the song I have found removes all original instruments and is played using an acoustic guitar. This completely strips down the piece and makes it almost unrecognisable. This version does not sound like the original which could potentially make it easier for me to write my lyrics to. At the moment, every time I have attempted to write lyrics to a track, I am performing the lyrics in the exact same style as the original piece which is the opposite of what I want to achieve. This track gives me the opportunity to sing how I want to without simply imitating the original artist. It is rather difficult to pick out where the verse's and chorus' are within the music so I will be able to put my own stamp on it.

In terms of lyrics, I think I am going to steer away from story telling as this song is a storytelling kind of song. I am either going to write a piece in a completely different genre, perhaps a love ballad, or write around a literary character. I think I will begin to write both of these ideas and see which piece I can progress further with and develop.