Bibliography

Blog Bibliography (Semester 2)

Do I Wanna Know Chords by Arctic Monkeys @ Ultimate-Guitar.Com (no date) Available at: http://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/a/arctic_monkeys/do_i_wanna_know_crd.htm (Accessed: 2 June 2015)

eHowMusic (2010) Singing Tips: How to Learn Harmony Singing. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChZzJuYbfYA (Accessed: 2 June 2015)

Jackson,J.(ed.) (2006) Guitar Chords; Easy-to-use, Easy-to-carry. One Chord on EVERY Page. United  Kingdom; Flame Tree Publishing

Horwood, F. J. (no date) The Basis of Harmony. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=slnGgPr-2bwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+basis+of+harmony&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YoZtVfyzC4iu7gaE2YHABA&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=the%20basis%20of%20harmony&f=false (Accessed: 2 June 2015)

Mazer, S. (2002) Harmony Singing: A Guide to Creative Harmony and Arranging. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7Z77BIpJmtoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=how+to+sing+harmonies&hl=en&sa=X&ei=R35tVb60G8Gy7Qb84IDYCw&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=how%20to%20sing%20harmonies&f=false (Accessed: 2 June 2015)

Official Arctic Monkeys (2013) Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know? (Official Video). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpOSxM0rNPM (Accessed: 2 June 2015

How far have i come this semester

At the beginning of this semester i set myself high goals and aims, my main one being to learn a musical instrument,upon deciding on the  Acoustic Guitar I found myself a local teacher and began private lessons, and also self taught myself using the book Guitar Chords (Jackson, 2006).

I have had 20 private lessons and although i was good for the first few lessons, as i felt i was all fingers and thumbs i have improved massively, however i still have a long journey ahead of me.

Final individual performance

As i wasn't confident in playing the guitar piece live, as i was struggling playing the whole tune through without stopping, i used the app Magix music studio and recorded my material, transferred it on to a USB stick,I played it for the final performance and although it wasn't live the performance went well , however i feel for my next performance my challenge to myself is to play live.

My chords

 For my intro and my verses i used the chords
Em7
Gsus3
G
D

For the chorus i used the chords
Em
C
G

For the bridge i used the same chords as the verses , however i slowed the tempo down and created a more dynamic colourful sound.

The structure of the tune
Verse
Chorus (Repeat)
Verse
Chorus (Repeat)
Bridge
Verse
Chorus (Repeat and fade) 

Creating my melody

I found creating a melody was very challenging, I was hoping to achieve a soft sensual tune, but after hours of experimented with different Guitar chords and creating lots of different tunes, i was still no further forward with the task. I researched the guitar tabs for the the Artic Monkeys song "Do i wanna know?"(Do I Wanna Know Tab by Artic Monkeys@ Ultimate-Guitar.Com,no date). After looking at the music tab i understood there was only a few chords used to create this tune, so this inspired me to do the same and use just a few chords in my Indie piece.

Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know? (Official Video)

(Official Artic Monkeys.2013)

Individual performance

For my individual piece I decided I was gonna try something new to me and create an Indie melody using my new guitar skills.Up to date I have had 20 independent Guitar lessons and during this time i have learned a lot but my chord vocabulary is still pretty basic.
Before creating my melody i researched various indie artists the main one being " The Artic Monkeys" after listening to the melodies and the lyrics to some of there current hits , it was clear these songs where love songs, this inspired me to go along the same route and write a love melody.

The final performance

The final performance of both songs went really well , I was overall pleased with the work we had produced as a group, I preferred the 60`s piece to the 70`s piece, for the simple reason I found it hard to adjust my memory and my voice to change from the original version which I am familiar with to the new adapted glam rock version. If I was to do a cover version of a song in the future, i think rehearsing more would help my memory and voice to adapt to changes.

Singing Tips : How to Learn Harmony Singing

This video, was a really good guide that i used to practice harmonies.(eHowMusic2010).

Harmonies

Although I have experience as a singer, there is a wide range of areas I still have to learn one of which being harmonies. For the 70`s piece harmonies are being used which I have no experience in performing or any knowledge of the skills needed to produce a good harmony." One definition of harmony is the combination of tones that,when played or sung together,are pleasing to the ear "( Mazer 2002). I also read " Harmony is the basis of all good music" (Horwood, no date).Reading these books I learned the skills needed to create a harmony to compliment my tone of voice which is quite low and would categorized  myself as having a tenor voice.

70`S Group Piece

For the 70`s Glam Rock piece it was decided that to use “Girls just want to have fun” (Cindi Lauper) and create a Glam Rock version, we are going to achieved this by changing the melody, but keeping the same lyrics, we are going to add in our own harmonies, using double harmonies and single harmonies. The Garage App was used to record a drum and electric guitar piece that was used for the 70`s melody.

60`s Song Lyrics

Johnny Come Back

Verse 1

When i saw you two

I knew love was through

How can i want more

When you shut the door 

My heart it hits the floor

Chorus

Johnny come back

Johnny come back

Verse 2

Your the only one 

Couldn't be more wrong 

I knew from the start

That you` ld break my heart 

I should of known and walked away

Chorus

Johnny come back

Johnny come back

Verse 3

I was such a fool

While you acted cool

You turned my head

With the words you said

You led me on knowing it was wrong

Chorus

Johnny come back 

Johnny come back

Bridge ( Talking)

Talk to me Johnny

Tell me that you care

I cant wait forever

I need you by my side

I want you Johnny

Chorus

Johnny come back

Johnny come back

fade out

Johnny come back 

Johnny come back

Independent Guitar lessons

Outside of  Uni i am having private Guitar lessons which are quite costly so i am having them whenever i can afford them but trying to have at least 1 or 2 per month.

My first Guitar lesson was really good, i learned what string  i would be using to play the notes..

60`s Motown in full swing

During the lecture myself,Sophie and Sara,began to write our song,this was quite challenging as we want it to include good harmony's and the piece to be performed with us all singing a solo individual.We wrote the first two verses and a chorus.I took on the role of finishing the song.

Writing the 60`s Motown Song

In our groups for the 60`s assessment we have decided to create an original song with our own music, we decided to go off into the basement at uni where we had the instruments to play about with to see what we could come up with and start writing the lyrics to our song .As i am a huge fan of Motown music i loved every second of this.

I love writing lyrics and over the first semester and second semester my lyric writing skills have improved loads, i am confident that this is one of my strong points within music.

After listening to songs performed by various Motown artists , me, Sophie and Sara began playing about with different words, we decided the song was to be a love song .

Independent 60`s Research

The 1960`s was an era which witnessed a massive change in society, especially in music. Before 1963 the music was very much following the same style of the previous decade 1950`s which saw the success of artists such as Elvis Presley and The Everly Brothers.In 1963 caused by a number of social changes music began to change and continued to do so throughout the whole decade.The Civil Rights Movement  immensely impacted the mood in society which reflected within music as did the assassination of President Kennedy.
The "British Invasion"which welcomed the arrival of The Beatles and the remarkable hype and controversy they brought with them into the music scene, changed the complete history of music by amending societies view and the way society interacted with music.
During 1960`s Motown, Protest music and Rock music also emerged and evolved during this era.

Independent Research

Group Assessment 18th February

I have now been placed into my group for the assessment .Together as a group we will be creating an original 60`s  Motown style song, and an original 70`s Glam rock style song, for both songs we will be creating our own pieces of music.

week 2

This week we presented our individual homework tasks then we talked about different artists from the 60`s and 70`s and their genre, we played a game as a group to guess the artist the song and to identify  the genre.The task set for next weeks lesson is to research the band `The Kinks'.

Semester 2 (WEEK 1)

Today's lesson was a introduction to the Musicianship module for semester 2, as a group we talked about what topics we would be covering within the module,and the final assessment tasks we would be performing as a group and as individuals.The module will be covering music and artists of the  1960`s-1970`s as a group we talked about what artists we were familiar with who had hits during those periods.As a homework task i researched how  pop icons and different music genres influenced fashion trends during the 60`s and 70`s.

Bibliography

BLOG BIBLIOGRAPHY

Available at:  http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/01/the-story-behind-the-song-adele-someone-like-you/ (Accessed 8^th January 2015).

Available at:  http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/world-in-six-songs/9780143167815-item.html?ikwid=World%20In%20Six%20Songs&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0 (Accessed on 28^th October 2014).

Available at:  http://www.metrolyrics.com/someone-like-you-lyrics-adele.html (Accessed 8th January 2015).

Available at:  http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/music   (Accessed 8^th January 2015).

Available at:  http://robinfrederick.com/learn-how-to-write-a-song/ (Accessed 3^rd December 2014).

Available at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9CpoyHWZR0 (Accessed on 28^th October 2014).

Available at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfSPbhnpOlQ (Accessed on 19^th November 2014).

Available at:  http://robinfrederick.com/learn-how-to-write-a-song/ (Accessed 3^rd December 2014).

Available at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llNuwhZWXKA (Accessed on 5^th December 2014).

Available at:  http://www.netplaces.com/songwriting/elements-of-a-lyric/different-lyrical-styles.htm (Accessed on 10^th January 2015).

Available at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dXUW2wBS3I (Accessed on 10^th January 2015).

Individual Assessment Evaluation

For my individual performance, I chose to write my own song and create my own melody to compliment it. In Daniel Levitin`s book ` The world in six songs ` his theory being  there are six types of songs for knowledge, friendship, ceremony, joy, comfort and love ( Levitin 2009), I chose to base my song on one of those theories. Before I chose my own theory I read an article online called `Different lyrical styles` (C.J.Watson), this article is about various styles of song writing techniques and talks about what makes good lyrics, this article refers to writing lyrics based on personal experiences and advices to write lyrics from the heart ( C.J.Watson). Because I was going through a rough period in my own love life and was very emotional at the time, I decided the theory of my song was going to be love. I then researched what inspired my favourite artist Adele Atkins to write the lyrics to her song `Someone like you ‘and the technique she used to write those lyrics (Doug Waterman), after reading this article I was so inspired that I decided to use the same structure Adele used to write her lyrics. On a scrap sheet of paper I scribbled all my thoughts and feelings down, and then I built sentences around the quotes and words, I found this a brilliant way to write my song lyrics and it wasn’t long before I had a verse and a chorus, once I had these I had the foundations for my song and carried on to complete the song, by adding another verse and bridge.

After writing my song I began to think about creating my own melody, as I’m not experienced in playing a musical instrument I found this to be the most challenging part of the assessment task. I decided I wanted to use a guitar for the backing music. I looked at various videos on you tube based on how to play a guitar from basic, as I had no idea how to play a chord, I used this video and learned the basic chords http://youtu.be/7dXUW2wBS3I Knowing the basic chords I used the guitars in the basement at University to practice my tune.  I used the chords G,D,E minor and D to compose my tune, and played about with these chords in order to find a tune I was happy with. Once I found a tune I practiced playing it, I was all fingers and thumbs and no matter how hard I practiced I kept making mistakes, which got worse when I tried to sing and play the guitar at the same time, so I asked Chloe to play my music on the guitar during the assessment performance.

The final performance went really well, because I had practiced singing the song and breathing exercises on a daily basis, I sounded more in tune than I had done during my rehearsals; however it wasn’t perfect so I am going to join a choir to gain more singing experience. I was happy with the tune I created, but I felt disappointed that I wasn’t skilled enough to play the guitar and sing together, to improve on this I am planning to buy a guitar and practice at home and also take private guitar tuition lessons.

Lyrics

Together For Eternity

(Verse 1) I could cry over you

But I said I never would

Do you know how much you've hurt me

When you said you never could

You said we were over

But I didn't understand

All I wanted was to hold you 

And for you to take my hand

(Chorus) Cos I I I I know

Baby lets take a chance 

A chance we`ll  never take again

Cos I I I I know

You and me were meant to be

Together for eternity

(Verse 2) As I come to the doorway

I hear the laughter in the hall

My heart it is frozen

My eyes are like a waterfall

I'm living in silence

It`s just your voice i want to hear

Hear you whisper so softly

As you brush away my tear

(Chorus) Cos I I I I know 

Baby let`s take a chance

A chance we`ll never take again

Cos I I I I know 

You and me were meant to be

Together for eternity

(Bridge) Words cant`t describe the way i feel

And i question is love real

You are my world

But you don`t care

If this is love it isn`t fair

(Chorus) Cos I I I I know

Baby let`s take a chance 

A chance we`ll never take again

Cos I I I I know

You and me were meant to be

Together for eternity 

Together for eternity 

Together for eternity.

Learning the Guitar

Now my song was complete I had a tune in my head to go with it. I researched how to play the guitar online and found the following video on you tube to assist me. http://youtu.be/llNuwhZWXKAf  this did help guide me but i was still struggling so, I got in touch with a old school friend who was happy to come and show me a few basic chords.Using the basic chords i learned i practiced different tunes in the basement at Uni and created a tune to go with my song. Even though i kept on practicing i was not managing to sing and play the guitar at the same time,so I asked Chloe if she would play the guitar while i sang, this worked well and sounded great.After getting a taste of the guitar i am now really keen on getting guitar lessons and learning how to play more professionally, this is something i will be looking in to.

Structuring my song

After researching an article about how to structure a song (Robin Frederick 2013-2014), I gained the knowledge to begin writing my song. I thought of  a title ` Together for eternity` and then began jotting down words and rhymes based on love and my own thoughts and feelings,I then began building sentences around the words i had jotted down, leading on to the completion of my first verse then the chorus.Now i had my first verse and chorus, writing the rest of my song was a lot easier and the lyrics came naturally because i was writing from the heart.

Writing Lyrics

Writing my own song was really hard, at the time  I was in a pretty emotional frame of mind as i was going through a bad period with my partner, and because of the way I was feeling i decided a love song was my best option as i could put my own thoughts and feelings into the lyrics. Before I started writing my lyrics I done some research on my favorite artist Adele Atkins to pick up tips on how and she wrote her lyrics to the song Someone like you, after reading the story behind the song  ( Doug Waterman) I was inspired by the the way she wrote about her personal life and the breakup of her relationship with her partner, the lyrics to her song Someone like you are meaningful and very powerful.

Individual Assessment

For my individual piece, the task was to create a presentation piece and create my own song or write a piece of music and perform it to the whole group. I chose to write my own song as i feel that writing lyrics is my strongest point in music.

Final performance

The final performance went really well, however I did make a minor mistake with my timing issues which I felt bad about,however as a group we managed to cover it up, but because we changed one of the songs at the last minute I felt I hadn't rehearsed enough.My singing throughout the performance was good however I did go out of tune a few times, so this is a area ill be looking seriously into improving by joining a choir and practicing frequently.I was quite happy with my Tambourine performance and I am keen to keep on practicing as well as learning another instrument in the future.

Rehearsing the whole performance

Meeting as a whole group to rehearse was very challenging to get everyone together as we all had different projects going on and different free time slots. The final two rehearsals everybody managed to attend did go accordingly, and I felt that as a whole group we worked really when we were all together.We rehearsed are songs together and worked out the individual parts we were going to sing and play instruments too, once we had that organised we repeatedly practiced and tweeked our performance until we were all happy with the overall finished performance.

Rehearsals

My group met to rehearse the song and the music together, this went really well one member of the group played the Guitar and i played the Tambourine, both instruments worked well with the song and we were all agreed we had our part of the assessment complete.

Learning the Tambourine

Now we had the song our group was ready to put a tune to it, as i have never played a musical instrument before i knew this was gonna be a challenge.I had a try of a few different instruments and decided upon using the Tambourine. I researched on you tube to gain an insight of how to play the Tambourine and i watched the following video,http://youtu.be/x9CpoyHWZR0 this was a great support to me as it taught me different techniques on how to hit a Tambourine to create different sound effects.When i first started learning the Tambourine it was so hard i couldn't seem to get the beat right or the sound ,so i loaned a Tambourine and practiced every night independently i researched another you tube video and started learning  from a basic level, i used the following video to help guide me .http://youtu.be/wfSPbhnpOlQ this video helped me learn how to create a beat with the Tambourine.After practicing and watching the videos after a week i had improved and felt confident with the instrument.

The whole group kept in close contact on facebook and we discussed are ideas and are inspirational thoughts, using facebook helped us keep track of how everyone was getting on with the task. My group then met to update each other on what research we had found, we then agreed that my role in the group would be to contribute to the task by inputting inspirational  ideas and quotes and  another member of the group would write a song based on those ideas. We kept in contact as a group and once the song was complete, our group met up to perform the song.

  Working as a group for our assessment we had the task of creating and performing a live ensemble piece that would last 15 minutes .The seven of us got together to discuss and share are ideas, we talked about The levitin theorie and decided we were going to use the theme of friendship and base are songs around this.Between us we decided the best way to get the performance off its feet was to split into groups with each group given the task of working on a song each,the task my group had was to create an original song.