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.