The unit that we are now on is a percussion unit. Percussion instruments are drums and any kinds of shakers. We will also compose our own piece of music.
We already done our first rhythm performance which was not the best, but it was the first one.
Here are some thing that we have learned that can be important when creating our own music:
Words:
Beat: Rhythmic pulse in a piece of music
Bars: Dividing beats into groups
Time signature: Tells us how many beats are in each bar
Tempo: How fast the beat is
BPM: Beats Per Minute
Notes:
4 beats - whole note/rest2 beats - half note/rest
1 beat - quarter note/rest
2/beat - eight note/rest3/beat - triplet
4/beat - sixteenth note/rest
Things to keep in mind when performing:
- keep the beat in mind
- keep the tempo
- communication on stage
Here is the video from the performance:
10/10/2011
Composing my own song / A morning
We have just started creating our songs. We were given different steps to follow;
Reflect on
I really liked the idea of something that goes on for the whole song, so I decided having a similar sound as a clock.
Themes for composing and ho to create it = I had two ideas, one was walking a dog and the other one was a morning, but because I really liked the idea of a clock I decided to go with the theme a morning with the clock going on all the time.Taking action
- clock starts
- you wake up
- look at the clock, I AM LATE
- do everything very fast
- run to school
- you are there...
15/10/2011
This week we started composing.
I decided on these instruments:
Triangle - Bell
Cow bell - Clock
Hand drum - Running + Everything else
This is what I have done so far:
I am going to use 60 BPM because than is how fast one second is so it really sounds like a clock, and it is also easy to play.
The clock goes on all the time with the cow bell, and it is a bit louder when it comes to the LATE part.
The triangle does not play until the end of the forth bar, so on the beginning it is just the clock.
The hand drum does not even go until the fifth bar. The sixteenth notes should sound like running when you are only playing with your fingers on the hand drum.
24/10/2011
FINISH
I have just finished my own piece of music.
It is not a very hard "song" but I think it sounds like a morning which was actually my goal. The hand drum basically plays the same thing all over but it is not easy to play sixteenth notes with a hand drum, with all the different kinds of sound effects like making the sound louder.
It is also hard to play sixteenth notes with the triangle (bar 3,11)., but not as hard as playing on the hand drum.
The clock/cow bell goes on for the whole song but with different sound effects.
6/11/2011
On the last lesson we had to hand in the drafts of our compositions. We did not get the results back and because I have finished with everything I did not have anything to do so some other members of the group and I practiced out compositions. I think it sounded very nice and it represented the title ( A MORNING ).
I am looking forward to see the results and to do some changing if needed.
14/11/2011
I have finished my composition......again!
The feedback that I've got from the teacher was that my beats were too much "on the beats", so I've put some rests and taken away the many sixteenth notes.
Around the middle of the lesson one of my classmates told me that we could change instruments while the composition was going on, and because I've thought the new rhythm that I have added sounded better with an egg shaker I changed the 9th bar from hand drum to shaker then back to hand drum at bar number 13.
I also gave the triangle to play a bit more because I have thought it has a nice voice and it would not be that nice if it would only play sixteenth notes. So I have put eight notes to some place.
Next week is practice time and I am very excited to here my composition and also to know who I am with (in the groups).
21/11/2011
I am with Marcus and Emil. Their composition is almost as long as mine so it is equal, but their BPM is 90 and mine is 60 so I do not know how are we going to manage to do it.
(The person who wrote the composition has to lead his/her part and has to have the hardest instrument and because I thought that the hand drum/ shaker was the hardest instrument I chose that)
The rehearsal went very good. While we were practicing my composition the teacher came to us and told that it would be easier to me to play with two sticks on the drum rather just playing with my fingers. It was a good idea. He also told us that we have to keep looking at each other on the longer breaks so that we can start at the same time. It was also a good idea and it also helped a lot.
28/11/2011
We had practiced for the whole lesson and also took some video clips. (See Under)
We could practice everybody's composition which was very helpful but we are still far away from finishing and we only have the next lesson to finish everything and to memorise things.
While rehearsing we came up with the idea of starting with the performance with Emil's and Marcus' composition because they have the same BPM which you can only get from the metronome and then change to mine which is 60 BPM and it is easy because you just have to look the clock. I am very interested on if we are going to be able to finish everybody's by the end of the next lesson.
3/12/2011
Our teacher was absent, so we were with a substitute, who did not help us with our compositions just let us play them. We actually finished all of the compositions, but we had the most problems with mine.
It was hard for me to count and to do the changing from drum to shaker and back and also the rhythm for the shaker, but otherwise it is easy for me to play the others composition.
I do not know how is it going to be on the day of the performance but I wish we won't forget what to do...
17/12/2011
Reflection:
This is my final performance of "A Morning".
I think it was not that bad but if I could have started it from the begining I would do it in a different way. I would not do actions but a some kind of soundflow. I would also repeat notes more and I wouldn't probably have that much space between the notes.
During the performance I was duing all right but at the end I felt that there was too much space so I just played at random times. The others compositions I think I managed to do well and I did not do amithing wrong. I felt that we sometimes went faster or slower but it did not effect the result.
THE END
3/12/2011
Our teacher was absent, so we were with a substitute, who did not help us with our compositions just let us play them. We actually finished all of the compositions, but we had the most problems with mine.
It was hard for me to count and to do the changing from drum to shaker and back and also the rhythm for the shaker, but otherwise it is easy for me to play the others composition.
I do not know how is it going to be on the day of the performance but I wish we won't forget what to do...
17/12/2011
Reflection:
This is my final performance of "A Morning".
I think it was not that bad but if I could have started it from the begining I would do it in a different way. I would not do actions but a some kind of soundflow. I would also repeat notes more and I wouldn't probably have that much space between the notes.
During the performance I was duing all right but at the end I felt that there was too much space so I just played at random times. The others compositions I think I managed to do well and I did not do amithing wrong. I felt that we sometimes went faster or slower but it did not effect the result.
THE END
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