Week 7, Overall Project Evaluation

Working with Others Project Evaluation

Throughout this whole Working with Others project, I've learnt a lot of new skills such as; working well with other people/performers, better communication skills, independent skills and time management skills.

 Some parts of the whole project were difficult such as learning some of the songs for the performance, it seemed to have taken a lot longer than it should of. Another example was communication skills, some of the members in the class may argue a lot, and would slow down our overall progress in the project...

In our rehearsals for the cover songs Read all about it, Heart-shaped box, I Feel Good and Ordinary People, There were times when we all didn't know what our parts were in the rhythm section, so that slowed or progress down a lot but we managed to perfect it and it sounded really good when combined with the vocalists and the keyboardists and guitarists.. The song that took the longest to learn and perfect was I Feel Good - James Brown, because either both the singers or the rhythm section didn't know their parts so that song was cut out of the roster.

The original colour songs went well apart from the times when some people weren't there to perform their songs so we decided the leave out their songs.

On the day of the Performance, We listened to both Level 2 Music and Level 3 Music Production, and identified that Level 2s performance had an all-round feel to it, such as Rock, Metal and a Gospel feel in the last song whereas Level 3 Music Prod.'s performance had a rap-based feel throughout their whole performance.

Our performance had an all-round feel to it because we had Heart-shaped box, Ordinary people and Read all about it, plus our original colour songs..

Overall, this project was a success, I've learnt a lot of new skills such as better communication skills, teamwork and time management.. I still have a lot to learn about the music industry as a whole but I have made good progress..

:)

Andre's Big Beat/Whole Tone

Andre's Big Beat/Whole Tone

Chorus in I, V, vi, IV

Chorus in I, V, vi, IV

Andre's Major/Pentatonic Piece

Andre's Major/Pentatonic Piece

Andre's Minor Piece in 3/4

Andre's Minor Piece in 3/4

Andre's Chromatic piece-Roadrunner

Andre's Chromatic piece-Roadrunner

Week 6, 15th October 2012 - Induction Performance & Evaluation

Performance Evaluation

This week, we finally performed the songs that we have learning for past 5 weeks to the rest of the music department.

The first group to perform were the Level 2 music students, who are very musically talented,, The songs they performed were;

• Evanescence - Bring me to life
• Bob Marley - Jamming

And I cant remember what the third song was but it sounded really good, it was probably the best song out of all of them, The arrangement was really well put together especially with the Bass and the Drums played by Jeffrey and Omar.

Overall, their performance was a big success and it was a smart decision to put them first because they really got the audience into the music..

Next, was the Level 3 Music Production students, which were all mainly rap-based performances. All of the performances were very good however there were a few mistakes where some of the performers forgot their lyrics but overall it was very successful, Mark from the music production class really stood out because of his style of rapping and he made a big impact on the audience..

And finally.. was us, the Level 3 Music class,, Our first song was Read all about it, which was very successful since everyone performing really stepped up and sounded a lot better than in rehearsals, and the audience likes the change of atmosphere when the Drums,Bass and La-Shaun's rapping came in so that song was a success. 

The next song was Heart-Shaped Box, this song kinda ruined the mood after Read all about it because of the theme and lyrics of the song, but the vocalists pulled off some really good harmonies so it turned out okay in the end..

The next song was an original colour song written  by Caitlyn, La-Shaun and Jordan called Blue Storm, The combined vocals of Caitlyn and Jordan sounded really good, and La-Shauns rap verses were good as well, especially now that he's remembered his lyrics instead of looking at his phone like he used to do in rehearsals.. 

The only problem was just after the middle 8, when Caitlyn made a few mistakes on the piano but overall it was a success..

The next song was another original colour song written by Jacob, Shannun, Sheva and Demver called Green Envy, which was a big success because  they decided to add some Drums, Bass, Guitar, Synth and some extra vocalists..

What really caught the audience' attention was Shannun's vocals, especially around the middle 8 of the song where the instruments cut out and then come back in again when the chorus starts...

The last song in the roster was Ordinary People,, This was a big success since this song was very popular since John Legend is a very successful artist.

The vocalists were Donavon, Shannun, Emmanuel 'Image' and Danielle,, this song really stood out because since it was the last song, and a very popular song, everyone decided that they was going to push themselves and make the song sound really good.

Since Emmanuel is primarily a rapper, his vocals were a bit weak when he was singing but when he's singing together with Donavon, it sounded a lot better.

Adding bass and drums to the song was quite difficult at first since there is no bass or drums in the original but somehow it did sound very good when we played it.. 

Everyone performing really started to get into the music around the middle 8, which made the song very effective when it came back to the chorus because Shannun and Donavon started putting in little vocal riffs which made it sound really good..

So Overall,, I think it was a very successful performance, we all still have a lot to learn, especially when it comes to performing together and we are all at different stages since some of us may have more experience than others but overall I think it went very well... :)

Week 3, 24th September 2012

Week 3

This week, we were told to learn Read all about it- Professor Green ft. Emeli Sande, I play the bass in the rhythm section along with Matty on the Drums, Kline on keys, Demver on synth and Joe on the guitar.

The song was really easy to learn so we perfected it quite quickly and even added our own little effects. The vocalists in the song are;

• Shannun
• Shardonnae
• Danielle
• Yemisi
• Sheva

The vocalists use some really good harmonies in certain parts of the song, and there is a really big change in atmosphere when the song changes from piano, synth and the singers to a more lively feel by including the drums, bass and guitar and La-Shaun rapping..

In my opinion, this song should be successful :)..

Week 2, 17th September 2012

Week 2

This week, we were told to learn Ordinary People-John Legend since there were a few difficulties in perfecting I Feel Good-James Brown so we decided to cut that song out.

While we were rehearsing, the singers were reading from lyric sheets and their phones so it seemed very unorganised if we was to actually perform like that however the vocalists managed to learn their lyrics so it turned out okay in the end. 

My colour group (Red) continued to write our song, but we had a few difficulties because it took quite a while to find the right chords to go with the verse and still keep the I, IV, V theme.

Week 1, 10th September 2012

Week 1 

We were assigned a Colour and were placed in groups and was told to write a song based on the feel of that colour. 

We had to write the song using chords I, IV, V and a middle 8 using vi. My colour was Red so we had to write a song based on the feeling of the Red and what mood it gives us.

My group members were Jordaine, Bianca and Garnett

Jordaine, being the main songwriter of the group was in charge of the lead vocals, Bianca played the guitar, Garnett played the piano and I played the Bass.

In performance class we were told to learn 'I Feel Good' by James Brown. During rehearsals I played the Bass in the rhythm section along with Matty playing the Drums, Joe on the guitar and Demver playing the piano. During the process of learning the song, minor issues came up where we all didn't know who was doing what part in the rhythm section however we managed to sort it all out. The target for our next rehearsal is to perfect the song.

Week 5, 8th October 2012

Working with Others - Week 5

Week 5:

This week, I had to create a chorus with the chords of I,V,vi ,IV and include more than 3 instruments. Later we had to continue rehearsing the 3 cover songs of Read all about it - Professor Green, Heart-shaped box and Ordinary People and also the 3 original colour songs..

We started rehearsing the 'Green' song by Jacob, Shannun, Demver and Sheva first, and then we made a few changes in the vocals and the instrumentation and decided that the middle 8 needed to be changed.

Since my group which was Red didn't get chosen to perform, my team members; Jordaine, Garnett and Bianca were told to join in on the groups that got picked to perform, which were Green, Blue and Yellow..

This week in rehearsals, we concentrated on perfecting the original colour songs and after that, we had a quick rehearsal of Read about all it before continuing with the Green song..

We also performed the whole roster of the songs to the second year level 3 music students for a little bit of feedback before the real performance..



Week 4, 1st October 2012

Working With Others - Monday 1st October 

This week in our Performance class, we rehearsed the 3 song covers; John Legend - Ordinary People, Heart-Shaped Box - Nirvana and Read all About It - Professor Green ft. Emeli Sande..

I play in the rhythm section on Bass with Matthew on the Drums, Joe on Guitar and Demver on Keys,, The rehearsal went well because Matthew and I play well together but Joe and I still need to learn to play in sync..

We previously planned on doing the song I Feel Good - James Brown but since that song was the least 'popular' out of the rest,, we decided to leave that out because the rest of the group didnt engage in this song as much as the other songs.

In the song Ordinary People - John Legend,, the rehearsals went well except for the fact that everyone in the ryhthm section accidently got the chords of the middle 8 mixed up so that took some time to sort out..

Overall it was a very good rehearsal and we got alot done !..