203 Composing Music Solo

Brief:

Your school is hosting a showcase for parents and governors. You have been asked to compose a 15 minute soundtrack appropriate to the opening of the event.

Your work: Must be suitable for the audience

Our event at Monk’s Walk School

You must design your programme around the audience – state which community organisations would be invited to your event and explain how your programme relates to the types of people that would be in these organisations.

TASK 1 Planning:

My statement of personal aims: 

What I want to achieve through my compositions:

I would like to improve the way I think when putting different notes and chords together. I'd also like to improve my confidence in my pieces and in general. I would like to keep my blog updated.

My skills that I can use:
The skills I think that I have that I can use are concentration and listening carefully to when the tune is out of time with the beat.

How I will know if I have achieved it:

I will know if I’ve achieved my goal because the tune will be in time with the beat.

How I will meet the expectations of the audience:

I will meet the expectations of the audience by making sure that the instruments are in time with the beat. I will also make sure that the different instruments tunes fit together.

Plan of my contribution to the performance

The requirements of the brief and how I will meet them:

 I have to create a range of compositions that have to last in between 2 minutes 30secs and 3 minutes for a show that is for charity.

What I intend to do:
I intend to compose on garageband, I am familiar with this app as I have used it for the past 5 years. I will compose in the styles of hip hop, pop etc.

How I will do it:

At the start of each session I will look at my composition plan. I will divide each classroom session for each composition. I will use the first session as a "sketching" phase to write and experiment with ideas. I will then work on each idea and expand it to a full composition. I will need to be focussed and keep an eye on the time. I have made a Composition Rehearsal Diary at the bottom of this page.

When at home I can listen to compositions that other people have made and use these for inspiration during the sketching phase.

Who I will need to involve:

I will need to involve one person, me, because it is a composition and I enjoy working on my own. Even though it has its difficulties, it is definitely worth working alone.

The resources I will need:

The resources that I will need are; an iPad, support from my music teacher, my instrumental teacher and my peers.

The time needed for each song/activity:

The amount of time that my composition(s) need is 15 minutes. To achieve this I will need to create either 3 compositions with 5 minutes each, or 4 compositions with 4(ish) minutes.

The health and safety issues for composition writing sessions and the performance of them:

The health and safety issues are; the cables that connect the iPad to the speakers could trip someone up and cause damage to that person.

When my compositions are played to the live audience, these will be heard from large PA speakers at the front of the stage. I want my compositions to be heard at the back of the hall, but this causes issues as the audience at the front of the hall will be placed very close to the speakers. The volume of the speakers will need to be loud, but should not cause any discomfort to the audience at the front. This could cause them to not enjoy the performance. If I therefore choose a volume that is suitable for the front and the back of the audience to enjoy, but also allows them to have a conversation over the top of, I think this will not cause any damage to the audience's hearing. 

My set list:

Composition 1 4:28

Composition 2 4:23

Composition 3 2:55

Composition 4 4:44

I think composition 4 is my best one, so I will play this last to give the audience a nice lasting impression.

Total length of compositions: Over 15 minutes (I will fade out composition 4 when it is over 15 minutes for the live event.

Composition Writing Schedule

Composition Session 1: 6^th March (Controlled Assessment Time)

Sketched ideas for first composition using the iPad. This included writing chord progressions and melodies.

Composition Session 2: 13^th March (Controlled Assessment Time)

Worked on first composition

Composition Session 3: 20^th March (Controlled Assessment Time)

Used an idea from my first composing session to create my 2nd composition.

Composition Session 4: 27^th March (Controlled Assessment Time)

*EASTER HOLIDAYS* - NO LESSONS FOR 3 WEEKS

Composition Session 5: 24^th April (Controlled Assessment Time)

Started to work on the 3rd composition

Composition Session 6 – AFTER SCHOOL: 2^nd May (Controlled Assessment Time)

I worked on my basslines to make sure they would fit with my chords. I found that there were a few clashing notes, so I experimented with dragging the note up/down and listening to see if it would fit.

Composition Session 7 - DRESS REHEARSAL: 3^rd May (Controlled Assessment Time) 2-3 Hours

I needed to extend the length of my compositions so I researched online and found information about ABA sections. I repeated my beginning sections in my compositions and found that this sounded really good. I did this for all compositions.

Composition Session 8: 8^th May (Controlled Assessment Time)

Composition Session 9 – LIVE PERFORMANCE: 10^th May (Controlled Assessment Time) 2-3 Hours

I took screenshots and exported my iOS Garageband projects to audiofiles. Before I did this I mixed my compositions by changing the volume of some of the instruments to make them more balanced. I also played my compositions on big speakers and found that some of the low notes of teh bass and drums would distort. I therefore lowered the volume and they now sound okay. This was important and the distorted sound would haveruined my compositions for the audience.

TASK 2 – THE FINISHED PORTFOLIO OF COMPOSITIONS

UPLOADED LINKS OR YOUTUBE LINKS TO YOUR COMPOSITIONS:

Access all the screenshots and MP3s in one folder here:

Download Compositions and Screenshots

Composition 1:

PLAY/DOWNLOAD:

Listen to Song 1 by clicking here.

https://monkswalkhertssch-my.sharepoint.com/personal/anflowe_monkswalk_herts_sch_uk/_layouts/15/guestaccess.aspx?docid=049af6c4a44624e4eb97f5f9755a065d0&authkey=AeDeftv64-y9IiE4D2VNBuw

Composition 2:

PLAY/DOWNLOAD:

Listen to Song 2 by clicking here.

https://monkswalkhertssch-my.sharepoint.com/personal/anflowe_monkswalk_herts_sch_uk/_layouts/15/guestaccess.aspx?docid=0db0768747f8e4f98a234543ce0d494e5&authkey=AZnX4r6awg75CYQG_SV2DVk

Composition 3:

PLAY/DOWNLOAD:

Listen to Song 3 by clicking here.

https://monkswalkhertssch-my.sharepoint.com/personal/anflowe_monkswalk_herts_sch_uk/_layouts/15/guestaccess.aspx?docid=0d442fd9b0e4847c1b199b9e54a2f688a&authkey=AbKJywZ3uUUjyhS9bqsLEZ0

Composition 4:

PLAY/DOWNLOAD:

Listen to Song 4 by clicking here.

https://monkswalkhertssch-my.sharepoint.com/personal/anflowe_monkswalk_herts_sch_uk/_layouts/15/guestaccess.aspx?docid=0b8152e358b944f5fb3f302ce66ced0c2&authkey=AY9M_njJX_EPXzFwE7cpCXw

TASK 3 Evaluation

Strengths Reflection:

1. What went well when you were composing?

When I was composing the beats and guitar/bass of each composition went the best. It was smooth, I had to edit the chords in some areas to match the piano or the other instruments that were in top of the guitar/bass.

2. What did you do well for each specific composition? Make specific references to parts of your compositions, e.g. drums, bassline, melody writing, structure, chord progression etc.

Composition 1: I think the structure of this composition was the best about it. It smoothly moves from one group of instruments to another group of instruments.

Composition 2: The best part about this composition is the range of instruments, how they fit together and the structure of it.

Composition 3: As this composition uses only 3 instruments and is quite simplistic, there isn't much I can say. The range of notes and chords in the bass and piano work really well with the drum beat.

Composition 4: The structure of this composition is sophisticated but has a variety of different beats for the drums.

Improvement Reflection:

3. What could have been done better if you were to compose these songs again or for making more compositions in the future? Think about specific parts of each composition (e.g. structure, melody, instrumentation, chord progressions, drums).

The 3rd composition is quite simplistic I think it could be built on to make it a little more complicated. I would have to edit the structure of the current composition to allow the extra instruments to work with it.

In general I need to work on the variety of beats with the drums, possibly add a guitar in my last two compositions and also some strings.

4. Define your areas of development (e.g. what skills do you need to improve to make you a better composer?)
Skill 1:  My concentration.

Skill 2: Seeing areas I can edit.

Skill 3: Making the other instruments work well with the drums.

5. Now write what you need to improve in your compositions and write a strategy of what you will do to make that improvement (e.g. write more suitable melodies that fit your chosen chords. Then you should write how you could learn to write more suitable melodies, what you would need to do, and what effect it would have on your compositions).

Improvement #1: Improve the texture

Strategy: How could you make that improvement?

Add different instruments, create melodies

Improvement #2: Improve timings

Strategy: How could you make that improvement?

Make it so all of the instruments are in time with the beat and each other.

Improvement #3: Learn how to modulate to a different key.

Strategy: How could you make that improvement?

Learn about the Circle of 5ths
Watch YouTube videos on modulation.
Talk to my piano teacher about how my scales relate to the keys.
Learn how to change key in iOS Garageband.

Feedback from others:

6. What was the feedback your received from your teacher, other group members and members of the audience?

• Very competent compositions, with a good sense of style.
• Catchy chord progressions.
• Good length and structure of compositions.
• Think about using key changes to vary the sections in your compositions..

7. How did this feedback help with your evaluation of the performance? e.g. what did they notice and comment on that you didn’t realise/know/think about?

Mr Flowers helped me with what I could, so with the guitar and piano to match each other and make the composition work. I will need to watch YouTube videos to learn about 'modulation' (changed the key of my song in the middle).Mr Eldred (my piano teacher) showed me how my scales that I have learnt on piano are in different keys. I think that this will make my compositions more interesting for the audience and add some excitement, so I will definitely think about this for the future.

Conclusion:

8. Write a brief summary/conclusion of your compositions and how they were suitable for the event brief (a concert at an awards ceremony for local community organisations).
I am really happy with my compositions and feel a lot of achievement that I have completed 15 minutes of music that my peers like. I know I have achieved my goal as my teacher and peers said the compositions sounded competent and I used catchy chord progressions.