2 Know how to apply ideas creatively
Development: shaping of ideas; exploring meaning; communicating meaning; applying different forms; elements; techniques and/or structures; applying the chosen medium and/or media in different ways Rehearsal: identifying and applying the required skill(s); practicing and refining skills; giving and/or taking instructions; time management; learning lines and/or moves
CONFLICT
07/02/13
We started this task before, but have now come back to it and changed things around a bit. The groups have changed. My group is: Archie, Charlie, Mo, Alex, and Samara. Three of the boys (Archie, Charlie and Alex) previously made up a piece, they showed this to us but we have changed a few things around and basically started from scratch.
Archie is playing guitar, Alex is on bass, Mo is playing drums, Charlie on piano, Samara and I will be singing as will the others join in also. I'm also wanting to take part in the instruments, whether it just be making small noises/sound effects on a keyboard as I want to be involved as much as I can, this will develop as the project goes on.
We all had some strong ideas about what we want to get out of this project, how we want the song to come across, and what kind of feeling we want it to give and all overall had the same ideas and thoughts.
Firstly the boys played around with the music, thinking of ideas (I have filmed this which I'll put up online), we changed things around a lot. Recording it is a good thing as it helps you be able to listen to it back to see what needs changing.
We wanted to start on the lyrics straight away and thought it would be a good idea to strip down all the instruments and just go onto the piano and write the song based around the piano then build up the instruments around it. Mo thought of a melody for the song almost instantly so this was a great help on getting us started on the song for the next time we come back to it.
19/02/13
We've just come back from half term, so today we went back into our groups and before we started on the practical we sat in the classroom and spoke about what we want to get out of this, what resources we need, what we need to do other than just the music side to things. We assigned jobs for one another.
JOBS
- Sound- Alex/Archie
- Film- Charlie/Mo
- Choreographer- Samara and I(We're not going to be having full dances, just small movements)
- Costumes- Samara and I (We thought for this we could have army/military related clothing, for example green to relate to the theme of war etc)
Other things like actually making the sound and the lyrics we are going to do this as a group to make sure everyone helps and is involved.
We played through it again and realised that from the intro we have and the first set of lyrics (the chorus) we are planning on using didn't really fit too good and didn't sound right together, so before we start the singing we are going to have the intro and then have a small speech which we have found from the internet which relates to this topic and then go into the chorus, we thought this would be something quite different and would have a nice touch to the performance. We want to create an atmosphere in the room when we are performing, which is sadness and emotion.
As we have already started the song we're going to find images and clips for the background for this part, we want something black and white to show it's the beginning of it all, as in the old times, and then we will build up with more violent images etc. Once we have created this video we will then make the song around that to make sure it fits to timing and relates to it.
As we have already started the song we're going to find images and clips for the background for this part, we want something black and white to show it's the beginning of it all, as in the old times, and then we will build up with more violent images etc. Once we have created this video we will then make the song around that to make sure it fits to timing and relates to it.
We measured the bars on what we have so far...
Piano- 8 bars
Piano, guitar, chorus- 8 bars
Break- 1 bar
Fill- 1 bar
Pre chorus- 15 bars
Empty- 1 bar (vocals start on last beat)
Chorus- 8 bars
20/02/13
Today me and Samara recorded what music we have so far on our phone so we could then go into a practice room together and try and think of a melody and some lyrics. We drew out a mind map of things related to Conflict. We thought of a melody which we showed to the rest of the group which they liked and then Mo thought of some harmonies to go with it. The boys also added some 'hmm's and 'ahh's' to sing behind whilst me and Samara are singing.
We will record this tomorrow.
I did some research about what conflict actually means and what kinds of things causes conflict into more detail. I thought this would really help us when making our song as it would give us inspiration and ideas.
Definitions of Conflict (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/conflict):
I did some research about what conflict actually means and what kinds of things causes conflict into more detail. I thought this would really help us when making our song as it would give us inspiration and ideas.
Definitions of Conflict (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/conflict):
- A state of open, often prolonged fighting; a battle or war.
- A state of disharmony between incompatible or antithetical persons, ideas, or interests; a clash
- To be in or come into opposition; differ.
- A strong disagreement or collision of values, interests or intentions among individuals, groups, organisations, communities, and nations.
I researched 'causes of conflict' because I think sometimes we can be quite narrow minded as to how we see 'conflict'. After I'd researched this I found that some of the main reasons of conflict was religion, laws, and how people viewed things, which then creates wars and arguments.
I think with a strong topic like this, writing our song we could really get our own personal views across and can do so much with this.
I also looked at some images on Google because I think that this can also give good inspiration by looking at things visually. These are some images from World Wars which shows conflict. I chose these images because we are using War as a strong inspiration for our song and is the main theme for it.
21/02/13
In today's class we went into the practice room because we just really wanted to work on lyrics instead of keeping on going through the music that we have. Charlie played through the melody whilst we all thought of words and phrases which would go well for the topic we're working on (conflict/peace). Although some of the things that we came up with didn't completely go with the melody which we thought of so we changed the melody a little bit to make it fit and now it does fit nicely.
Lyrics we have so far/ideas:
- Bring the order, line them up, a simple shower, click the lock. Hard to breathe, close your eyes, forget your colours, forget the lies.
- Organise force for your land not for yourself, a veteran of war.
We didn't want to have any direct lyrics, we wanted to use more metaphorical words and phrasing which would leave the audience thinking and could then interpret it to how the song came across to them. For example, the word war which we've used we want to find a different word for this because we feel it's too intense and obvious, especially for the beginning of the song we didn't want anything so strong for the start.
22/02/13
Today's lesson we went into the live room again because we needed the drums, and we put up the clips on the board so we could have a watch of them. We've got clips of things like the war times, speeches, and war scenes.We set up the microphones and went over what we had so far (we have recorded this). We have changed some of the arrangements round a bit and added things in. For example after we sing the line 'forget the lies' we first off decided to have the boys repeat this line straight after Mo, Samara and I had sung it but we changed it to have a gap and a sudden stop with just the piano holding the note softly whilst 'forget the lies' was repeated by all of us, including us girls. I think the feel we wanted to get from it was quite a bluesy old fashioned kind of feel with the boys having this deep voice behind us but it didn't really work so we had to change it a little bit but now it fits perfectly.
Next lesson we want to work on harmonies for the lyrics we have so far, and also get the clips together so we can then sort out the second verse and what we're going to be doing next, the order in which the song will be and once the whole song is finished then we can decided on what kinds of costumes we're after and what kind of choreography we will have.
26/02/13
In today's class we focused on getting what we have so far tight and knowing completely what we were all doing. We want to get everything right before we moved on so we don't leave it messy and all over the place. At the moment we've just been singing the 1st verse we made repeating it where the 2nd verse will go just so we can see it fits, we need to sort out the lyrics which we will do next lesson so we can move on and work on harmonies. We decided to scrap the idea of using the 'hmm's' and 'ahh's' because we felt it wasn't really needed. We also recorded today's session. We got out the Korg keyboard just to give it a go instead of using the piano, just to see what kinds of effects there were that we could try out and see what we could do with it, we found that we preferred the piano to the keyboard as it had a smoother sound. We started to create the bridge. The chorus that we had set so far we found was kind of random and didn't really fit with the song that so we have also decided to not use that either.
27/02/13
Today we decided we needed to sit down and think of lyrics for the second verse, we thought it would be a good idea to not plug the instruments in because we found that when we use the instruments full out we keep going over what we have and we wasn't really moving on. We decided to have the 1st verse that we have created as the 2nd verse because we wanted to have the first verse being about world war 1 and then the second verse about world war 2, and we found that the first verse we had so far the lyrics related more to the what we wanted the meaning of the second verse to be.
Here are the new lyrics for the first verse:
Bring the order, line them up
To send them out to do their job
Killing fields it's no surprise
Dying men with empty eyes
Run, crawl, jump, fall, quick, hurt, hit the floor, shoot, stab, shatter life, conscripted in a world of strife
Chorus chords: A flat 7. E flat major
28/02/13
Today's lesson we went into the live room and set everything up and went over what we have so far. We tried out our new verse and it fit really well. We also thought of some more harmonies and tried out some stuff, for example we put in some high notes during the instrumental part of the song. We worked on the interval and the chorus chords.
1/03/13
Today we didn't use everything plugged in as again we wanted to get more lyrics down. We thought of a plan layout of how we will be stood on the stage. (scan this to the computer) We come up with this layout because we thought it would be the best way. Having the drums at the back is something that is quite common but we didn't want Mo (drummer) to be hidden as he is one of the main singers so we thought of this arrangement so he can be seen clearly, and have the 2 other singers (Samara and I) either side. We completed the chorus today and sorted out the harmonies because they were a bit messy and some people have been finding them quite difficult, this is something we will need to keep working on to help each other and get it right. We come up with an idea of having Archie who raps to do a bit of rapping because we thought this might fit nice, we're just going to try it out because we're not sure if it will work and fit the feel of the rest of the song. This is something we are going to work on next. We have almost completed the song we just need to work on harmonies, finishing of a bit of lyrics and making it tighter, we also need to complete the video and then we can move onto the Peace song.
05/03/13
In today's lesson we really wanted to focus on sorting out the tightness of the song and keep going through what we have so far, verses and chorus, we also moved onto the middle 8. The middle 8 we already had an idea of what we wanted it to be about, which is conflict of today, to do this we needed to change the feeling and sound of this part. To do that we changed the texture of the piece which we managved to do by dropping the instruments down to just the drums and then we build it back up again to bring it back into the chorus. During this part we thought it would be a nice idea to have news reports in the back ground. Doing this would also help us show the how conflict has changed through time and show the difference from the past conflict to the present.
06/03/13
Today's lesson we really wanted to move on and get this song finished so we could move onto the peace song. We set everything up went through the whole song without stopping as we haven't really done that yet, to also see what parts we need to neaten up and change and see where we can improve. We have completed the song, the things we need to work on is tidying up the harmonies and perhaps experimenting a bit more with them, and polish everything off as we thought of all the ending of the song pretty quickly so this is something we need to work on.We filmed today's lesson of us discussing and thinking of new ideas. We also thought of how we want the end of the background video to end.
Our idea and theme for the song was to show how the times have changed and showing different types of conflict throughout the years, the first verse and second verse are both very different and talking about past conflict, we firstly thought it would be a good idea to have a third verse to talk about the conflict of today but we had an idea of having just the third part to the song with images and footage of the crimes/speeches/conflict so it will let the audience see it in their own way.
We thought we could have quiet singing of just 'ahh's' harmonising over this part with the instruments very quiet so the audience can really take it in and it will have a very big dramatic effect on them and want it to touch them emotionally. We thought this was a good idea because we didn't want to be completely specific and be obvious so it will be a nice surprise. It also shows that conflict is an ongoing thing and will never be resolved, so ending it with images of today shows it is still happening.We then come back in building up to the chorus which we finish off fading out.
Here's a video of today's rehearsals and discussions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpTYdcQEQIo
22/02/13
Today's lesson we went into the live room again because we needed the drums, and we put up the clips on the board so we could have a watch of them. We've got clips of things like the war times, speeches, and war scenes.We set up the microphones and went over what we had so far (we have recorded this). We have changed some of the arrangements round a bit and added things in. For example after we sing the line 'forget the lies' we first off decided to have the boys repeat this line straight after Mo, Samara and I had sung it but we changed it to have a gap and a sudden stop with just the piano holding the note softly whilst 'forget the lies' was repeated by all of us, including us girls. I think the feel we wanted to get from it was quite a bluesy old fashioned kind of feel with the boys having this deep voice behind us but it didn't really work so we had to change it a little bit but now it fits perfectly.
Next lesson we want to work on harmonies for the lyrics we have so far, and also get the clips together so we can then sort out the second verse and what we're going to be doing next, the order in which the song will be and once the whole song is finished then we can decided on what kinds of costumes we're after and what kind of choreography we will have.
26/02/13
In today's class we focused on getting what we have so far tight and knowing completely what we were all doing. We want to get everything right before we moved on so we don't leave it messy and all over the place. At the moment we've just been singing the 1st verse we made repeating it where the 2nd verse will go just so we can see it fits, we need to sort out the lyrics which we will do next lesson so we can move on and work on harmonies. We decided to scrap the idea of using the 'hmm's' and 'ahh's' because we felt it wasn't really needed. We also recorded today's session. We got out the Korg keyboard just to give it a go instead of using the piano, just to see what kinds of effects there were that we could try out and see what we could do with it, we found that we preferred the piano to the keyboard as it had a smoother sound. We started to create the bridge. The chorus that we had set so far we found was kind of random and didn't really fit with the song that so we have also decided to not use that either.
27/02/13
Today we decided we needed to sit down and think of lyrics for the second verse, we thought it would be a good idea to not plug the instruments in because we found that when we use the instruments full out we keep going over what we have and we wasn't really moving on. We decided to have the 1st verse that we have created as the 2nd verse because we wanted to have the first verse being about world war 1 and then the second verse about world war 2, and we found that the first verse we had so far the lyrics related more to the what we wanted the meaning of the second verse to be.
Here are the new lyrics for the first verse:
Bring the order, line them up
To send them out to do their job
Killing fields it's no surprise
Dying men with empty eyes
Run, crawl, jump, fall, quick, hurt, hit the floor, shoot, stab, shatter life, conscripted in a world of strife
Chorus chords: A flat 7. E flat major
28/02/13
Today's lesson we went into the live room and set everything up and went over what we have so far. We tried out our new verse and it fit really well. We also thought of some more harmonies and tried out some stuff, for example we put in some high notes during the instrumental part of the song. We worked on the interval and the chorus chords.
1/03/13
Today we didn't use everything plugged in as again we wanted to get more lyrics down. We thought of a plan layout of how we will be stood on the stage. (scan this to the computer) We come up with this layout because we thought it would be the best way. Having the drums at the back is something that is quite common but we didn't want Mo (drummer) to be hidden as he is one of the main singers so we thought of this arrangement so he can be seen clearly, and have the 2 other singers (Samara and I) either side. We completed the chorus today and sorted out the harmonies because they were a bit messy and some people have been finding them quite difficult, this is something we will need to keep working on to help each other and get it right. We come up with an idea of having Archie who raps to do a bit of rapping because we thought this might fit nice, we're just going to try it out because we're not sure if it will work and fit the feel of the rest of the song. This is something we are going to work on next. We have almost completed the song we just need to work on harmonies, finishing of a bit of lyrics and making it tighter, we also need to complete the video and then we can move onto the Peace song.
05/03/13
In today's lesson we really wanted to focus on sorting out the tightness of the song and keep going through what we have so far, verses and chorus, we also moved onto the middle 8. The middle 8 we already had an idea of what we wanted it to be about, which is conflict of today, to do this we needed to change the feeling and sound of this part. To do that we changed the texture of the piece which we managved to do by dropping the instruments down to just the drums and then we build it back up again to bring it back into the chorus. During this part we thought it would be a nice idea to have news reports in the back ground. Doing this would also help us show the how conflict has changed through time and show the difference from the past conflict to the present.
06/03/13
Today's lesson we really wanted to move on and get this song finished so we could move onto the peace song. We set everything up went through the whole song without stopping as we haven't really done that yet, to also see what parts we need to neaten up and change and see where we can improve. We have completed the song, the things we need to work on is tidying up the harmonies and perhaps experimenting a bit more with them, and polish everything off as we thought of all the ending of the song pretty quickly so this is something we need to work on.We filmed today's lesson of us discussing and thinking of new ideas. We also thought of how we want the end of the background video to end.
Our idea and theme for the song was to show how the times have changed and showing different types of conflict throughout the years, the first verse and second verse are both very different and talking about past conflict, we firstly thought it would be a good idea to have a third verse to talk about the conflict of today but we had an idea of having just the third part to the song with images and footage of the crimes/speeches/conflict so it will let the audience see it in their own way.
We thought we could have quiet singing of just 'ahh's' harmonising over this part with the instruments very quiet so the audience can really take it in and it will have a very big dramatic effect on them and want it to touch them emotionally. We thought this was a good idea because we didn't want to be completely specific and be obvious so it will be a nice surprise. It also shows that conflict is an ongoing thing and will never be resolved, so ending it with images of today shows it is still happening.We then come back in building up to the chorus which we finish off fading out.
Here's a video of today's rehearsals and discussions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpTYdcQEQIo
PEACE
07/03/13
Although our conflict song isn't completely finished, we still have some parts we need to improve, neaten up and the harmonies are really something we need to work on to get them sounding better. We went into the practice room today and the boys firstly started playing around with the guitars to find some good riffs.
Here's a video of a bit of today's lesson- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ5_fs_fjtk
We all had the same idea of how we wanted the song to sound and agreed on this. We want this song to be much more acoustic and chilled compared to the other song. We're not going to be using drums. The boys have swapped around instruments too. Archie- Bass. Charlie/Alex- Guitar, Mo-Piano, and Samara and I are going to be using some percussion but that will be sorted as the song progresses.
Here's a video of a bit of today's lesson- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ5_fs_fjtk
We all had the same idea of how we wanted the song to sound and agreed on this. We want this song to be much more acoustic and chilled compared to the other song. We're not going to be using drums. The boys have swapped around instruments too. Archie- Bass. Charlie/Alex- Guitar, Mo-Piano, and Samara and I are going to be using some percussion but that will be sorted as the song progresses.
For the lyrics and what the song could be about we thought it would be a nice idea for it to be telling a story, and we thought talking about the times slaves being free and human rights becoming more noticed could be something positive to sing about and could also be quite emotional and touching for the audience. We want it to contrast with the other song and the difference between the two to be very obvious. To connect the two as we are having the end of the Conflict song having speeches and news reports we thought as it is coming into the peace song the reports could be about slavery, peace and people being free, for example, Nelson Mandella, this would be a great way of introducing our song and straight away give the audience a little hint about what our song is going to be about.
Nelson Mandella's story was something that really stuck out for us when thinking of a topic like this, we thought we could think of some of his personal experiences as an example.
Nelson Mandella's story was something that really stuck out for us when thinking of a topic like this, we thought we could think of some of his personal experiences as an example.
I've looked at some images about the topic we're singing about.
Lyrics we have so far for first verse:
The chains are gone,
The shackles aren't here,
Break your back,
To earn no pay,
Big man upstairs,
Has recognised me,
Bought and sold like an animal,
Dark days now done.
The lyrics mean that these people are now free and they have been treated badly..'to earn no pay' implying that these people worked for nothing. 'Bought and sold like an animal' is a line I really like, it's suggesting these people we're not treated like humans and in fact treated as if they were animals. 'Chains are gone' also is saying they have been set free and nothing is holding them back anymore. The picture to the left is an image of what the chains looked like.
We are going to sing two lines in turn but each time will be a girl and boy, we thought of an idea of having the girls singing nicely whilst when the boys are singing they do it more of a spoken word, but saying the same words, as this will have a really nice affect.
08/03/13
I wasn't able to come to lesson today, but the boys told me what they did in lesson and they also videod it which it helpful because now I can see visually what they have done and improved on. They completed the Conflict song, and did the chorus for our Peace song.
They thought of a chorus, the words for this are:
Ahhhh, (harmony) we can rest for the rest of the day. (this is repeated)
I really like this chorus because I think the 'Ahhh' suggests pain and emotion and then the words that follow it suggest that the pain is over as they are positive words. It really fits with the first verse of our song and flows really well.
12/03/13
Today's lesson we went over the conflict song as we are performing them to the class tomorrow for some feedback. We also sorted out harmonies for our peace song and we recorded this, and it's sounding really good. The boys taught me the chorus which they thought of last Friday. For the chorus we are all singing, we all have our own harmony. I sometimes find it hard to keep in my harmony/to remember which one it is, but with more practice I will get there. I also need to try and sing out more and project my voice but this is something I'm trying to work on. We have completed the conflict song and we have also been through what images we want playing in the background for which part, we just need to put these together. We do feel like we need to go over everything several more times just to make sure that we are confident with it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-zpICzgrA0 - conflict rehearsal
13/03/13
We performed in front of each other and got some feed back from the other group. We showed the conflict pieces (this was filmed). I think it went well and I'm happy with this song. The group gave us some positive feedback and they really enjoyed it. A couple things we could have done better was I feel like I could have sang out a bit more and the way I presented myself I could have made myself look more confident and like I was enjoying singing it, this is something I want to change as a performer altogether. The boys came in all the right times and we all really worked well together as a group. For a couple of times Archie did have to look at me for when to come in for the ending as it was something we got done very quickly and hadn't had a lot of rehearsals on but we did it get it right. It would have been nice if I could have played an instrument, nothing big just even tapping a drum so I could feel more involved and even though I did have a say in the music it self it would have been nice to actually been physically involved in this, but maybe for Peace I will.
(PUT UP VIDEO OF PERFORMANCE AND FEEDBACK)
14/03/13
We worked on harmonies today for our peace song. The original set harmonies we had we wanted to change because it didn't sound right and it was slightly out of tune and when we said the word Tom (teacher) listened to our original harmony and then helped us with getting it better. We went through each harmony individually and then built them up one by one to make us feel more confident with it. I think the new harmony we have is much better and we are all much more confident with our individual harmony and they feel right for our voices and ability. We filmed today's session. We went through each persons harmony individually so we could record it on our phone and then practice this at home so we know it well.
Peace video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9zaKl8GAGE
15/0313
Today's class we looked at how to set up the studio as we are wanting to record our conflict song.
NOTES OF SETTING UP STUDIO:
19/03/13
We went into the studio again today and tried to set up the studio without help, we actually found it quite easy. We had to look back at the notes a couple of times just for a few things that we were unsure of. Mo went into the recording studio part and played guitar so we could be looking at how to change things like reverb. I feel fairly confident with it but I am a little unsure of a few things.
20/03/13
We wanted to focus on moving on today and sorting out the second verse, the structure and the actual music itself. We felt we had been wasting a lot of time on the harmonies when this is something that we can come back to and other things need to take priority. An idea for the second verse is we want it to be about a girl called Rosa Parks who the US called her 'the first lady of civil rights'. She is known for refusing to move from her seat on the bus, when in them days you were expected to move off your seat if you were black for a white person.
Our idea was to have Mo, Charlie and I harmonizing the name 'Rosa' in the background whilst Archie does a soft rap/singing over the top talking about her story but as if he was her, in first person.We thought having us singing 'Rosa' in the background would leave the audience thinking and wondering why we were saying that and they could then look more into the lyrics and work out what we were saying. We have recorded this session of us going over the harmony of 'Rosa' which I will upload.
21/03/13
In today's lesson we wrote the second verse for our Peace song.
Lyrics for second verse:
Today I am an equal,
Today I wont run,
I want to walk,
Feel part of this town
Give way to those
Who give way to me
Another leaf in the tree
My colour no longer defines me
22/03/13
Today we changed the second verse because we found that it dragged on for a bit and it stopped and started too many times, wanted it to flow more. In order to achieve this, instead of having gaps in between the sentences we have sped it up a bit, it really makes it fit more. We have also thought of a middle 8 and we wanted a drastic change to surprise the audience. We need to think of lyrics for this. I am playing the Cabasa for some of it, it adds texture to the piece and it also helps us keep in time and also it enables me to get involved in the musical side to it.
26/03/13
We added the tambourine in the song today to add more to the song. For the moment I've been using the cabasa but we're wanting to use shakers instead as we think it will sound nicer. We thought of the melody for the middle 8 and a smooth change to get into the middle 8 and out of it into the chorus again, we just need to think of lyrics for this. After the middle 8 we go into the chorus and repeat it a few times, the 2nd to last time we sing it, it just breaks down to piano, and then the last one is accapella which sounds good as it is harmonised. We have recorded our progress today and what we have so far. The drastic change we had before hand we decided we didn't want to use it because it didn't really fit the feel of the song and wasn't something we were after.
27/03/13
We went into the live room today and showed each other our Peace songs. The reason for showing each other our songs were to give each other feedback, help and point out what things we may need to change, what we could do better and what they really enjoyed.
What went well:
What went wrong:
- We all remembered our harmonies which we do normally struggle with
- We were all in time for when to come in for sections
- Some people forgot the lyrics for some parts of it which made us have to stop and re do the second verse which may have confused us for the rest of it which may have been the reason that we couldn't hold it completely together for the rest of the song
- Need to rehearse some sections as we aren't all confident on them
- The ending of the song we thought up over about a day so we weren't all completely aware of what was going on, it was the first time we had properly gone through the whole thing so I do think that we did okay considering that
- We noticed as the song was going on, as did the other group, that there wasn't a lot of dynamic in our song so this is something we need to work on
Our feedback from the class was really positive and the class said they enjoyed it. They said it had a really nice feel to it, which reflects on the meaning of the song being peace. They agreed with us about having to work on certain sections, things like, learning the words more and being more confident with some sections.
The other group I felt that they did really well, they had some really good lyrics, and Daisy and James' voice works really well together and their harmonies sound great together. I liked their drop from the beginning into piano it sounded really good. They seemed very organised and new exactly what they were doing. Watching theirs I think gave us an eye opener to make sure that we all need to know what we're doing in our group as they all seemed fairly confident and each section they had fit into each other really well.
The other group I felt that they did really well, they had some really good lyrics, and Daisy and James' voice works really well together and their harmonies sound great together. I liked their drop from the beginning into piano it sounded really good. They seemed very organised and new exactly what they were doing. Watching theirs I think gave us an eye opener to make sure that we all need to know what we're doing in our group as they all seemed fairly confident and each section they had fit into each other really well.
What we need to work on:
What we need to work on tomorrow is to get the whole song completely tight and make sure we all know what's going on. In some parts we need to add some more percussion to add more dynamic so it isn't similar and simple throughout the entire song. I do normally play percussion but we wanted to have shakers which we are going to be using as we felt the Cabasa didn't really sound that nice and wasn't the sound we were after. We need to work on Samara getting the tambourine in the right places and in time with everything, Archie needs to know the words completely; there is only a couple of sentences that he needs to work on. The middle 8 is something we are going to look at next, we have the melody and the chords that go into it, we just need to sort out what the lyrics are and add some harmonies in that also, we was thinking of having 'ooh's' harmonised in the background behind Mo singing, so this is something we are going to try out.
Video of performance:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8_agFt-264
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWMMBG58xls (PEACE)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzQ-uHopV7E (CONFLICT and feedback)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWMMBG58xls (PEACE)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzQ-uHopV7E (CONFLICT and feedback)
28/03/13
We had a discussion about the feedback from yesterdays performance and spoke about what we want to change, improve on and what's still left to do.
Discussion video-
What we need to do when we come back from half term:
- rehearse conflict
- go over harmonies for peace
- middle 8 for peace
- keep rehearsing several times so it's tight
- add in percussion for peace song
We went into the live room today and recorded our Conflict song on a zoom so we can then put it onto the computer and start doing the video for the background when we perform our pieces. We went through Conflict a few times as we hadn't rehearsed it for a while. We went over the harmonies as we had lost them a bit whilst on half term, this only took a couple of minutes to refresh our memory. Considering we hadn't rehearsed this song for a while we all remembered it and it was quite clean as a group. What I think I personally need to work on is the lyrics, the two verses are very similar and we sometimes forget the words. I'm going to practice these during my own time, this is for both of the songs we have made. The ending of the song is definitely something we need to go over as it is still a bit messy. We all need to have more enthusiasm when performing these songs, especially during the chorus, where the words are 'oooh, bring the struggle', the chorus we want it to be very powerful and the boys need to sing up a bit and make it louder.
17/04/13
We put the track onto the computer today so we can start putting the video together. The video starts with black and white footage and it slowly starts going into more colourful footage. This is something we was after because we wanted to show conflict from the past and coming into the future, which would be black and white to colour. We next need to record our peace song and then find footage for this and complete the video.
For the song we next need to:
- Middle 8 for Peace- we want to add some harmonies behind Mo's singing
- Rehearse both the songs thoroughly
- Add some shakers in the Peace song (second verse) to create more sounds and to make it feel more of a solid piece- I am going to be using this
- Add a tambourine for the chorus' for Peace
18/04/13
We performed our Conflict and Peace songs to the class today. We have finished the conflict video so we performed with this playing in the background. It didn't go completely to plan, but performing it with this made us realise what parts we perhaps need to change and what doesn't quite fit with the video. We need to finish the Peace video and try that out too. The class gave us some feedback on our performances so next lesson we are going to take this on board to improve our performances, having regular feedback is helpful as it helps us know which particular specific parts we need to work on.
What went well:
Today we went through our Conflict song a couple of times just to refresh our memories but we really wanted to focus on the Peace song, as we are adding in shakers and a tambourine as there is certain parts where we feel the dynamic could really change and bringing in these instruments will really make the song feel stronger as a whole. It also lets us all be involved in the musical part to it. I am playing the shaker, I do this during the second verse when Archie is doing his part and Mo, Charlie and I are singing Rosa in harmony in the background. Adding this really creates a great effect and makes the song feel tighter in general. Samara is playing the tambourine during the chorus, this sounds really good, again it creates such a good sound and makes the song instantly sound better. Adding these two small instruments makes such a difference. When it goes into the middle 8 where it's just Mohan singing we have added some harmonies in the background just to make it a fuller sound as it did sound a bit random and messy, but now it sounds much more clean and tight. Next we need to mix together the videos for the Peace song.
22/04/13
We didn't have any rehearsals in lesson today so we met up during lunch to have a bit of rehearsal time to ensure we are completely prepared for tomorrow. The main thing that we wanted to rehearse was the timing for both of the songs, but mainly with Conflict. I think we have got that down now, the one thing that is my main concern is the lyrics, as both of the verses are very similar we all need to be aware of what way round they go. Tomorrow and Wednesday we need to rehearse a lot, especially to go over the newest parts to the song, and Samara needs to make sure she is confident with the tambourine.
Our jobs that we gave to each person at the beginning we didn't really stick to them. We all took charge of each job together. For the costumes we all decided this together, and we all came to a conclusion that we would wear black and green. We decided to wear this because we thought that it would relate to the army theme and could work for both of the songs that we created. For the dance side of things, we haven't created any choreography we didn't feel like it would really work so this is something we didn't do.
23/04/13
We put together the Peace video today, we found clips from YouTube of Rosa Parks which we thought would be perfect as the song is based around her story. We found a news report about her which we wanted to bring in when we start singing 'Rosa' in harmony. We found some good newspaper articles and we thought it would be a nice idea to cut them out and stick them onto the Piano, this could work for both of the pieces.
Unfortunately a lot of our videos wont upload to YouTube.
VIDEOS WHICH WE USED FOR THE BACKGROUND OF OUR PERFORMANCES
PEACE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7ANunju9Vo
CONFLICThttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF6RjQy55Ww
FINAL PERFORMANCE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTySF84k7Bc
Lyrics for Conflict
Verse 1
Bring the order line them up to send them out to do their job,
Killing fields it's no surprise,
Dying men with empty eyes.
Run, shoot, jump, crawl,
Quick, hurt, hit the floor,
Shoot, stab, shatter life, conscripted in a world of strife
Instrumental
Verse 2
Bring the order line them up a simple shower click the lock,
Hard to breathe, close your eyes,
Forget the colours, forget the lies x2
Chorus
Oooh, bring the struggle,
Oooh, bring the pain,
Oooh, we fight each other,
Oooh, we're all the same
Instrumental
Chorus (til the end of the song)
Lyrics for Peace
Verse 1
The chains are gone
The shackles aren't here
Break your back
To earn no pay
Big man upstairs
Has recognised me
Bought and sold like an animal
Dark days now done
Chorus
Ahh, we can rest of the rest of the day,
Ahh, we can rest for the rest of the day
Verse 2
('Rosa' is harmonised behind the second verse throughout)
Today I am an equal,
Today I will not run,
Middle 8
I will go on,
To make it all up,
But it is a problem,
That I must go on
What went well:
- We all remembered the lyrics for both of the songs
- Personally, I know all the timings and when to come in, but I think some people could improve on this
- We all remembered our harmonies, but we definitely need to go over these to make sure we are all completely confident with them
- The timing was slightly out on some parts so we do need to rehearse these to make sure we get this right on the night
- We need to look at our conflict video and perform to it more times so we get that in time
- We need to look more confident as a group, looking more confident will increase the energy in our group as a whole and bring a better performance
Today we went through our Conflict song a couple of times just to refresh our memories but we really wanted to focus on the Peace song, as we are adding in shakers and a tambourine as there is certain parts where we feel the dynamic could really change and bringing in these instruments will really make the song feel stronger as a whole. It also lets us all be involved in the musical part to it. I am playing the shaker, I do this during the second verse when Archie is doing his part and Mo, Charlie and I are singing Rosa in harmony in the background. Adding this really creates a great effect and makes the song feel tighter in general. Samara is playing the tambourine during the chorus, this sounds really good, again it creates such a good sound and makes the song instantly sound better. Adding these two small instruments makes such a difference. When it goes into the middle 8 where it's just Mohan singing we have added some harmonies in the background just to make it a fuller sound as it did sound a bit random and messy, but now it sounds much more clean and tight. Next we need to mix together the videos for the Peace song.
22/04/13
We didn't have any rehearsals in lesson today so we met up during lunch to have a bit of rehearsal time to ensure we are completely prepared for tomorrow. The main thing that we wanted to rehearse was the timing for both of the songs, but mainly with Conflict. I think we have got that down now, the one thing that is my main concern is the lyrics, as both of the verses are very similar we all need to be aware of what way round they go. Tomorrow and Wednesday we need to rehearse a lot, especially to go over the newest parts to the song, and Samara needs to make sure she is confident with the tambourine.
Our jobs that we gave to each person at the beginning we didn't really stick to them. We all took charge of each job together. For the costumes we all decided this together, and we all came to a conclusion that we would wear black and green. We decided to wear this because we thought that it would relate to the army theme and could work for both of the songs that we created. For the dance side of things, we haven't created any choreography we didn't feel like it would really work so this is something we didn't do.
23/04/13
We put together the Peace video today, we found clips from YouTube of Rosa Parks which we thought would be perfect as the song is based around her story. We found a news report about her which we wanted to bring in when we start singing 'Rosa' in harmony. We found some good newspaper articles and we thought it would be a nice idea to cut them out and stick them onto the Piano, this could work for both of the pieces.
Unfortunately a lot of our videos wont upload to YouTube.
VIDEOS WHICH WE USED FOR THE BACKGROUND OF OUR PERFORMANCES
PEACE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7ANunju9Vo
CONFLICThttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF6RjQy55Ww
FINAL PERFORMANCE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTySF84k7Bc
Lyrics for Conflict
Verse 1
Bring the order line them up to send them out to do their job,
Killing fields it's no surprise,
Dying men with empty eyes.
Run, shoot, jump, crawl,
Quick, hurt, hit the floor,
Shoot, stab, shatter life, conscripted in a world of strife
Instrumental
Verse 2
Bring the order line them up a simple shower click the lock,
Hard to breathe, close your eyes,
Forget the colours, forget the lies x2
Chorus
Oooh, bring the struggle,
Oooh, bring the pain,
Oooh, we fight each other,
Oooh, we're all the same
Instrumental
Chorus (til the end of the song)
Lyrics for Peace
Verse 1
The chains are gone
The shackles aren't here
Break your back
To earn no pay
Big man upstairs
Has recognised me
Bought and sold like an animal
Dark days now done
Chorus
Ahh, we can rest of the rest of the day,
Ahh, we can rest for the rest of the day
Verse 2
('Rosa' is harmonised behind the second verse throughout)
Today I am an equal,
Today I will not run,
Middle 8
I will go on,
To make it all up,
But it is a problem,
That I must go on
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