music-techniques-jay-conway

[music-techniques-jay-conway]

Journal Week 12 Improvisation

For this week's class, we looked at improvisation, and how different musicians have experienced improvisation on their instruments, and how the improved section of the music affected the way they played during the improvised section. I myself have had experience improvising on drums, as the Blues band I was in for 8 years required me to do a drum solo just about every performance, and my memories of increased heart rate and nervous energy build up just before going into the solo section are still very fresh and clear. There have also been experiments done on musicians while they are doing a solo performance that have showed increased activity in the parts of the brain area associated with self-expression, and decreased activity in the area associated with self-monitoring. This change in activity is thought to reduce the inhibitions that normally prevent individuals from taking risks and improvising. I feel some of my brain has been affected in this way as I have been playing drums on and off for 30 years.

Then for the compositional exercise, we did something different that I have wanted to do the whole course, which is to do an exercise with the whole class, including the teacher. For the composition I played drums, but I was given directives to not play any type of time, pulse or beat. I found this unsettling as being a drummer is what we are taught to do, but I also looked at it as something new to add to my belt of tricks. The first few runs through I felt I was still playing some sort of time, but for me, things started falling into place when I really listened to what the lead instrument was playing, which was Georgie on the piano. At that point, I could feel a sort of breathing thing happening, instead of just a beat, and felt myself making noises with the different parts of the drumkit, instead of playing beats on them. As I started making progress in not playing a beat, I started getting louder and softer on the kit, building up, then falling away from the other instruments, and trying to complement the other musicians in the room. At this point, I made a very loud bang/crash with the kick drum, floor tom, and hi hat cymbal, which threw everyone out and proceeded to make everyone stop. This is when I realized it was my fault, and Georgie also let me know that it was way too loud for what we were doing at the time. I did very much enjoy this exercise and can see how with a little direction in this form of musical art, could really take a performance to the next level.

END JOURNAL WEEK 12 MUSIC TECHNIQUES SMP014

[music-techniques-jay-conway]

Journal Week 11 Timbre and Combining Sounds

Week 11 looked at Timbre and Combining sounds, a lot of the tracks we listened to during this weeks class were very non conventional, experimental, and art house sounding styles. They seemed to sound really raw and to the bone, using strange vocal techniques, and unconventional musical styles, and methods of playing their instruments, not wanting to conform to any type of normal sounding music. There was talk of how music composed on real instruments, as opposed to computer generated sounds, have more of a emotional effect on the listener, and how real sounds can evoke more emotions in the listener, even moving them to tears. The basis of these heightened emotions relies on the idea that computer generated instruments sound perfect, or are perfectly in tune, while real instruments have imperfections, and the anomalies that happen between musicians when playing together create a situation that is always unique.

The compositional exercise got pretty involved this week, we ended up having 5 people in the group. The 1st thing we agreed on for the exercise was to find as many different sounds as we could on the instrument we had. I had the bass guitar, Andy electric piano, Liam played percussion on the xylophone, Sam on drums, and Jemma played guitar. Jemma gave most of the input on how the different sections changed, the 1st part was a lot quieter, the 2nd the main body of the piece, then the 3rd dropped down to a soundscape environment, then the 4th section picked back up to the main section. I created the basis of the sections being the chords D and C. Each section changed timbre and volume, we utilised different sounds from each of our instruments, to then add them together to each section accordingly.

I like the fact that for this exercise it felt like we were playing together as a band, and not just having one person up the front directing everything, while still being able to hear all of the different instruments, it felt like we were all doing it together. Good synergy.

END JOURNAL WEEK 11 MUSIC TECHNIQUES SMP014

[music-techniques-jay-conway]

Journal Week 10 Modes and Scales

Week 10's class delved into the world of modes and scales, and how when used correctly can give a song harmonical and tonal character that is not usually found within normal major and minor scales. Each mode has characteristic intervals and chords that give it its distinctive sound, in total there are 7 different modes to choose from, the most common modes used in Western music are the Ionion (Major), and Aeolian (Minor). We listened to the different modes being played on the piano, and how they sounded and felt sonically different, and created different moods and feelings, it was quite an amazing experience, and I can't wait to put in my own time to learn more about the different modes. We then listened to some tracks that had examples of modes used in popular music old and new.

For this week's compositional activity, I teamed up with Zac, who I haven't had the chance to collaborate with yet. I have been looking forward to working with Zac as he is an excellent piano player and had also shown me some piano exercises the week before, which I practised, so for the activity, I wanted to play the piano. When we started it took a while to come up with chords or even a basic structure for the song, we did know we wanted to use a mode far away from normal major or minor. I played a 5-note scale starting on the D in the key of D minor, which made it Dorian, and sounded quite serious but also solid, we agreed to use it for the song. We then added 4 chords Dm, G, Am, and Em, these chords made up the intro and part 1, we then found the 5-note Dorian scale could be used in different ways over 2 chords Dm and C, and played this part in unison together on the 2 pianos, and experimented running up and down over the Dm and C with different voicings to see how they sounded. I very much enjoyed leaving my comfort zone, and am going to learn piano, I also enjoyed working with the different modes under Zac's watchful eye, and feel these techniques can be applied to just about everything I do, what a good class!

END JOURNAL WEEK 10 MUSIC TECHNIQUES SMP014

[music-techniques-jay-conway]

Journal Week 9 Groove and Feel

For this week's class, we looked at Groove and Feel, and how they affect the music rhythmically, and sonically, to intentionally make the listener want to dance or tap their feet. Because this term "Groove" is a very loose term used to describe many different styles and genres of music, the one thing it has in common with all of them is that it refers to the rhythm of a song. How that rhythm or feel can be explained depends on the musician's perspective. We used different terms to describe different grooves and feels, and how we would interpret the description for the style, whether it was Gypsy, Swing, Jazzy, Funky or straight Rock. We then listened to different examples of music with different grooves and feels and sought to give descriptive words for each style, some of the terms used were stuttered, percussive, like rubber bands, dragging or straight and steady. We also listened to some pretty old Jazz standards from the 60's Vegas Italian Swing era including Just a Jigalo by Louis Prima. For the compositional exercise, I worked with David on vocals and Liam on piano, our piece was put into motion by a drum beat I started playing, which David then sang over which gave Liam the chords for part one. the second section of the piece came when Davids's lyric sang something like "Speed Up, Speed Up", which is when the tempo for the track picked up, stayed there then slowed down to the original speed after the "Slow Down" lyric.

One thing that gave contrast to the different sections was the groove or feel I was playing on the drums, section 1 was very syncopated and funky, but when the tempo picked up in the 2nd section the beat became straighter and more busy, and then dropped back to the original tempo and funk feel. Other feels for the song came towards the end of the track, where I transitioned to a swing feel, which sounded very different to the previous sections. Then after the end of the swing section, and the end of the track, I changed the feel again to a Reggae beat.

I think using the different grooves in this track worked quite well, and I know sometimes it can be very difficult to get different grooves in a track to gel or actually work, but I think because we kept things simple we managed to get away with it.

END JOURNAL WEEK 9 MUSIC TECHNIQUES SMP014

[music-techniques-jay-conway]

Journal Week 8 Time Signatures

For Week 8 we looked into the world of time signatures, and how to hear and play them. For me this class was extra fun, myself being a drummer, I also learnt a few new things along the way. The 1st thing to understand about time signatures is subdivisions, and how to count them within a rhythmic structure. A time signature can also be explained as a notational device representing the meter and is an auditory feature of the music. The most common time signature is 4/4 time and appears in most Western pop music, but as musicians, we can use any time signature we want. Many cultures from around the World have used many different time signatures throughout history, like 5/8,7/8 and 9/8, but as pop music becomes more diverse, we are starting to hear more mainstream music take on the many different alternatives available to the 4/4 norm. For the 1st class exercise, we listened to songs that had different time signatures and then worked to find their metre and measure. The thing I liked about this exercise was that there was always an end time signature that was set, there were no 2 cases where it could have been one or 2 different interpretations, the song's time signature was always set in stone. We also touched on compound groupings which is when you combine different time signatures to the song's sections, to bring about different feels and voicings. For this week's composition task I was paired up with Andy and Liam, because they were the only other 2 students for this class, and we created a piece together that incorporated 3 different groupings of different time signatures, 4/4, 6/8, 5/4, played over by Liam on piano, Andy on drums, and myself on bass guitar. We started by charting out some different time signatures, and then I played bass lines over chords, but we found some time signatures needed to be changed to match the different signatures and chords. We reworked the different sections until all sections sounded sonically matched, but incorporated the different signatures without sounding repetitive, or too out of time, rhythmically. To practice the piece we worked on different sections individually and then pasted them together piece by piece until we felt confident enough to play all sections in the arrangement in their totality. Again I felt some progression in my composition and performance skills, and very much enjoyed the task.

Below is the chart we made for the piece...

END JOURNAL WEEK 8 MUSIC TECHNIQUES SMP014

[music-techniques-jay-conway]

Journal Week 7 Extensions of Harmony

For this week's class, we looked at chords in more detail, and how melodic tones created by a chord can be changed by adding either diatonic or non-diatonic (chromatic) notes to the chord. We looked at adding a 7th note to a chord, to give the chord more flavour, or how to create slash chords by moving the bass note of the chord around, giving different inflictions to the chord's overall sound. We also looked at how to play suspended chords, which is when the (major or minor) third is omitted and replaced with a perfect fourth or a major second. We did some aural exercises on the piano where a chord was played giving examples of the different voicings, and how their tonal qualities change with the different methods described above. I also heard a term I was not familiar "Harmonic Rhythm", which refers to the chords in a piece of music, and the time it takes for the next chord to progress, and or the measure of the notes played in the chord. For this week's compositional task, I got to work with David and Finn, and I felt personally I made progress in my composition and performance skills from last week's exercise. The piece comprised of 3 different sections, which sonically played over chords that were constructed from examples covered in the class, David on piano, and Finn guitar, but the different sections on the drums were in stark contrast to each other. The 1st section was played in 4/4 time on the toms, but the 2nd section was played in 3/4 time and moved to just cymbals and kick, and you could really hear the different time signatures overlapping each other. The final section moved back to 4/4 but dropped in dynamics to leave room for the other 2 instruments to complement each other. All 3 sections were repeated twice to take the track to a total of 2:41 in duration. We used stops to emphasise each section's beginning as well.

END JOURNAL WEEK 7 MUSIC TECHNIQUES SMP014

[music-techniques-jay-conway]

Journal Week 6 Form

For week 7's class, we looked at the concept of Form when composing music. It could also be explained using the term arrangement which refers to the overall structure of the song, its different sections and how they are organised. Essentially, each section can be 1 of 3 things, being either the same, similar, or different. It is also the interaction of the four structural elements of the song, sound, harmony, melody, and rhythm. Another explanation of Form can also be understood by using the terms passage, piece, and cycle, which are a more detailed idea of concepts. We then listened to a couple of different tracks and examined the form of each track, in response to the task, I realized I didn't know, or was not familiar with, any terms to use to explain form, but I did have an understanding of the concept, I could hear the different sections, and I could also tell if they were the same, similar, or different. It was also opening my mind to the aspect that a song doesn't have to be intro, verse, chorus, verse and so on, the concept for a song to be anything you want I find liberating and exciting, to know you are free to compose what you feel. We then had our group composition exercise, I was partnered with Fin and Frida and our piece was based on a feeling of a "Storm Over the Seashore". My drumming in this piece felt like it was part of the music more than any other task, and I was adding to the feel and character of the piece, not just "bang crash" keeping the beat. The creation process for the song was also a good example for me of how we need to treat each other's ideas with kindness and respect, which is why I think we got as far as we did.

END JOURNAL WEEK 6 MUSIC TECHNIQUES SMP014

[music-techniques-jay-conway]

Journal Week 5 Non-Traditional Notation 

This week's class built on last week's lesson, where last week we learnt about traditional notation, this week moved into Graphic Notation, which is a field of scoring music that has been around for some time, notably coming to prominence in the 1950s, where composers create their own graphics to represent the music score for the musicians to use for the performance. These graphics can be communicated to the musician through symbols, colours, or forms. With its lack of standardization, this method can open a musical piece to forms and sounds not before conceived of, giving the performer any interpretation or voice they imagine at the time, and or to the opposite end of the scale, whereas making the work extremely precise. The presentation took us through lots of different styles and examples of Graphic notation, and how it is applied musically. We then watched and listened to 3 different musical pieces that gave examples of music being performed to Graphic Notation, which was very amazing to watch and hear, taking the music to a place I am not familiar with. The first video sounded like a small orchestra, playing to the graphics displayed on the screen, and I felt, stayed very true to what was being scored graphically, the second piece did not have graphics but was played to a graphic score, the sound was very eerie, with cellos sounding like wolves, if this was in a horror movie, I think it would have great effect. One thing I noticed was the way the instruments sounded and were played to a graphic score, this method definitely makes sounds that you could not conceive of from a conventionally scored piece of music. The 3rd piece was Roomful of Teeth - The Isle III Caliban, which had a choir making croaking sounds with their mouths while the main vocalist sang lyrics, this piece was also performed to a graphic score, bringing elements to the music that would not normally be present. The class was then split up into groups for our composition exercise, where we had to compose a piece using graphic notation to convey its score. My group had Andy and Sam as its members, and we were assigned to the end room, for our piece we had 2 parts, for the first section I was on drums and played a basic 4 on the floor while keeping time with my sticks, and Andy and Sam played some percussion instruments, then for the second part Andy moved to the piano and Sam changed his percussion instrument, we did have graphic symbols for each instrument. My 4 on the floor was represented by a pulse, so one large circle and then three small circles to represent the pulse. The other percussive instruments were represented with 2 scribbly lines and a bigger scribble on its own, and the next instrument with a zigzag line, caveman style perhaps. The activity was loads of fun and I can't wait until next week's compositional exercise.

END JOURNAL WEEK 5 MUSIC TECHNIQUES SMP014

0 notes

[music-techniques-jay-conway]

Journal Week 4 Traditional Notation 

Week 4's class looked at the way we communicate visually to bring a piece of music together, it can be done with notation, or conventional methods, but also any character or symbol that is recognised and understood by the other musicians to represent its function. These symbols can then represent ideas of tempo, dynamics, phrasing, expression, repeats, stops and starts, and sound and silence. I also learnt some new words I had not heard before.. Fermata - a pause of unspecified length on a note or rest. A sign indicating a prolonged note or rest. Accelerando - gradually getting faster. Rallentando - gradually getting slower. Ritardando - gradually getting slower. a tempo - return to the original speed Colla Voce - Follow the solo voice - an indication that the vocal part sings freely and the other instruments should follow. Rubato - is when a performer doesn't stick to the strict rhythms written by the composer, but alters them to give more expression to the performance. We then had an aural activity where everyone listened to a track by Susan Sundfor (White Foxes) that was very fresh and new sounding with very eclectic sounding instrumentations that were interwoven with amazing vocal production techniques, that created quite a standout track that gave me hope for the future of female musical artists.

For the last part of the class we had another musical activity, I was partenered with Fin and Harry, and our piece was pretty straightforward, we wrote a track with 5-6 chords with the circle of 5th's from the key of C, Harry wasn't sure whether he would play the drums or toy piano, he ended playing the drums, and Fin played some accompanying finger picking articulations over the chords I played on bass, we cycled through twice and ended on the root note. We charted everything accordingly, so just the chord changes, and stops. Then, for the other group's renditions, we had Liam, Frida, and Manda do a piano and vocal track, for some reason the class picked me to be a part of their performance and queue their rests, or silence, I actually didn't know where we were in the song and missed my cue altogether, but they stopped anyway and no one noticed. Then we had Sam, Andy and Zac, their piece was very moving and interesting, with many unconventional sounds and ideas, which was charted amazingly, they also swapped instruments a couple of times during their performance as well, very well done.

Check out their (Andy's) chart work...

END JOURNAL WEEK 4 MUSIC TECHNIQUES SMP014

0 notes

[music-techniques-jay-conway]

Journal Week 3 Foundations of Harmony

For Week 3's session, we looked at the Foundations of Harmony and how trying different voicings and patterns and shapes, we can come up with really cool sounding chords, or voicings that sound so much different to normal major and minor chords. During the slide show, we also had some Aural exercises, where someone would play different scales on the piano, so a major scale, a minor scale, melodic minor, and diatonic scales, and the rest of the class got to sing along with each scale, it was quite a refreshing activity. We were also introduced to Tetrachords which was something I was not familiar with but looked very interesting, I found a video on them which I will include as well. For the group activity this week I chose to play bass and worked on a song with 3 other students, Amanda, and Liam, I can't remember the 3rd student's name yet. Our composition involved some pretty cool voicings that Amanda and the other student played on the piano in unison, they occupied the higher and lower register on the piano, and Liam played a melody line on a small toy piano. I tried to provide a bass chordal structure that was in the same key as the G minor voicing the piano was playing, then after the intro, I played a bass line inside of a chord still in G minor, then I followed a minor 4 note melody still in G minor, then for the last part I played 3 note chords descending over the g minor. The other group's pieces were analysed and critiqued as well.

END JOURNAL WEEK 3 MUSIC TECHNIQUES SMP014

[music-techniques-jay-conway]

Journal Week 2  Melody and Accompaniment

This week's presentation looked at Melody and Accompaniment, so we were introduced to terms like Hooks, Counter Melodies, Backing Vocals, Figures/Motifs, Sound World, and Drones and Pedals, there was also some debate about whether to use the word consonant or assonant. We then went over how to approach the assignment, and ways of detailing the presentation information. We then participated in a group activity where we were split up into 3 groups, the task at hand was to create a piece of music that featured some of the terms we were introduced to in the presentation, these were

Counter Melodies

Drone/Pedal

Hits

Stops

Backing figures

Figures/motifs in accompaniment

Our group's song went quite well, I know we used a drone, a stop, counter melodies by the girls singing, and maybe a motif. My drumming included an intro, an A beat that built into a B beat, and then back to the A beat to end the song.

We were then critiqued by the other students on our piece to see if they could spot the different parts/movements we added to our song.

Another part of the exercise was to do a critical analysis of the other group's songs, and then provide feedback on their performances. I didn't keep enough notes about the other performances, which I will make certain to do next week, but I do remember that their performances did include some of the concepts that were presented in the presentation, so melodies, backing vocals that had counter melodies, a stop, a drone and some hits, and think I can also remember a motif.

The last part of the class involved listening to a track and trying to recognise the different parts/movements of the song and itemise each term we had learnt from the day's class.

Here is my list for the song

Saturated Vocals - Vocoder/Autotune

Feels/sounds like a high school crush relationship

Childish lyrics

Basic Drums - straight, not many polyrythyms

Repeating Chorus

Part 2 - Introduction of Female vocal - Vocoder

Very repeating chorus

B Section - middle 8?

Mixed Vocal, lots of space

Big build into chorus - then

Keychange of chorus

Both Singing chorus Speeding up tempo at the End.

Now I know I'm meant to be using terms we have learnt about in class for these analyses, but I am still getting used to applying the terms, which I will pay more attention to next week.

END JOURNAL WEEK 2 MUSIC TECHNIQUES SMP014

[music-techniques-jay-conway]

Journal Week 01 Characteristics of Melody

This class was a chance for everyone to introduce themselves, their gender, and what types of music we draw our inspiration from. It was also an introduction to the course, what we will be learning throughout, and when and what our assignments will be, and what needs to be admitted. We will also be required to keep weekly journals, which I have chosen Tumblr Blog to present my journals.

We will also be required to create a Glossary, when and how I do not yet know, but we went through a comprehensive list of musical technique words that we will be learning about throughout the course, which I think will become part of the Glossary.

We were then required to fill out an Artist's Statement that asked 8 important questions that relate to ourselves as musicians, where we draw things like inspiration and talent from, where we would like to be, and see ourselves as musicians. We then had to present a 3min talk about our statements, in which I got to talk about my dad being a drummer, my 1st musical performance playing a djembe when I was 4 at a kid's birthday party, my 3 creative influences, my dream studio, and how I would love to have my own movie studio, where I would be the director, producer, and composer, to direct whatever I wanted.

In reflection for this exercise, I think I would answer question 3 differently, the question being, Q. Who would you list as your top three strongest creative influences? For this question, I took it to mean we had to name 3 musicians or bands that we liked, but now I would answer the question with what inspires me to write music. Being Answer: 1 Reading SciFi Comics 2 Listening to Classical Music 3 Going for walks in the rain

Then we had to do a group activity which involved splitting up into 2 groups and writing a song using the techniques we had learnt about earlier in the class. I got to play the drums on the track with 5 other students and was part of the call-and-answer vocal.

END JOURNAL WEEK 1 MUSIC TECHNIQUES SMP014