This week, year 10 had just one steel pan lesson, due to the Inset day on Wednesday. This lesson was mostly spent on the Winter composition. Firstly, the tenors went to work with Miss Hasler to learn their ostinatos, while the rest of the pans worked with Mr Fox on the beginning of the piece. We then came back together to put our ideas together, and to create new chords to accompany Deme's ostinato. We finished by playing the whole piece together - and now there's just the ending to finish.
We spent a few minutes at the end of the lesson on Winter Wonderland, but this was difficult as Naomi was away, and Deme had left for her trumpet lesson.
This week, you could blog about:
- Your ideas for the winter composition, and what you contributed to it this week.
- Why you think Winter Wonderland was more difficult this week - and what parts you need to practise.
- What you think you need to do in order to be ready for the Winter Performance in two weeks' time!
Friday, 26 November 2010
Year 11 Steel Pan Week 4: Tuesday 23rd November
This week, year 11 worked on all three of their steel pan pieces:
- I'm A Believer - which is now sounding almost finished! A few timing issues in the introduction which you worked on with Mr Fox.
- Sunshine Of Your Love - this one's still difficult to get together, but it's improving all the time
- Smoke On The Water - this was a new one this week, which everyone picked up really well.
This week in your blog, you should write about:
- How prepared do you feel for your performances? You will be performing at least one of these songs in the school Winter Concert on 9th December - which one do you think will be ready in time?
- Which of the songs have you found the easiest, and which the most challenging? Why do you think this is?
- I'm A Believer - which is now sounding almost finished! A few timing issues in the introduction which you worked on with Mr Fox.
- Sunshine Of Your Love - this one's still difficult to get together, but it's improving all the time
- Smoke On The Water - this was a new one this week, which everyone picked up really well.
This week in your blog, you should write about:
- How prepared do you feel for your performances? You will be performing at least one of these songs in the school Winter Concert on 9th December - which one do you think will be ready in time?
- Which of the songs have you found the easiest, and which the most challenging? Why do you think this is?
Friday, 19 November 2010
Year 10 Week 10 (14-19 November): Steel Pan
This week year 10 had just one lesson on steel pan, which we spent mostly finishing off Winter Wonderland. We worked on the bridge section after the chorus ('in the meadow we can build a snowman...') and managed to put that together with the repeat of the chorus. Tenor pans also added a fast chromatic scale at the end of the bridge section which leads back into the chorus.
At the end of the lesson, we spent a bit of time remembering our Winter compostion - recreating the drones and ostinatos from last week, as well as the chord changes.
At the end of the lesson, we spent a bit of time remembering our Winter compostion - recreating the drones and ostinatos from last week, as well as the chord changes.
Year 11 Tuesday November 16th
This week, year 11 worked on both 'I'm A Believer' and 'Sunshine Of Your Love' for the steel pans. I'm A Believer is almost finished, and we worked on putting the finishing touches to the end of the chorus.
The tenors worked independently to work out the meldoy for Sunshine Of Your Love, while the basses, guitars, cellos and seconds worked on the riff and harmony parts. We tried putting it all together at the end of the lesson, and managed it mostly - although there's more work to be done!
In your blog for this week, you should mention...
- How you feel you are progressing towards a finished performance of 'I'm A Believer'
- What you think the group still needs to do to get the performance ready (practise separately? Focus on rhythms? Try the ending?)
- What the challenges were with your part for Sunshine when you worked on it independently
- How you are finding the steel pan - easy or difficult? Enjoyable? Challenging?
The tenors worked independently to work out the meldoy for Sunshine Of Your Love, while the basses, guitars, cellos and seconds worked on the riff and harmony parts. We tried putting it all together at the end of the lesson, and managed it mostly - although there's more work to be done!
In your blog for this week, you should mention...
- How you feel you are progressing towards a finished performance of 'I'm A Believer'
- What you think the group still needs to do to get the performance ready (practise separately? Focus on rhythms? Try the ending?)
- What the challenges were with your part for Sunshine when you worked on it independently
- How you are finding the steel pan - easy or difficult? Enjoyable? Challenging?
Friday, 12 November 2010
Year 10 and 11 Steel Pans this week
Both year 10 and 11 spent a lesson on steel pans this week...
Year 10
Spent half a lesson working on Winter Wonderland, and performing the final section (section C) together. They then spent the second half of the lesson working on their own winter composition - creating repeated ostinatos on the steel pan, and using different chords.
Year 11
Spent a two-hour lesson working on both I'm A Believer and Sunshine Of Your Love. I'm A Believer is almost finished!
Year 10
Spent half a lesson working on Winter Wonderland, and performing the final section (section C) together. They then spent the second half of the lesson working on their own winter composition - creating repeated ostinatos on the steel pan, and using different chords.
Year 11
Spent a two-hour lesson working on both I'm A Believer and Sunshine Of Your Love. I'm A Believer is almost finished!
Year 10 Music Flexible Learning Day
This week year 10 spent their Flexible Learning Day creating pieces of music to be used in the horror film which they'll be making next term.
The activities we did were:
- Watching a clip from 'Jaws' and learning how a musical motif can represent a character or idea in a film
- Learning about 4 devices that are used in most horror film music: drones, cluster chords, chromatic scales and trills, and practising playing them on the keyboard
- Listening to film clips and writing notes on how they work - including dynamics, tempo, tonality, devices, instruments, etc.
- Creating our own horror music motifs on the keyboard
- Learning how to use the computer programme Cubase to create effective horror music - in particular, how to loop pieces of music (repeat them), how to change the dynamics and how to make the tempo faster or slower
- Composing pieces of music to be used in scenes from the horror film - including music to build up tension, music for a chase, general underscore and music for the closing credits
In your blog about this day, you should both explain a little about what you learnt during the day, as well as how you developed your own ideas for your composition. Try to evaluate your composition so far - is it finished? What do you think you did well? What could you work on and improve?
The activities we did were:
- Watching a clip from 'Jaws' and learning how a musical motif can represent a character or idea in a film
- Learning about 4 devices that are used in most horror film music: drones, cluster chords, chromatic scales and trills, and practising playing them on the keyboard
- Listening to film clips and writing notes on how they work - including dynamics, tempo, tonality, devices, instruments, etc.
- Creating our own horror music motifs on the keyboard
- Learning how to use the computer programme Cubase to create effective horror music - in particular, how to loop pieces of music (repeat them), how to change the dynamics and how to make the tempo faster or slower
- Composing pieces of music to be used in scenes from the horror film - including music to build up tension, music for a chase, general underscore and music for the closing credits
In your blog about this day, you should both explain a little about what you learnt during the day, as well as how you developed your own ideas for your composition. Try to evaluate your composition so far - is it finished? What do you think you did well? What could you work on and improve?
Friday, 5 November 2010
Year 11 Term 2 Week 1: Starting Steel Pan
This week, year 11 began work towards a steel pan performance, working with Miss Hasler and Mr Fox.
In your blog this week, you should write:
- What type of music are you going to be performing on the steel pan? Which song did you start work on this week?
- Which pan were you playing (tenor, seconds, guitar, cello or bass)? Or drum kit?
- How did you find your part in the piece - easy, difficult? What were the challenges in learning to play the steel pan? What techniques did you master this week (e.g. rolls, playing a scale...)
In your blog this week, you should write:
- What type of music are you going to be performing on the steel pan? Which song did you start work on this week?
- Which pan were you playing (tenor, seconds, guitar, cello or bass)? Or drum kit?
- How did you find your part in the piece - easy, difficult? What were the challenges in learning to play the steel pan? What techniques did you master this week (e.g. rolls, playing a scale...)
Year 10 Term 2 Week 1: Steel Pan and Composition
This week, year 10 worked on...
- Remembering and completing your melody and chord sequence ideas for the winter steel pan piece
- Starting to put these ideas onto steel pan
- Putting some of the ideas together to see what worked well together
- Continuing practice of 'Winter Wonderland'
In your blog, you should both talk about what you did as an individual and as a group, as well as your thoughts about how the composition is going so far. What did you think of everyone's ideas - and which ones worked well together? How could you improve your own ideas to make them work better as part of the composition? What do you think the next step should be for the composition?
- Remembering and completing your melody and chord sequence ideas for the winter steel pan piece
- Starting to put these ideas onto steel pan
- Putting some of the ideas together to see what worked well together
- Continuing practice of 'Winter Wonderland'
In your blog, you should both talk about what you did as an individual and as a group, as well as your thoughts about how the composition is going so far. What did you think of everyone's ideas - and which ones worked well together? How could you improve your own ideas to make them work better as part of the composition? What do you think the next step should be for the composition?
Friday, 22 October 2010
Year 10 Steel Pan week 7
This week, year 10 worked on the final sections of 'Winter Wonderland' as well as spending a lesson coming up with musical ideas for their own winter steel pan compositions.
In your blog this week, you should write about:
- How you found the final sections of Winter Wonderland - what were you able to play well, and what was more difficult? What do you need to do after half term to improve your performance?
- What were the decisions that we made as a group about coming up with musical ideas? For example - what did we decide about tonality, and themes?
- How did you go about coming up with musical ideas? Did you focus on melodic or harmonic ideas? Did you start by playing chords, or did you improvise until you found something that sounded good?
- What were the ideas like that you came up with? Were they melodies? Chord sequences? How did you write them down?
In your blog this week, you should write about:
- How you found the final sections of Winter Wonderland - what were you able to play well, and what was more difficult? What do you need to do after half term to improve your performance?
- What were the decisions that we made as a group about coming up with musical ideas? For example - what did we decide about tonality, and themes?
- How did you go about coming up with musical ideas? Did you focus on melodic or harmonic ideas? Did you start by playing chords, or did you improvise until you found something that sounded good?
- What were the ideas like that you came up with? Were they melodies? Chord sequences? How did you write them down?
Friday, 15 October 2010
Year 11 Week 6 - DJing exams
This week, year 11 completed their DJ course, which finished with two tests on the decks (drop-mixing and beat-matching, and acoustic mix) as well as a written exam. This week, in your blog, you should write about:
- How well you did in the DJ assessments. Did you pass? If you didn't pass, are you going to try again?
- Whether you passed or not, you should try to write a paragraph about what you've learnt through completing the DJ course, and what new skills you now have
- How much did you enjoy the DJ course? What were the best bits? What was the most difficult? Were there any boring parts?
- Will you carry on using your DJ skills? Do you feel ready to create a mix for the Diploma Festival next term?
- How well you did in the DJ assessments. Did you pass? If you didn't pass, are you going to try again?
- Whether you passed or not, you should try to write a paragraph about what you've learnt through completing the DJ course, and what new skills you now have
- How much did you enjoy the DJ course? What were the best bits? What was the most difficult? Were there any boring parts?
- Will you carry on using your DJ skills? Do you feel ready to create a mix for the Diploma Festival next term?
Not sure what to write in your blog?
If you're not sure what to write, here's a few ideas...
Explain what your task was in music lesson this week
Who did you work with? Did you work individually or did you help and practise with others?
Did you complete the task? Did you achieve everything that you set out to do?
Did you share any work with others? Perform anything?
How did you feel about your own work and progress this week?
How could you improve your work in future lessons?
What did you do best this week?
How did you feel about the work of others that you saw?
How could they improve?
Is this work ongoing? What will you be doing next week to continue your work?
Remember, the point of your blog is both to keep a record of what you've done, and to show the examiner that you have made progress throughout the year - so make sure you highlight all the new skills that you've learnt, or when you've got better at something.
Remember, the point of your blog is both to keep a record of what you've done, and to show the examiner that you have made progress throughout the year - so make sure you highlight all the new skills that you've learnt, or when you've got better at something.
Friday, 8 October 2010
Year 10 Week 5 (4-8 October): Steel Pan
This week year 10 have continued work on Winter Wonderland - perfecting the introduction and section A, and working on section B. All of the sections have had to learn new techniques, such as:
- Performing a chromatic scale (one using all the notes, such as G-A-Bb-B-C) - all the pans did this
- Playing off-beat, syncopated rhythms (all the pans did this)
- Playing double rolls (the guitar, cello and seconds did this in the harmony of section B)
- Playing chords along with the melody (tenor pans did this)
- Using words and rhymes to rehearse and remember rhythms (such as 'I don't like fish and chips...')
In your blog this week, you should describe some of the new techniques that you have used and learnt this week.
Next week, we will continue to work on Winter Wonderland as well as start coming up with some ideas for our own winter pieces. You need to start thinking about how you might create a winter song for steel pans. Would you use bits of existing winter tunes (e.g. jingle bells) to make the piece recognisably wintry? Or would you add more percussion, such as sleigh bells?
- Performing a chromatic scale (one using all the notes, such as G-A-Bb-B-C) - all the pans did this
- Playing off-beat, syncopated rhythms (all the pans did this)
- Playing double rolls (the guitar, cello and seconds did this in the harmony of section B)
- Playing chords along with the melody (tenor pans did this)
- Using words and rhymes to rehearse and remember rhythms (such as 'I don't like fish and chips...')
In your blog this week, you should describe some of the new techniques that you have used and learnt this week.
Next week, we will continue to work on Winter Wonderland as well as start coming up with some ideas for our own winter pieces. You need to start thinking about how you might create a winter song for steel pans. Would you use bits of existing winter tunes (e.g. jingle bells) to make the piece recognisably wintry? Or would you add more percussion, such as sleigh bells?
Tuesday, 5 October 2010
Year 11: DJing, 5th October
Today's session was spent almost entirely on beat-matching, and on practising.
When you're blogging about today's session, you might want to mention:
- How easy do you find beat-matching? What is easiest/hardest about it? Do you feel you are doing enough practice?
- What were the choices that you made today about your DJ name, logo, favourite tracks, etc?
- How do you feel your DJ skills are progressing so far? What techniques have you really understood, and which do you still need to work on? How are you going to address any difficulties that you've had so far?
When you're blogging about today's session, you might want to mention:
- How easy do you find beat-matching? What is easiest/hardest about it? Do you feel you are doing enough practice?
- What were the choices that you made today about your DJ name, logo, favourite tracks, etc?
- How do you feel your DJ skills are progressing so far? What techniques have you really understood, and which do you still need to work on? How are you going to address any difficulties that you've had so far?
Friday, 1 October 2010
Year 10: Steel pan workshops week two
This week year 10 worked on a new piece for steel pans - Winter Wonderland. You decided to perform a Christmassy version of Whatcha Talkin Bout at the Winter roadshow, as well as Winter Wonderland and another piece which you will be composing after half term.
Use your blogs this week to talk about...
- How you found the new piece, Winter Wonderland. What were the challenges and what was easy?
- What you're starting to learn about music for your own pan - do you tend to play chords? Melodies? A bassline? Do you tend to have long, held notes? Or upbeat rhythms? All this will help you when you're creating your own steel pan piece next term.
Use your blogs this week to talk about...
- How you found the new piece, Winter Wonderland. What were the challenges and what was easy?
- What you're starting to learn about music for your own pan - do you tend to play chords? Melodies? A bassline? Do you tend to have long, held notes? Or upbeat rhythms? All this will help you when you're creating your own steel pan piece next term.
Year 11: Week 3 of DJing
This week was year 11's third week of DJing workshops. You worked on beat-matching, and learnt about how to use the computer programme Serato to create mixes. Nigel, our DJ tutor, gave us a demonstration of a mix using Serato - and the decks have now been set up in the back of the Music Dept for you to practise on in your spare time...
Friday, 24 September 2010
Year 10 Steel Pan Workshops begin
This week has seen the first two Year 10 Diploma steel pan workshops. Year 10s have worked together as an ensemble to create a performance of the Jamaican song 'Watcha Talkin Bout', and have started to learn good stick technique as well as ensemble performance skills.
Year 10 - When you're writing your own blogs about this week, make sure you include...
- Who was playing which pans - and which were you playing?
- What you've learnt about good steel pan performance technique
- What your part in 'Watcha Talkin Bout' involved
Listen to 'Whatcha Talkin Bout'... Click Here
Year 10 - When you're writing your own blogs about this week, make sure you include...
- Who was playing which pans - and which were you playing?
- What you've learnt about good steel pan performance technique
- What your part in 'Watcha Talkin Bout' involved
Listen to 'Whatcha Talkin Bout'... Click Here
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
14th September 2010 - DJ Workshop Number 1
Today was the first of the series of DJ workshops. Year 11 performers worked on skills including:
- Setting up the decks
- Rewinding/fastfowarding
- Cross fading
- Dropping in the track
- Beat-matching
- Setting up the decks
- Rewinding/fastfowarding
- Cross fading
- Dropping in the track
- Beat-matching
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
Year 10 - Term 1
This term, year 10 will be working towards a steel pan performance for the Winter Roadshow. You will be working together to create a steel pan ensemble, and to rehearse and perform some winter-related pieces.
This week, you have started work on some research into steel pans, including what they are, what the different types of pan are, and the types of music which use them - including calypso. You will then do some research into Christmas music, and start planning for your own performance.
This week, you have started work on some research into steel pans, including what they are, what the different types of pan are, and the types of music which use them - including calypso. You will then do some research into Christmas music, and start planning for your own performance.
Year 11 - Term 1
This term, we will be working on DJ skills, in preparation for your Diploma Festival after Christmas. You will be working every Tuesday with professional DJ tutors to learn all the basic techniques, and to start putting your own performance piece together.
So far, you have worked on a research project to find out about the history and development of DJing, including what DJing is (and the equipment and techniques used), how DJing and Turntablism started as part of Hiphop culture, and how recent developments (such as the invention of digital music) have influenced DJing. If you have not already finished this and handed it in, please make sure you do as soon as possible.
Next week (Tuesday 14th September) you will be starting work with the professional tutors. Make sure you arrive promptly to 142 at the start of the day!
So far, you have worked on a research project to find out about the history and development of DJing, including what DJing is (and the equipment and techniques used), how DJing and Turntablism started as part of Hiphop culture, and how recent developments (such as the invention of digital music) have influenced DJing. If you have not already finished this and handed it in, please make sure you do as soon as possible.
Next week (Tuesday 14th September) you will be starting work with the professional tutors. Make sure you arrive promptly to 142 at the start of the day!
Welcome to the Music Blog
Hello!
Welcome to the Music Blog for the Creative and Media Arts Diploma at Charles Edward Brooke. This is where you can find out about what's happening in your Diploma Music lessons, work and homework that's been set, and any other important information.
You should set up your profile to 'follow' this blog, so that you get all the important updates sent to you.
Remember - you should be using your blog every week to keep a record of the work that you have done in your Diploma lessons, and this includes music!
Miss Hasler
Welcome to the Music Blog for the Creative and Media Arts Diploma at Charles Edward Brooke. This is where you can find out about what's happening in your Diploma Music lessons, work and homework that's been set, and any other important information.
You should set up your profile to 'follow' this blog, so that you get all the important updates sent to you.
Remember - you should be using your blog every week to keep a record of the work that you have done in your Diploma lessons, and this includes music!
Miss Hasler
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