School of Rock-Week 8- Melody

CC image Music Was My Refuge by Cindy Mc at Flickr

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. – Maya Angelou

SUMMARY

  • This week had a lot of music theory. It was interesting to learn about different time periods and how music evolved. I found some of the Hookpad tutorials interesting, I use Garage Band now and its similar,but not exactly the same.

PRACTICE ROOM

  • I used this video to learn how to tune my dad’s old bass guitar.
  • https://youtu.be/ZX2_gxiDymE

CLASSROOM (THEORY & ANALYSIS)

  • As babies we can recognize tunes we heard in the womb.
  • Pentatonic compositions are common throughout all cultures.
  • A mode is effectively the mood of the song. It could be happy sad or intense.
  • Blue-notes are a note that is flattened for expressive purposes.
  • All modern music is written diatonically
  • False relations is when one phrase ends in a minor and the next starts in a major

LAB (THEORY PRACTICED)

I learned that Hookpad uses numbers 1 through 7 and the arrow keys to write notes. I also learned that you can undo by hitting Z
Outside
  • For my walk I thought about how I write my music, what is my creative process. Do I grind it out, and push through until I get something? Does it all hit me at once and I have to get it out of my head? Do I organize my music writing process? Do I use a combination of all of these things? I am still learning this about myself

STUDIO (SONGWRITING)

Melody Composition Terms

  • Theme – a longer more flowing melodic idea.
  • Motive – a short rhythmic idea
  • Period – made up of eight measures
  • Phrase – four measures is a phrase
  • Antecedent (Question) Phrase – first phrase
  • Consequent (Answer) second phrase
  • Scale Degrees
  • Tonic – The base or home note that determines the key of the song.
  • Steps – any movement using half or whole steps
  • Leaps – any movement using intervals larger than a whole step
  • Conjunct motion – melody built primarily out of steps
  • Disjunct motion – melody primarily using leaps
  • Repetition – the use of repeated material to create a link between two phrases of a period
  • Contrast – two phrases that contain different material to create tension or interest.
  • Variation – a phrase that includes some recognizable material and some new material.

Melody Resources

Mr. Le Duc’s Key of C Major Notes and Chords Chart (PDF)

WHAT I LEARNED and PROBLEMS I SOLVED

  • Hookpad – I learned that some of the work is the same as Garage Band, and some of it isn’t. I will have to pay attention to make sure I am using the correct keys when writing a song. I also found learning how to play a new instrument is a slow process and I will have to have patience.

School of Rock – Week 7- Tools, Time, and Rooms

CreativeCommons image Tool Stash by Meena Kadri at Flickr.com

SUMMARY

  • This weeks work was interesting and thought provoking however the hour long podcast was tedious in the sense that it was long, not that it was boring or mundane. I enjoyed this week.

PRACTICE ROOM

  • Guitarists Guide to Playing the Bass by Mark Sharfglass
  • www.guitarworld.com
  • Bassist locks in with the snare drum
  • Adds extra notes between chords to stand out
  • Bass Progresses in fifths
  • Learn more about walking the bassline

CLASSROOM

Image of Gordon Hempton
Image by Richard Darbonne, © All Rights Reserved.
  • When it comes to silence with no distractions we finally get to meet ourselves and that can be frightening.
  • You can fine tune listening skills by listening to nature because you are not invested in the outcome

LAB

  • Songs are broken up into many different parts – bridge, chorus , instrumental, etc.
  • The chords are displayed below the measure

OUTSIDE

School is my nemesis. I’ve been fighting my battle with it since 2010. I shall conquer it by coming out on top of it with a at least a 3.0 GPA!!!!

CONTROL ROOM

Developing Quality Workflow

What is Workflow?

Image Creative Workflow from Behance.com, https://www.behance.net/gallery/27919515/Creative-workflow-GIF

Work•flow /ˈwərkflō/

“The sequence of industrial, administrative, or other processes through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion.” – lexico.com

What is a quality workflow?  How do we develop it?  Below are elements of the production cycle that most creative people move through as they create something.  First, we must identify the stages of project production. What is each stage and what are the quality checks for each stage.  Read on and find out.

Stages of Creation Development

Inspiration

How do we find ideas to develop? Let other peoples music inspire you. Always take things one step at a time or else you are likely to get overwhelmed. You shouldn’t worry about how good something is until its out of your head while you’re making music. You can always go back and fix things and fine tune them later. Let people listen and give feedback. That way, you know how you can improve. Practice can only improve what you apply it to.

Intention

How do we clarify our specific goal(s) for a project? Setting goals is always very beneficial to keeping you on track. If I were making an album and I didn’t have any goals then it would be hard to stay focused and I would jump from thing to thing and never get anything done. Set reasonable achievable goals so you can make your best music. For example set a goal of working on a project for 20 minutes a day or complete one project a month. To stay on top of the goal make a to-do list.

Pre-production

How can we brainwrite, brainstorm, storyboard, and plan our ideas at this phase? The hard part for me is finding a topic. One must have think about what is relatable to others. For example, there is a lot of music about depression, love, and having fun. These are some relatable topics you could write about. I always start with the instrumental track before I write my lyrics. Lastly, share your ideas with others so they can add their input and own ideas if you’re collaborating. Not all ideas are your best ideas, and that’s okay. That’s what your friends and colleagues are there for.

Production

How do we communicate with each other and execute our plan for this phase? This is where we actually make the project. This is were we utilize our resources we have and begin our project. Now is the most important time to go step by step. If we use this process everything will come together. Make sure your goals are specific and reasonable and you can move forward with them in a timely manner.

Post-production

How do we communicate with each other and execute our final stages of the project for this phase? This is where we publish the project. This is an important time. It is always good to review our work so we can catch errors. Ask people to give you feedback and make adjustments where necessary. This way we can publish our project knowing that it is 100% ready for the public eye.

Presentation/Performance

It is important to organize your presentation. The step by step process is important as ever. Practice and rehearsing is the best way to insure that things are going to go well.

Feedback

How do we conduct a feedback session at the end of the project development cycle?

Finally, this is the time for us to sit back and listen to what people have to say and incorporate their comments and observations into our future projects. To get feedback from a focus group of my peers I might send them a sample of my new song. I my also send my mentor my song to critique.

Recipe For Success: Logic

<p>Logic photographed on Dec. 3, 2018 at Smashbox Studios in Culver City, Calif. Styling by Mercedes Natalia. Logic wears a FRAME hoodie, Armani Exchange joggers, Nike shoes and Rolex watch.&nbsp;</p>

https://static.billboard.com/files/media/Logic-bb28-2018-feat-billboard-fgjiyt-1548-1024×677.jp

Sir Robert Bryson Hall the II, born January 22 1990 in Gaithersburg, MDPersonal

I define personal success as someone who is financially stable, gives back to the community, and is happy.

Logic meets this definition because he is a extremely successful Hip-Hop artist who is very humble and gives back to the world. He created a song in association with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The was titled 1800-273-8255 which is the national suicide prevention hotline. He has recently retired as of July 2020 along with the release of his farewell album No Pressure. He retired to spend more time with his wife and newborn son.

Logic was extremely skilled. He was a skilled lyricist with punchlines and four syllable rhymes all packed in to a buttery smooth flow over Jazz sampled instrumental beats. He was also very resilient. His father and brothers distributed crack cocaine in his neighborhood. Logic stayed in school despite his home life circumstances. Logic once said, “School gave up on me but I never gave up on myself.” Later in His career he began to produce his own beats.

Logic had a very successful underground career before he was approached by record companies. He wrote very complex deep songs about the reality of his struggles. He used his resilience to deny a large dollar record deal because his friend told him to pass it up. Two months later he was approached by Def-Jam.

Logic had to overcome many obstacles. He had a physically abusive mother, a drug addicted father as well as living in Section 8 housing. He also dropped out of high school. During this time he had to live with friends. Despite all this, he became extremely popular and successful. He is now sold over ten million albums and has an estimated net worth of 14 million dollars.

Logic Gov Ball
https://www.complex.com/music/2017/09/logic-onstage-breakdown-twitter

Resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_discography

https://www.billboard.com/articles/events/year-in-music-2018/8489969/logic-number-ones-billboard-cover-story-2018