Mystery Genre Challenge

 Now that the term is coming to a close so is our topic. I and Tennessee have been working hard individually on different parts of the same piece it was only a few weeks ago that we perfected our parts and put the piece together. This for me was the hardest part as I had played around with parts of my section of the music, this made it hard to sync up with Tennessee, but after working together through lessons and some lunches we managed to perfect it. The part that I found most enjoyable was being able to learn something new on piano and it was tons of fun learning a piano duet for the first time. Luckily we managed to finish and perfect a small section of the piece so we could record it but when we had spare time for the last lesson we started learning more of the piece which was a lot of fun as I was able to help teach Tennessee, my partner. Overall this was a really fun topic even though learning flies me to the moon was my favourite but the research was still a lot of fun, and we finished everything with a single lesson to spare. 

Music Group Assesments!

 During this term in music, we have been tasked with a group performance! I and Tennessee pared up and decided on looking at the blues/jazz genre and we found the song "Fly Me to the moon" Performed by Frank Sinatra, and written by Bart Howard and we thought it would be perfect! I and Tennessee are both piano players so we would be doing a piano duet, with me playing the bass and Tennessee playing the treble. I think this is going to be a real challenge as I have never done a piano duet before so this is going to be interesting... . The song "Fly Me to the moon" was all about falling in love with someone and wanting them both to fall deeply in love with each other. We are starting off by learning and mastering the first few lines of the piece, but if we get the time we will probably learn another section. 

(Fly Me To The Moon) 

                                            

 

Music In Films!

MUSIC - 

Diegetic Sound - Sounds that are added to the scene eg, Music.

Non- Diegetic Sound - Sounds that are natural and don't need to be added to a scene eg, Footsteps.

Chords -  (First thing you check)

Major - Written in a major key has a happy uplifting tone

Minor - Written in a minor key has a sad gloomy tone.

Tempo -  (speed)

Fast - Could walk quickly too, makes the music feel energetic, gives movement/pace
Moderate -  Mix of both
Slow - More of a slow dragging feet pace, makes the music feel lethargic, boring, energy lacking

Dynamics -  ( Volume )

Loud  ( Forte ) - Draws the viewers attention, enhances the emotion,

Quiet ( piano ) - Either background music or used to make the viewer focus

Changing -  (Quiet to loud ) - Builds intensity. ( Loud to Quiet ) - Draws Focus.

MR TAYLORS VIDEO -

Song 1 - 
Happy, upbeat, energetic, Joyful ( FAST TEMPO ) - Has more major chords

Song 2 - 
Slow, Sad, Upset, Lonely, Tired, somber ( SLOW TEMPO ) - Has more minor chords

CORALINE OPENING SCENE MUSIC - 

Changing  ( Loud to quiet ) Draws focus and the creature building the doll.
Minor key - has a sad vibe, feels creepy, uncomfortable
Moderate  Tempo -  Feels edgy, Walking pace, gives energy

MOUSE CIRCUS - 

Minor key - Makes it feel off/uncomfortable, is very upbeat and energetic.
Fast tempo - Energetic, Want to move energy, make the circus feel fun and lively.
Dynamics - Loud - makes the viewer feel hyped up, energetic, welcomed.

BLUES GENRE!

For this task, we had to choose a genre we thought was interesting and wanted to a research project about. I choose the genre Blues! I choose this because it was a genre that I didn't know very much about and I thought the songs that were produced sounded really funky. After choosing our research genre as blues I then decided to focus on the instrumentation aspect of blues. This was really fun knowing what instruments are used to make the final sound, One instrument that I found really cool to learn about was the Double bass! Here is my presentation!

Instrument Study (Ukulele)

Instrument Study - 

The Ukulele 

What is the difference between a ukulele and a guitar?

Both guitar and ukulele belong to the family of stringed instruments. Guitars are bigger than ukuleles. A standard guitar has 6 strings whereas ukulele has 4 strings. The fret-board on the ukulele is way thinner and shorter than the guitar and therefore it makes it way easier to manage for people with smaller hands.

Which countries are most known for playing the ukulele? 

Australia - 6.0%   Canada - 5.1% Germany - 2.3%   New Zealand - 1.5%

Thailand - 1.3%   France - 1.1% Singapore - 0.9%     Italy - 0.7%

What is a ukulele orchestra?

A group of people who play and sing music from a variety of musical genres, all on the ukulele. They now brand themselves as "George Hinchcliffe's Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain"

Link To One Of Their Performances. 

Famous Ukulele Players-

Israel Kamakawiwoʻole- 

Fact 1- He was also known as Bruddah Iz

Fact 2- He was best known for his versions of the songs "Somewhere over the Rainbow" 

Fact 3 - He was a Native Hawaiin and supported independence to become sovereignty

Taimane Gardner- 

Fact 1 - Taimane Gardner is a virtuoso ukulele player and composer.

Fact 2 - At the age of five, Taimane picked up her first ukulele and began her future in performing.

Fact 3 - Taimane was discovered by legendary crooner, Don Ho and became a featured performer in his show.

Piano (Instrument Study!)

Instrument Study- 

THE KEYBOARD! 

What is the difference between KeyBoard and Piano??

One of the differences between keyboard and piano is the weight of the keys, piano keys are heavier than keyboard keys as piano keys carry the weight of the hammers. One obvious difference between piano and keyboard is that the keyboard uses electricity when the piano doesn’t.

What is the difference between white keys and black keys? 

The white keys represent the musical tones and the black keys represent the half step intervals between those musical tones. The colored keys help pianists decipher between the natural pitches and semitone pitches.

What does the Left and right-hand play on a piano?

The right-hand plays the treble clef which is the top half of the piano and the left-hand plays the bass clef which is the bottom half of the keys on the piano.

Pianists - 

Peter Bence 

Fact 1 -  he set the Guinness World Record for most piano key hits in a single minute with 765.

Fact 2 - Peter Bence is a Hungarian pianist! 

Fact 3 - His piano arrangements of Despacito, Michael Jackson, Queen and Sia collecting over 500 million video hits. 

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Fact 1 -  He was a conductor of the late Romantic period.

Fact 2 - His full name is Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff

Fact 3 - He Is a Russian Pianist born on the 1st of April 1873. 

What She Means To Me

Today in music we were writing comes about something important to ourselves. The task was to write two verses (each at least four sentences long) and a chorus, It has to tell a story or has a beginning idea and an ending, and has to contain metaphors. The inspiration for my song was my cats but one cat, in particular, her name is luna and whenever I get home she always brightens my day so shes something important to me. At first, I found it hard to write because I didn't know exactly what I wanted to write about and what tune the lyrics would go with. But the more I wrote the easier it became and I'm happy with the end product. 

What she means to me 

Soft as a cotton ball, Sweet as chocolate Cake 

Time passes by so quickly when you're cuddled up next to me-

Chasing leaves in the breeze 

and, lying by the fire when it's too cold outside 

When the Lights go out, go into the darkness, by my side 

But nobody knows what she, means to me 

no nobody 

no no nobody ye-yeah

nobody- knows what she means to me hehe

Her silky and smooth

oh my oh my, how cute she looks 

when she rolls around in the dirt 

and scratches on my door at night 

when the night gets cold and the fire burns out 

I know she'll be snuggled up next to me, like moss on a tree 

Music Through The Ages

Last term we started creating a slide show showing the different types of music that were popular in each era. This was awsome fun learning all the different music that was played in that era as it was so different from the music we play nowadays.
 

Beats & Beyond

Today was 7&8 Ts and 7&8 Mt's second lesson in music. At the start, Mr. Mitchell Showed us his Guitars And the different parts and names of the guitars. We then created a title page at the start of our books and created a glossary, listing all the different guitars that he brought and the different parts of them. Mr. Mitchell brought four different types of guitars, A Nylon-string Guitar, A Steel String Guitar, A Backpacker Guitar, and a Dreadnaught Guitar. During the lesson, we upgraded the name from music to Beats & Beyond because we thought that music was too boring.


  A Few Words From My Glossary

• Whammy Bar- A Bar on an electric guitar that quickly changes the string tension. 
• Capo- Holds down all six strings at the same time 
• Amp-Plugs into an electric guitar and does the job of a sound hole. 
• Soundhole- A Hole in a guitar where the sound comes from.  

     
 Dreadnaught Guitar      Backpackers Guitar     Nylon String Guitar    Stratocaster