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I think this performance went really well. The harmonised sections sounded great and catchy, especially the Celtic inspired chant at the beginning. I think the transition to the prechorus section that had the Middle Eastern inspired riff in it was smooth and sounded good. I think we should've played the riff once more somewhere in the song like maybe in the outro on the keyboard to add more dimension to the piece. The call and response in the chorus was catchy and punchy like we wanted it. I think the bridge section with the 3-2 clave on the guitar sounded great and added the needed variation to that section as if it was the same chords repeated the same way it would've gotten boring. The main down fall of this performance was the instrumental timing between the guitar and the drums. As the drum pattern kept changing, the timing sometimes slipped and it was hard to stay in time constantly. To correct this, it would've been good if we'd practise or performed with a metronome to keep us all in time throughout.

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Uploaded by lawrence stewart on 2017-10-16.

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I decided to use a 3-2 clave on the guitar for the bridge section to give some variation to the music and to give this section a bouncy and catchy feel. The 3-2 clave was mainly inspired by Middle Eastern and Blues music as they also use 3-2 claves in their songs. To layer over this, we decided to have a mixture of the call lines from the chorus along with the Celtic inspired chanting to replace where the response lines from the chorus would be. This also gives this section variation so the song doesn't get too repetitive which is more of a western trait of music than an eastern or Asian feature. We tried to then have a final chorus after the bridge however we found that it didn't fit as the bridge wasn't that long so it started to get boring due to how repeated the chorus is. Therefore, we decided not to have a third chorus and to transition from the bridge directly into the outro. For the outro, we decided to slow down the tempo and make the drum beat less complex by just having the drummer (George) tapping the rhythm on the drum sticks. I also made sure the guitar gets slower and more subdued to fit with the rest of the changing tone, to do this I only strummed the lower pitched strings so the guitar notes sounded quieter. We wanted to have vocals for the outro too however we didn't want to repeat any of the lyrics from other parts of the song as we just did that in the bridge. We were then inspired by Celtic music as they sometimes contain humming or types of scat singing in the background of their music. So, we decided to have layered humming (layered as I sang the harmonies over the top of the melody) and this fits with the outro as the song is getting quieter and more piano (soft) so vocals with lyrics would've been too much however humming fits effectively.

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This run through shows that our initial ideas worked well and the lyrics and melody fit with the instruments. Now we need to work on a bridge section and figure out how we want to end the song.

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We decided we wanted to use a lot of vibrato and tried to bend the notes we sang by semitones (where it worked) so we were using a chromatic scale and therefore we'd show our Middle Eastern inspiration, as they're known for singing in chromatic scales and using semitones rather than full tones. We also wanted to have a Celtic style chant that we'd use throughout the song as our catchy jingle that will stick in people's heads. Traditional Celtic music used chants in their work songs as a way of motivating workers and has evolved from then and is still used in modern Celtic music. Another feature used in Celtic work songs is call and response, where one person would call one line and multiple people would respond in unison with another. We decided to use this technique in our chorus by having one vocalist (Jess) sing the first line and then the other vocalists (me and Jade) would sing the response. Straight after the call and response chorus, we decided to put in the chanting (which is also featured in the intro and outro) which makes our Celtic inspiration more prominent.
The lyrics can be related to love and a relationship (which is a very common topic in popular western music) or they can be related to religion and a relationship with God (which is a topic very prominent in traditional Celtic music). For example, the opening lines are "waking up with you right beside me, always someone I can confide in" which can be interpreted as the narrator talking about their partner or lover (a more literal interpretation). However, it could be interpreted as someone who has a relationship with a religion and they always feel their God's presence and feel as though they can confide in their religious beliefs. Also the chorus can relate to this more Celtic inspired interpretation as the repeated rhetorical questions could represent someone who is feeling uncertain about whether they're good enough for their beliefs and having doubts about whether they're a good person, this is especially emphasised on the line "will you love me when I'm no longer gold?" which could mean "will I still be accepted in my religion if I'm not perfect or if I falter?" which is a common thought people can have when they're under strict, religious rules.

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We began creating our song by coming up with a Middle Eastern inspired guitar riff. I came up with this riff and used a chromatic scale so the notes go up in semitones during parts of the riff to give it the Middle Eastern and Asian tone. I also made sure the riff was played on the top strings of the guitar so it has a low pitch and sounds thick almost like a bass riff which gives it a more Western and rock tone therefore fussing the genres together in this riff. From this riff, I put chords to the song and decided to play parts of the song with muted strings to give it more variation as the guitar is one of the only instruments in this song so I don't want it to get too repetitive and boring. Using this technique also gives the song a bouncy and rocky feel.
For the drums, we were mainly inspired by Celtic music and the quick rhythms they use. We wanted to have a quick beat that has a build up in the chorus and during the instrumental. We also got experimental by playing the rims of the drums and playing the drum sticks just by themselves to try and imitate sounds that are created by Celtic bands as they vary the type of percussion they play in order to get different sounds (for example they can not only use full drum kits, they can also use more traditional drums like bodhrans and frame drums to get different sounds depending on what they desire).
With the keyboard, we changed and tried out different effects/voices and finally settled on one of the electric guitar voices as it gave the keys a distorted, Middle Eastern pop inspired sound which we liked. We decided to have the keys playing on the offbeats (in between the drums and guitar) for the choruses to give the song a bouncy feel. This syncopated beat was slightly influenced by Asian and Middle Eastern music as their modern pop songs are also bouncy because some of them use off beats instead of on beats.

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Me (Georgia Bué-Smith on guitar and vocals), Jessica Tinker (vocals), Jade Marvin (keyboard and vocals) and George Clements (drums).