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Uploaded by QS16 - WORKING AS AN ENSEMBLE on 2017-01-24.

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Verse:
E, C#m, F#m, B x2

Prechorus:
F#m, B, F#m, B, C#m, C

Chorus:
E, C#m, E, C#m, F#m, B

Instrumental:
E, A, E, A
E, A, B

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Group:
- Meg (vocals)
- Andy (guitar)
- Adam (bass)
- James (drums)
- Me (vocals)

How were ideas developed in the rehearsal?:
We started the rehearsal by sitting down together and brainstorming ideas so that we could come to an agreement on the kind of style that we wanted to go with. We discussed a lot of the popular music during the 1960's and decided to base our song on the style of 'Please Please Me' by The Beatles.

How does it fit in with the era?:
The tone of the guitars is very similar to the style in the 60's, particularly The Beatles. Also, the guitar riffs act as fills almost, to help transition to the next section, which has a distinct 60's feel.The lyrics are kind of nonsensical in some parts, reflecting upon songs like 'Come Together' written at the end of the 60's. The drums use the cymbals very heavily, which reflects how Ringo Starr would often use the sizzle cymbal as a second ride during this era.

Feedback:
We were told that what we managed to come up with this session was very fitting for the decade that we chose. There was also a part where the guitar moves down by a semitone which was praised for being interesting and unique.

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Verse 1:
For something so forsaken,
It's like a living dream
Daytime reality
Washing machine, sitting on your knees

Prechorus:
The night, the music, the lights, The faces they all
Blend in

Chorus:
Times looking down
Take a look around
You can take my hand We'll dance the night away

Verse 2:
Things passing over,
It looks good to me
It may be a small moon But it enlightens me

Prechorus:

Chorus:

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This was our very first draft. The lead guitar and harmonies are not there. We also hadn't finished the lyrics but had the same, secure melody line. --------->

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Verse 1:
Are you going out tonight?
Was i wrong for thinking i could have you?
Will you take me out tonight
Or are u with those girls who've gotta have you?

Prechorus:
But I'm not crying
I'll be dancing
You're holding a drink
But I don't care

Chorus:
F*ck it!
F*ck it!

Verse 2:
And sure I miss you but I know
That I'm wrong for thinking that I need you
To take me out tonight
Go stay with all those other girls, I know they need you

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Group:

Me (vocals)
Sara (lead guitar)
Paul (bass)
Morgan (keys)

How were ideas developed in this session?:
During this session, we really set to work in figuring out the structure of the song. We added in dynamic changes to symbolise the feelings and emotions of the lyrics - the verses of kind of sad, the protagonist is reminiscing about their past relationship, wondering where they went wrong. The chorus, however, is the complete opposite, uplifting and about decided to just forget about it and have a good time to the music. The influences remained the same for this session as we put finishing touches on the song.

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F, Am, Em, G

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QS16 2 Week 8 Paul Ellie Sara Morgan 80s synth pop

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QS16 2 Week 8 Paul Ellie Sara Morgan 80s synth pop

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Group:
Me (vocals)
Dan (lead guitar)
Sara (rhythm guitar)

What we did:
We chose to record Drink With A Stranger again as a new final performance. Keeping the change in tempo, we also decided to add in a lead guitar part which made the whole song sound like more than just an acoustic song. The influences all remained the same; we were trying to mix a little bit of Ed Sheeran's new style in with his old style that we were previously inspired by, hence the electric guitar.

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Verse 1: C, Am, G x3
I've been waiting all night
Just to see your face
Been waiting all night
So you can hold my waist
It's been a long while
I don't want to wait
Can you be here right now?

Chorus: C, Am, G x3 E
Won't you run away with me?
Together we'd be so happy
x2

Verse 2: C, Am, G x3 E
I don't want to leave you
It's been so fun
Can we do this again?
But not wait too long
Didn't know how to tell you
So I wrote this song

Chorus: C, Am, G x3 E

Bridge: F, G, Am x3 E
Run away oooh
x3
Run away

Chorus: C, Am, G x3 E

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Verse 1:
Who am I to know and who am I to say
What's right and what's wrong
But who were you to put all these walls in place
Where we know they don't belong
And I've got your face when I close my eyes,
And all our texts on my phone
Now I've gotta find a new way to survive
Without all that I've known

Chorus:
And I'm gonna end up down the bar tonight
Gonna drink with a stranger
Gonna drink with someone new
And I'm gonna end up down the bar tonight
Gonna drink with a stranger
Gonna drink without you

Verse 2:
And you always loved to sit in this place
For hours on end
But I can't spend everyday of my life
Looking out for your hair
On every stranger, every passerby
Lord knows, I don't have
Time

Chorus x2

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1st draft for a riff

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Group:
Me (keys and vocals)
Paul (bass)
Sara (lead guitar)
Morgan (keys)

How were ideas developed in this session?:
We added a main riff that could be played on the guitar and then we worked everything else around it, as we felt that this was the main focus of the song. We also decided to keep the lyrics very simple, using a lot of repeated phrases and very the chorus be majorly instrumental. We struggled with finding a decent-sounding synth voice, we really wanted to find the perfect one as it is such a huge part of the genre. We got a couple different options for a repeated phrase, most of which didn't make the cut. We struggled to come up an effective structure during this session, leaving us with fragmented sections of the song at the end.

How does it fit in with the era?:
This fits with the era (70's-80's) because of the instrumentation that we used. We used a synth voice on the keys to make it stylistically accurate. Our main inspiration was Ah-ha's 1984 hit, 'Take On Me'. From this, we took the idea of a simple melody line that can be repeated throughout the song. This would make the song memorable and turn it into a bit of an ear worm that would play over and over in people's heads. To emphasise this, we kept the lyrics very simple as we didn't want to pull any focus away from the main purpose of the song, to have fun and dance.

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Group:
Me (guitar and lead vocals)
Shaan (harmonies)

What we did:
In this session, we decided to make a few changes to what we had. We listened to our original inspiration and then listened back to last week's session. Doing this helped us to see that speeding the song up would help it fit in with today's pop music.

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(Drink With A Stranger) 2010's to present day

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(Drink With A Stranger) 2010's to present day

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Group:
- Shaan (backup vocals)
- Morgan (keys)
- Me (guitar/lead vocals)

What we did:
In today's session, we started by listening to some of todays pop music to get inspired to write our own. The main artist that we listened to was Ed Sheeran and, since our instrumentation was similar to what would be found on an Ed Sheeran track, we decided to take inspiration from him.

How does it fit in with the era?:
For the 2010's to present day era, we decided to go with something inspired by Ed Sheeran's recent music. He uses a technique called 'palm-muting' a lot, which is when the guitarist will mute the strings with their palm to create a sort of dead, dull sound as opposed to letting all of the notes ring out. We used this technique throughout the majority of the song. Our instrumentation was very similar to what you would find on an Ed Sheeran track also, which we used to create a stylistically accurate song. We also took inspiration from this type of pop music for our lyrical content. We stuck with a kind of grunge-y feel, very pessimistic and negative. The whole idea of using the connotations of alcohol and getting drunk within our lyrics stemmed from listening to Ed Sheeran's 'Drunk' from 2011.

Individual targets for next rehearsal:
+ Shaan: Listen back to the recording and try to figure out some harmonies that are similar to the way Ed Sheeran layers his vocals
+ Morgan: Write a very simple melody that can we played on the keys at various points in the song
+ Ellie: Fine tune any lyrics that I'm not happy with

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Group:
- Shaan (lead vocals)
- Sara (lead guitar)
- Morgan (keys)
- Paul (rhythm guitar)
- Me (rhythm guitar/backup vocals)

What we did:
We started the session by playing what we already have to Sara so that she could improvise a lead part over the top of it. We went over it a couple of times until we had something concrete that we were all happy with. Then, we moved onto writing the bridge section. We knew that we wanted the song to go somewhere different for the bridge so we decided on moving to a completely new chord to change up the feel of the song.

Feedback:
We were told that it fit in with the 2000's decade and that the vibe of the song was similar due to the moving accompaniment.

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QS16 2 Week 2 Paul Sara Morgan Ellie Shaan

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Group:
- Shaan (lead vocals)
- Sara (lead guitar)
- Morgan (keys)
- Paul (rhythm guitar)
- Me (rhythm guitar/backup vocals)

Targets:
-  write a chord structure
-  write as much of the lyrics as we can

What we did:
We started off by listening to some popular songs from the 2000's. We decided to go for an R&B vibe, which was popular at the time. Myself, Morgan, Sara and Paul worked on creating an appropriate accompaniment, focusing on using techniques such as palm muting and an upbeat pattern to create a lively, danceable feel to our song.

How does it fit in with the era?:
For this song, we set out to write a song inspired by the chart-toppers of the 2000's decade. Some artists that we focused on included Destiny's Child, Christina Aquilera and Faith Hill. We definitely wanted to capture the essence of a very cheesy, lovey-dovey song, which we felt was reflected in our lyrics. In terms of the instrumental accompaniment, we decided to keep it very upbeat to reflect some of the styles of the era. We also wanted to make sure that the music was very danceable as this has always been a major part of pop music. We feel like we achieved that by having an interesting strumming pattern on the guitar as well as a bouncy piano accompaniment.

Individual targets for next rehearsal:
+ Shaan: Completely finish and fine tune the lyrics
+ Morgan: Memorise the keys part to be able to play along with the rest of us
+ Paul: Work on perfecting the dynamic changes in the song, memorising them
+ Me: Work on diversifying each part of the song to give it some direction as well as working on the harmonies
+ Sara: Add a lead guitar part