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This is the "rough draft" of my piece, there's a weird sound in the middle that i couldn't get rid of. It's a lot better than it was last week, I played the entire piece this time, including the last measure that's different from the rest of the piece. Performance affects an audience's response based on how good it was. I think an audience would have an okay response to this, but not good or great.

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Performing 4 - What makes my Piece Ready? 

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Performing 4 - What makes my Piece Ready? 

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I practiced getting the timing and temp more even, and I think it's a lot better than last time. I left out the last measure because it wasn't ready yet, so the whole piece will be in the next one. a piece is "ready" first and foremost when the entirety of it is learned, and in some cases memorized, but also when the performer feels they've practiced it enough and they are ready to perform it.

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Performing 3 - What Are My Strengths And Weaknesses?

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Performing 3 - What Are My Strengths And Weaknesses?

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It's important to understand musical structure, because especially in this piece, it repeats a lot of phrases, so once you learn half of the piece you've essentially learned all of the piece. This recording is just an excerpt, and it needs some work. I kind of freaked out when i was recording it because the midi keyboard made it sound weird so maybe next time ill record on my phone or a laptop. I need to practice the piece to make it more performance ready. I have a little trouble with making the left and right hands match up, Because I hesitate on notes, so I think if i practice that for a while I'll get it.

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Performing 2 - What Are my Strengths And Weaknesses?  

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Performing 2 - What Are my Strengths And Weaknesses?  

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Understanding the structure of the piece is important, because in this piece for example, it's two phrases repeated, so once I learned the beginning, I had essentially learned most of the piece.
performers can improve the quality of their performance by practicing, especially making sure that small mistakes are fixed. for example, I often use my fourth finger instead of fifth in a certain part of this piece, but it's important that I use my fifth so that my hand is in the right position to play the chord. This will also apply to my new piece, because the rhythms have to line up in a specific way, so if something small like the fingering is off, the whole piece will be wonky.

one way to improve performance is to practice areas you have trouble with multiple times. Once that part is perfected, you can move on in the piece. then play through without stopping as if you were in a performance, and take mental note of any mistakes so you can fix them.

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I'm going to be playing an arrangement of Fantasie-Impromptu by Chopin. It sounds pretty, and it has cool major-ish minor-ish changes that I like a lot. It also helps me work on some more basic skills like fingering. It also has some cool theory-ish stuff, like the two notes in the left hand forming a chord with the right hand.

I've already been working on the piece for a while, s I think I'll be able to make it sound really good for a performance.

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her name is Noir Essence

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I think she's done. she's ready. I also realized I was composing unintentionally in sonata form. the beginning with the jazzy sax and electric piano is like the first theme, the the theme after that withe the pizzicato strings is like the second theme, and then after that with the piano and strings is kind of the development, even though it doesn't change keys or anything, it does have a different feel and idea than the first two parts, then I ended it by kind of blending the first two themes together. I know it's ready to share because I really feel that there's nothing else I can add to it to make it better, I think it sounds really cool and I accomplished what I set out to do. I feel like this song could be in the background of a cool buzzfeed video or something like that. like, cool autoplay music on someone's blog. it's kind of like, elevator music, but cool elevator music. elevator music for my brain. If someone were to perform my piece they should know that it's super chill, and to go with the flow and keep it jazzy, but also the bassline should really stay constant to keep it coherent.

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I finally took a break from composing using just loops, after figured out that the midi keyboard has an on/off switch, I used it to make the little piano and strings melodies at the end. the last little bit kind of sounds like Charlie Brown music, but I'm kind of okay with that. maybe it sounds terrible, and I'm just tired. I don't know, we'll find out next week.

I think the quality has definitely improved, using something other than loops definitely adds something cool to it. and now there's three separate and distinct melodic sections, and I like that they all have a different vibe, so maybe I'll keep going with that kind of idea. Or maybe not. it might end up being too disjointed. they say the worst thing about the spongebob musical is that it's disjointed due to the fact that it was composed by like ten different pop stars, not the fact that it's, you know, spongebob. anyway, the point of that was that it might be too disjointed. we will find out.

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I added some more loops to the piece, and they were mostly strings, so I could get a cool vintage-y vibe. I played around with some stuff on the midi keyboard, but none of it sounded very good, so I just went with more loops for now. next week I really want to start adding stuff with the midi keyboard to make it more interesting and less repetitive.

Listening and performing influences creativity because I think I'm composing something fairly similar to what I listen to and tend to like to perform.

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Creating 2 - What Influences Creativity?

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Creating 2 - What Influences Creativity?

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For my composition I layered a lot of loops, and because of my musical experience I knew I had to line them up just right so that the rhythms would be synched up. To get the vintage jazzy sound I used jazz bass and saxophone loops, but layered an electric piano under them to make it sound more modern. I also added some synth-y stuff too, to give it a modern vibe. Creative decisions for me happen very spontaneously, I have to listen to how something sounds before I make a decision on whether or not include it or how to include it. Right now it is just loops, but I will add some more melodic stuff, probably from the midi keyboard.

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I decided I'm going to compose on logic/looplabs rather than an instrument (partially because I have my fill of actual composition in AP music theory). I want it to be jazzy, so I'll probably put some horns and a cool bassline in there. It's a little difficult for me to explain my plan now, since most of my ideas happen in the moment, it's spontaneous. I do know that I want it to be like "vintage" (meaning kind of jazzy early broadway stuff, 42nd Street Vibes) meets more modern music. I think the music that I listen to directly effects my creativity because I listen to a pretty even balance of musical theatre and like punk pop kind of stuff. I especially love modern/contemporary musical theatre because elements of pop and rock music are blending into the classic musical theatre kind of sound, and that's how I think I want my composition to sound like.

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Here she is. the listening podcast.

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As a musical theatre kid, I do a lot of judging the quality of performances by comparing individual performers who have been in the same role. I compare what they did the same and what they do differently, and that helps me evaluate who played the part better (which is a thing you just have to do in theatre, if you don't have a favorite person in a role you're garbage and you don't know what you're talking about. ) For me, the biggest thing I listen for when I listen to music is things like intonation and harmony, so usually music with good harmonies and singers with good intonation are what I qualify as "good". For example, The song "Will I?" from Rent has amazing harmonies and really cool tone quality because it's got a very musical theatre sound, but also kind of punk rock, so it's good. I don't have a counter example because I don't listen to music I don't like so....

By analyzing music, we can create playlists of similar music, which is cool because then you can have an endless stream of cool music that you like. By understanding why you like the music you listen to, it's easier to find similar music.

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For the song "All That's Known" from Spring Awakening, the composer uses rhythm in a really cool way. The song starts with boys chanting Latin in rhythm, then the soloist comes in on top of it, and it kind of acts like the bass line. There's also a fair amount of dynamic chance throughout the song, to show the singer's frustration with 19th century German society, specifically school.

For the song "Explode" by Patrick Stump, the biggest musical element is dynamics. The verses a pretty quiet, and he really enunciates all the consonants, almost like a loud whisper, and the lyrics build the tension into the chorus, which is loud. And the lyrics for the chorus are all about exploding and being frustrated and losing it.

"Guns For Hands" by Twenty One Pilots has a really cool sound, it's a little echo-y, and it kind of sounds like it's playing in a speaker that's a little fuzzy, and it kind of reverberates in your head. There's also a lot of dynamic change.

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The first two songs on my playlist are No Good Deed from Wicked and w.a.m.s by Fall Out Boy.

No Good Deed has a lot of growth and dynamic change, showing the character's frustration increasing. there are also a lot of accents, like the lyrics "no good deed" are mostly staccato. The melody is fairly disjunct, there are weird intervals and jumps all throughout. the song is also in a minor key, and is somewhat dissonant in places.

in w.a.m.s the rhythm and constant pulsing accents in the drums show the theme of the song. The song doesn't have a lot of growth or dynamic change, it's generally the same dynamic all throughout, I guess showing a constant level of anger and frustration. There are some really cool harmonies in the song, and I'm not sure what exactly they re meant to convey, but they're there.

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Listening 2 - What's on my Playlist (II) 

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Listening 2 - What's on my Playlist (II) 

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Last week I chose angst as the mood of my playlist, and I'm feeling less angsty today, but I'm sure that won't last long. I chose No Good Deed from Wicked and w.a.m.s by Fall Out Boy. The next three songs I'm adding to the angst playlist are All That's Known from Spring Awakening, Explode by Patrick Stump (as a solo artist -  so it totally counts as a different artist than Fall Out Boy), and Guns for Hands by Twenty One Pilots.

All That's Known is one of the angstiest songs from easily THE most angsty musical ever. The play is set in mid 1800s Germany, but the music is contemporary (and aside from that this is the most school appropriate song in the play so I hope I don't get in trouble). the song starts with students reciting latin in rhythm, then modern background music synchs up with the latin, and Melchior (like I said, Germany) begins singing about how much he hates school and how he would rather learn about more important things than latin, like the meaning of life, and how he hopes one day society will change. The main element that conveys the theme of angst is the lyrics.

Explode kind of tells a story in it's lyrics, but also has a lot of dynamic change. The verses are all pretty chill and quiet (if you don't think about the lyrics) but when the chorus hits the song suddenly gets loud and fast. the lyrics of the verses outline a character (who's name is apparently Tony) struggling with defusing a bomb (which is kind of a cool metaphor). And the chorus is Tony's frustrations building up and "exploding".

Guns For Hands is totally about anxiety, and feeling judged, and being angry and frustrated about it (#relateable). The metaphor of everyone having "guns for hands" is about how you can feel unsafe or uncomfortable in social situations, obviously a bit irrationally, as people don't actually have guns for hands. the chorus contains the lyrics "I'm trying to sleep, but I can't, but I can't, when you all have guns for hands". this is a metaphor for anxiety keeping people awake at night, also #relateable. The band conveys the theme of anger and frustration through aggressive drums and screaming, which isn't everyone's thing but I too scream about anxiety.

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So the "mood" I chose for my playlist is angst, because it's a Monday morning and all of the music I listen to is angsty because I'm 17. I don't know if I listen to angsty music because I'm angsty, or if the angsty music is what makes me angsty, probably the first one, but who knows, maybe it's a vicious cycle. The songs I chose are No Good Deed from Wicked, and w.a.m.s (which is intentionally all lower case letters) by Fall Out Boy.

No Good Deed is one of the most angsty songs in musical theatre, like ever. Elphaba (or the wicked witch of the west) is on the run from the wizard, and is trying desperately to save her loved ones from the wizard. They are sort of seen as "accomplices" to Elphaba's weird Oz social justice stuff. There's also a lot of dynamic change, it just gets louder and louder, and there's a bunch of key changes. Elphaba is frustrated , and the singer (in the version I'm listening to it happens to be Idina Menzel) conveys that through singing really loudly, and speaking some of the song.

w.a.m.s is by Fall Out Boy, the band that invented early 2000's teenage angst. Since it's Fall Out boy, the lyrics are really poetic, and mean everything and nothing at the same time. To me the lyrics convey a feeling of a sort of existential crisis or mental/identity crisis, so that's pretty angsty. One of my favorite things about this song (and every FOB song) is the drumming. I'm not sure if I can explain this in English right now, but somehow the drums make the song feel angsty/angry.The lyrics also question religion. And after the initial drums and guitar rock n roll portion of the song, there's an a cappella bit, and it sounds really chill, but the lyrics are not so chill, and take the theme of questioning religion further. I'm not sure what they were trying to convey with the last section of the song, but for me it kind of clarifies the meaning of the song in a calmer way.

So there's that.