Leasha's blog

Blog about assignment

At the moment, I have listened to a draft copy of my song, where it has helped me write about it in detail. I have written about why and how I wrote the piece, thanks to software, makes life so much easier.

Blog 2 on my assignment

So at the moment with my environmental assignment, I am using a mellotron, and the sound of an indicator, it's quite cool to have different speeds of the indicator on the mellotron, creating some cool rhythms...

Blog about my assignment

Hello Hello, so during the last few days I have recorded some sounds for my environmental assignment. I have had a few ideas for this assignment, it has been hard because I wanted to do something out of the ordinary, like a few ideas were to paint a picture and record the process, I had an idea to record sounds as I went for a walk. But I decided to use car sounds. So far I have made a mellotron with sounds such as a door bell, the indicator and closing the door bonnet. I did record other sounds such as ringing the door bell and opening the door with keys. So over all the sounds vary from car sounds to things at home. What's the limit and does music have to have a theme?

colin's song

Hay Andrew, we need to continue our story for Colin's song ....

Hello out there :)

Hello and good morning... Well soon, it's 11pm, I thought that I would actually try and start blogging for real now. I have never really been good at these things, so I shall try and write about interesting things. Does anyone have any ideas (I'm talking to those who are actually following me), way to go leash, you are asking people to give you ideas of what to write. How about a question... If you were stranded on an island and you could take 5 things with you, what would they be and why?
So this is my first post that I will try and update, next time I post something I will be sure to write about music, the actual reason of having a blogg site in the first place.

Peace out for now :)

This is quite cool

PERFORMANCE REFLECTION

ZEAL PERFORMANCE 10/06/2010

 

Mercy was our first song we wrote as a team, so I think that it was the most practiced, I loved our group, and I thought we worked really well together, with our transitions and excitement to perform, it also was helped to see the other groups perform before us, to see what we needed to do to keep the attention of the audience, like fast changes and energy during the song, so over all we did great! I reflected of the library performance, we have come so far and we did engage and those changes of some of the songs made a huge difference and then looking at out concert at Zeal, we have come so far, Give it a shot was a great engaging song, it pulled the audience into a fun song, Bella’s song, I have to commend charlotte with this one, she really had improved over the course of many practices, night at the museum was SO FUN! Probably one of my favourites, it was awesome coming up with the ideas to do a guitar and sing OFF in practice, and then having the confident to pull it off on stage, loving the guitar and sing OFF! Then hold on tight, I know I had to be carful at starting off the tune, I seem to sing a bit off at times, but I think I got there in the end, just before commenting on the other songs, the sound guy did a great job at making the sound good, only a few problems that I have had to learn to deal with when it comes to sound, is you just have to keep going even if you cant hear yourself. It was a bit troubling when it came to us being the last group to perform and the different levels of everyone, it became really hard to hear ourselves, because things were turned up and down during the other performances, but that’s what I mean by having to keep going and do our best. Then we did keep on moving which was just so fun to do, a bit of audience participation and then finally look her stranger, which was the best to conclude our set with. I enjoyed developing my skills with drums, guitars and keys over the course of a few months creating music with the BEST group in the world. I even want to learn the drums a lot more now!

AND a huge thank you to Chris who played the drums for two of our songs!!! AWESOME JOB!

But over all, I enjoyed writing music with my group, practices were good, my team always turned up and our ideas combined created some awesome music! Thanks Charlotte, Garin, Andy, Abby and Lahela!!!

 

[Early on, I also recorded during one of our practices, there are two songs, hold on tight and look her stranger on Vox]

 

ORDER OF SONGS:

 

1 Mercy:

Vocals: Charlotte, Abby and Leash

Keys: Leash

Bass: Garin

Guitar: Garin

Guitar: Andy

Flute: -

Drums: Lahela

 

Garin starts this song, then charlotte begins the chorus, I come in on the second time through, we all come in and the interesting thing about this song is that Garin changes from the Guitars to the bass, which makes it more, colourful! LOVE IT, then Abby Raps over Charlotte and I singing different parts of the chorus at the same time.

 

2 Give it a shot:

Vocals: Lahela

Keys: Garin

Bass: Charlotte

Guitar: Leash

Guitar: Andy

Harmonica: Lahayla

Drums: Abby   

 

Lahela leads this song, this starts off in 4/4 I think, and as the vocals tap lead into the chorus the bet becomes half time. Pretty Funky.

 

3 Bella’s Song:

Vocals: Charlotte

Keys: Leash

Bass: Abby

Guitar: Charlotte

Guitar: Andy

Flute: Lahela

Drums: Garin 

 

This song is so beautiful, Charlotte leads this one, we all come in at the chorus, and some of the timing is a bit hard to know at times, but that is the beauty of it, and after practicing this it awesome, and I love singing harmonies in this song.      

 

4 Night at the Museum:

Vocals: Leash and Abby

Keys: -

Bass: Charlotte

Guitar: Garin

Guitar: Andy

Flute: -

Drums: Lahela

 

One word FUN! We have a Guitar and Sing off in the middle of it. This song Andy wrote the music for and we developed during a practice.

 

5 Hold on tight:

Vocals: Leash and Abby

Keys: Abby

Bass: Andy

Guitar: Garin

Guitar: Charlotte

Flute: Lahela

Drums: Chris

 

My favourite part in this song is the chorus where the harmonies are amazing from Abby and Lahela, and then in the bridge where it starts of in the lower register and goes up, until the highest note is reached, (The note I start the chorus on) and during this the harmonies are under the melody I am singing.

 

6 Keep on Moving:

Vocals: Leash and Charlotte

Keys: Abby

Bass: Andy

Guitar: Garin

Guitar: -

Flute: -

Drums: Lahela

 

We have a basic verse and chorus, which then is quieter in the bridge where, I talk to the audience, getting then to clap, and sing. FUN! Its interesting after the bridge that we stop after the lyrics say stop…the sun is out again the rain has stopped 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, the moments gone…

 

7 Look Here Stranger:

Vocals: Abby, Leash, Charlotte and Lahela

Keys: Abby, Leash

Bass: Charlotte

Guitar: Garin

Guitar: Andy

Flute: Lahela

Drums: Leash then Chris

 

LOVE IT, it starts off with harmonies, that goes into an instrumental piece, then the drums stop, until Chris takes over and leads us into our next part of the song, I go onto the keys and the rhythm is speed up until Abby says 1, 2, 3, 4…

 

LIBRARY PERFORMANCE (Before ZEAL)

 

I was impressed on how we managed without all our members, there was a bit of stress but we worked as a team to do the best that we could.

There was a few things after watching the recording of the performance that I am going to change for my self, like for mercy, I will now harmonise during the second time sung of the chorus, leave charlotte singing the chorus once by herself

Also at the end of the concert and during the introductions of each song, speak clearly and say a huge thank you and thanks for coming at the end.

Also if a muck up, just keep going – which I did

I have to watch my pitch – never realised this…a tab embarrassing but that’s ok, I can learn from it.

Watch our stage presence, we need to entertain not just play instruments – look confident, dance, move, something to keep the audience engaged.

Hold on tight – don’t use loud then soft – I go off key

 

Final Reflection

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome!

So my reflection on our own performance and our process...

Overall, we all worked well as a team, totally have a few comments to make, such as it was awesome what we came up with in our rehearsal time, and not to mention, the help that Tama provided, it gave as a sense of direction, not only were we able to tap into being a professional band in the end, such as ' waiting until our songs end in rehearsal before we can talk' and always listening to one another's ideas. I totally saw the growth that was developed throughout the semester. Gave us the chance to create some really strong friendships ans songs. This was evident on our performance day, when no matter if things went wrong, and under pressure we all worked together and encouraged each other. Was lovely to see. After watching the other performance's, one thing that i would have loved to work on was our introduction, and our in between songs transitions. Whether there was more talking or someone playing while we changed instruments, that was one thing that i found a little annoying. But an overall response is that i think we did our best and it showed on the day.