Week 1

Class introduction and expanding your timbral pallette

During our first lesson, we went through the course outline.  Jesse went through the assignments and what we will all needed to do and know to get them done. We also went through some songs listened to them and had some discussions. This was in relation to how different they are. We also learnt about different concepts and definitions of words and different instruments eg timbre. Jesse also mentioned different genres of music and what they might have done to change the sound of their song.At the end of our class Jesse talked to us about the assignments and also said what we should do now for next week.  That concluded the lesson.

Friday 18^th October

For this rehearsal, all members attended in the Schulz basement. For the first two hours, we had Sam and Jachin come in. This was because they were helping us with some songs, as they are playing the bass and drums. After that when they left, we went through others songs during the rehearsal.  Alex showed his song and lily and I came up with some harmonies and Alex asked me if I could play his song on the piano and I said yes. We went through his song a couple times. That concluded the rehearsal.

Friday 11^th October

During this rehearsal three members attended at the Schulz basement for two hours. We worked on my song and lily’s song. I showed my song to the group and then showed them the chords that I use in my song; we went through the song a couple times. Lily came up with some harmonies, ohs and a backing melody in my chorus, which sounded amazing. We worked on lily’s song, for which she showed us the song and we came up with some harmonies and ohs in the background. We went through her song a couple times during the rehearsal. That concluded the rehearsal.

Wednesday 9^th October

This rehearsal had all members attend.  Prior to this rehearsal not all members had met making this session vital. For this rehearsal, we discussed that we should prioritise this time for our band song which we did. Andrew came up with a funky piano chord progression, Alex followed what he was doing and added some riffs to make it more interesting. For myself and lily we came up with some melodies for the piece. For the chorus, we had a counter melody, as I came up with a melody with long notes and lily came up with another melody line underneath. During this rehearsal, we also came up with some lyrics for the verses and chorus. Before the rehearsal ended we discussed that we needed a bass and drums for the rhythm section to make it stand out more, to make it build up. That concluded the rehearsal.

Week 10

Date: 22^nd October

This week we looked at secondary melodies. This concept is having more than one melody line that usually compliments the main melody. “Can be vocal or instrumental” 1 .  The main areas looked at during the lesson were: Riffs, Counter melodies and Bass lines. Examples given in class:

• Riffs- “Smoke on the Water” by Deep Purple 2.
• Counter Melodies – “Thank you” by Dido 3.
• Bass Lines – “Aeroplane by The Red Hot Chilli Peppers 4.

From this class I realised that my band song “Stay” has a counter melody as there is two melody lines in the chorus. One singer is singing a long note and the second singer is underneath singing another melody line. This concluded the lesson.

References

1 Robyn Habel, “Melody Part 3: Secondary Melodies” (lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1B, Elder Conservatorium, University of Adelaide, October 22^nd , 2019).

2 Ritchie Blackmore, I. P. J. L. a. D. C., 1971. Smoke On The Water. [Sound Recording] (EMI(UK) Warner Bros(US)).

3 Dido, 2000. Thank you. [Sound Recording] (Arista).

4 Peppers, R. H. C., 1996. Areoplane. [Sound Recording] (Warner Bros ).

Week 9^th

Date:15^th October

This week we looked at Non-diatonic Chord Progession. The different types are: “Secondary dominant (V7) and Borrowed chords( Parallel)” 1. This shows variety of chords and how you can grab/borrow a chord that is not part of the original scale. This is done to make it more interesting. One of The example given in class for the major key in borrowed chords were “Royals by Lorde” this is because the chords are I, bVII, IV 2 . For the minor key, an example is “Get Away Car by Taylor Swift originally in major uses borrowed chords from a minor key 3. That concluded the lesson.  

References

1 Robyn Habel, “Harmony Part 3; Non Diatonic Chord Progressions” (lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1B, Elder Conservatorium, University of Adelaide, October 15^th , 2019).

2 Lorde, 2013. Royals. [Sound Recording] (Lava Republic Universal Virgin).

3 Swift, T., 2018. Getaway Car. [Sound Recording] (Big Machine).

Week 8

Date: 8^th October

This lesson we looked at literary devices examples of this:

“Allegory, Personification, Hyperbole, Irony, Antonym, Characterisation, List Technique, Idiom,  Axoim, Paragram, Sense and Non-sensical words” 1  .

The use of some of these devices is to not state or represent the actual meaning but represent the opposite, these devices are “irony” and “Antonyms” 2.

This week I learnt the different uses of words and how you can use them in different ways to convey something.  Weather you use deeper meaning to represent something or saying the opposite of what it mean. This shows that you can mean something by representing something.

References

1 Robyn Habel, “Lyrics Part 3: Literary Devices” (lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1B, Elder Conservatorium, University of Adelaide, October 8^th , 2019).

2  Robyn Habel, “Lyrics Part 3: Literary Devices” (lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1B, Elder Conservatorium, University of Adelaide, October 8^th , 2019).

Week 7

Date: 16^th September

This week we focussed on arranging, this was looked through different instruments and how we could include/involve them in our songs because “the possibilities are infinite” 1. We looked at songs that were originals then covers to show how introducing another instrument could change the overall sound. We then went into depth on individual instruments to show how we could incorporate them into a piece. We looked at “Drums, Bass, Guitar, Keyboard, Melodic Instruments and Vocals” 2.

During our discussion part of the lesson we were asked to bring our own original songs to share with the class this was done so that the lecture could listen to the song and tell us what we could do to make it the best it could be either changing something or introduce something to the song. That concluded the lesson.

References

1 Robyn Habel, “Arranging” (lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1B, Elder Conservatorium, University of Adelaide, September 16th, 2019).

2 Robyn Habel, “Arranging” (lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1B, Elder Conservatorium, University of Adelaide, September 16th, 2019).

Week 6

Date:  9^th September

For our week 6 class we looked at “Minor Melodies, Melodic momentum and Melissma”.

For minor scales we looked at the construction of the melodies this includes harmonic and melodic minor plus colour tones (stable tones 1 b3 5  and unstable tones 2 4 6 7 ).

Additional to that order while considering the mood, character and emption of what is given of the tone/scale. Melodic momentum this is controlling the speed of a song without changing the tempo by using acceleration and decelerating motions using different “musical devises” 1.  The three techniques used are: “Phrasal acceleration. Rhythmic acceleration and Harmonic

Acceleration” 2.

• Phrasal acceleration moving from longer phrases to short phrases
• Rhythmic acceleration is dense melody and sparse melody. The feeling of acceleration is when you move from sparse to dense and deceleration is when you move from dense melodies to sparse.
• Melisma is singing single syllables while moving between different notes.

For our discussion part of the lesson we showed songs that had modulations. That concluded the lesson.

References

1 Robyn Habel, “Melody Part 2: Minor Melodies, Melodic momentum, Melissma” (lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1B, Elder Conservatorium, University of Adelaide, September 9^th , 2019).

2 Robyn Habel, “Melody Part 2: Minor Melodies, Melodic momentum, Melissma” (lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1B, Elder Conservatorium, University of Adelaide, September 9^th , 2019).

Week 5

Date:  2^nd September

During our week 5 lesson we looked at Harmonic Modulations.  “Modulations changing from one key area to another” this could be Major to minor 1. This is typically used to give a song a lift to grab the listener’s attention. Modulations in songs mostly include a “pivot or transitions” chords this is to harmonically transition smoothly to another key 2. There are 5 most commonly used modulations methods they are:

1. Relative Major to Relative Minor (or reverse)  
2. Common chords (chords can function differently in a different key)
3. Change chord function: from minor to major
4. Change chord function from minor to major
5. Arrangers Modulation or abrupt modulation

In my song “the truth” I change key to A minor to A Major this is a modulation. This is not the most commonly used modulation.

Three songs I found that had modulations were

“I wanna dance with somebody by Whitney Houston 3.

‘All I Ask” by Adele Adkins 4.

“Love on Top” By Beyoncé 5.

This was a part of the discussion topic next week. The reason I chose these songs was because they are such beautiful capturing songs that almost all three use modulations at the end of the songs.

That ended our lesson.

References

1 Robyn Habel, “Harmony Part 2: Harmonic Modulation” (lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1B, Elder Conservatorium, University of Adelaide, September 2^nd , 2019).

2  Robyn Habel, “Harmony Part 2: Harmonic Modulation” (lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1B, Elder Conservatorium, University of Adelaide, September 2^nd , 2019).

3 Merrill, S. R. a. G., 1987. I Wanna Dance with Somebody. [Sound Recording] (Arista).

4 Adkins, A., 2015. All I Ask. [Sound Recording] (XL).

5 Beyonce, 2011. Love on Top. [Sound Recording] (Columbia ).