| Session Number | 5 |
| Week Number | 3 |
| Total Estimated Hours Contributed this Week: | 5 |
| What was your overall goal for this week? | To learn measures 9-16 in Kenner Boogie. |
| Date | Task Description | Time Spent | Was this a Best Practice? |
| 4/10 | measures 9-13, right hand | 7 min | yes |
| 4/11 | measures 9-13, left hand | 10 min | yes |
| 4/12 | measures 14-16, right hand | 10 min | yes |
| 4/13 | measures 14-16, left hand | 8 min | yes |
| 4/14 | measures 9-16 | 10 min | yes |
keyboard
By May 10, I will learn the song Kenner Boogie on the piano, by following various practicing strategies and sheet music from this source for my April SMART Goal.
-practice the first part of Kenner Boogie for the first 10 minutes of class
-work on other sections in 5-minute increments
During this session, I had to get creative with some of the notes and use the sheet music as a rough guide. I did this because in videos I have seen of Jon Batiste performing this, the song is different every time so I didn’t think it had to be exactly like the music.
I worked solo on this project so there wasn’t much communication or collaboration other than communication surrounding equipment.
I used a keyboard to practice as well as an M-audio 25-key keyboard to play the song into Garage band for recording purposes.
This session will help me with my life and career because it has helped me practice doing something regularly every day and having a routine when we played for 5-10 minutes at the start of class.
Grammarly
April
| Session Number | 5 |
| Week Number | 2 |
| Total Estimated Hours Contributed this Week: | 5 |
| What was your overall goal for this week? | Learn the first two lines of Kenner Boogie. |
| Date | Task Description | Time Spent | Was this a Best Practice? |
| 3/20 | work out the rhythm for the opening of Kenner Boogie | 10 munites | yes, the beats were funky |
| 3/21 | combine right and left hands for line 1 | 10 minutes | yes but the left hand was very simple |
| 3/22 | practice right hand for measures 6,7, and 8 | 7 minutes | yes, productive |
| 3/23 | combine R&L hand for mesures 6,7, and 8 | 8 minutes | meh, could have used more time for the right hand |
| 3/24 | continue with measures 6,7 and 8 | 7 minutes | yes, locked in this part |
| Que: -why don’t we have less time at school and more time at home to sleep? -How does age affect the amount of sleep you need? -If someone with Alzheimers got a lot of sleep would they be more lucid the next day? -Would getting more than the recommended amount of sleep hurt or improve your mental and physical well-being? | Notes: -sleep affects testicle size and amount of testosterone -you need to sleep before and after learning to remember what you learn -you create fewer memories when you are sleep deprived -getting less sleep makes you age faster -less sleep can influence Alzheimers disease -there is a 21% increase in heart attacks on the day after daylight savings in the spring -21% decrease in heart attacks on fall daylight savings -a lack of sleep can cause multiple types of cancer -sleep in a room at about 65 degrees farinheight |
Sleep is one of the most important things in our lives. It directly affects our mental and physical well-being, as well as our quality and length of life. We can’t learn or form new memories if we don’t get enough sleep.
| Que: -If you studied in one block then realized your terrible mistake and practiced in increments would you get the same result? | Notes: -the more breaks you take when learning something the faster you learn it -you retain more information when you study over multiple days -surgical students who place their practicing in 40-minute increments rather than a three-hour block performed better. -it works better when you sleep in between practicing |
Learning stuff in increments while taking breaks in between will improve the speed at that you learn the material and to what extent, this was tested with surgical students. Studying over multiple days will produce better results than studying in one day.
For the base project, we watched videos about bases and influential base players. We used various resources to create our own baselines and reflected on what we made.
Watch How Bass Works (47 minutes)
Step 1: Watch How to write Chromatic Notes in Hookpad (some bass lines are based on chromatic scale)
Step 2: Watch 3 ways to use Hookpad’s MIDI drag-drop feature (you can create basslines and more and export to Soundtrap and other DAW – digital audio workstations)
I enjoyed making a baseline in hook theory. I experimented with making a walking baseline which was relatively easy because I could use all quarter notes and move them down a few octaves. The videos were helpful, especially the one about accidentals.
How To Add Bass Notes Guitar Strumming Lessons by Tomas Michaud
guitar TABS for his exercise (PDF) Thomas Michaud
Reflection: I don’t know how to play the guitar or any string instrument. I didn’t know where to start with a guitar tab so I adapted it to the piano. I played the half notes with my left hand and the chords with my right hand.
Reflection: I had no idea that These people played so many good well known songs. I have probably heard some of these songs hundreds of times and this is the first time I have ever heard the names, Carol Kaye and James Jamerson. I understand that at the time if their names were on the record then people wouldn’t have bought it but I think they should have more recognition now because people already like the songs and should get credit for their work.
I used an E in one of the lower octaves on the piano and experimented with making a baseline using only one note. I used different rhythms to make it interesting while staying on the same note. For dynamics, I followed the line.
For the recording, I played this on a keyboard but plugged it into Garage Band to change the instrument o base so it doesn’t sound completely natural but other than that I think this went well.
I learned different ways to write baselines and where different types of baselines originated from. I had to adapt some things from guitar or base to keys so that the exercise was applicable to me.
For the rhythm project, we explored different types/styles of rhythms and different ways to make rhythms. we did this with tools like hook theory and garage band.
Part 1 – Drum Arrangements Made Simple
Part 2 – Arranging Drums in Hookpad
Part 3 – Advanced Drum Arrangements in Hookpad
I used one of the basic drum rhythms from HookTheory over my melody. I like the fill at the end but I want to make more space for more fills because the rest of the rhythm is kind of boring. For my final rhythm, I think I will use Garage Band so I can have more options for instruments and make my own rhythms.
Watch How Rhythm Works (47 minutes)
| Cue | Notes |
| -how has classical and jazz music influenced modern-day instrumental music? -Who are some good musicians who use multiple types of rhyme? | –Rythem and pulse are expressed differently in classical than in a style with drums like jazz –beats are generally subdivided into groups of two –laying multiple sets of notes that are twice as long can add tension – accents emphasize certain beats, usually the more important ones –syncopation makes rhythm lose and fun and is common in ragtime music –It makes things sound more human instead of mechanical -swing is used primarily in jazz and is a sort of long short rhythm -cross-rhythm superimposes different rhythms on top of each other -rap music uses a lot of cross-rhythm -Cuban music fused different rhythms from around the world |
In this video, I learned how rhythm evolved over time as new cultures were introduced to each other and how these different types of rhythm can alter the way that the song feels and fits with the other parts.
In the rhythm of this song, I really like how it is layered between the drumset and the piano. On its own, the drumset is already super cool but when the piano comes in it feels very lively and bouncy. because the song starts and ends with only the rhythm section the rhythm really feels like the backbone of the whole tune.
what I like about this baseline is that I think it would add a lot of color and texture to a song. I also am glad that I made this. one in Garage Band because HookTheory didn’t have many options for creating your own baselines.
In the rhythm project, I learned a lot about different types of rhythms and where they originated from as well as the ways these rhythms could be combined and played on top of each other. I had to solve the problem of not having enough options for making my own melodies with HookTheory, so I switched to Garage Band.
Grammarly
The harmony project is about chord progressions and how how to make them harmonize with the melody. We used hook theory to make our own chord progressions.
I like how each phrase ends on the 5th instead of the 1 because the melody will end on the 1 and it will make a perfect 5th. I also like the little bit of dissonance from 5th measure. For the last three chords, I used the standard c major chord progression of 1, 4, 5.
Mr. Le Duc’s Key of C Major Notes and Chords Chart (PDF)
Prelude no. 1 in C Major
what I like about this chord progression is that it has a lot of dissonances and it doesn’t resolve when you want it to. It also uses the circle of fifths in the first half which isn’t in this photo or recording.
For the first 4 measures, I kept the same chords and just switched the middle two so it had a little bit of resolution with the 5-chord. Because of that release, it gave me a lot more room to add some dissonance and crunchy chords before I resolved the final chord back to a 1.
I learned some more popular chord progressions and the history of harmonies and some different chords. I figured out how some of these different chords would sound one after the other.
Grammarly
| Que: -How can a song be banned? (how would it be possible to enforce that) -What influences Native music to have the sound that it does? | Notes: – Rumble is the only instrumental song to be banned for fear of promoting violence in teens – Link Wray was Native American and created Rumble but most people didn’t know about his background – The KKK was a huge threat to Native Americans at the time – Ulali is an indigenous vocal group today – Native people have been arrested and incarcerated for singing and performing their music – Dec 29, 1890- US army slaughtered and surrounded 300 native people participating in ghost dance. This sparked the beginning of the banning of native music – Native music was the start and inspiration for music styles like jazz, blues, rock – Mildred Bailey was a Native American jazz singer in the 1930s and was a cornerstone of the direction that Jazz took |
Rumble is about the influences that Native American music and Native American people have had on some of the most popular genres of music today. Native Americans haven’t really gotten credit for the influence that their music has had and how it was the basis for things like Jazz, Blues, and Rock. There are many Native musicians who hid their background in order to be successful but they were cornerstones for music and a lot of their music was heavily influenced by traditional Native music.
Piano/keyboard
By March 1st, I will have evidence for a completed piano song, using this video, as part of session 4 of School of Rock.
-Play around with different melodies (5-10 mins)
-Recor ideas (2 ish)
-listen back to past recordings and pick out things I still like (10 ish)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l1sDmnV9HAZgYah2cpqzg9eNcYqUNypn/view
This was a solo project so I didn’t collaborate or communicate with anyone further than sharing materials and being mindful of others.
I used a keyboard as well as a smaller one-octave keyboard that plugs into the computer so I could play things directly into Garage Band and mess with still there before playing it on an actual piano at home.
This project really taught me the importance of time management and multitasking because it was difficult to balance this with the rhythm, melody, harmony, and base projects.
Grammarly
The Melody Project is all about how to make a melody and the way that different notes work together and how we can use them to create tension and release tension. We used hook theory to make our own melodies and listen to melodies from popular songs.
I have prior musical knowledge but I just started working on writing my own songs so I am still learning how to create good melodies. For this melody, I was thinking about thirds and keeping the notes moving. I also wanted to end on the tonic so that any tension there was would release.
Let it Be by The Beatles
What I like about this melody is that it uses the third scale degree as a sort f anchor instead of the tonic. This song is in the key of C major so the third scale degree is E and the tonic is C. Manny of the jumps are also in thirds and there isn’t a whole lot of dissonance. Dissonance can be really good and scary for many melodies but I like how this one is claiming because of the lack of dissonance and tension.
In this melody, I like the first half of the second phrase with all of the 8th notes because the rest of the melody is mostly quarter notes so it gives it some variety. I knew that I wanted the second to last note to be the dominant or the leading tone to create some final tension right before we returned back to the tonic (c) for the last measure. I also figured out how to use multiple octaves in Hook Theory so I took advantage of that.
During this project, I learned about Supertonic, Mediant, and Submediant and how they can be used to help create and release tension. The rest of the theory stuff was a good review. I also learned how to navigate Hook Theory because I haven’t used it in depth before so that was a challenge for me.
Grammarly
April