Wednesday 29 February 2012

This is my Fifth and Final Blog Entry.

This is my fifth and final blog entry. I will be disusing the next parts of The AB Guide to Music Theory book that I have read. And also I will be talking about where I want my music career to go in the future and what I want to achieve. So here we go…

Chapter 5 focuses on “The Grouping of Notes and Rests.  Time Values are: 3 (triplet) are written as quavers. 5 (quintuplet), 6 (sextuplet), 7 (septuplet) are written as semiquavers, while 9 (no special name is used) are written as demi-semiquavers. When a time value which would normally divide into 2 is divided into an irregular group of equal notes.
3 notes are written in the values appropriate to 2 of the same kind.
5, 6, 7 notes are written in the values appropriate to 4 of the same kind.
9, 10, 11, 13, 15 notes are written in the values appropriate to 8 of the same kind
And 17, 19 etc. notes are written in the values appropriate to 16 of the same kind
Thus a group of 5 notes in the time of a crotchet uses the values it would if there were only 4 of them, i.e. semiquavers. Similarly, a group of 9 uses the values it would if there were only 8 of them, i.e. demisemiquavers. If they were performed in the time of a minim, however, a group of 5 would be written as quavers and a group of 9 as semiquavers. I mean it’s simple if you think about it.

Chapter 6 all about making sense of “Rhythm: Words, Syncopation. I read this chapter, but I don’t want to spoil the rest of the book for you. Keep on reading and keep on learning as I will be doing so in the future. In school I have started Unit 6, which is working as an ensemble. This course is teaching me valuable aspects of the music industry that will help me and be of great use in my later life. Thank you for reading and see you soon. Hopefully by then I would have become a famous music producer. :) Goodbye.  

Monday 6 February 2012

My Forth Blog Entry.

Due to health issues I haven’t stuck to my timetable and didn’t complete my blog entries in December. But better late than never I say. This will be my fourth blog entry. I can’t provide the exact dates which I did my activities but I will try and give you a rough idea on the time periods on which I did them. So, what I did in the time I was away is the following.

In December I went to a concert in Wembley arena to see Hill Songs perform. It was a Christmas concert, where they sang traditional songs as well as there own. It was a live performance so any mistakes would have been noticed, which makes me think about the development of music, and that even if you practise and practise sometimes mistakes are inevitable. When you write music it is always a trail and error progress, sometime you want a line in the chorus instead of the bridge. And if that song make number one in the charts then you have to make a music video. Now there is more of a chance that you will make a mistake in a live performance than a studio perform piece. Any errors will get picked up before it’s is broadcasted but when your live it has a all together different effect on the perform outcome.

Anyway, back to Wembley, where they had a kitted out drum kit, about five guitars - electric and acoustic, a grand piano and Mic’s for the choir and leads singers to sing. Like you would imagine they had all the flashing lights, moving cameras, the whole shebang. And from where I was sitting in the third row it looked like the chairs never ended. The concert last for about three hours and for me it was a night I’ll never forget. The reason why is because although it was a fun time out, it was a learning experience as well which showed me things like what kind of job I could have when I’m older. E.g. singer songwriter, guitarist, pianist, drummer and the list goes on. I can be whatever I want to when I put my mind to it.   

Over the time I was ill I only read two more chapters of “The AB Guide to Music Theory. As you know I always take notes as I read this book. So here is a copy of my notes. Some of chapter three say that the sings used for silences are called rest. If a silence last as long as a crotchet is shown as a crotchet rest. A minim rest sits on the top of the third line, the semibreve rest hangs below the fourth line and the breve rest completely fills the space between two lines. Sometimes bars are drawn in-between notes, so they have to tie them together with a curve at the top or bottom. Ties are not the only way of lengthening notes. A note can be made half as long again by placing a dot after the note head. When a beat is divided into two equal parts it is called a triplet. Or sometimes there is just a quaver written and a three under it. 

Chapter four being’s by talking about Scales, Keys and Clefs.
The scale of C major has no sharps.
The scale of G major has one sharp – F#
The scale of D major has two sharps – F# C#
The scale of A major has three sharps – F# C# G#
The scale of E major has four sharps – F# C# G# D#

After Major scales the next common are minor scales. There are two types of minor scales. The first one is called melodic minor scales and the second is harmonic minor scales. There is a pattern of minor-keys signatures corresponding to the pattern of major key signatures. A 1st degree is called a tonic, the 5th degree is called a dominant, and the 4th degree is called a subdominant. Key words: 3rd degree is the Mediant. The 6th degree is the Submediant. The 2nd degree is the Supertonic. The 7th degree is the Leading Note.
This concludes my Forth Blog Entry.