Jazz Reflection By: Bianca Siregar10-2
From the beginning of the 2nd semester, Grade 10 music class have been focusing on the Jazz unit. What we did in class starting on January, was basically get to know the history of the Jazz music and how the component was constantly transforming as the year and era goes by. At the end of the unit, we have finished a group project to cover the song “So What” by Andy Wharol using Garage Band in the iPad. Here is my personal reflection for being a part of this course.
Step by Step After listening to the ‘So What’ song from Ms. Alli’s laptop for the first time, we were divided into groups of three. I was in one group with Aura and Nadia . We were given one iPad each group while Ms. Alli’s explained to us of how to use the application. After doing some trials with different instruments on the garage band, I found that the application is very easy and the feature are very cool. I think the one that we use in Mac Book is harder to use because we are using touch pad while in iPad, making a song is just as easy as pressing and dragging fingers on the screen.
First of all, we made the bass line using the drum kit. For my group we chose the hip-hop drum kit because it sounds fresh and modern. This bass line is the element which is keeping the song together in the constant beats just like a group of army marching, get back to the idea that we’ve talking about in class which bring us back to the history itself. As the partner of the bass line, afterwards we made another line using the Ride Cymbal to come along and contrasted with the sound of the bass line. The bass line count in every 1st and 3rd second over 4 beats and the ride cymbal count 4 times in total over 4 beats. Following the bass line, we made another line for the Piano to take the place,and starts the song in the form of chords with the Dorian scale (D minor). This part is slightly different with the other instruments, because the sound could be heard earlier .The chord are keep repeating from the beginning until the end of the song which are D F A and C E G .Last but not least, The liver pool bass was used as the sound of the melody. Particularly, I found that listening to the metronome and the walking bass line while making the melody part was the most challenging part of this project .Well actually, I am prefer to do my work in silence, because I could
u n d e r s t a n d a n d t h i n k c l e a re r. Therefore when different sounds come at once, it was very challenging. In making these combinations the whole group needed a full of concentration to make sure that we precisely press the key on the iPad screen right on the same time as the metronome counted. The small size of the key board in the screen has become on of my obstacle in making this song. Sometimes, I have to remake the composition because I pressed the wrong key ; concerning the gap between each key is very narrow. To make sure and organize each part to match with the original song was also one of our difficulty as a group, working in group are both easy and hard in the same because each person have their own perspective and style on adjusting the sound. However, with group discussions and trials, we have fully made each part and completed the given task.
Deeper Understanding Before joining this music class, I thought that jazz music is only another type of world music genre. Lack of comprehension make me think that It is a type of improvised music which combined creatives chords and crazed melody which was
designated by the musician. Through out this unit, I honestly had gained a lot of knowledge in music history that I’ve never knew before. The process between each era was fundamental in every aspects which produce those amazing songs we could hear nowadays. A wide range of techniques and different variety of instruments
that a re currently used by jazz musician are also supporting the ideas of how jazz music has become one of the World music genre. As an example with the song ‘When The Saints Go Marching In’ by Louis Amstrong , now I could identified every instrument that used in the song which has equal important role of supporting the composition as well as building it into one whole piece. Escorted jazz music special character which giving each musician to improvise in the song, I believed that a Jazz musician needs a lot of practice and demanding skill to get to used the scale and style( concerning most of the notes are not in sequence but always move around, even some of them are just all over the place ). Basing on my observation on the song, I found that it is interesting how the bass or cello are playing the low notes and the pianist or clarinet player completed the sounds range with mostly playing the high notes, from middle c and above. The collaboration and harmony of each instrument
produced unique sounds : melody, playing techniques and role in every part of the song. All in all, the sound enharmonically working very well with the singer’s voice. Evaluation of The Product Tried to put my product in the cloud account and posted it on blog were one of the effective way the whole class did to get feedback for further improvements . However, as the one who created the song, I think my final product is fine as this is my first time of doing this task. The strength of the song is I could listen and determined different sound from each instrument. The notes are accurate as well as the melody and the bass line. In the other side, making it in slower tempo might be the best idea to make it more accurate. I should have been hold key on the liver pool bass longer each time to make it sounds better. Another evaluation that could be applied to improve my product is by listening to the song while making each part to make sure that which part does match well withe original song. Personal Learning Outcomes. Personally, I really enjoyed this whole unit because there was a lot of things I’ve never knew before. In addition those song and music video examples that Ms. Alli showed us in class were mostly reliable and easy to understand. Constantly having whole class or small group discussion have been helping us to communicate and associate better with peers and teacher. Jazz unit has taught me to be a risk taker and be more active on redesigning and improving my composition, especially on my personal project. Having a chance of using the technologies provided by the school was also been a pleasure to get to know and use the latest gadgets which made our process of making the product easier as well as the effectiveness of saving more time.
This is the Bass line counted in 4 beats and played in every 1st and 3rd beat. In classic drum this usually called the ‘Kick’ Bass. In this line, I’m using the cymbal. Hit 4 times in 4 beats Simple Intro, using the dorian scale. The chords moved from D to C from beginning to the rest of the song The most playful part of the song 6 notes in and between the 4 beats which brings up the melody of the song.