Omega's portfolio - Flugelhornist: Classical and jazz genres
I will be using Blue Bossa for one of my videos which I will create later on in my portfolio.
I looked into this article called Trumpet Journey
http://www.trumpetjourney.com/2014/08/14/re-thinking-jazz-and-classical-music/
Some parts of the article which appealed to me:
The idea that classical and jazz music have some relations:
To begin, classical composers such as Brahms, Mozart, Beethoven, Handel and Bach have all incorporated improvisation into their playing and improvised well. Improvisation is the process of creating melodies on the spot without any prior preparation which is commonly a jazz technique, originating from African American music and developing along with the different jazz eras from the swing era to contemporary jazz.
In classical music, they had made something called 'divisions' which is where the musicians would memorise all of their repertoire and then 'decorate' the part by adding ornaments and other improvisational techniques to give the music an improvised sound.
When a musician alters a phrase by adding or subtracting some notes of the actual melody, we call this improvisation.
To support the idea that classical and jazz music have some links, I have also found another point which is that classical and jazz music are both very instrumental. The majority of jazz music is made from standards with lyrics which were then changed into instrumentals.
An example of a vocal jazz standard converted into an instrumental jazz standard is 'September in the Rain'. Video examples of this are shown below.
YouTube and Videos section
I have created a playlist on my original YouTube channel to feature the music for my portfolio called 'Portfolio music'.
Finished videos:
Chanson Napolitaine
Blue Bossa
Links and stuff:
https://careertrend.com/make-professional-musicians-portfolio-14486.html tips for making portfolios
Song reviews from portfolio
Ashley's 'Let Me Down'
What appealed to me of an example of Ashley's song called 'Let me down' for her portfolio is her use of lyrics as it relates to her life experiences and it lets her express herself as a musician. therefore, the song represents her well.
Her use of synths at the beginning and then adding a beat creates rhythmic contrast in the music as starting the song with long sustained notes on the synth and then building up to create a thicker texture at the middle of the song. This was a good method to use according to the style of the music.
'Nameless' by Sifa
This song has unique effects added on the vocals which makes her voice sound further way with use of EQ. At times, lyrics difficult to hear, which could be part of the style she is singing in which was interesting. Together with this, there is a break in the song where there are sounds of water falling which creates contrast and when it returns back to the song it is quite unexpected for the listener.
Found sound- Minjoo Kim
This piano song has a catchy melody where the right and left hand compliment each other. The part played by the left side of the piano is more prominent than the higher registered notes at the top of the piano. However, the melody, not too complex, is very repetitive and the same sound is heard throughout the song. The ending of the song is very sudden and I didn't expect for the song to end like that.
Paulo - 'Lost tonight' 2
The lyrics of this song are very catchy which is particularly when Paulo sings "Lets get lost tonight". The chorus of the song is my favourite part of the song as the tempo and melody has a dance feel to it. Also, the melody played on the guitar near the end of the song is the same melodic sequence that Paulo was singing during the chorus parts, which also ends the song. I found this aspect of the song interesting.
Topic of my portfolio:
Introduction:
My portfolio will be a series of songs demonstrating my versatility of genres on the flugelhorn and on other instruments such as the trumpet.
This could be demonstrated by playing my chord progressions together with my jazz standard or pop song. The idea of this portfolio is to demonstrate what I am currently working on as flugelhornist and to show my style as a musician.
Due to this, the idea of including two songs from two contrasting genres appealed to me. Due to beginning my trumpet playing classically, I believe that my techniques have been altered to allow me to play jazz standards in a jazz style and pop songs. Therefore, the focus of my portfolio will be to show my genre-fluid abilities on the trumpet and flugelhorn.
Examples of this will be presented through a video where I will embed the audio and have background images to represent my instrument, for example a trumpet or flugelhorn image. I will also have these images changing to show the processes of the recording, such as a picture of the logic file or the other instruments which are involved in the making of the song.
I will also be creating a collage to feature as a album cover or as a front page of something. For this, I plan to use a collage creator where I use the pictures and videos of my performances as a moving and still version.
Introduction:
My portfolio will be a series of songs demonstrating my versatility of genres on the flugelhorn and on other instruments such as the trumpet.
This could be demonstrated by playing my chord progressions together with my jazz standard or pop song. The idea of this portfolio is to demonstrate what I am currently working on as flugelhornist and to show my style as a musician.
Due to this, the idea of including two songs from two contrasting genres appealed to me. Due to beginning my trumpet playing classically, I believe that my techniques have been altered to allow me to play jazz standards in a jazz style and pop songs. Therefore, the focus of my portfolio will be to show my genre-fluid abilities on the trumpet and flugelhorn.
Examples of this will be presented through a video where I will embed the audio and have background images to represent my instrument, for example a trumpet or flugelhorn image. I will also have these images changing to show the processes of the recording, such as a picture of the logic file or the other instruments which are involved in the making of the song.
I will also be creating a collage to feature as a album cover or as a front page of something. For this, I plan to use a collage creator where I use the pictures and videos of my performances as a moving and still version.
In the first week of my portfolio preparation, the week of the 10th January, I have started to look into the repertoire for both of the genres I will be using where I included the factors that I will take into account of when choosing pieces. I will now be looking into the factors to take into account of when choosing the repertoire to use.
I have previously recorded songs in the classical and jazz styles which could be useful for the purposes of this portfolio. Due to my aim being to present the genres I play on the flugelhorn, I will also aim to include two different types of music which contrast each other.
23/1/19
Creating a plan for the making of my portfolio:
Ideas in a brainstorm of my collage:
I have created a brainstorm to put together all of my thoughts and ideas for my collage/board.
To begin the creation of my collage, I looked into some websites which I can use to create a collage and the one I chose to use was 'Be Funky'. The weblink for this site is https://www.befunky.com/.
However, one of the other websites I looked into were https://www.photocollage.com. The main issue which I had encountered with this site is that there a lot of templates which means that there would have been less opportunities to scatter photos and have them overlapping each other which was my initial idea in my brainstorm.
I have previously recorded songs in the classical and jazz styles which could be useful for the purposes of this portfolio. Due to my aim being to present the genres I play on the flugelhorn, I will also aim to include two different types of music which contrast each other.
23/1/19
Creating a plan for the making of my portfolio:
Ideas in a brainstorm of my collage:
I have created a brainstorm to put together all of my thoughts and ideas for my collage/board.
To begin the creation of my collage, I looked into some websites which I can use to create a collage and the one I chose to use was 'Be Funky'. The weblink for this site is https://www.befunky.com/.
However, one of the other websites I looked into were https://www.photocollage.com. The main issue which I had encountered with this site is that there a lot of templates which means that there would have been less opportunities to scatter photos and have them overlapping each other which was my initial idea in my brainstorm.
I used Google drive to upload all of my images to BeFunky as it was an easy way to connect with the images, videos and screenshots on my phone.
I also did some research into some other music collages done by others to gain some influences on their versions.
Influences from other images
https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/disp/7cb51f9257055.5602d8f09082d.jpg
I have also noticed the use of a score as the background for the collage which could be done by copying some online scores or photocopying some of my scores for my version.
The idea of having images present in different shapes has also appealed to me as it is more interesting to look at having the pictures placed so that it looks like a musical note rather than having the pictures stuck down all in a square or rectangle shape.
This idea of altering the shape of the photos could be due to
Organising the photos in a shape like a flugelhorn could be possible with my collage but it may need less images then there are already.
Something that I could be influenced by from this collage is featuring some scores, either some pieces for my grade 8 exam or by finding some pieces online. This could demonstrate the pieces I am playing at the moment or pieces which I wish to play in the future.
Also, the use of logos in this collage and not only photos could be a good addition to my collage. This could occur when I am talking about some of my inspirations such as the YoungBlood Brass Band (who's logo is shown in the image below).
Including my inspirations for my music making and for where I am now is a key part of my collage as it will make up my journey. For example, Young Blood Brass Band's version of Michael Jackson's Human Nature had inspired me to perform this song on the flugelhorn due to their use of only grass instruments for their cover.
This also gives me inspiration for my own logo as I like the idea of having the instruments which are played in the band as the logo. The whole logo consists of brass instruments which can show that what the band plays is all done on brass instruments.
https://i1.wp.com/indiarosestrings.com/wp-content/uploads/india-rose-strings-quartet-trio-duo-and-singer-perform-a-variety-of-music.jpg?resize=1180%2C435
From this image, I have gained the inspiration to overlap my images to create the effect as in the image above where the music is all mixed together as one. Similarly, the use of notated music in a collage would be a good way for me to demonstrate the written pieces I am playing, such as the pieces for my grade 8 exam : Ballet suite- Tchaikovsky, Polka - Allen Vizzuti and Caprice.
https://i.pinimg.com/236x/e8/f2/a5/e8f2a5573d501947e28327ab7c20bad7--sheet-music-art-music-classroom.jpg
The first aspect of this music which has appealed to me the most is that it represents the diversity of music from around the world. I can interpret this from the world map and the notated music backgrounds for the colours of the countries.
The fact that the whole world is "covered" in notated music can show that music can come from all over the world, including the ways that they can differ.
Linking this to my artist statement where I talk about musical cultures harmonies different cultures though their sounds, this image supports my idea of musical harmony in the world. To elaborate on this, there are many different countries with different types of music which means that music culture harmony can be very broad.
Artist statement:
Today, I have looked into the genres I will be playing which are classical and jazz, focusing on their similarities and differences as genres. I have chosen to do this as the relation between these genres could be present in my playing and support my idea that music genres merge.
/Articulation-Symbols-PIANO_MUSIC-56a72eab3df78cf7729318df.png)
The Soundcloud link to the recorded version is below.
I also did some research into some other music collages done by others to gain some influences on their versions.
Influences from other images
https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/disp/7cb51f9257055.5602d8f09082d.jpg
I have decided to put some examples of other collages into my diary entry to show where I have been influenced from.
In this image, I have noticed a unique idea of using images and putting them in the shape of a musical note which features some famous artists such as Red hot chilli peppers and Beyonce.
I have also noticed the use of a score as the background for the collage which could be done by copying some online scores or photocopying some of my scores for my version.
The idea of having images present in different shapes has also appealed to me as it is more interesting to look at having the pictures placed so that it looks like a musical note rather than having the pictures stuck down all in a square or rectangle shape.
This idea of altering the shape of the photos could be due to
Organising the photos in a shape like a flugelhorn could be possible with my collage but it may need less images then there are already.
Something that I could be influenced by from this collage is featuring some scores, either some pieces for my grade 8 exam or by finding some pieces online. This could demonstrate the pieces I am playing at the moment or pieces which I wish to play in the future.
Also, the use of logos in this collage and not only photos could be a good addition to my collage. This could occur when I am talking about some of my inspirations such as the YoungBlood Brass Band (who's logo is shown in the image below).
Including my inspirations for my music making and for where I am now is a key part of my collage as it will make up my journey. For example, Young Blood Brass Band's version of Michael Jackson's Human Nature had inspired me to perform this song on the flugelhorn due to their use of only grass instruments for their cover.
This also gives me inspiration for my own logo as I like the idea of having the instruments which are played in the band as the logo. The whole logo consists of brass instruments which can show that what the band plays is all done on brass instruments.
https://i1.wp.com/indiarosestrings.com/wp-content/uploads/india-rose-strings-quartet-trio-duo-and-singer-perform-a-variety-of-music.jpg?resize=1180%2C435
https://i.pinimg.com/236x/e8/f2/a5/e8f2a5573d501947e28327ab7c20bad7--sheet-music-art-music-classroom.jpg
The first aspect of this music which has appealed to me the most is that it represents the diversity of music from around the world. I can interpret this from the world map and the notated music backgrounds for the colours of the countries.
The fact that the whole world is "covered" in notated music can show that music can come from all over the world, including the ways that they can differ.
Linking this to my artist statement where I talk about musical cultures harmonies different cultures though their sounds, this image supports my idea of musical harmony in the world. To elaborate on this, there are many different countries with different types of music which means that music culture harmony can be very broad.
Artist statement:
Omega Maxime-Weir, A trumpeter and flugelhornist from London performing classical, jazz and pop to explore the diverse techniques musical genres have to offer. Performing at London's music venues while composing her own original material, Omega combines her knowledge of language and culture into her music: Latin and Caribbean. She believes in valuing diversity and the philosophy that musical cultures harmonize different cultures through their sounds. Improvisation gives her freedom and expression within her playing. Ray Hargrove, a jazz trumpeter performing September in the rain is an inspiration for her genre-fluid ideas.
This links to the idea of my portfolio which is to present the genres I play on the flugelhorn, mainly classical and jazz as they are contrasting.
In classical music, there are short and clearly defined musical phrases with two or more contrasting themes. Comparing this to Chanson Napolitaine, I will first show the three pages of the score.
The first page of the piece features the opening melody of Chanson Napolitaine. This part repeats and then ends on a long note of E. This opening melody is quite fast, in 96 Bpm.
The first page of the piece features the opening melody of Chanson Napolitaine. This part repeats and then ends on a long note of E. This opening melody is quite fast, in 96 Bpm.
Here, the melody has changed and there is a new idea. It sounds like there has been a "turn" in the music through the use of longer notes to begin the phrases, higher ranges of notes than the previous section.
There is still lots of use of articulation used in this section which is very similar to the amount of articulation used in the first page. These include staccatos more than any other articulation with occasional joining of two notes (slurs). There are also some accents on the note of C# and E in particular.
Just like in the first page of the piece, the idea repeats again once it is played once. There is a slight pause before the piece goes through another change.
Adding to the contrast, the tempo also changes in the 3rd page of the piece. The tempo has changed from 96 bpm to 128 bpm so this part is to be played slightly faster than the rest of the piece.
I believe that this page of Chanson Napolitaine contrasts all of the other pages more than page 1 contrasts to page 2. Here, there are a series of repeated notes right at the start of this section unlike any of the other sections.
There is also an ascending scale at the middle of this before the repeated notes start again. The pattern of these repeated notes are in 4/8. At the beginning of the piece the time signature is marked to be 2/4 which is where this comes from. (2/4 and 4/8 are equivalent time signatures, they both mean the same thing). These are quavers played in 4/8.
The main similarity between the three sections of this piece is the fact that the sections are always played twice, repeated.
Articulation in Chanson Napolitaine:
Definition: Articulation is the way a note or passage is played on an instrument or sung by a vocalist.
Composers and arrangers provide articulation directions in the form of written notation, symbols placed above or below notes. Some examples of where this is shown are in the images below. The markings are placed above the notes.
Some articulation like bowing and plucking marks for strings is exclusive to specific instruments.
For example, seeing the abbreviation pizz. on the music means pizzicato, (pronounced pit-si KA' toe) which signals to pluck rather than bow the strings. Seeing the word arco means to return to normal bowing methods. This is uncommon for brass and woodwind players.
Other articulation markings are used for all types of music and instruments. The articulation could be marked on single notes or for a longer passage of music.
The image to the left shows marks for 5 different types of articulation.
At the far right, a line over or under the body of a single note means it is to be played tenuto (ten-U' toe) or held to its full value. This full value will depend on the type of note it is and in this case, the note is a minim which means it should be held for 1 whole beat. The transition between notes which are marked with tenuto should be played more legato than normal. You can think of a tenuto as the opposite of a staccato where you play the note slightly shorter than the actual value.
The note with an arrow on top of it is called an accented note. This means that the note has a stronger attack on it and is played with more emphasis than a normal note. The vertical looking arrow is still an accent but is often called a marcato. This is basically the same as a staccato but with space around the note.
The note with an arrow on top of it is called an accented note. This means that the note has a stronger attack on it and is played with more emphasis than a normal note. The vertical looking arrow is still an accent but is often called a marcato. This is basically the same as a staccato but with space around the note.
A single dot above or below the body of a note means it's staccato, or short and separate.This probably comes from the word staccato as it sounds edgy and precise. Staccato is like the opposite of tenuto. For extremely short notes, a mark that looks like a triangular wedge or exclamation point without the dot is called a staccatissimo. It's even shorter and edgier than staccato.
Gathering the music for my videos.
The recording of Chanson Napolitaine
The reverberation time of a hall is the oldest and one of the most important measures of a good concert hall. Reverberation is the delay of sound after a note has stopped being played. This means there will be a slight repeat of the sound after the note has been played. It is most noticeable in a large space with hard surfaces, which is what a concert hall is, a large space. A cathedral where the sound echoes around long after a note has finished is also an example of this. In small spaces with plenty of soft materials, such as a bedroom, the sound is quickly absorbed by the soft furnishings, and dies away rapidly. These type of rooms, small spaces is where I had practiced and recorded my classical piece 'Chanson Napolitaine' which could be the reason that there was no reverb in my trumpet part.
The name of the reverb which was added onto my trumpet part is called Bright Hall Reverb. This chad created the illusion that the trumpet was performed in a much larger space such as a church hall.
Evaluation of this:
I believe that the addition of the reverb was a positive additive to the track as this makes my recording of Chanson Napolitaine relate more to the classical genre which was my initial aim with the recording.
The track without the reverb is shown in the video below.
Now I will attach the video with the added reverb from Soundcloud.
Blue Bossa score
Soundcloud link
Blue Bossa is a Latin jazz standard which I have practice and decided to record.
Evaluating this song choice, I believe that 'Blue Bossa' contrasts well with 'Chanson Napolitaine' as they are from opposing genres, classical and jazz. With this portfolio, referring back to my planning, my aim was to have 2 contrasting songs in my portfolio in order to demonstrate different styles which I play on the trumpet/flugelhorn.
Here's the score of Blue Bossa which I used to practice, transposing the piano chord down a tone because of the trumpet and Bb being in different keys.
I will be using Blue Bossa for one of my videos which I will create later on in my portfolio. http://www.trumpetjourney.com/2014/08/14/re-thinking-jazz-and-classical-music/
Some parts of the article which appealed to me:
The idea that classical and jazz music have some relations:
To begin, classical composers such as Brahms, Mozart, Beethoven, Handel and Bach have all incorporated improvisation into their playing and improvised well. Improvisation is the process of creating melodies on the spot without any prior preparation which is commonly a jazz technique, originating from African American music and developing along with the different jazz eras from the swing era to contemporary jazz.
In classical music, they had made something called 'divisions' which is where the musicians would memorise all of their repertoire and then 'decorate' the part by adding ornaments and other improvisational techniques to give the music an improvised sound.
When a musician alters a phrase by adding or subtracting some notes of the actual melody, we call this improvisation.
To support the idea that classical and jazz music have some links, I have also found another point which is that classical and jazz music are both very instrumental. The majority of jazz music is made from standards with lyrics which were then changed into instrumentals.
An example of a vocal jazz standard converted into an instrumental jazz standard is 'September in the Rain'. Video examples of this are shown below.
This is as a vocal jazz standard version
And finally as instrumental jazz standard with the trumpet as the principal instrument
I then backed up these ideas by looking into another article to make sure the information I am gathering is musically correct. In this article, it mainly talked about the composers approach to classical music and jazz. This is where jazz musicians would incorporate some aspects of the classical tradition into their own music.
An example of this could be the song Waltz for Derby, specifically focusing on his chord voicings, a composition from 1957.
This research have given me the knowledge into the ways the jazz and classical music have some similarities within their instruments, the use of instruments, decorating the melodies. Therefore, even though the genres of the songs which will feature in my portfolio are contrasting, they have some relation which can demonstrate the diversity of genres coming together and harmonising.
Due to this, I have identified the original songs which will be featured in my portfolio.
Firstly, listening to Chanson Napolitaine, I have noticed that this genre mostly keeps with the features in classical music and is not very broad (using features from other genres).
Using the trumpet and piano which are classical instruments belonging to the orchestral family, using no improvisational techniques.
In opposition, Blue Bossa contrasts to this as the jazz standard is a head melody with improvisation for the majority of the song or as many choruses as the instrumentalist prefers. From this and my research into jazz, I can interpret that Improvisation is an important aspect to jazz music. In my version of Blue Bossa, I have played an improvised solo for 1 chorus which is equivalent to one of the main tunes. The genre of jazz is free the way that you can play very expressively without a limited amount of time.
The latin instruments used in Blue Bossa can all contrast to modal jazz (an example of this could be Cantaloupe Island by Herbie Hancock-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B1oIXGX0Io). In particular, the drums I used in my version were different. Modal jazz mostly makes use of the drum kit as evident in Cantaloupe Island. For Blue Bossa, I included a drum with a latin influence to comp together with the piano. 'Comping' is accompanying in jazz music.
https://www.icareifyoulisten.com/2011/10/classical-vs-jazz-crossing-the-great-divide/
Positives:
In this version of my collage, I like that I have included some photos and screenshots of some of my highlights so far in music. One of them is my performance of Human Nature by Michael Jackson which I performed in the Hitchcock theatre in East London. I have inckuded two of these photos however they contrast due to the change in colour of the stage lights during the verses and choruses.
I also included photos of the instruments I play which are the trumpet, piano and flugelhorn in the middle and top (left)row which is what I had aimed for. It was useful to make use of photos taken a while ago as it could show my progression over a few years time.
In addition to this, the collage also consists of an image demonstrating my collaborations with other musicians which features in the image at the top middle with a saxophonist player. This additon to my collage was important as collaborating makes up my musical career aswell.
Negatives:
However from this, it is evident that I have run out of photos to add as there are some blank spaces in the collage. To solve this problem, I have decided to create a collage which consists of different sections, of different areas of interest which I have mentioned in the brainstorm of my 'Music Collage Ideas'. The different sections include what I am doing now, what I have already done and the future which will either be combined together or seperate, however the main aim of this is to have some more content to display on my collage.
I have done this slightly with the piano pictures which are an addition to my trumpet and flugelhorn playing. Therefore, my aspirations of learning additional instruments are shown here.
Furthermore, in this version of my photo collage, the pictures are in a fixed position so the pictures don't overlap like my initial idea for my collage. Therefore, in this template, it doesn't fit what I was going for.
I also found that with this collage template, there wasn't enough space for me to upload more than around 10 pictures which did hold be back as I had wanted to present as much as I could on the collage. I believe that showing my musical experiences in photos for this portfolio will show another person the experiences I have had with music, both in recording and performing. The videos then follow after, giving them a chance to listen to the music I make in different genres.
25/1/19 Friday
Following up from the adjustments/improvements which I have mentioned before, I have now decided to create my collage as a physical version instead of an online collage as it will give me more freedom to express my ideas and thoughts into the collage through the ability to overlap my photos, add some designs and some 'DIY' things.
This links to my artist statement which could feature somewhere in my portfolio where I mention my interests into different genres and diversity within music which the template can relate to. Improvising freely in jazz music allows you to express your own melodies and rhythms.
The first step to doing this will be to get a plain board which I will be able to start the collage onto. I will then have to print all of the images which I had on the previous online collage with the addition of others. The advantage of this method is that I would be able to fit much more pictures than I was previously able to, to create a more overlapping effect.
An extra which I have added to this portfolio is including a background. The background is a light blue shimmery colour. I believe to have my images on a light coloured background would help them to stand out. I can interpret this from the musical collages I have previously seen. Many of the collage examples I have seen have neutral coloured backgrounds with pictures which display a lot of action and colour in them.
After I have finished the collage, the background was not seen because all of the photos I have put on have covered it. Therefore, the idea I have about having the images stand out didn't go to plan as I had decided to overlap the photos rather than leave out space.
In this version of my collage, I like that I have included some photos and screenshots of some of my highlights so far in music. One of them is my performance of Human Nature by Michael Jackson which I performed in the Hitchcock theatre in East London. I have inckuded two of these photos however they contrast due to the change in colour of the stage lights during the verses and choruses.
I also included photos of the instruments I play which are the trumpet, piano and flugelhorn in the middle and top (left)row which is what I had aimed for. It was useful to make use of photos taken a while ago as it could show my progression over a few years time.
In addition to this, the collage also consists of an image demonstrating my collaborations with other musicians which features in the image at the top middle with a saxophonist player. This additon to my collage was important as collaborating makes up my musical career aswell.
Negatives:
However from this, it is evident that I have run out of photos to add as there are some blank spaces in the collage. To solve this problem, I have decided to create a collage which consists of different sections, of different areas of interest which I have mentioned in the brainstorm of my 'Music Collage Ideas'. The different sections include what I am doing now, what I have already done and the future which will either be combined together or seperate, however the main aim of this is to have some more content to display on my collage.
I have done this slightly with the piano pictures which are an addition to my trumpet and flugelhorn playing. Therefore, my aspirations of learning additional instruments are shown here.
Furthermore, in this version of my photo collage, the pictures are in a fixed position so the pictures don't overlap like my initial idea for my collage. Therefore, in this template, it doesn't fit what I was going for.
I also found that with this collage template, there wasn't enough space for me to upload more than around 10 pictures which did hold be back as I had wanted to present as much as I could on the collage. I believe that showing my musical experiences in photos for this portfolio will show another person the experiences I have had with music, both in recording and performing. The videos then follow after, giving them a chance to listen to the music I make in different genres.
25/1/19 Friday
Following up from the adjustments/improvements which I have mentioned before, I have now decided to create my collage as a physical version instead of an online collage as it will give me more freedom to express my ideas and thoughts into the collage through the ability to overlap my photos, add some designs and some 'DIY' things.
This links to my artist statement which could feature somewhere in my portfolio where I mention my interests into different genres and diversity within music which the template can relate to. Improvising freely in jazz music allows you to express your own melodies and rhythms.
The first step to doing this will be to get a plain board which I will be able to start the collage onto. I will then have to print all of the images which I had on the previous online collage with the addition of others. The advantage of this method is that I would be able to fit much more pictures than I was previously able to, to create a more overlapping effect.
An extra which I have added to this portfolio is including a background. The background is a light blue shimmery colour. I believe to have my images on a light coloured background would help them to stand out. I can interpret this from the musical collages I have previously seen. Many of the collage examples I have seen have neutral coloured backgrounds with pictures which display a lot of action and colour in them.
After I have finished the collage, the background was not seen because all of the photos I have put on have covered it. Therefore, the idea I have about having the images stand out didn't go to plan as I had decided to overlap the photos rather than leave out space.
YouTube and Videos section
I have created a playlist on my original YouTube channel to feature the music for my portfolio called 'Portfolio music'.
Finished videos:
Chanson Napolitaine
Blue Bossa
Links and stuff:
https://careertrend.com/make-professional-musicians-portfolio-14486.html tips for making portfolios
Song reviews from portfolio
Ashley's 'Let Me Down'
What appealed to me of an example of Ashley's song called 'Let me down' for her portfolio is her use of lyrics as it relates to her life experiences and it lets her express herself as a musician. therefore, the song represents her well.
Her use of synths at the beginning and then adding a beat creates rhythmic contrast in the music as starting the song with long sustained notes on the synth and then building up to create a thicker texture at the middle of the song. This was a good method to use according to the style of the music.
'Nameless' by Sifa
This song has unique effects added on the vocals which makes her voice sound further way with use of EQ. At times, lyrics difficult to hear, which could be part of the style she is singing in which was interesting. Together with this, there is a break in the song where there are sounds of water falling which creates contrast and when it returns back to the song it is quite unexpected for the listener.
Found sound- Minjoo Kim
This piano song has a catchy melody where the right and left hand compliment each other. The part played by the left side of the piano is more prominent than the higher registered notes at the top of the piano. However, the melody, not too complex, is very repetitive and the same sound is heard throughout the song. The ending of the song is very sudden and I didn't expect for the song to end like that.
Paulo - 'Lost tonight' 2
The lyrics of this song are very catchy which is particularly when Paulo sings "Lets get lost tonight". The chorus of the song is my favourite part of the song as the tempo and melody has a dance feel to it. Also, the melody played on the guitar near the end of the song is the same melodic sequence that Paulo was singing during the chorus parts, which also ends the song. I found this aspect of the song interesting.
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