Unit 21 - Music in the Community

Diary of lessons leading up to the Oxjam gig

September 5th

In todays sessions we started it off by playing a few team games which focused on team building and also getting to know each other. Once we had played the games we established some of the roles within the class at the oxjam gig. They werent concrete but it gave us an idea on what we could look into for next week lesson. In the session we also started talking about what we would be performing for example whether its an ensemble piece or solo piece.

September 12th

In this session we got together in groups and created cards. On the cards we planned out what were going to do before the oxjam gig. Also in this session we decided the three group leaders. I volunteered to be the leader of fundraising, Louie is the leader of production and James is the leader of promotion. Once we had decided the leaders Richard put the rest of the class into each of the leader's teams. In my team is Jasper and Dan. Together as a class we all wrote onto cards how we would plan up until the actual date of the gig below is an image.

September 19th

In this session me, Dan and Jasper went to speak to Sue bishop about if we the students had insurance covered when performing in the hot frog cafe and she told us that we need to speak to the owners at the hot frog. So me and Jasper and Dan went down to the hot frog to ask if all of us were covered and they told us yes however anything we bring for example equipment is not covered which we understood. This week the three of us had a chat about doing some busking down in Henley because Dan menioned that he had a busking license so i decided to send an email to Oxjam asking them for some promotional banners so that when we do go busking we can put them up to let people know we are raising money for the charity. At first we thought we would use the money for the gig and then use the money we required from the gig to give back to oxjam however in the end we decided that we would give the busking money straight to oxjam and as well as all the gig takings.

September 26th

At the start of the session we had a health and safety talk with the man in charge of the health and saftey. He told us about that we need to get all of our equipment PAT tested before we can use it in the venue. Another thing he talked to us about was things like loose cables lying around that people could trip over also other things like wet floors and making sure that we place down signs with caution on it. Another thing was making sure the sound levels arent too high incase of complaints from the surrounding houses. Once we had the talk we were aloud to continue organizing the gig. At this point i had recieved the oxjam package from oxjam in which included stickers badges and banners. Also this lesson we had a dilemma with the day of which the gig was going to be held because the other music group had already booked one of the days we wanted before us so e had to decided whether we would perform on the thursday or monday in the end we decided the thursday because it was more appropriate for all of us.

October 5th

In this session we did a checklist of all the things we had done making sure that all teams had done what  they said they would do. the reason we did this was because the gig was just over a week away. We told the class that we had checked that we were covered by insurance at the venue as well as the busking sessions that Dan and Japser had been apart of. Also that week Dan, Japser, Cris and james were going busking in Henley to help promote our gig as well as raise some money for oxjam.


My contribution to the gig

I was part of the fundraising team so it was our job to make sure that money was raised for the gig so thats why we organized a couple of busking sessions one that Japser and Dan did together in oxford and the other that was done by Dan, Jasper, Cris and James in henley. As part of helping i emailed someone from oxjam to send me some banners so that we could use them for busking to show the public our cause of the busking. Also in the end we ended up using the banners at the gig, we put them up around the room to let the audience know what the meaning of the gig was for. Another thing i helped contibute to was finding out whether we were covered by insurance at the hot frog.

Moving the kit

I didn't actually help to carry the equipment down to the gig because I was helping Natalie fold up the programmes. Once we had folded all of them we took them down to the venue. I then helped moving the chairs into a space at the back of the room where they were out of the way and also certain things like a ladder I helped to move into the storage cupboard just generally making sure the space was
clear. Then I put up the oxjam posters around the room obviously to make sure the audience knew it was an oxjam gig. I also helped to move the sofas around the edges of the room to clear the space where people could stand and also so people could it on them if they wanted to. Once the space was clear I collected money from our class to put into the kitty. I feel like Dan, Jasper contributed very well to the setup of the gig as they helped to carry a lot of the kit down to the hot frog cafe from college. Also because they helped to carry it down quickly it meant that it could be set up in time for all of us to clear the space. Below is an image of an email I got from another student in my class called Dan with his view on the set up of the gig:

As you can see Dan thought the set up was successful however he said "One of the things that could have been improved was if we had more people from the class contributing and telling us their input and how they think the sound could be improved." thought more people could have contributed towards the sound. I agree with this because on the night we had two mics and they remained the same throughout, however i feel we could have added some reverb on the mics especially for certain songs to add a different mood. If we were to do it again i would suggest we had a meeting as a calss and discussed in detail if anyone would have liked different effects on their mic for their song. Although we cleared the space quickly I feel there was no structure to what we were doing we all just chipped in with everything, so because of this some people did more than others. I feel we should have had a job list and then everyone should have put their names down next to a particular job they wanted, that way everyone would have had equal roles and we probably would have set up the gig more efficiently. Below is an email I got from natalie on how she felt the set up of the gig was:

Natalie said "I think the set up was average due to the small stage and the amount of equipment on it, it all could have been placed a little better to allow the performers more room to move about a little bit." I agree with what she said because at certain points throughout the night it was difficult to move around on stage and everyone had to step down from the front of the stage and that could have been considered a saftey hazard. Also because it was crowded some songs for instance mark's songs he had to sit on an amp because there was no room for him to sit. If we were to do this again i would suggest that we should have had aqquired bigger staging considering the amount of room we had in the hotfrog cafe.

Soundcheck

For the sound check I feel it didn't go very well because some of us were still sound checking as people were waiting to come in so it looked slightly unprofessional. The reason I feel the sound check took so long was because, one due to some tech issues but also because we had no structure to the sound check, people were just going up randomly to sound check their songs and were taking longer than others, I feel we should have organized a sound check list so that everyone could do it and also so that everyone had an equal amount of time. Dan and Jasper were assigned as the people to make sure all the specific channels were labeled accordingly to what they were for example one of the electric acoustic guitars was channel 5, however during the evening Wilf took over and I'm not blaming Dan and Jasper for not sticking to their job but because Wilf wasn't there when Dan and Japser were writing everything down Wilf wasn't entirely sure of which channel everything was connected to so a couple of times throughout the evening there were a couple of problems with the sound.


My evaluation

Good points

The gig was a success as we had many people come and watch and support. My friend James sent me a text on his thoughts of the gig and he said "I think the gig was a birlliant showcase of the young talent at henley at the moment." The set list of songs was well received by the audience. The reason i think this is because they were songs that everyone knew and could sing a long to if they chose to because they were iconic relaxing songs. Also everyone played their instruments confidently and there were no hiccups so even though sometimes it may have not been loud enough then at least the laying was confident and thorough so the audience didn't lose interest. Another thing i feel was good was the fact we chose to put in an interval the reason for this is because the gig its self was quite chilled and most people were sitting around so the interval gave the audience a chance to move around and get some drinks. Another good point i feel was jasper and Dan because they massively contributed to the sound levels so that people mics weren't too loud or that there wasn't any feedback. I also feel the environment itself was a great location to hold the gig especially as we got t for free and because of the fact the cafe is literally down the road from the college it has a student feel to it and because a lot of students came so they could connected with the environment and feel relaxed as sometimes people feel awkward at intimate gigs.    

Things i feel we could have improved

One of the major things i feel we could have improved upon was the diversity of the music although the songs were recognizable there was too much guitar going on so sometimes it felt to samey. In a text i received from Natalie she agreed with me she said "One thing I did feel that could have been better was the diversity of music we played. If we were to do it again I would suggest us varying the genre of music." To resolve this if we were to do it again i would have changed the set list even more so for example after every acoustic guitar song i would have had a different style for example piano or just a vocal song. Another idea could be that if there were two songs with guitar in one after the other then  at least add some more instruments with it or have two vocalists rather then one. This is something  we should have had a longer discussion about when we started planning however we were too focused on getting a venue so there was little time to talk about the music. In heinsight i feel we should have just hired the cafe straight away because we knew we could get it for free and the rest of the time we could have spent on the actual evening itself and the theme of the music. This brings me onto another point which is the theme of the gig, even though we put up banners around the room and had ambient lighting i don't really feel there was a particular theme if anything i would say it was relaxed, looking back now though to further keep the relaxed theme we should have put all the sofas and chairs in front of the stage because everyone was sitting around the edges of the room and as a performer i felt detached from the audience.

Another thing was the lighting, sure it was great but it was the same style throughout even performance had we had more time we could have organised this better so that when each of us performed we could have had a different lighting style to reflect our performance and also stick to the relaxed theme however my Dad said otherwise in his feedback text he sent me because he said "Lighting was good and created an authentic gig atmosphere." Another bad point i would say was the food and drink. When we hired it out we should have asked the ladies who work there whether it would be possible for one of them to serve for us during the evening and in doin so they could have benefited by taking a share of our earnings, However because we left it too late to hire the cafe they didn't agree to do it. So it meant Natalie having to go down to sainsburys and buy some food and drink which was great of her but naturally she couldn't afford loads and bearing in mind the amount of people coming we need quite a bit. The problem is when we put the food out people started eating it before the audience even arrived so when they did arrive it looked messy and unprofessional. If we were to do this again i would have waited until the interval and then put the food onto a large table so everyone could help themselves. Also before the gig all of us should have chipped in so we could have got a lot more food.

One other thing i feel that could have been better was the fact that after every song we would go and sit amongst audience so to me i didn't feel like we were the performers and the audience was the audience. If i was going to organize the gig by myself i would have had  an area cornered off for us performers to go behind and stay after we had performed and then in the interval we would go out and mix amongst the audience but then obviously go back once the second half starts. In a text I received from my friend Cris she also said that she felt it wasn't good either in the text i got from her i quote "After some of the songs we went and sat with the audience and i feel it was extremely unprofessional."

My performance

Overall i was happy with my performance I feel like i performed confidentiality and i didn't muck up however looking back now there are a lot of improvements i should have done. For example although i played the songs confidently and i knew them off by heart they weren't very technical this is because i wasn't very confident in my abilities so i decided to play it safe and play what i knew i could do. In a text i received from my friend Teddy he also agreed with what i said about me playing more technically he said "I believe that some of the songs you performed could have been more technical." The problem is that if i hadn't of had accompaniment it would have got boring because hearing the same chords progression thought a song by itself is boring. Another thing that i did that i wasn't very happy with is i didn't pay much attention to the audience as i was looking at my guitar most of the time so to the audience i probably wasn't that interesting to watch. If i was to do it again i would have stood up and perhaps done some backing vocals especially in the song i did with Natalie called 'Jolene.' In my opinion the song I did with Louie was better than Jolene because it required me to change up the chords as it got to the bridge. Also the fact I was playing alongside Louie's piano was a better contrast and i feel was more enjoyable to listen to.

Me performing with Natalie at oxjam:
http://www.tubechop.com/watch/1722572

Me performing with Louis at oxjam:
http://www.tubechop.com/watch/1722634




Feedback from the gig

Information pack - Musical workshops


What is community music?

Community music involves people coming together with their passion for music and playing, singing and creating different sounds as a group. Community music is the most important thing for any aspiring musician because it is how every musician began their career. The first thing most musicians want to do is learn an instrument and nowadays this can be doe in an all manner of ways, for example there's the internet - since you tube people have uploaded videos of themselves teaching the viewer how to play a song or teaching them about chords and notation there's also books, workshops, school, private tuition.

Where/Local music?

Community music can be done anywhere and at any time providing its been planned by a group of people. Getting together with your mates and having a jam or going to watch your favorite band in concert are classes as community music. Also going to such things like an open mic night can lead to you meeting contacts, for example other musicians who perhaps are interested in forming a band or need a guitarist for studio recording. In the local area of Henley there are venues and events which heavily involve music in the community for example the Kenton theater is a theater which has become a popular place for gigs and musical evenings. Another event is the Henley music festival which starts on the 9th of July to the 13th. The festival incorporates large well know bands and artists as well as lesser known artists.

Here is the link to The official Henley festival website - http://www.henley-festival.co.uk/

As well Henley there is also reading festival. Here is the link to the official Reading and Leeds festival website - http://www.readingfestival.com/

Also in the local area of Henley is the Kenton theater. Here is the link to their website for more information - https://www.kentontheatre.co.uk/

                                         The Henley festival brings people together to watch
                                  and hear different kinds of musical talent in a relaxed environment

Source of image: http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/content/image_galleries/hemley_festival_2008_gallery.shtml?4

When?

As well as being done at any time music in the community can be done anywhere. For example if you are running a workshop make sure that you have a venue hired or prepared because that can affect the amount of space you will have thus affecting the amount of people that can attend. Festivals are a great example of when community music can be done anywhere. All music festivals generally are done outside during the summer due to the weather. When the sun is out people naturally venture outside and have uplifted moods which is why its great when festivals are on because they bring people together to relax have fun and listen to live music. Henley festival also takes advantage of the summer because of how warm it is. The festival can carry on into the night without people having to worry about getting cold.


How can I get involved?

Anyone at any age can start playing music or getting involved with music, and community music plays a massive part in this. For example some adults when they get to a certain age realize they wish to pursue playing an instrument as a past time. So for example things like ukulele clubs have become very popular. The Henley festival has become very popular over the years and its also more appealing to the older audiences, this is because of the size of the festival and also the content of the music. This is also another way for the older audiences to get involved with music in the community. For the younger audiences and children that are interested in learning an instrument or singing nowadays there are plenty of youth clubs and workshops which they can join or be a part of, thus making it possible for children of an early age able to get involved in music.

Why?

The reasons why you would want to get involved with music in the community is because it allows you to meet new people and form new friendships. If you have confidence issues it can help incredibly because at large workshops or lessons you have to interact and perform in front of strangers. Another reason why being part of community music is very helpful is that if you  have self taught yourself an instrument and you are finding that you cant teach yourself anymore going along to workshops or having lessons increases your skill level and allows you variate your playing. If you are an aspiring musician then going to workshops or going to gigs gives you the opportunity to promote yourself and gain more followers. Which means that you are more likely to be asked to perform at different venues and shows. Running your own workshops is also a great way to further improve your skills because by teaching what you know to others it gives you the confidence to look at different techniques.


Any problems/issues?

Hosting your own workshop can conjure problems for example:

• If your workshop is learning a particular song on an instrument then its probably best you make sure you students are either very experienced with the instrument or all of them have no experience at all because that way its fair for everyone you are teaching
• Make sure you keep your attendees to an age limit because for example if you are teaching children from ages 4-5 then you have the problem of them losing interest quickly. Be confident with the group of people you shall be teaching because ultimately it can affect how successful your workshop will be

Music in the community also can have problems due to weather for example at festivals they have to be prepared that the weather could turn and it starts raining. Which is why they have stages inside tents so that the crowds wont get wet but can still mix with one another and listen to and enjoy the music.


History of community music

Music community has been around for a while for example the native Americans would sit around a fire and create music using their voices, flutes and drums. The only thing that has changed is that nowadays we create situations where people come together to learn about or play music. A good example of local historical music in the community is The Henley festival which started in the 80s and is still going strong. Another great example is Glastonbury festival which started in the 70s. The reason why music in the community endures in such a big way and will continue to is because people love coming together to meet and listen to music and to learn from one another.

Local Music

One of the local musical happenings in Henley is called Rock Choir here is a link to their website -
http://www.rockchoir.com/home.html

Also here is an image of where to find it in Henley:

Diary of lessons

Week 1

In our first session we had to start formulating ideas for our workshop that we would eventually do later on. In the sessions Richard told how running workshops ties in with music in the community. He told us that before you run a workshop you need to establish things like who are you going to get to attend your workshop. For example young or old with people because depending on which you choose there are factors you need to take into consideration. For example if you chose to run a workshop with primary school children ages 4-5 then you need to think about how long the workshop is because naturally younger kids have a shorter attention span, another thing would be to make sure that beforehand you check if any of the kids have learning difficulties. Checking these things beforehand and properly planning a workshop is extremely important if you want it to run as smooth as possible. Richard then told us that during workshops its a good idea to play games because they include everyone, So he taught of one of the games he plays with younger groups of people and its called the forbidden rhythm. In the game one person stands at the front of the group and claps one rhythm that the rest of the group has to remember, however its called the forbidden rhythm. everyone in the group has to stand up and then the person at the front begins to claps different rhythms to which everyone else has to repeat, however if the person at the front claps the forbidden rhythm and someone copies it that person has to sit down and they're out this keeps going until there is a winner. The point of this game is to get everyone to use their ears to recognize different rhythms. 

Week 2

In this weeks lesson we continued talking about our workshops but in this lesson Richard introduced the idea of using stickers. The reason for this ties to having a younger audience when doing workshops. A lot of the time children can become upset or feel left out if they don't win a particular game and as children you always want to win. By introducing stickers you give all the children a chance to feel like they've won something because even though you can award a child for winning the game with a sticker you can also award the other children for sitting quietly or being the most involved. Also by giving stickers out for things like being silent when you're talking encourages all the children to be quiet because they'll see that another child is getting awarded. One of the best uses of stickers is it gives you more control over the group especially if they're children however giving rewards out to older audiences can also work because for example if you're running a guitar workshop with a group of teenagers and you reward one of them a sticker or something else then it encourages the other members to be as best as they can and by them feeling that way they get more out of your workshop thus encouraging them to praise your workshop.

Week 3

Last week we were asked to come up with a small workshop that we would run today in class. My workshop idea was to teach the group a game i came up with but using ideas Richard gave us called 'Hide and Museek.' The game involves the group getting into two teams then once they're in different teams called 'Muse' and 'Seek' one of them team mates has to go outside once they are i get the other team members to hide pieces of paper with 6 different musical symbols on them. Once they have been hid the two team members come back in and have to find them. Their teams can help them by stomping if they're cold (further away) and clapping if they're hot (if they're close.) If they find one they have to bring it to me and tell me what it is to gain a point for their team. The winner is the team with the most points. The point of my game is to educate the group on recognizing musical notation and also being able to use rhythm as a small ensemble.

Week 4

In today's lesson we went over to D530 to write up the plan for our workshops. I have decided that my workshop will be a musical theory and rhythm workshop however mainly focusing on teaching the group about four simple musical notes.  Also i shall be running my workshop with some of my friends who are performing arts students, the reason why is because i know that most of them have a basic understanding of musical theory however my workshop offers enough so that they are learning something new as well me not having to explain what a musical note is, My workshop shall be split into three sections the first being my game Hide and Museek after i have played this game with them i shall move onto teaching them what count of four each note is. Then i shall play the next game with them which has them creating a beat with those four notes. Finally I shall play a game which involves a team member from each team coming up to the front taking one of the notes without looking at which one they and picked and then facing their teams. Its then up to the team members to clap the note they see so the person at the front can guess it and gain a point for their team. Every team member shall come up for this game. The good thing about using my performing arts friends is that i know they will listen and be genuinely interested in what they're learning and hopefully they will come away knowing something they didn't. Throughout my workshop musical theory will constantly be the main focus however by incorporating aspects of rhythm. The reason for this is because i want the group im running it with to learn in a practical way also i feel using some rhythm will make it less dull.


Describe and sell my workshop

For my workshop i shall be teaching about music theory as well as teaching rhythm and teamwork. I will do this by using fun (hopefully) games and activities. The plan is to get the group of people split into two teams once this is done i shall tell them about the first game they will be playing which is called 'Hide and Museek.' Basically the game involves one member from each team going out of the room and once they come back in they have to find pieces of paper with musical symbols on them which i have hidden around the room whilst they were out. Whilst the teams members are trying to find the pieces of paper their other teams members can help them. They can do this by stomping if their team mate is not close to a piece of paper and clapping if they are close. Once they have found one they have to come to me and tell me what it is, if they get it correct they get a point if they get it wrong the other team member gets a chance at stealing the point. The point of the game is teamwork, rhythm (the stomping and clapping) and learning about about musical notation. A requirement for my workshop is that they all have a slight understanding of musical notation however i will play a few rounds of the game so eventually people will pick up the names of the notes.

Below are the pieces of paper each with a musical symbol on them they are in order:

• Minim
• Semibreve
• Crotchet
• Quaver
• Treble Clef
• Bass Clef

Next i shall tell them that a Minim, Crotchet, Quaver and Semibreve can all fit into a bar of four. For example the crotchet is every beat of four the minim is two beats of four the semibreve is one beat of four and the quaver is double time of the crotchet. Once i have told them this I shall play the next game with them which involves them staying in their teams then in their teams they have to come up with a short beat that incorporates the four notes. Once they are ready they shall perform the beat to me and the other team. Whoever's beat i feel is most consistent and each team member is in time with each other shall win. The point of this games is to help increase their understanding of musical notation and rhythm and also working as a musical ensemble.

The final game i shall play with them involves them still staying in their teams and each team has to pick one member from their group. That member then has to come to the front and without looking pick one of the four musical symbols making sure they don't look at it they then have to turn around and face their team members then the aim is for the teams members to clap the type of note on the paper so that the team member holding it can guess what it is. If they get it right they get a point. The two teams take their turn before they other team member does it to their team. Every member of the team has to come up and do it. The point of this game is to increase their understanding of musical rhythm through listening because in this game the team member holding the piece of paper has to use their ears and work out what beat of four the note is. After the first game the two teams shall remain in their teams for the rest of the workshop. The reason for this is to add a competitive vibe so that both teams feel like they have something to achieve by getting the answers right and winning points for their team.


My work shop

Below are the links to my final workshop:

Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drl3o1YHJCw

Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StLVV-O80Nk

Due to technical issues the camera stopped working so i had to rearrange a later date when i could finish the workshop hence why everyone is wearing different clothes.

Feedback from my workshop

After the workshop I asked three of the members of the group for some feedback on what their thoughts were of it. The questions i asked the three members were:

1)  Did the workshop educate you?
2)  Was the workshop well organized?
3)  Was there a good variety of exercises?
4)  Were the exercises enjoyable?
5)  If you were to do it again would you want anything improved and why?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpLslbANATU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P2Zdlpn6TI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWoTW-3DKRI