Aimee Jones

Live Music Performance UNIT 230

PLANNING

Brief:
Your school is hosting a showcase for parents and
governorsYou need to perform between 10 and 15
minutes worth of music. You repertoire needs to fit the
brief.

Introduction:

Since I was in Year 8, I have wanted to learn to play the keyboard or the
piano. This is because I really enjoyed my music classes. In the past I
have noticed that my family has been quite musical. My brother used to
have a drum kit, my younger sister used to have a harmonica and ukulele
from her lessons in junior school and I had a recorder, guitar and now I
own a keyboard and ukulele. However what was holding me back was my
anxiety. I never had the confidence to perform in font of anyone; I
barely managed to perform in front of my piano teacher during my
individual lessons! I would get nervous, sometimes I wouldnt stop talking,
I would start to sweat a lot, but I couldnt help it! As much as I tried to
stop all of this I couldnt. I feel as though I work better in a group or as
a team. This is only because the attention wont just be on me; itll also be
on the people Im working with. That is where I am going to focus my
goals for this unit of work.

Personal Statement of Aims:

What do I want to achieve with my contribution?

My biggest aim is to successfully contribute to a music showcase. What I

mean by this is working with others as part of an ensemble. As I have said
before, performing as an ensemble is a lot easier than playing in my own
because the attention will not just be on me, but also on everyone else Im
performing with. This helps to calm my nerves down a lot.
Another one of my aims is to improve my technical skills when setting up
the stage for the performance. On the day of the exam, we will need to
set up where the mics are going to need to be placed on the stage, what
chair I am going to need to sit on and where the piano will need to be
placed.
I also want to achieve collaborating as a group, because working as a team
is easier than working individually. I want to see if I can improve on this.

What skills do I have that I can use?

I can play the piano and ukulele and in my performance I am playing each
of these. I have chosen to use these two instruments because they are
the only instruments I can play and I dont sing. It is important to have a
range of different skills for this performance because it shows what you
are capable of doing and are more able to get a higher mark. Memorising
the chords is easy but because there are three different pieces to
remember them for in a different order is one of my main struggles. The
strumming patterns for each of the songs are also different. The tempo
and dynamics change throughout the songs at different times and
remembering which song it happens in is hard. But when I start playing
the song, the pattern, tempo and dynamics come back to me. For Demons
and This is Gospel we had to transpose the chords because there were
some chords that I could not play. We managed to have all three songs
have the same chords but in a slightly different order.

How will I know if Ive achieved it?

Hopefully, I should know if I achieved it if after the performance Ill

receive positive feedback from the audience, my peers and my tutor. I
will also feel confident in myself that I have tried to convey everything
that I want in the performance. Some of the pieces Im playing they may
have never heard of them before so if I make any little slip-ups the
audience wont be able to notice them, unless they are really noticeable,
which they wont be.

How do I meet the expectations of the audience?

To be able to meet the expectations of the audience, I will need to play

some songs that they are familiar with and something they have never
heard of before. Both on and off stage I will try not to make any
mistakes as much as I can. What I mean by this is I will try not to mess
up the chord patterns on the ukulele. The orders in the three songs I am
doing are different but the chords themselves are the same. It is easy to
mess up the order of chords. If I were to mess up I will continue playing
that song and hope that no one noticed. To keep the audience engaged
with the performance I will play with confidence and face towards them.

The requirements of the brief and how I will meet them.

The exam brief states that I must perform for at least 10-15 minutes
for parents and governors. To meet these requirements I will need to
make sure that I practice my pieces as much as I can in my free time and
at school. I will also need to dress appropriately for the exam on the day
of the show.

What I intend to do.

To meet the brief requirements I will make sure that when I am playing
my songs that there are absolutely no mistakes made, and if there are
any I will ignore them and carry on playing. This is because whenever I
would make a mistake in the past I would stop and go back and perfect
that little mistake. If I did that in the exam I would confuse the
audience and that would probably lower my grade.

How will I do it?

To be able to get my target grade I will need to practice regularly up

until the day of the live show. During this period I will be timing each of
my pieces to make sure that the timings are the same each time an that I
dont miss out any lines or chords. This is so on the day there should be no
mistakes and I should know the orders of the chord patterns for each of
the ensemble pieces, such as This is Gospel. At the end of each
performance I will be sure to take a bow to show that I ham thankful for
the audience listening to my performance.

Who you need to involve

For my set alone I will need Rebecca and Cody together for Demons and
This is Gospel, for Little Talks I will need Rebecca and my teacher Mrs
Humphries and for Amazing Grace I will just need Mrs Humphries to
accompany because it is my piano duet. I am working with the other
students on this course and because we rehearse regularly together it is
easy for me to have rehearsal time with them and work on specific parts
of the live show.

Repertoire to cover the required 10-15 minutes

For my set, I have chosen our only three ensemble pieces that we have
done since the beginning of Year 10 and the four of my best piano
pieces from my individual piano lessons. My performance shows what
skills I have, which is playing the ukulele, the piano and working as an
ensemble. Rebecca was going to include some clarinet pieces but
decided against it because while playing it, it didnt sound very nice
through the microphone.

Style and image

As a musician, I will attempt to dress as appropriately as possible in

smart clothes. This is so we look presentable for the exam and dont look
too casual. Because I am playing a ukulele I will need a chair to sit on. For
this my posture will not be slouched. I will need to sit up straight, strum
confidently and face the audience. I will also need to show good posture
in my piano pieces. I need to be confident, introduce my set in a clear
voice and remember to bow and face the audience at the end to show
appreciation for the applause. The set that I have chosen shows
different styles. For example, I have the classical piano pieces which are
more traditional, and then I also am showing a different side to me as I
am playing the ukulele and playing popular songs. I think it is important to
show versatility in the set.

Performance ideas

Our performance will be presented in the hall in front of a year 8 class

after Easter break. Most of my pieces I am performing on my ukulele
instead of on the piano. My order for my set starts off with my solo piano
pieces to show what I can do on my own and then goes onto our group
pieces. Little Talks was our first group piece that we started working on
back in Year 10 so I decided to have that as my first group performance
in my set. We decided to have our group pieces towards the end of our
performance because we felt as though they were more fitting to be at
the end.

What resources will you need?

I will only need my ukulele for my ensemble pieces, a microphone so that

my ukulele can be heard over the piano and the piano for my solos and my
duet. The piano is also going to be miced up. We will be using a fold back
PA on the stage so that when were performing we can hear the piano.
We will be running all the mics into the stage box which means we can add
effects to the vocals and instrumentals.

The time needed for each activity

I have timed each of my pieces of my performance to make sure they fit

into the 10-15 minute mark. This is so I know if I have the right amount
of time, if I need to add something else in or take something out. So far
since I have started preparing I have taken out two pieces that we had
only practiced once and some of my own solos that werent that good. I
had originally wanted to take out two of my solo pieces and keep my two
longest ones but I decided against that and have all four of them.

Aimee Jones:

Bo Jingles Piano - Solo 26 Seconds

Dance Piano - Solo 40 Seconds
Whirlybird Piano - Solo 20 Seconds
What Can I Share? Piano - Solo 34 Seconds
Amazing Grace Piano - Duet 1 Minute
Demons Ukulele - Ensemble 3 Minutes
This is Gospel Ukulele - Ensemble 3 Minutes
Little Talks Ukulele - Ensemble 4 Minutes

Rebecca Lodge:

Hymn for the Weekend Vocal - Solo 4 Minutes

Demons Vocal - Ensemble 3 Minutes
This is Gospel Vocal - Ensemble 3 Minutes
Little Talks Vocal - Ensemble 4 Minutes

Cody Miller:

Schindlers List Piano - Solo Minutes

Titanic Piano - Solo Minutes
In the Hall of The Piano - Solo Minutes
Mountain King
Sweater Weather Piano - Solo Minutes
Kaiser (own piece) Piano - Solo Minutes
Demons Piano - Ensemble 3 Minutes
This is Gospel Piano - Ensemble 3 Minutes

Health and Safety issues

When rehearsing we will need to take precautions. The stage will need to
be clear of cables from the mics in case one of us trips over them and
gets injured. The speakers will need to be positioned at the front of the
stage so they wont project feedback from the mics and so the audience
can hear us properly too. We and the audience need to be aware of
where the fire exists are in the Hall. We have a risk assessment which
is used when working in the hall which I have attached as a document to
show how we consider the relevant health and safety aspects of
performing.

Staging and equipment needed

On the stage we will need two microphones, one for me and one for
Rebecca and an appropriate chair for me to sit on while playing he ukulele.
We will be using Shure SM 58s for this which are appropriate for the
instrument/vocal.

The speaker behind the mic is so

that the performers have their
own mix separate to the front of
house mix.
 We miced up the piano using
Sontronics STC2 mics which
are large diaphragm
condensers. This meant that
the performers on stage
could hear the piano clearly.

The mixer was used so we could add

effects to the overall output sound.
We added some delay effects.

Conclusion

I will perform a set that shows versatility by using the piano and
the ukulele, and choosing a varied repertoire but one that
contains appropriate music to fulfil the brief. I will make sure that
I research the meaning of the pieces and that I add a range of
dynamic contrasts to keep the audience engaged.