Week 4

Week 4

Wed 27th November Brockhill Park School (session four )

Arrived, but no sign of Tim Vinall, my allocated teacher. From speaking with other staff I found out that Jackie Mortimer wouldn't be back to 11am, so I had no member of staff to report to and find out which room I would be in.

I first went to my usual space in the dance block. The room had a photographic display and a coffee urn in it. As there were only five seats I presumed that maybe I wasn't to be there. Next, I went to the music room that I was in last week to see if Tim was there, but it was locked with a notice to say that there would be no band practice at break time. (I didn't know if that was because I was meant to be there, or whether it was up for any other reason.) I therefore went back to my original space and here my students were beginning to congregate. They asked me where we were going to be. I said I didn't know. Over the next twenty minutes I waited for Tim to arrive, bringing my gear in from the car and occasionally trying to find him. Eventually he arrived, explaining that he had been doing some DJing in the hall (with D'Expressions). He was very happy and very laid back, like he was on my first meeting with him. I told him I needed chairs for the students, the musical instruments and the playback system which they have supplied me with every week to play back the students' work. After ten or so minutes we had the chairs and the instruments, and pretty soon afterwards Tim had set up the playback system.

Eventually I was able to start the session. I started with where we had left off on the previous week getting the students playing pieces based on patterns. This concentrated their listening and got them working as one group. As we tried different pieces, various students offered different ideas, such as playing with our eyes closed so everyone had to listen very carefully for their cue to play.

Hannah made the point that instead of just playing patterns we should be playing patterns specific to last week's idea of the car journey. I asked them if they would find it helpful to hear their car recordings of last week first of all for inspiration. They gave a resounding "yes", so I played them back their recordings and also showed them how we could order the sounds and change them (for example, playing them backwards, or at different speeds). We spent the rest of the morning, up until break, experimenting with changing the sounds and ordering them - myself working as engineer and letting them suggest the manipulations. For each sound I brought their attention to different characteristics, encouraging them to listen all the time. Som had the idea of starting the composition with the manipulated recordings of the car and then mixing in percussion versions of the sounds. So after break we worked on replicating the car-sounds using the percussion instruments. We listed all the sounds that we need to replicate on the board, and then put them into an order for the piece. The students very definitely wanted to have them in the order of how you would hear them on an actual car journey. Their order was: locks, door open, door close, seat belt, car start, engine sounds, radio, wipers, indicators, horn, brake, seatbelt unlock, engine off, keys rattle, door open, door close, door lock. We then found the instruments that they thought best suited all those sounds and worked together to share their ideas. We spent a long time on the sound of the engine. It was difficult to get 'just right', but eventually they were satisfied. We listened to the engine recording several times and noticed it's particular rhythmical characteristics. We then all chose instruments to play on and Hannah and Hayley worked with the group as controllers to compose the right sound textures using different groups of instruments. In the end we settled on two different engine sounds (for the different road textures) and we rehearsed playing them and going from one to the other. In the last twenty minutes before lunch the school's other music teacher popped in to hear what was going on. Apparently he's very conservative. I'm not sure what he thought of it as he went off before I could say hello to him.

After lunch we finished off all the car-related sounds and rehearsed the piece with all the sounds in the right order. We finished it and recorded it, and that was the end of the day.

After lunch and for the last half hour or Tracey Temple, the head of year eight came in. She has taken a real interest in the project and this is the third session she has sat in on. She really enjoyed the afternoon and remarked how the students had really come along a long way. For me, they haven't come along half as much as I wanted to, and I said to her that I was determined to get them to work as a group of musicians to the level that I wanted. She said that she noticed how well they were working as a group - much better than on her last visit. In her opinion the students are now beginning to think as one unit. (One of my phrases for the day was that they were no longer to think of themselves as fifteen individual musicians but as one group.) She noticed as well that the rivalry between Bobby and Hayley appeared to have disappeared.

Tim also had a good day. He is impressed with how the students are working, which surprises me, as I don't think that they are in fact working that well. Then again, as he tells me, "I don't know the kids". He apologised for not being there all the time. I asked him why he was never there when I needed him. He replied that although he had cancelled all his teaching commitments for the day he was still in demand to lock or unlock doors, speak to people, etc. It's very common for him to have to leave the room because he's expecting a (mobile) phone call, for example.

Thu 28th November Hartsdown Technology College (session four )

Alisha and Kylie came up at the beginning of the session to say that they hadn't had the time to prepare any words for singing as they had promised.

I began the morning by playing the students the music that we recorded from last week. They were really proud of their pieces.

After that I played them the Steve Reich recording of 'Different Trains' and we talked about the various aspects of the composition and how it was probably composed. They found the piece interesting and remarked that it sounded like a classical version of some of the music they listened to. They were very impressed when I told them that in fact Steve Reich had been a big influence on many of today's bands. I then discussed the music with the group, asking them if they thought the composition was successful, if they thought it sounded like travelling music, and if so how was that effect achieved?

After this I asked everyone in the group to make up two contrasting patterns in the style of the Reich composition. I gave them five minutes to do so and then I asked them to play them to me. As I heard each contribution I gave them tips on how to make their ideas more effective. I then asked various students to play one of their patterns and teach it to the rest of the group. I then conducted a couple of pieces with the students improvising based on their patterns.

After break we carried on. I spoke with them about the idea of a kaleidoscope, whereby when you look through it you see patterns and when you turn the end the patterns gradually change. I asked them now to think of their next improvisation as the audio equivalent of a kaleidoscope. This time each musician had to enter with a different idea that aimed to take the music to a new dimension. We tried this with a few of the students taking turns at conducting. It was noticeable that today the students were playing together in a way that just would not have been possible last week. I told them that I was really happy with this. We then tried some themed patterned improvisations whereby the conductor would tell the group the general atmosphere that the whole piece and therefore their patterns were meant to have. We tried, 'Ethereal' and 'Thunder', for example. They found this surprisingly hard to do, as when they discover something that works in a piece they have a tendency to try to reuse the idea in another piece. Therefore by having radically different themes they had to think up something new for each improvisation.

I asked the group that if they were going to do a composition with the atmosphere of a journey how might we go about it. A few of the students suggested ideas and Mary gave a definite suggestion as to how the composition could actually begin. I quizzed her on her thoughts so that she became more exact, and as a group we talked through how this piece might begin. Throughout this process Mary said exactly how she wanted her music to go. She would first suggest something for the musicians to play. They would have a go and then, if necessary, she would reshape their contribution until it was just what she wanted. Every so often she would run the piece from the beginning to check her ideas out. By the time we got up to lunch she had involved all the students. As the students were leaving Mary asked if it would be possible to also add some vocals. I said that it would, and encouraged her to have a think over lunchtime about what words or ideas she could use. She (with Alisha) suggested that they work over lunch break on words and ideas for singing. I sent them away for ten minutes to get some fresh air and then they came back to work.

When they came back I asked them what they wanted to do. All they really knew is that they wanted to sing something connected with the theme of Journeys, perhaps in the same sort of way that Steve Reich had used the voices in his piece. I asked them what they meant and their answer provided their first idea. I showed them how to very quickly graphically represent their proposed composition and then gave them some pen and paper to notate their first idea. After this they still weren't sure of any other ideas and so I encouraged them to think of different aspects of travel such as the sound of the travelling itself, what it was like to travel, the view from the window, the excitement of arriving somewhere new, etc. This seemed to be all the help they needed and so I left them to their own devices.

When the students returned after lunch Mary and Alisha still wanted to carry on with their songwriting and so I split the class into two groups, with the singers in one room and the louder instruments in the other. I asked Mary and Alisha if they would like any more instrumentalists in with them and they suggested the metalophone players, as Mary's idea was that the singing would be happening over this part of her composition. The metalophonists joined the singers next door and the teacher, Janis Morgan, sat in with them (as it was the quieter option!) I worked with the remaining musicians and we agreed to make up a new piece. Lawrence suggested an idea on the drums and very quickly the group joined in with other ideas which we enlarged and sequenced into an organised composition. We recorded it a few times and then invited the singers back into the room to hear the piece. They liked our composition, and afterwards they played their piece as well, which I recorded. We finished the session with the students recording themselves speaking into the microphones, saying what view they might see from the window of their imaginary travelling vehicle.

The students are all obviously enjoying themselves in these sessions and are producing music that they could not have produced at the beginning of the project. They could all see that there was a marked improvement in their progress.

Laura the photographer came today. She arrived after break and stayed until lunchtime. She seemed to fit in well with the kids, and said she enjoyed her visit. Janis is also pleased with the students' progress but is appalled at their carrying on. I tried to reassure her that her group are the best behaved out of the three schools. I also got an opportunity to speak to Barry Landeman (the head of performing arts) today and tried to encourage him to pop in and see the session. Unfortunately Thursday is a busy day for him and so he was not able to see today's session. (He hasn't been to any of the sessions yet, but said that he hoped to come in next week.)

Fri 29th November Whitstable Community College (session four )

Arrived, but couldn't get started in the hall as there was a form assembly. Tom Jarrett also informed me that I would not have a teacher sitting in with me for the day. This was because many teachers were out of school today either due to attending courses or because of sickness, and the school didn't want to take any more teachers away from their normal timetable.

At 9.30am assembly was over and so we were able to go in and help clear the some of the chairs. I asked Tom Jarrett if we could use some of his "special" instruments. He showed me where they were and I chose some. Tom also showed me two timpani at the back of the stage. (He said that they were there when he arrived at the school three years ago and had never been used.) Whilst setting up the instruments Tom sent down a note to determine whether I would like a cup of tea. I took the liberty of asking my students if they would like something to drink as well, and we sent back a message listing what we wanted! To our surprise a tray of teas and coffees arrived, courtesy of Tom, and the students loved this. I'm not sure if it helped the music-work any, but it did have the effect of making our space seem more like an ordinary working environment.

With our cups of tea at the ready we listened to our piece of last week and then we agreed on the style of the composition we would work on after break. Kirsty said that she wanted to sleep (and then apologised) and so we decided to do something relaxing.

After break we worked on creating very quiet atmospheres with each student trying to play in a way that their sounds melted into the overall sound. We worked on different atmospheric textures and each one had a soloist whose role was the opposite in the sense that they had to play in a way that would stand out as foreground. We thought that these sounds could be useful for 'Away' in the sense that they were new. I asked them to imagine that they had arrived, after a long journey, to the wrong place, and to play the atmosphere of this strange imaginary setting. I introduced Ross to a Kaoss Pad (a real-time effects processor) for him to plug his guitar into. He loved this. Eventually we put all these textures together and rearranged our seating so that we could record the composition live. We managed to record it once before lunch.

After lunch it was just the GCSE students as Dan had to go to the dentist and Katy had to go to English (to listen to her teacher read Othello for two hours). Just before Dan went, he rerecorded his heartbeat on the bass guitar so we could dub it over our afternoon recordings.

After lunch we recorded our piece again. It took a couple of takes, and then Tom came in to have a listen and so we played our composition to him and recorded it as the final take.

In the morning we had had the idea of putting one loud noise towards the end of this quiet composition (just before Dan's heartbeat). We finished off the afternoon by recording this. We chose to do an explosion style bang with a long decay whereby all the little sounds die away afterwards.

After the session Tom informed me that we would not be in the hall for the next two weeks because of exams. Most probably we will be in one of the art rooms.