Improvised Major Mode
Reflection: My intonation is not the best when it comes to leaps that are of a third or more and I think that is because the solfege mi has a tendency to fall flat because the third of the major scale can easily be flattened to become minor. The fifth, however, has the tendency to remain a perfect interval and is easier to sing in tune. I did however have an uneven intonation when it came to singing between sol' do and sol and I think that is because I went a little too fast for my voice's comfort and stumbled a bit. The intonation of the solfege la varied and I think that was because either it was too high for my vocal range (and therefore it was a little flat) or because I was going too fast for my voices comfort. I can improve all these things by taking these exercises at a slower tempo and even single out certain leaps or between two solfege (e.x. sol to la or sol to mi) and slowly switch between them to work on the tuning.
smrd exercise #18 and #19
Reflection: I think that my fluidity has improved since the last homework assignment. It feels like I'm not forcing out the note but singing more musically. However, I do feel like I can do more with the shape of the line by swelling and pulling back more to make it sound like music. I found it pretty difficult when it came to recording the second half because when I went to sing the same solfege it would be out of tune. When there were harmonies it had good intonation but when it came to the same pitch one voice would be flat. This could be fixed by practicing this slower or spending more time finding the right pitch for Do and focus on the intonation of it.
On the Moor
Reflection: I think that I took a step backwards because this didn't sound as musical to me. It felt very metric, however, I feel like I did take a step forward in terms of listening to each part. I really listened to the harmonies and was able to have better intonation and blending of all four voices. It was really weird listening to the finale project because the middle part, after all four voices came in, didn't sound like a canon anymore. It sounded like there was one voice singing "Soh Soh' Soh' Soh' Soh' Soh' Do" over and over again as well as another voice singing "Mi Mi Re Re Fa Fa Mi Mi" over and over again. I think this proves that I improved with listening because it was so blended that I had no clue that it was a canon anymore. Next time I should work on listening and being musical at the same time so it is still blended but not metric sounding.
Sight-Reading of #82 Canon
Reflection: Not a bad first run through of sight-reading this in my opinion. I was actually quite shocked how that quarter rest screwed me up so much that I couldn't find the soh mi after the do. I was quite happy to hear that it started to sound more and more musical every time I sang it. I think I should try to conduct initially when sight-reading it because not only did it fix my rhythm but also helped me be more musical. I need to be more careful finding my do because I only realized now that I was singing in Do = F-sharp rather than Do = F.
Canon #84
Reflection: This one was really interesting to do because I found that it was the hardest to sing the first part of the canon as I was miss-pitching solfege notes. However, when I started to sing the next voice part of the canon it was so much easier to find the notes because of the harmonies. I think I was able to listen to each part and keep good intonation through out the piece. At one point in the canon we get a cluster chord of G-flat, E-flat, A-flat, and C. This was quite jarring to hear the first couple of times because it would screw up my intonation but after a few tries I was able to just pull through those two beats and make it a somewhat nice sounding cluster chord. I tried making each phrase more musical so it had some texture but I am not sure if I achieved that. Maybe I should try putting space between notes so other voices have a chance of being heard.
Canon #85
Reflection: This time I tried bumping up the tempo to make the line of the music move more and I think that I achieved that nicely. Since the rhythm was a bit trickier I feel like in some places my intonation was a bit off. Since there were so many rests in between it was hard to achieve really good intonation because there were empty parts where the second part would be exposed until I added the third part. My approach to this was to try to give more space between passages where I think I should have given less space, therefore when I go record the second part I would have had an easier time hearing the intonation from more harmonies. I really liked some of the harmonies in this as well. Anything that has a predominant chord (Fa and La) is very pleasing to hear for me.
Improvised Minor Mode
Reflection: Singing in a La-based minor is really hard for me to understand. I guess it's because I am used to Do-based minor but if I were to actually sight-sing in a minor key I am sure I would spend so much time confusing with myself that Do becomes La. La-based minor in a way is easier though because then I don't have to figure out what is Te and Le versus Ti and La. I noticed while playing around with the minor scale that my Soh's and La's were becoming a melodic minor scale which I found funny because I was actually just practicing my melodic and harmonic scales on my instrument. I noticed that I was pretty uncomfortable with the solfege because I would sing one pitch but say the wrong solfege. I should continue to work on familiarizing myself with the solfege and when filming myself to not look up and sing because I look pretty dumb.
Annie Annie - Major and Minor
Bonjour Bonjour - Major and Minor
Reflection: This assignment was really weird and really made me think. Switching between the major and minor mode really screwed with my head because It took me so long to understand what the tonic was of the piece. Also just switching to major after recording it so many times in minor is really hard because the minor mode was stuck in my head. For Annie Annie, I really tried in the minor mode to do the push/wave feeling that we discussed in class and I think I accomplished that nicely. However, as I moved into the major mode I think I totally lost that feeling as I was trying so hard to not sing in minor. Therefore I fell back into that metric feel as I wasn't focusing so much on musicality. The Major mode one sounded really weird to me when I was recording it and now I realize that I screwed up the rhythm in the first voice as I jumped onto the next phrase too fast, but hey I got some interesting chords. My Re's in the major mode were also a little sharp I think as I really went down a semitone rather than a whole tone. I'm not really happy with my intonation in either modes at certain times as I think my La's or Mi's are always out of tune. I should be approaching those notes from above so I can be more in tune. I personally like this one in the minor mode better. For Bonjour Bonjour, I am not sure if I had the whole song for this part, I feel like there is a second half to the song that I forgot. Overall, I am much more happier with this recording than Annie Annie. The intonation is much better there is more shape to the line of music and it was overall easier to go to the minor mode rather than going from minor mode to major. When I recorded Bonjour Bonjour in the minor mode I noticed that I subconsciously took a breath and put space between each bar. Therefore I was separating phrases inappropriately. Overall, I should work more on transitioning between the minor and major mode so I can be more musical and sing more fluidly in both modes.
Canon #39
Reflection: This canon sounded really cool! I focused most of my efforts on improving my fluidity with the minor solfege and musicality. I felt like I accomplished this nicely and my fluidity has improved. The intonation was a little more difficult in the minor mode for some reason and I noticed that when all voices sang la it was not so in tune. It was also really cool that the line of music fit way better so it sounded like a nice blended ensemble rather than metric small sections that repeat over and over. I should now work on intonation in minor modes.
Canon #41
Reflection: My goal this assignment was to try to give the canon a more dynamic shape and I really struggled with that. I am not sure if its just my recording device or not but I felt like I was pushing and pulling with the dynamics a lot but when I listen back I can't hear that. The individual parts however blended really nicely and I feel like my intonation and fluidity has improved so I am glad about that. I think my favourite part of this canon were the suspensions between fa and mi to re.
Who Killed Cock Robin with Pedal
Sight-Reading Canon #49
Reflection: For the first assignment, I really enjoyed how the la-pedal tone added a mysterious vibe to the melody. I really focused on the dynamic swells this time in the melody and I think I accomplished that nicely. I am not sure where I need to improve in this assignment as I thought I accomplished the goals I had set for myself.
For #49, I was pretty frustrated with this canon. It sounds so pretty with the suspensions and delayed falling notes but I could not for the life of me sing the ' la-ti-do-re-do-ti" line correct. I would be singing it as 'fi-si-la-ti-la-si' and it frustrated me to no end because I would practice it 10 times and it would be fine but as soon as I put it into context with the other voice parts I would sing it wrong. I think in this recording I got it to the closest I could so the intonation is off in those areas where those two lines move together. Despite my frustration I tried focusing again on the dynamic swells that I have been trying to accomplish and I think I did manage to do this. It is really hard however to hear me doing those swells as soon as you adda third voice. Therefore I am still confused on how to make them more noticeable. I don't think I can stress the swells in my voice much more without making the intonation really off.
For #49, I was pretty frustrated with this canon. It sounds so pretty with the suspensions and delayed falling notes but I could not for the life of me sing the ' la-ti-do-re-do-ti" line correct. I would be singing it as 'fi-si-la-ti-la-si' and it frustrated me to no end because I would practice it 10 times and it would be fine but as soon as I put it into context with the other voice parts I would sing it wrong. I think in this recording I got it to the closest I could so the intonation is off in those areas where those two lines move together. Despite my frustration I tried focusing again on the dynamic swells that I have been trying to accomplish and I think I did manage to do this. It is really hard however to hear me doing those swells as soon as you adda third voice. Therefore I am still confused on how to make them more noticeable. I don't think I can stress the swells in my voice much more without making the intonation really off.
The Christ Child's Lullaby
Reflection: I really like this melody, its very mysterious yet beautiful! I thought my intonation was really good except for maybe when both voices had the Soh at the same time did it kind of waiver in pitch. I think I could have done a bit more musically with some crescendos and decrescendos when going up in stepwise and down. I think I focused more on the style of the piece, meaning for me it felt bouncy yet smooth so I tried to implement that in my singing.
In Class Dictation/The Alphabet/We Wish You A Merry Christmas
Reflection: This was a lot of fun to record! The first recording had a lot of nice harmonies in it that I really tried to enhance. However, I felt like the melody was in the background because the other two parts are too high in pitch. I didn't want to cheat and just adjust the volume on those two voices with the descending scale so i tried to bring the melody out more. Overall, I think it was well blended, had good intonation, and had a musical shape. The second recording of 'The Alphabet' was a real challenge with those high Do's. I felt like I had good intonation and musical shape. I noticed that some of the melodic figures repeated so I decided to make the repeated one different by changing the dynamic drastically to give a nice contrast. I really liked my decision with the sudden change in dynamic as it made the piece more enjoyable to listen to. Listening to it now, I am not sure if my ears are tricking me, I feel like the lower voice drags behind a little so I should make sure I am being musical but also keeping a steady tempo. The third recording was very interesting to do because it required me to write a new line to 'We Wish you a Merry Christmas'. In the third part of the sequence (starting on mi) I noticed now that instead of singing la I was singing le which wasn't what I intended but I am not so upset about because it makes an interesting harmony that you wouldn't expect. I also really enjoyed what I did at pick up into bar 12 (do, mi, la --> ti, fa, soh) as those were pleasant harmonies to listen too. Overall, a fun assignment!
Once In Royal David's City
Reflection: I tried to do the same idea where a repeated theme was slightly different in dynamics but I wanted the melody to remain smooth as well. I believe I accomplished this still by dropping to a quite dynamic and then using a crescendo at the end of the phrase. I really liked the sound of the last two chords as it brought the whole piece to a finale. Overall, I think I had good intonation and musicality and all the voices blended nicely despite the high la's and low do's. I would like to experiment singing these melodies in a different style to see how it changes the overall feel.
Singing Solfege to a Pop-Song
Reflection: This was a lot of fun to do but also very challenging. I knew that this song was in the minor mode but I really struggled finding what solfege it started on. It took my a while but then I listened to the bass line of the piano and found my la and then went up the scale until I found the starting pitch to be on mi. There are also three key changes in this song that go up by a semitone each time which was a bit tricky to figure out because the solfege remained the same it was just the key changing and I had to change my tonal centre. However, I didn't actually find the key changes hard as they just seemed to happen with the flow of the music. I threw in a piano accompaniment to play along with because not only did it help me keep in tune and find the right key changes but it just sounded so beautiful to mix with the solfege so I couldn't resist. Overall, A lot of fun to do!
Lo How a Rose
Reflection: I continued with the idea of making a repeated musical idea sound different and I like how it turned out. I tried swelling the beginnings of notes to give it an effect and I think it was a good decision to make because it directed the line of music more. I struggled with the balance for this assignment because I tried to film the tenor first then the bass and then the alto and soprano. When I did that thought the tenor was really loud and I couldn't hear the soprano at all. So I tried filming the tenor then the soprano and then the bass and alto which was actually hard to do because the harmonies didn't line up the way I wanted to until I added more voice. However, it fixed the balance issue and it sounds in tune so I think that fixed the problem. I really liked some of these harmonies and it was pretty much anything that has a fa in it. I think I am starting to like fa too much its just so rich in sound.
What Child is This
Reflection: This time I recorded this without the metronome so that I could play around with the push and pull of the music's tempo to make it more musical. I think I accomplished that nicely by slowing down at the ends of phrases and then picking it back up again at the beginning of the next phrase. I also tried putting space between some of the chords to create some kind of tension which I think I accomplished nicely. I really liked the B section of this piece because it was a major moment out of a minor mode which is interesting to hear. I also just really liked singing the tenor line because it jumps around into harmonies that sound really nice.
Away In A Manger
Reflection: I continued with the ideas of making certain sections louder or softer than the other. So in this case, the first few bars are at a quieter dynamic than when all the voices come in. In this recording I really struggled with the fluidity of the music, meaning making everything blended. Some of the voices stuck out and even in my final product there are certain notes that stick out. This is probably because I am pronouncing the solfege a little too harshly. Therefore I should not only focus on my intonation to create blend but also my pronunciation of consonances for solfege to help it blend more.
Carol of The Bells
Reflection: I really focused on the dynamics of this piece and the shape of the music. I think I accomplished this very nicely between the rhythmic and slow part. However, I feel like I could have crescendoed up to the la peak a little more to give the music more direction. I am not really happy with where I took breaths because sometimes all the voices would breath at the same time interrupting the line of music. I tried to breath at different spots but I would run out of breath quickly and would be forced to breath in the places that I didn't want to breath. I struggled recording the tenor line at first but then i realized that i was reading in bass clef. I also wanted to play with the tempo and time at the end of the piece so I slowed dow the tenor line to create suspension for the final chord.
God Rest You Merry
Reflection: I really focused on making each phrase connected and musical and each repeated phrase have a slightly different idea. I think I accomplished this and I really liked my idea of pushing on the notes that were held for more than one beat. For example, the first beat of bar 4 is a dotted half note so I gradually got louder and then became quiet which I think is an effective idea because you would expect a louder phrase but I tricked you by giving a quieter phrase instead. My intonation is pretty good but I feel like one of the re's was flat so it kinda stuck out of the texture. I feel like I am on the right path and will continue what I'm doing but focus on smaller details now.
Angels We Have Heard
Reflection: I continued the same idea of making the same melodic lines have a different idea of being either louder or quieter. I also continued with trying to make the music more connected and smooth. I also experimented more with the idea that my quieter phrases should gradually get louder in order to meet the next louder phrase than the previous. I'm not sure how I like the first three notes of the piece as they sound uncertain to me in just the timbre and lack of projection. I also struggled a little with the balance of the bass line with everything else. I feel like in the refrain you don't hear the bass line at all but it is there. I really liked most of the harmonies in here including all of the refrain and the La's in the second phrase.
Yonder Come Day
Reflection: What a way to start the semester. Not only was this stuck in my head all week but it was easy enough to give me room to experiment and was a lot of fun to sing. I played with word play while singing this so when the higher part was singing sunrise I would gradually increase my volume like a sunrise would gradually increase light. I thought it gave the piece an interesting texture and shape that suited the piece really well. I needed the top part to have more support when it was gradually getting louder so I had the lower part do the same thing and it worked out nicely the way I wanted it too. I wanted to experiment with bopping the notes and trying to make the notes in tune in such a short note. So I made an extra recording with me bopping the top and bottom part and tried really hard to keep it in tune. It was way harder than I expected it to be but I think I was mostly in tune and I am glad I experimented with it. I also changed some of the pitches in the melody because I thought it sounded cool. For some reason this song sounds like it should be sung by country singers maybe because of the last harmonization maybe but I'm not sure. Overall, very fun.
Bach Cantata
Reflection: My goal in this piece was to try to make smooth connected lines that didn't have that much of an interruption or fast breaths that cut off phrases. I think I accomplished this nicely for most of it. I feel like I had one phrase that was interrupted near the end but it was kind of masked by the other voice. Doing it at D = do was a real challenge to try to sing the high mi in tune and not shrill. So I tried to focus on different vowel sounds to try to make that mi not as shrill and somewhat in tune. I chose to use an 'ee' syllable because it was the easiest for me to get the note out and somewhat in tune. Another challenge I had was transitioning from hearing the fi to a fa because fi was so stuck in my head that once I got the the fa I would sing fi instead. After looping that bar a couple of times though I got it. I think I am really good at staying in tune with other voices because I can hear my tuning easier but I can't when I am singing on my own. Therefore I should work on getting the ear to hear when I am flat or sharp on certain solfege by themselves rather in harmony.
Two and Three-Part Rhythm
Reflection: This assignment was a bit of a challenge for me because I have been so used to making melodies musical but not rhythms. In the two-part rhythm not only was it really hard to play two different rhythms one in each hand I had attempted to add dynamics to make it more musical. I thought that gradually getting louder at the ends of phrases gave it a nice effect. When the hands switched off on the sixteenth notes in bar 2 and 6 I decided to crescendo for one beat and decrescendo the next which I thought also gave a nice effect. I thought my dynamic changes turned out nice but could have possibly been more dramatized. For the three-part rhythm exercise I first tried it without any dynamics because the rhythms were weird and I was struggling to stay on the same pitch and not go flat or sharp and ultimately creating a major chord rather than minor. After I had mastered that I tried to stagger the swelling of phrases so the lower part would swell on the first bar and decrescendo on the second, the middle part would swell on beat 2 of the first bar and decrescendo on beat 2 of the second bar and the top part would swell on the second bar and decrescendo on the third bar. I liked the effect that it gave the exercise because it sounded like multiple waves at a beach or something but it is night time and eerie because of the minor triad. I thought I executed that well but I think I decrescendo too fast losing some of the effect.
Three-Part Rhythm With Harmonic Structure
Reflection: Man was this a challenge in itself already. Not only did I struggle with the intonation but I also struggled with just changing the solfege and getting the rhythms to be exact. However, I have never made a remix before so I wanted to try that. It was really hard to loop because every time it looped it would get off the beat each time so I couldn't add any percussion beats because it didn't sync up together. I thought it wasn't a good idea to add other rhythms on top of the pre-existing rhythm because I thought the rhythms would get muddled when the whole point of this exercise is partly rhythm. I stuck to taking strings and piano and just play the harmonic structure underneath my voice. I also just added arpeggio chords at the end because I liked how it concluded like that. I am going to try experimenting more with remixing because it was a lot of fun and hopefully I can include different instruments and do more with these remixes.
Bach Minuet
Reflection: This is probably the hardest assignment I have ever done so I'm not so happy that I didn't get the chance to experiment. I had to sacrifice experimenting in order to focus on where I wanted to modulate and change the solfege, have good intonation and make it musical. Firstly I had to decide where I wanted to modulate and I decided to change the solfege on beat one of bar 20 and change back on beat one of bar 24. Based on my knowledge on modulation I knew that a pivot chord goes on a function that exists in both keys. That function would be on the third beat of bar 19 but that beat can be seen as either a I6 chord in G major or a IV6 chord in D Major. Therefore I could have chosen to change the solfege on the third beat of bar 19 but I decided against it because to me I still hear that beat in G major and you only get an instance of D Major until beat one of bar 20 with the C-sharp. When modulating back to G major I decided to change the solfege back on beat one of bar 24. Looking back at this decision I am not entirely sure why I did that because I think I should have just changed the solfege on the third beat of the bar where the C-natural is in order to finish the phrase in D major rather than abruptly changing back in the middle of a phrase. However, now I am thinking about the harmonic structure it would probably make sense the way I did it because that whole bar could be seen as one function rather than a different function on each beat which would be the pivot point. For returning back to G major though I would say keeping the first two beats still in D major would have been a better decision. When it comes to my musicality decisions I took my knowledge on forms in order to make such decisions. This Minuet is a Simple Continuous Binary form structured ABA' so I wanted the B section (the section in D major to sound different (I sang it quieter than the other sections). When the scale inclines in bar 21 I decided to increase in volume with it to give into the tensions there. I have never dealt with sight singing a modulation that jumps more than a second so it was really hard to switch mindsets of the keys and exceptionally hard to find the fa to mi's. The the near the end was also a struggle but I figured it out by singing the melody backwards and then forwards again multiple times to have it in my head. Overall, a good challenge that I think I did well.
Augmented Sixth Chords
Reflection: This was really challenging. Who knew there would be a huge difference in difficulty when it came to horizontally singing verse vertically singing. I am so used to horizontally singing where there are more stepwise motions rather than leaps so this was a huge challenge for not only just getting the pitches wise but also intonation. Unfortunately I didn't have the time to experiment with each way of singing but I was planning on either making a remix or improvising on these chords and making something cool or possibly and combination of the two ways of singing. If I have time this week or during reading week I am definitely gonna try and post it here. When singing vertically it was a very interesting learning curve for me because normally I have trouble singing intervals down rather than up but in this exercise I found it harder to sing the intervals up so I had to reverse my practice method and sing the intervals down first and then practice each interval going down and them up and then slowly putting it all back together. I really focused on intonation here and I feel like I did a really good job keeping the intonation in check especially with all those ri's that initially threw me off. Overall, a very helpful and eye-opening exercise that I should focus more on to make me more comfortable with singing both ways.
Bolyongas
Reflection: This piece is so beautiful! I spent so much time on focusing on the tuning and energy of the piece. I wanted to get all the tempo changes so I had to put space in between in order to quickly think about the key change and tempo changes. I put a lot of emphasis on the notes that stuck out of the texture such as the fi's in the beginning chords. I also tried swelling some of the half note chords to make the melodic line move more which I think I did nicely. I focused a lot on the energy in the major portion and I think I did that in increasing the tempo. I also focused a lot on balancing the lines of music and brining out the little melodic fragments that sometimes jump between the voices. Overall, was a lot of fun and was a bit of a challenge in terms of the length.
Siyahamba
Reflection: I did some research before making this by watching some videos to help me find a style that I liked and wanted to interpret in this assignment. I found this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1KZbMprW8U and I really liked the rhythm and style with it so I incorporated that rhythm in my own recording. I tried recording this without a metronome in order to not make it feel so metric but I also wanted to add a drum beat in the background. I couldn't sink up the rhythms though because the drumbeat would have strictly gone with the metronome while my recording was more free. I also had a bit of trouble with the lower voice as I couldn't hear one of the notes in the harmony which I think was a la. I fixed this by singing it over and over and thinking higher on that note in order to fit it in the texture. The solfege was also a bit tricky as I couldn't figure out a few of the pitches. Instead of focusing on that one voice I looked at all the voices and the chord structure and made some guesses what that solfege could be. Then I attempted to sing all the options slowly until I figured out which one it was. I hope to focus more on style and interpretation on future assignments.
Kaleidoscope Heart
Reflection: I really liked the song Kaleidoscope Heart by Sara Bareilles so I decided to try singing it for this assignment. I really wanted to get the overall style of the piece so I focused on a lot of things. I added an echo to the tracks because the original song also has an echo that helps with the style which I think has a happy mysterious theme. I also really focused on the intonation because there are a lot of cluster chords that I wanted to push into but make them still sound good. That being said it took my a good week to figure out the solfege of these cluster chords. I had to isolate each voice and come up with possible solfege that it could be and eventually found what I think is the right ones. I also focused a lot on the entrances and cut off of the phrases because in order to get the echo effect I wanted I needed the upper voices to cut off a fragment earlier than the bass in order to get a nice echo at the end. I played around with the levels of each voice and made sure that the melody came out on top of the other voices. Overall I focused a lot on the musicality and phrasing because I really wanted to bring out some of these cluster chords and give them the intensity they needed by pushing into them. There is also one point in the B section where this chord is being outlined and being transferred between voices that I wanted to come out of the texture. Therefore I put some space and accented them a little in order to bring them out of the texture. I tried to make this as smooth as possible but I also wanted to make it sound as if I was singing the words so I added little dips here and there to make it sound as if I was singing the context of the words. I'm really proud of this outcome!
Clapping Music
Reflection: This was a challenge to sync up the rhythms because I really had to focus on counting and making sure I was playing the right rhythm. In order to do this though I had to take it at a slower tempo. I am also really confused because when you listen to it, it sounds like it is slowing down and goes out of time but I've rerecorded it many times to try to get rid of that and it doesn't work. It is also really hard to tell the difference between the two parts so I tried stressing the changing part by adding accents but it didn't really come out as much as I wanted it to. I think that is because of my microphone though and it isn't picking up accents because of the volume of my clap.