Programme

Music
Music that
tells a story

Bernice Wong Y6R

Project 1: Animal Music

Flying Bird Composition

Tuesday, 24th November 2015

Today is our first music class, Mr. O'Grady talked
us through what we need to do for our assessment and
some keywords about music. Our homework is to plan for
our composition about one of the following animals:
flying bird, snake or elephant. We had to write a plan
about the tonality, characteristics, instruments,
pitch, dynamic, tempo and rhythm. Below is my plan:

My Composition Plan

We

will then use Garageband to compose our music which

would be around 45 seconds long. We have learnt some
basic skills to use Garageband and this is my first
time using it, I learned that it is a very useful thing
and you can do very cool stuff. You could combine
different instruments to create a music track that
sounds awesome. I chose my animal as flying bird,
because I can easily think about how I could
show/express that animal. I started thinking about it
and started testing it out on Garageband.

Friday, 27th November 2015

We have a double lesson today and we listened to a
few of our classmates composition. They have all done
a great job but there are still places that needs
improvement. Before we listened to their compositions,
they didnt tell us what animal it is, therefore we
have to guess what animal it actually is after

listening to it. We can tell if it is a good

composition by if the animal is easy to be guessed
because if it is a good composition it should show the
characteristics of the animal so its easy to guess.
You should be able to guess right after you start
listening to it. If its not obvious what animal it is,
that means it needs a lot of improvements. Our
classmates give each other feedbacks on how they could
improve. For example making the pitch higher or lower
and making the tempo slower or faster. We also
continued with our process journal and composition
during class.

Tuesday, 1st December 2015

Today we started our lesson by listening to our
classmates compositions again. We listened to
different ones than the ones we listened to last time.
Some people did a great job, we can clearly hear what
animal it is trying to show and it sounds very nice.
But some people could have done a better job because we
cant really hear what animal it is trying to express
and sometimes we hear it as a mix of two different
kinds of animals which is confusing. We gave comments
to our classmates afterwards. We also went through
different music keywords and I found the definition of
the different keywords so that I understand the meaning
and when to use it.

Key Words + definition:

Arpeggios
succession,
descending.
Atonal

: the notes of a chord played in rapid

either ascending or
: not written in any key or mode.

 Chord
: a group of (typically three or more)
notes sounded
together, as a basis of harmony.
Characteristics : a feature or quality belonging
typically to a person,
place, or thing and
serving to identify them.
Chromatic
: relating to or using notes not
belonging to the
diatonic scale of the
key in which a passage is
written.
Duration
: the time during which something
continues.
Dynamics
: the varying levels of volume of sound
in different
parts of a musical performance.
Harmony
: the combination of simultaneously
sounded musical
notes to produce a
pleasing effect.
Instruments
: an object or device for producing
musical sounds.
Melody
: a sequence of single notes that is
musically
satisfying; a tune.
Major
: (of a scale) having intervals of a
semitone between
the third fourth, and
seventh and eighth degrees.
Minor
: (of a scale) having intervals of a
semitone between
the second and third
degrees, and (usually) the
fifth and sixth,
and the seventh and eighth.
Scales
: an arrangement of the notes in any
system of music
in ascending or descending
order of pitch.
Texture
: how the melodic, rhythmic, and
harmonic materials
are combined in a
composition, thus determining the
overall
quality of the sound in a piece.
Tempo
: the speed at which a passage of
music is or should
be played.
Tonal
: tonal music is in a major or minor
key.
Tonality
: the character of a piece of music as
determined by
the key in which it is played or

the relations
or key.

between the notes of a scale

As my animal is flying bird, I thought of what it

should be like and I decided it should be high pitched
and it should be quite fast. It shouldnt be really
loud because birds are most of the times graceful and
quiet. The instruments I use should be able to play
high notes and also hold for a long time, to create the
effect of birds flying relaxingly and slowly, enjoying
the day up in the sky. So I chose to use Flute, String
Ensemble, French Horns and Clarinet.

Friday, 4th December 2015

In this lesson, we had the person next to us listen
to our tracks and then give comments and feedback on
what it good about it and what we could improve on.
This is my partners comment:
Classmates Feedback on My Composition

think your composition sounds like a

flying bird as it is high pitched and
there wer chords that sounds like a
bird flying up and down and up and
down. One of the improvements is
that I think you should make the
french horn much lighter as it is

covering the melody, but overall you

did well. -Mavis Yue
After reading the comment, I made changes to my
composition by softening the French Horn so that the
melody will stand out more. I think that listening to
what other people thinks is very nice because everyone
has different perspectives and sometimes people can see
what you cant see. Other than that, we also learnt
about graphic scores. You create a graphic score by
drawing different shapes. When it is quiet, you draw
smaller shapes. When it is louder, you draw larger
shapes. We have to draw a graphic score for our
composition.

Tuesday, 5th January 2016

Today, we discussed about the graphic scores we
have done over the holiday and made changes to it. This
is the Graphic Score that I have done:

My Graphic Score

After talking about the graphic score, we had to do

upload our final animal composition into Google Docs
and share it with our teacher so he can mark it. We had
to do a Self Assessment and Peer assessment on our
composition. Thinking about our strengths and
weaknesses, what we can improve on next time if we do
it again and a mark we will give ourselves.

Screenshot of My Music Piece in GarageBand

Self Assessment on Animal Piece

Animal:

Flying Bird
5 /8

Mark:
Strengths:
Targets to improve:
1. I chose the right instruments
1. I could have used
more kinds
2. I made it the right time
of
instruments
(not too long, not too short)
2. It could have sounded
more
3. It sounds like a flying bird
elegant
3. I could have added more

chords

Peer Assessment on Animal Piece

Animal:

Flying Bird
7 /8

Mark:
Strengths:
Targets to improve:
1. The melody of the song is relaxing
1. I think you should
make the 2. The arpeggios of the songs
volume softer so it
sound more
matches incredibly with the melody
elegant
3. It sounds like a flying Bird
2. I think you should have
chosen
a softer instrument as it is a little
bit too piercing for a flying
bird
3. I think you should
have add
more instruments

Project 2: Seasons Music

Summer Composition

Plan:
the

Major key
Fast
Quite loud
Short notes
Happy
Dancing enjoying the summer
Thick
Piano, Trumpet, Drums, Clarinet, Violin
Start with a lower pitch, gets higher and lower again at
end

Friday, 8th January 2016

We wrapped up our animal music project by showing
our improved graphic scores to each other and listening
to some of our classmates final piece. Then, we
started on our next project which is the seasons music
project. Each of us was assigned a season by the
teacher and I was assigned Summer. I started planning

about how the music should sound like and the different
characteristics. I thought about how Summer is like,
summer is a very happy season especially for children
because it is summer holiday and we can go out and
play. So it should sound happy and energetic. We will
also be using Garageband to compose our music piece for
this project, and it should also be 45 seconds to 1
minute long like the animals music project.

Tuesday, 12th January 2016

In todays lesson, we talked about how we should
compose our seasons music. We talked about what
tonality it should be in different seasons, for
example, In spring, it should start off in minor key
because it is still a little bit cold, then, it should
change into major key because it gets warmer and the
flowers bloom. In summer, it should mostly be in major
key as summer is a happy time, kids dont have to go to
school, the weather is mostly sunny and people can go
out and play. But it could end in minor key because it
is sad that summer is ending, children need to go to
school. In autumn, it might start with major key
because it is still a bit warm. Then, it will change to
minor key because it is colder. In winter, it should be
in minor key because it is freezing and everywhere is
white with no colours so its kind of sad and lonely.
But it might end in major key because winter has ended
and it is spring. We also talked about whether it
should be loud or soft/quiet, so that it sounds like
the season we are doing. When composing our music, we
are going to create a harmony and melody. The harmony
will be created using different chords and the melody
should match the harmony so that it sounds nice.

Friday, 19th January 2016

Today, we started to listen to different peoples
music tracks and we guessed which season it is about.
Some were easy to guess as it is well composed but some
doesnt really make music sense so they need to improve
and add more details. We also listened to each others
and did a peer evaluation, we gave some comments on how
we could improve. Here is my classmates feedback to my
piece:
Classmates Comment
Targets to improve on your first composition:
1. You can use more instruments
2. I think you should delete some of the repeating
melody to make it more interesting
3. I think you should continue adding the SoCal
drum to keep the joyful rhythm of the song!

I thought about how I could improve after hearing what

my partner had said and made some changes to my
composition according to the targets to improve. I
also have to finish it to make it the right time as it
is only 30 seconds long now. I think choosing to use
the drum was a right decision because it makes the
whole piece sound like summer and that is what I want.
It makes the piece more alive and that is what people
are like during summer.

Tuesday, 19th January 2016

As usual, we listened to a few tracks that our
classmates have done, then, we talked about what we

could improve on and what theyve done well. Then, we

chatted about what most people have done wrong, which
is not quantizing the music. That makes it not on beat
and it doesnt sound right, because it is like a mess.
So our next goal is to quantize our composition, to
make it that the notes are equal and on beat.

Friday, 22nd January 2016

We learnt to use the piano keyboards and also how
to play chords, So that we can apply it to our
compositions. We also added a little bit more to our
pieces and continued to quantize it. So far, I think
that i did quite a good job but still need to add more
to it because it is not long enough, my piece sounds
like summer which is the season I am doing. When I let
my friends and classmates hear it, they think it sounds
like the song under the sea from the movie The
Little Mermaid and it is great because the song under
the sea is a very cheerful and lively song and so is
summer!

I think the next step for me is to firstly add more to

my music piece, then I should quantize it a little bit
more and after that I should listen to it and edit any
parts that could be improved. I think I can add another
instrument to it to liven it up.

Tuesday, 26th January 2016

In this lesson, we learnt to draw scores. We first
learnt how to draw treble clefs and bass clefs and also
the time signature. And then, we learnt how the
different beats are drawn, for example a crotchet,
quaver and so on. We did some practice with scoring by
drawing a C major scale and some chords. After that,
our task was to do a 4 bar melody and chords scoring of
our own composition about the seasons. Here is my work:

Music Scoring

It wasnt hard for me because I play the piano and I

have learned some music theory before.

Friday, 29th January 2016

Mr Ogrady is away today and we had a substitute
teacher with us. We did some final editing to our music
piece and uploaded it into google drive. We then
listened to our friends pieces and discussed in a
group what is good about it and what can be improved,
we helped each other to edit and gave different
suggestions.

Tuesday, 2nd February 2016

We looked at our classmates process journals today
and gave some feedback to them. We looked at Ophelias
process journal, she did a great job keeping her
process journal up to date, it is very detailed and She
was very creative and she included a lot of colours for
both the words and the background colour in the
journal, she also used different fonts to make it look
interesting. I think she could improve by not wasting
space because she has a lot of blank spaces in between
which makes the process journal look unfinished.

Friday, 5th February 2016

We only have one period today because it was half
day school (last day of school before Chinese New Year
holiday). We didnt have much time so we just discussed
what we are going to do during the holiday for music.

Screenshot of my music piece in GarageBand

Self Assessment on Season Piece

Season:

Summer
6 /8

Mark:
Strengths:

Targets to improve:

1. The melody goes well with the 1. Make the notes more on
beat, so harmony
that the chords and
the melody are 2. The instruments I used was a
on the
right/same beat
good choice
2. Try more different
instruments
3. I am able to use different chords
3. Think more about the
story,
to form a harmony that sounds nice
what exactly is the story
behind
the music and how
it goes.

Peer Assessment on Season Piece

Season: Summer
Mark:
7/8
Strengths:
Targets to improve:
1. It is clearly a summer composition
1. I think if you make this
piece
2. It sounds very happy and beautiful
2. I think if you need to
make the
like the famous disney song under the harmony
more on beat so that it
sea it less sounds
wont sound that messy and
3. You have used many different
complicated.
instruments will be more your style 3. I think you can improve
your
and more creative to create this piece second part by not
making it that
weird In my
opinion, at first there
is a fish
dancing around in the
ocean happily. However, when you
reach the second part its seems to
me that the fish has stopped and
went back to resting making it
sound not that happy and

joyful
can change
part into another
but still as fast and happy
as the first part it would be surely
perfect.

anymore. So, if you

the second
melody

Reflection:
In the past few weeks, I have been using my process journal
to record my work and my process of composing music and what I
have learnt throughout the lessons. I write a reflection after every
class, it includes what I have done in each lesson and what new
things I have learnt. I made it look interesting by adding pictures
and making the words different fonts, and also make it more

organized by not having much space in between, the size of the

words are the right size and the spacing between the lines. I have
adding in photos of my work to show what I have done and add
description of what it is. I think I did a good job and I would give
myself a 6 out of 8 because I have included details in my journal.
But I can still improve by adding more colors to make it look more
engaging and also use more musical key words in my reflections.
The animal music project was the first composition i have
created using the app Garageband. It is also the first music piece I
have created in music this year. It is my first time trying to use
Garageband and at first, I have no idea how it functions. But I
have been playing with it for a while and I now learnt to use
different instruments, combine it together and create music. For
my animal piece, the animal that I chose was flying bird. I chose
that because straight away I have an idea of how it will sound like,
I thought that it should sound high pitched and should be in major
key because that makes you imagine a happy bird flying up in the
sky, freely. I would give myself 6 out of 8 also same as the process
journal because I have done well with choosing the instruments, it
all goes well together. I also think that my melody sounds nice
and I have used chords for the harmony, when people hear it they
think it sounds like a bird too. There are still some parts where I
can improve, I can improve by making the notes softer so it
sounds more elegant.
My second project was the season's project. We were each
assigned a season and we had to create a music piece that
represents that season. I was assigned the season summer and I
think that the most important part about summer is that it should
sound cheerful and energetic. Therefore it must be in major key
and fast paced. I chose four instruments for this piece and I think I
can try to use different instruments next time because I always
use these instruments. It did turn out as what I desired, many
people thinks it sounds very lively and happy, which is right for
summer. I would give myself a 5 out of 8 for this because I could

have quantized it more (make the notes more on beat), there are
a couple notes that are not in time, and quantizing music is what I
have to practice and improve on.