230 Live Music Performance Exam 2018

230 Live Music Performance Exam 2018

RSL 230: Live Music Performance Exam ‘18
Exam Brief 2017-2018 (A&R Audience)

Performance Brief 2017-2018:

You are booked to play a showcase for local label A&Rs. You have been asked to provide a 10-15 minute performance appropriate to the event.

Your work must be suitable for the audience. If you work as a group each candidate in the group must be able to show their contribution. Each candidate will be assessed individually.

General Instructions:

You must attempt all tasks in order to pass. Use the assessment and grading criteria to make sure you have completed everything.

Talk to your teacher about anything you’re not certain of.

You can work independently or in groups, but all work must be your own.

Once you have completed your work you must sign the candidate declaration sheet your teacher will give to you to declare all your work is your own.

You may use the internet to support your research, but all work must be written in your own words. Include the website address of any information that you used in your research.

Time and Word limits:

Your written work should not exceed 2,000 words in total.

If you upload practice recordings/videos of yourself these should not exceed 12 minutes total in length.

The final live recorded performance should last 10-15 minutes, and should not go beyond 15 minutes.

You can only spend 30 hours on this assessment; this is divided into:

10 hours preparation time (you can work independently away from class)

20 hours controlled conditions, where you are supervised by your teacher in the classroom.

Task 1: Planning - 6 hours

(This is about how you will plan your contribution to the event in the brief. Answer the following questions. Make sure you write in full sentences, and aim for three sentences per answer where suitable.)

1.1/1.2/1.3 My statement of personal aims, production plan 

My candidate number: (Mr Flowers will put this here). My centre number: (Mr Flowers will put this here).

My name is Rosie Allard-McLean. The instrument I will be playing for this performance is the Cello. The brief requires me to perform a 10-15 minute piece.

1.1a) Through my performance, I want to achieve the following personal goals:

1.            Personal Goal 1: to perform more bravely, with a visual look of confidence.

2.            Personal Goal 2: to prepare a portfolio of well rehearsed and performed works that I can use to audition for Orchestras.

3.            Personal Goal 3: to learn how to tune my cello accurately and improve my finger placement for good intonation. This will make sure that I play every note at the correct pitch, giving the audience a good experience.

1.1b) To help achieve the above goals, I think I have the following skills that I can use:

1.            Skill 1: My first good skill is play with vibrate.

2.            Skill 2: My second good skill is to play quavers clearly.

3.            Skill 3: My third good skill is to combine a song smoothly to the other.

1.1c) I will know if I have achieved my goals at the end of the assessment because I'll have comments from others, have a look back my performance and listen back to my performance and see if it reaches the length it needs to be.

1.1d) The audience I am performing to a modern all age audience, as Their expectations might be to be formal and to represent the school. I will meet their expectations by wearing school uniform and perform what this school is capable of.

1.1e) I will perform music in the following orchestra /a hint of opera. This is because I believe that people just appreciate some smooth and adventurous melodies .

1.1f) My personal image for the event will be casual with hints of artistic colours, but this won't be formal and the audience might not know what school I'm from. So to solve this issue and to relieve stress, it'll be best to just wear the school uniform  .

1.2a) My ideas for the performance are pieces composed for the cello. I intend to show off my skills of playing the cello. I will do it by playing a range of cello piece .

1.1g and 1.3a) The set list I will perform as my given repertoire will contain the following songs:

1.            Song 1: Artists: Kate and  David Blackwell Song title: Banyan Tree Estimated length of song: 00:03:28. I have chosen this song because it'll be a nice and calm start.

2.            Song 2:  Artists: Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer Song title: Pirates of the caribbean. Estimated length of song: 00:02:10. I have chosen this song because it has an adventurous tone to it.

3.            Song 3: Artists: Kate Blackwell and David Blackwell. Song title: That's how it goes! Estimated length of song: 00:02:12. I have chosen this song because the piece has a nice and fast paced melody that plays around with the notes of each string
.

4.            Song 4: Artists: Kate Blackwell and David Blackwell. Song title: Spy Movie. Estimated length of song: 00:02:02. I have chosen this song because it has a nice jazz ring to it.

5.            Song 5: Artists: Kate Blackwell and David Blackwell. Song title: Gypsy Dance. Estimated length of song: 00:02:10. I have chosen this song because it has a simple fast rhythm to it with two repeats.

6.            Song 6: Artist: Andrew Lloyd Webber. Song title: Music Of The Night. Estimated length of song: 00:02:37. I have chosen this song because the piece has a nice smooth gesture to it.

7.            Song 7: Artist: Kate Blackwell and David Blackwell. Song title: Heat Haze. Estimated length of song: (unknown). I have chosen this song because the music has a playful mixture of of musical notes.

8.            Song 8: Artist: Kate Blackwell and David Blackwell. Song title: Medieval tale. Estimated length of song: (unknown). I have chosen this song because it contains the mood of sadness that'll  create the question of "why?" combined the set tone of a cliff hanger.

The total estimated length of my set list will therefore be 00:14:39 minutes.

I have chosen to play these songs in this order because the start will be all nice and calm and then it'll all adventure onward and outward, until it'll mysterious at the end...

1.3b) I will need to involve the following people in my performance: my cello teacher who was never mad at me for forgetting to practise my cello and who encouraged me to always try new skills and my Music PA teacher who never gave up to always give supportive suggestions to improve just a little further. This is because they gave the fiery passion to always push on, and to always improve, despite the disheartening feeling I tend to get when I get to the subject of improving, and also my Music PA teach may need to record my performance and tell me when to start and stop.

1.3c) I will need the following resources and equipment: my music sheets, microphone for my cello to sing (see what I did there), a music stand for my music sheet, an amp for the microphone and a chair for me sit on. 

1.4) When performing live, I will need to consider the following health and safety issues:

Health & Safety Issue 1: Ears may be damaged. How I will make sure I am safe mic/amp volume set to a safe volume.

Health & Safety Issue 2: Someone could trip over the wires that connect everything. How I will make sure I am safe The wires are all in neat organisations.

Health & Safety Issue 3: Make sure that the spike to my cello doesn't stab any feet. How I will make sure I am safe There will a screw to hold the spike in place
.

Health & Safety Issue 4: (not needed). How I will make sure I am safe (not needed)

I used my own instincts of what could come to be an issue and how to resolve them.

1.3d) I will need to spend 20 hours at school preparing, performing and evaluating the event. I will spend my time by doing solo rehearsals at home whenever I get the chance.

1.3e I will rehearse on the following dates and I will work on the following at each rehearsal:

Week 19 Monday 15/01/18 & Tuesday 15/01/18 (2 hours):

Plan: continue to update powerpoint.

What went well:  added new info about orchestral music.

What needs work: add more pictures for the style of clothing.

Week 20 Monday 22/01/18 & Tuesday 23/01/18 (2 hours):

Plan: add keywords to a mind map and info about the timeline if orchestral music .

What went well:  the time tine with info has been complete.

What needs work: add the last few words for the mind map.

Week 21 Monday 29/01/18 & Tuesday 30/01/18 (2 hours):

Plan: make finishing touches to the power points such as the mind map.

What went well:  the power point had everything it needed.

What needs work: the Exam brief needs to be updated and up to date with everyone else (I believe).

Week 22 Monday 05/02/18 & Tuesday 06/02/18 (2 hours):

Plan: (unknown).

What went well:  (unknown.

What needs work: (unknown).

Week 24 Monday 26/02/18 & Tuesday 27/02/18 (2 hours):

Plan: lay out all of my music sheets in the style of how it would in the actual performance.

What went well:  nothing much for the original pla, however my cello was brought back in tune.

What needs work: the transitions of one piece to the other.

Week 25 Monday 05/03/18 & Tuesday 06/03/18 (2 hours):

Plan: Brush up on - "Pink Panther".

What went well:  I managed to remember how to play the may rhythm.

What needs work: There is one section of the piece that I'm finding quite the challenge .

Week 25 Thursday 08/03/18 Dress Rehearsal Performance (2 hours):

Plan: Play with bravery and try to aim for 15 mins.

What went well:  I sank into gorgeousness of music and gave it my all.

What needs work: I need to find one or two more piece to make it to 15 mins.

Week 26 Monday 12/03/18 & Tuesday 13/03/18 (2 hours):

Plan: Fill in the evaluation of the Dress rehearsal.

What went well:  Managed to complete most of it.

What needs work: A little more details here and there.

Week 26 Wednesday 14/03/18 Final Live Performance (2 hours):

Plan: Perform with all my music sheets and aim for as long as possible in each and don't freak out.

What went well:  I mentally screamed excitement that I on my second try I achieved 15 mins, which was the requirement.

What needs work: holding technique for the bow.

Week 27 Evaluation Time (2 hours)

See evaluation below.

Task 2: My Performance

(Mr Flowers will upload a recording of your final performance here).

Dress Rehearsal:

https://youtu.be/fxxXoSe_GfQ

Task 3: Evaluation of my performance

Strengths Reflection:

1. What went well during the performance? Think about the performance as a whole (the whole group performance): My solo performance went smoothly and nothing was forced to be replayed because everything went wrong. So everything was played correctly.

2. What did YOU do well during the performance? Write about the strengths of your individual contribution: I managed to sink into the smooth rhythms and relaxing notes I had saved and played also managing to ignore that I was being watched and recorded and played with confidence. also playing with a unique technique to play open notes.

Improvement Reflection:

3. What could have been done better if you were to perform again? Both as a whole group and your individual contribution. Make the performance longer.

4. Now write what you need to improve and write a strategy of what you will do to make those improvements:
Improvement #1: Try not to be panicked.

Strategy: How could you make that improvement?: Focus on the music, look into what I can already perfectly achieve with no threat, if there is a piece I feel that I need to work on, then practice it (practise makes perfect.

Improvement #2: Find another music piece, longer than "Pink Panther".

Strategy: How could you make that improvement?: Look inside my "Cello time runners" book.

Improvement #3: Develop a way to hold the cello bow so that my thumb doesn't irritated and stiff in place with the joint bone.

Strategy: How could you make that improvement?:  Ask Cello teacher if there is another way to hold the bow to prevent any irritation that could have a possibly to make me stop playing after two        one-paged pieces of music.

Feedback from others:

5. What was the feedback your received from your teacher, other group members and members of the audience?

• A well thought out programme of solo cello pieces.
• A good variety of playing techniques; double stopping, sliding and pizz.
• Strong intonation in many of the pieces.
• Very professional looking, and showed a large amount of confidence.

6. How did this feedback help with your evaluation of the performance? e.g. what did they notice and comment on that you didn’t realise/know/think about? I didn't even realise I was showing off confidence, because I really felt my heart racing a billion laps.I was pleased that the audience liked the order of my music as I deeply thought about the different moods colliding together, I also pleased that my techniques were advanced that made an eye draw attention. 

Conclusion:

7. Write a brief summary/conclusion of your performance: I was pleased to find out that my performance ended out to be 14 mins when it should be 15 mins because this gave the relief that the first time playing ALL of my music sheets turned out how I wanted it to be. So for next time, I can come in with another music sheet ready for a 15 min performance.