Week 4: 30 April - 4 May 2012

Topic (Theory): Singing a Jazz Tune & Music Notation Written Retest
Reflection Question: How does business and industry affect music - makers and users?

According to BTEC Level 3 National specification in Music and Music Technology, there are numerous roles of music in business and industry sector: music as commodity (investment and return, profit and loss); market forces (e.g. trends, fashions, youth culture); economic power of individual (artistic freedom, political use of celebrity status); company (major companies buy out 'indies'); collective (industry lobbying power, control of the market); corporate sponsorship (philanthropy or strategy) expansion of publishing and printing; charitable bodies and foundations; individual and private; non - government funding; amateur music - makers; self - financing.
These diverse roles of music in business and industry show that they generate income for music makers in various ways. As time goes by, industries in music become more developed and vary. Composers sell songs to recording labels for the singers and musicians under them. Singers and musicians sell their recordings to public through music store, either it is physical or online. Furthermore, due to strong competition in business and industry, those music makers who are longing to be the most popular among the users have to work hard to create music that reaches the consumers' demand. However, it is not true that in order to reach consumers' demand music makers must create music with the popular genre at that time. One way to satisfy the costumers might be creating innovative music that have not been made by other music makers, and at the same time being themselves, meaning that they have to use their style in creating music, even though it is not wrong to use different kinds of styles in creating music. In short, strict competition in music business and industry motivates music makers to be creative and innovative.
To music users, due to business and industry, music becomes an expenditure. Most of the time, in order to enjoy music legally music users have to purchase music from either music online stores such as iTunes or physical CD stores. People who are responsible enough to the laws will be probably willing to buy the music/songs legally. However, what happens now is that most people would rather download songs illegally than purchase it, because they think it is worthless to spend money just to listen to music while at the same time they can actually listen to music without having to spend any cents even though it is illegal. Moreover, for some people it is difficult to buy music in online store because there are some complicated steps to be done in buying music online, such as registering user name, credit card, and so on. Actually, it would be better if music makers deliver their music for free. However, music makers have making music as their job so they cannot have any incomes if they do not charge any amount of money to those who want to listen to their music.

Instrument class
I actually did not have any instrument classes. Instead, I practiced singing "Close to you" with my group mates. Guitar instrument teacher accompanied us in practicing the song. I was in charge for singing the 2nd voice. When singing my group mate who sang 1st voice, I still could maintain my 2nd voice, however when the 3rd and 4th voices came I could not concentrate anymore because their voices are similar to the 2nd voices. Thus, I have to practice my concentration so I will not be distracted even though I sing with the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th voice. I hope I will be able to sing the song well with my group during the assessment day.

Practice videos
Playing "Picture of You" (Boyzone)

I planned to play the song for my jazz ensemble group assessment; however since I have not found out what song I am going to play, I decided to play another song. In this practice video, I played “Picture of You” (sung by Boyzone). Since this is my favorite song, I thought that I would have no problems in playing the song. However, after the practice and watching the video I could tell that this song is quite difficult to play. There are some parts with faster beat (1/16 notes) and I had problems in playing those parts. Nevertheless, I can still find my strength on this first practice of play the song. I could play the chorus well and I did not sound having problems in my blowing techniques. On the next practice, I will probably have to first play the song slower, and then play it using the actual beat.

 

Playing "Close to you"

I decided not to play “Picture of You” again because I just found out that I was going to sing “Close to you”. In order to be familiar with the melody, I decided to play the song using flute, while at the same time practice my skill in playing flute. On the beginning of the practice, I can observe some mistakes in playing the melody. It is also obvious that I had to stop and took some time to think what the next melodies I had to play are. I also observed some mistakes when playing the part “On the day that you were born the angels got together and decided to create a dream come true. So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of gold and starlight in your eyes of blue”. I felt that it is understandable because that part has faster beats (using 1/8 notes). The other reason why I did not play it well is perhaps because I was in a rush when doing the practice. Nonetheless, I observed no problems on my blowing skills on this practice. On the next practice, I cannot play the song in a rush.