First Project - Without Words: Evaluation of Strengths and Weaknesses (Week 2)
We worked much better as a group this week, and rather than last week where we had two people heavily leading the group, we all managed to get our ideas noticed and used. In the end, because the original storyline didn't work very well and we wouldn't have been able to make a 5-minute piece out of it (a man confronting an alien in his dream, and being unable to run away), us and Ant came up with a completely different storyline, which is more interesting and complex, and there was a lot more to compose about.
I managed to contribute a lot this week, and my introduction (a slow, creepy, jazzy-piece), the 'mad-professor' section (dramatic motif), and ending (happy, Queen-esque sounding chord progression) are being used in the final piece. We managed to come up a lot considering that we had more limited time than the other groups, due to a change in storyline, but we managed to adapt some of the music that we had used before to the new one, and it worked quite well.
As an instrumentalist, I think I did quite well. The keyboard in the rehearsal room is slightly dodgy because the sustain is always on, but I worked around it by putting the 'Split' function on (which makes the bottom half of the keyboard a non-sustained bass sound) and by composing what managed to sound well with it. Some of the notes clash because of this glitch but I managed to work around it, and hopefully the keyboard that I'll be using in the final performance won't have that problem.
First Project - Without Words: Evaluation of Strengths and Weaknesses (Week 1)
I think that it is important for other people in the group to give everybody clear instructions and a chance of input, rather than for just two members in the group to be relied on to just tell everybody what to play the whole time. Also, members of the group are taking breaks too often and for too long, and it leaves all the other members still in the booth with nothing clear to do.
In order to add to the piece, I added some distorted, modulated atonal chords, which really helped create the atmosphere of the picture.
I think the most useful suggestion we had was on the first rehearsal. We had a heavy rock piece at this point, and Ant Cochrane pointed out that even though we had a tight sound, the music didn't really fit the picture - so he advised us to make it more dreamy, atmospheric, and uncomfortable, in order to create a more creepy, uncomfortable vibe.
I don't think that there is anything that we need help with because we are capable of acheiving our aim ourselves and are already making a lot of progress, but I do think that we need to work as more of a group, rather than let only two people in the group do most of the work.