{"id":590,"date":"2018-04-19T14:14:23","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T13:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10577750\/?page_id=590"},"modified":"2018-06-04T12:00:24","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T11:00:24","slug":"writing-a-blues-song","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10577750\/writing-a-blues-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing a Blues Song"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"840\" height=\"400\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?visual=true&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F433860606&#038;show_artwork=true&#038;maxwidth=840&#038;maxheight=1000&#038;dnt=1&#038;secret_token=s-v9E1A\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Here is a recording of me talking about and demonstrating the beginning of the process that I went through when writing my own blues piece.<\/p>\n<p>The blues head you can hear in the recording was a result of me using different riffs and adapting them throughout the 12 bars to create a melodic contrast and keep it interesting, both to play and to listen to.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-609\" src=\"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10577750\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2018\/04\/Screenshot_20180422-235743-169x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"169\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10577750\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2018\/04\/Screenshot_20180422-235743-169x300.png 169w, https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10577750\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2018\/04\/Screenshot_20180422-235743-768x1365.png 768w, https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10577750\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2018\/04\/Screenshot_20180422-235743-576x1024.png 576w, https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10577750\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2018\/04\/Screenshot_20180422-235743.png 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 169px) 85vw, 169px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Above is the first draft of my Blues head that I wrote out.<\/p>\n<p>Below is the first recording of me improvising over my blues composition &#8211;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"840\" height=\"400\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?visual=true&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F433860792&#038;show_artwork=true&#038;maxwidth=840&#038;maxheight=1000&#038;dnt=1&#038;secret_token=s-YOF9H\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on this recording, some things I need to work on is keeping tempo solid as well as keeping my left hand more relaxed and playing the notes consistently in time. However with more practice and with a band, over time this could become really tight.<\/p>\n<p>Following some feedback from my tutors, I could add some grace notes into the head in the future as well as experimenting with different patterns in each block of 12 bars, for example within the first set I could experiment mainly with the blues scale whereas in the second 12 bars I could use more arpeggios.<\/p>\n<p>Changing the speed that I am playing in different blocks of 12 bars could also be an option.<\/p>\n<p>For my final performance, I am planning to play within a jazz trio. Therefore, hopefully they will solo at times on the tracks that we&#8217;ll be playing.<\/p>\n<p>If so, I will have to practice comping so that I can support their soloing by filling in the gaps and complimenting the solos. Below is my first attempt at comping.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"840\" height=\"400\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?visual=true&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F433861101&#038;show_artwork=true&#038;maxwidth=840&#038;maxheight=1000&#038;dnt=1&#038;secret_token=s-ADSBs\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>After working on my blues piece in a couple of piano lessons, I changed the structure of my 4 bar ending. The original was a standard structure of\u00a0 chord 5 &#8211; chord 4 &#8211; chord 1 &#8211; chord 5<\/p>\n<p>However I changed this structure to the one that can be seen in the picture below.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-837\" src=\"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10577750\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2018\/05\/Screenshot_20180523-112610-169x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"169\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10577750\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2018\/05\/Screenshot_20180523-112610-169x300.png 169w, https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10577750\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2018\/05\/Screenshot_20180523-112610-768x1365.png 768w, https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10577750\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2018\/05\/Screenshot_20180523-112610-576x1024.png 576w, https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10577750\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/89\/2018\/05\/Screenshot_20180523-112610.png 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 169px) 85vw, 169px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The 4 bars are instead split into One bar of D minor, one bar of G major One bar of C and A minor together and a final bar of D minor and G together. To explain this better see below:<\/p>\n<p>1\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 2\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a03\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 4<\/p>\n<p>Dm &#8211; G &#8211; C Am &#8211; Dm G<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/photos.google.com\/share\/AF1QipO_OxFkff-o11NPMsXwZ_YVHsPQjBCui10jrtRdpUmu7wDFleG_TWZxW_UJLzBqCw?key=RGFxdjBrQVItQ3Q2SFNDWWVURDI1VGJjUW9oOHRn\">https:\/\/photos.google.com\/share\/AF1QipO_OxFkff-o11NPMsXwZ_YVHsPQjBCui10jrtRdpUmu7wDFleG_TWZxW_UJLzBqCw?key=RGFxdjBrQVItQ3Q2SFNDWWVURDI1VGJjUW9oOHRn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here is a video of me explaining how I changed the left hand for my Blues piece with the added turn around. I had a lot of trouble trying to upload it to YouTube so hopefully the link should work.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/L0mPmKG7Vi8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Here is my final version of my Blues piece, above is a video of me playing the head twice round.<\/p>\n<p>I struggled to name my Blues piece and asked quite a few people if they had any ideas. Finally my teachers jokingly suggested Mactaggarts mood as an idea, which I quite liked, therefore I titled my finished Blues piece Mactaggarts mood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here is a recording of me talking about and demonstrating the beginning of the process that I went through when writing my own blues piece. The blues head you can hear in the recording was a result of me using different riffs and adapting them throughout the 12 bars to create a melodic contrast and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10577750\/writing-a-blues-song\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Writing a Blues Song&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-590","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10577750\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10577750\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10577750\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10577750\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10577750\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10577750\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":962,"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10577750\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/590\/revisions\/962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10577750\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}