The functions of a keyboard

The functions of a keyboard

The keyboard is one the most popular instruments in the world and it can be used in any type of music, for example, pop, R&B, classical and even rock. you can do many things with it, for example, the melody of a song, the chords and it even do a solo and the keyboard is also very popular for composing or when you are going rehearse.

Solo keyboard performance 

As it says in the title, the solo keyboard performance is when someone is performing by yourself and is just playing the keyboard and no one else is there to play with him/her, so that is a solo keyboard performance. When the keyboard is doing a solo performance it has to play the whole song by itself, for example, it has to play the chords of the song and also play the melody so the song sounds more interesting or how some people like to say it 'Make the keyboard sing the song'. Some people when there are doing a solo keyboard performance they like to add some things to it, riffs, arpeggios or you can try some different inversions of the chords or just try to add some notes in and by doing those things you will make the song sound much more entertaining and less boring. 

Live performance of a keyboard as part of a band

Another point of the functions of a keyboard is when there's a keyboard player in a band, cause a band usually consists of singer or more than one singer, guitarist, drummer, bass player and a pianist. When there is a keyboard in the band, the keyboard doesn't need to do loads of things, because there are more instruments and they all can do different things, for example, the drummer provides a beat and it also emphises the other instruments and vocals, the guitarist can do the rhythm, play notes or do some solos in the song,but if you are in a band and you are not a very good guitarist then you can just play the chords and don't worry
because the keyboard or the bass can add something or improvise and play something more interesting and the bass just do the bass line and it can also do some solos.

Keyboard used for inputting midi data in the studio

The last point of the functions of a keyboard is the Keyboard used for inputting midi data in the studio.

You don't only use the keyboard when you are going to perform or practise/compose because there are different types of keyboards and there's one that you can connect on your computer, it is called MIDI controller and the only way to use it you need to connect it to a computer, for example, there's a program called Logic pro where you can create your own track and also record vocals, but to create a new track you really need a MIDI controller connected to the computer.

 The MIDI controller transfers all the information from the MIDI controller to the computer, so there’s how you can use it. There is also some differences between a normal keyboard and a MIDI controller, for example, the MIDI controller keys are lighter than a normal keyboard.

The Sound & Music Industry

There are areas in the music industry that keep the business running and going and the areas in the business are important. The areas are recording companies, artist management, music publishing and live performance. All of these areas work together to combine working, sell music globally and making profit.

Recording companies

The recording companies are vital in the music industry and It is one of the key aspects of making the music running. There are various recording labels in the world to choose from and each label have the same goal to achieve which is to hunt down new musical talents that will sell working with them, making them sell music world wide, sell albums/Cd's and sell records and they offer new musical talent to musicians and give them the opportunity to become famous in their music career and be globally known as for who they are and for what they do.

After the artist decides he/she wants to make the next step, they will go find a record company to sign them and work with them, but the artist needs a manager because that is the manager’s job to find a good record label that will work with his/her artist and promote them.

The artist or the band needs a record label to sign them, promote them and to record their tracks. Won’t be easy for the artist and for the manager to find a good record label to work with the artist, because it’s not all the record labels that are interested in signing the artist/band.

Artist management

The artist management is very important in the artist’s life because they keep the soul of the band or the artist together. Their job is to control and look after the band, for example, pay for the booking of the flights for the tours, making sure promotion is up and showing, so that people know about the album and making sure that the label it is fine.

If the artist or the band want to be successful in what they do, they need to find for them an artist manager, because the artist manager is very important in the artist’s life because he/she does most of the work for the artist/band and they are the ones that helps the artist to be prepared for what is coming for them (Record their songs with a record label that suits the artist, etc.)

The artists and their artist managers need to have a good and close relationship with each other, they need to be friends and trust each other, because in the music industry there are loads of cases where the artist and their artist manager didn’t get along, didn’t trust each other and because of that they crashed, because the artist manager didn’t do to the artist what they were committed to do.

The artist manager receives most of the money the artist gains, because the artist manager is the one that try to get you somewhere and make your dreams come true, which is to make people listen to your music and for you to get sign with a record label. The things the artist manager does to their client are:

• Find the artist a good record label
• All support the artist and encourage them no matter what.
• Negotiates and secures a record contract
• Book all the artist/band’s meetings
• Pay for the booking of the flights for the artist’s tours/gigs.
• Formulates and markets the artist’s image
• Get them with different people from the industry (Other artists/bands, promoters, etc.)
• Give them the right advices, so they can make the rights choices.

Music publishing

Another thing that is very important in the artist’s life is the ‘Music publishing’, because they are the ones that will help the artist to get more people to listen to their song and know who the artist is. After the artist record his songs and finally his album or just the singles, that where the music publisher will come in in the artist’s life because they will publish the artist’s album. The publisher’s job is:

• Make sure the song writer and the composers get their payment when there are people using their songs, or when it playing in radio, TVs, commercials, etc.

• Try to get their songs to be used in films, commercials.

• Try to get another artist/band to sing one or more of your song.

In the music industry when it is about music publishing all the rights go to the song writers and the composers because they are the person who wrote the song and the have the rights for people to know if it’s their material or not and just because of the doesn’t mean the artist does’t get anything/credits because he/she does get credits for performing the songs, but even though they are the one performing, the song writer and composer gets more credits than the artist/band. If you deicide to be your own publisher you will receive up to 100% of the money which is a great thing with you can write and compose your own songs, but if you prefer to hire a music publisher he/she will receive up to 100% of the money being earned by the composers and song writers.

Live Performance

Live performances are very good for the artist or the bands firstly because that's where the musicians get closer to their fan and also because if you perform more you will gain more confidence and also gain more popularity. Behind all the live performance there is jobs and roles that need to be done for example your band manager will basically do all the financial stuff and sort out all the venue and money. Promotion is very important when organising a live performance because you want people to know about your gig and you want to earn profit by getting a lot of people to come. In the promotion you want to be able to give clear information about the gig, price and venue. At the gig itself and if you are a new artist in the music industry you are actually giving people a sample of what your music is like and showing yourself who you are as an artist.

Bibliography:

• Record company:http://www.mzeus.com/news/2007/06/what_does_a_record_company_do.php
• Artist Management:http://www.myjobsearch.com/careers/artist-manager.html
• Artist Publishing:http://www.tomtmusic.com/what_is_music_publishing.htm
• Live Performance:http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101028170243AAM3vo5

Hear & Identify (Philip Theory)

The differences between the two songs are:

In the beginning of the 'Worse version' at three second into it, there is a cough and if that song was recorded in a better version that 'cough' wouldn't be there. Firstly because the slight cough comes up in the intro and the intro is where you should hear the instruments only.  If there's different noises interrupting, people will easily notice it and secondly because that's not professional and you wouldn't sell stuff like that.

The 'Goodish version' you can understand what he is saying and understand what the lyrics is about because in the 'Worse verse' the words are not clear and poorly recording. Because one of the differences between the 'Goodish version' and the 'Worse verson' is that the 'Worse version' sounds like a vinyl quality and makes you think the song is a old version.

At 00:22 in the 'Worse verson' the person who singing stops for a second a takes a breath and there you can see the weakness of the vocalist breathing control, he comes in very late to get in time with the music. He needs to know where to come in in the song, try to control his breathing and re-record the song again,  so he can see where he is going wrong, and next time make sure that everything is in time and get it perfect.

At 00:53 in the 'Worse version' the clarity of the vocalist isn't up to standard with the rest of the singing. The quality of the singing should be change normally because  if you keep changing the quality then it will ruin the whole effect of the song. Before giving or presenting the song to a listener you must be able to double check and go through the song so that you can be able to hear and check for  the mistakes you've made, so that the song will sound to the standard it's suppose to be at.

At 00:19 in the 'Worse version' when the singer says 'competently' in the song, he doesn't pronounce it properly so you can see that he is exaggerating a bit. when he says 'competently' the sound of the 'p' is like he is pushing his lips too much.

After 00:29  int the 'Worse version' the instruments start being a bit louder and you can hear more the instruments than the vocalist sing. They all should be at the same volume, but because of that you can't perfectly hear what the vocalist is singing because of the instruments being louder.

At 1:03 in the 'Worse version' the backing vocals are very loud and they are over-powering the singer.

(Evaluation)

Evaluation of my project

Somehow we all met some of the objectives of the project or the main ones.
I think one of the most important objectives of this project to all of us was to start working as a team, help each other by coming to all the rehearsals because if you are in a song with other people then no matter what you are doing we'll need you, and always talk and listen to what other people have to say.

In my opinion what went well in our "working with others project' is that all of us or most of us worked hard to get everything done well, and our teacher gave us enough time in the rehearsing room to practice the song we were writing as a group, and gave us the feedbacks we needed to make it sound better than they were before and because of that, on the day of our performance we did well and most of us enjoined every second performing and were confident because we knew what we were doing.

What didn't went really well in this project, was some of the people in my group who were not focused on what they were suppose to do because instead of using the time our teacher gave us to rehearse, people were singing something else and not the song we were suppose to do or the drummers were making noses. For some of us that was a bit annoying because we were there to rehearse to make the song better.

I think some ways of improving collaborative work in the future is to first of all, focused in one thing because if you start doing something else and not what you are suppose to do then what is the point of you being in a group of people who are there focused on the song they are doing and you're the only one doing something else. Another way of improving is to always be on time, don't come late for you rehearsals and give your best because even if you're doing a solo performance you will need to rehearse, so you'll get more confident because you know wgat to do and people will notice that and coming 20 minutes late for your lessons won't help you to improve your song.

ways of improving my work with others in the future is just to talk more, say what I think/what mu opinion is and give more ideas because that's one one of the most important things when you're working with other people, the main objective is communication because things work if you don't communicate with the people you're working with, and I just need to get a bit more confident when I'm on stage because I've been there before and the good thing is that I don't get nervous anymore, but I need to find a way to show people how much I enjoy performing even if I'm playing a song I don't like, I just enjoy being on stage and when you're on stage one of the first things people notice is how confident you are when you're performing.

If I was to do this 'working with others project' again I would do more, for example, choose the right people to be in my group, the ones who work hard and want everything to be very good on the day we have to perform, just like me.
I gave my best this time, but the next time I'll help more the people in my group because even though I knew what I was doing and were confident about it, some people in my group were kind lost and next time I'll just go in a room with them and try to help, but even if people are not in my group I'll try to help people from the other groups, because that's what music is about, it's about working as a team and working together!

Week 6

Monday 15th October

On Monday we didn't spend any time in the rehearsing room because it was the day of our performance in front of the performing arts students. In the past few weeks we've been working in three cover songs and we were put into different groups to write a original song related to the colour our teacher gave us to do.
We all rehearsed a lot all the songs we were going to do, so on the day of our performance which is today people would like it and that's what happened. In my opinion we all had enough time to practice all the songs and that's why we had a great concert and all of us enjoyed.
Before we perform we had to do a 10 minutes sound check, just to make sure we knew what we were doing, and to tune the guitar and the bass and also to check the mics and see if everything was ok.

week 3

Monday

Last Friday our teacher Charlie told us that we were going to do two more cover songs and that songs were 'Heart shaped box' by Nirvana and 'Ordinary people' by John Legend.
On Monday he put us into different group and my group was doing ' Heart shaped box', I'm playing the electric guitar, Caitlyn is piano, we have six singers, Harry is playing bass and Jacob is on the drums.
After telling each of us what we were going to do, Charlie put us into different practicing rooms, so we could start playing the songs.
Charlie asked the singers to stay in another room so they could work on the harmonies and see who was going to sing verse one, verse to, middle eight, etc. In the room I was we are the instruments, so we were talking to each other to see what we were going to do and who was going to play what, but after we talk to each other the singers came back to the rooms I was and we started playing together adding the instruments and the singers.
In the end of the day we had most of the work done, we knew what to do, the singers knew what part they were singing, the drummer was in time, but we had to practice more to get everything right.

Wednesday

Last week we had to finish the colours, because today we had to perform to the other colour groups the song we've been working on. Our song were good but it wasn't the best one because we didn't have enough time to practice and we were kind lost with the chords.
In the end of the day Charlie had to pick the three best colours songs, because we were going to perform them for our upcoming performance.

Week 5

Monday

Today we performed to each other the colour songs we are doing for the upcoming performance. The reason why we performed today was to show to the other groups how we were progressing as a group and also to see how they were doing with their songs.
The 'Yellow' group was the first one to perform and they were good, but they needed to know what they were doing so they wouldn't get confused again but their song is getting better cause now they have drums and bass, then it was our turn the group 'Green' to play our song. After playing for the other groups , our teacher Charlie gave us some feedback he told Demver who was playing the synth to change it to strings and that the piano (Jacob is the one playing it) should take off the strings effect and leave it for the synth. Then the group 'Blue' performed and Charlie also gave them some feedback, they were good but the only thing was that the guy who's rapping in the song wasn't in today, so Caitlyn who was playing the keyboard and singing had to rap.
After performing to each other our teacher Chalie put us in different rooms so we could rehearse and make the song sounds better than before by doing some of the things he told us to do.

Wednesday

Today in the rehearsing lesson we had in the morning, our teacher asked us to play the cover songs we are doing which are 'Read all about' by Emili Sande, 'Hear shaped box' by Nirvana and the song 'Ordinary people' by John Legend. After playing them all, Charlie gave us some feedback and said some things that we could do to improve the songs and make it sounds better for the concert. And we also talked about the upcoming performance we are going to have on Monday and which song we are going to play first and which one is going to be the last one, and about our posture when we are on stage and try to show that we are enjoying being there and playing the songs.
In the after we had another rehearsing lesson and our teacher put us into different rooms so we could rehearse the colours songs we are doing and practice more the covers if we wanted.

Friday

On Friday we didn't have any rehearsal, but we had to perform in front of the Level 3 Music second year to show them what we were doing and how good we were, and in my opinion I think they liked it and one positive thing about us performing in front of them is that we were better than when we were than on the days we were rehearsing, but I think we rehearsed so many times that now we all know what to do and the songs sound very good with we all working together.

Week 4

Week 4


Monday

Today in the rehearsing lesson each group had to perform to each other to show where we were at and how we were progressing. There were two groups, in my group we did the song called 'Heart shaped box' by Nirvana and the other group did the songs 'Read all about it' by Emili Sande and 'Ordinary people' by John Legend. My group had one more song to be played which was 'I feel good' by James brown, but our teacher decided that we weren't going to do that song anymore because it wasn't up to scratch and that it wasn't ready to be performed.

After we perform to each other our teacher Charlie gave us some feedback about the songs we performed. We spend the rest of the lesson talking to each other and giving new ideas to make the song sound better for the day of our performace.
Wednesday

On Wednesday we had to performall all the songs we were doing, the covers which were 'Heart shaped box' by Nirvana, 'Ordinary People by' John Legend. and 'Read all about it' by Emili Sande and we also had to perform the original songs we've been writing which are the colours songs. All the cover were good, but the people who were doing the song 'Read all about it' their harmony didn't went really well because they didnt know when to coming in and La-Shaun (the rapper) didnt know his rap, but Charlie talked to them and told them they will need more practicing and told La-shaun to learn his part of the song.

Week 2

Week 2

Monday
On Monday we kept practicing the covers we were doing which are 'Real all about it' by Emili Sande and 'I feel good'by Joh Legend.
Our teacher put us into different practicing rooms, so each group could rehearse more. Our teacher were spending soem timewith opur group to see what was right or wrong andgive some advice about the song we were doing and he did the same to the other group.

Wednesday
On Wednesday we kep doing the original songs which is the colour songs we were doing last week, but now our teacher said to us that we were going to have to add a middle eight for our song, but first we had to finish the second verse and then add the middle eight, because some people havent finished the verse.

Week 1

Week 1

On my first week of Level 3 Music we had to perform to each other to show what we can do and then in the end of the day we had to vote for the six students who had the best performance and in the next week they were going to perform for the whole school.

On Monday started doing a cover, our teacher put us into two groups and in my group I have Caitlyn, Donavon, Batsheva, Jacob, and some other students. We are doing 'I feel good' by James Brown and the other group is doing 'Read all about it' by Emeli Sande, because they're two of the songs we are going to play for the upcoming performance

On wednesday we were put into six differents group colours (red, blue, yellow, green. purple and orange) and each groups were given a colour and had to write a song about that colour, for example I'm doing the colour 'Red' and we had to write a song related to that colour which means that we had to write a song about love, or anger, or even both cause thats what we did. We had to write two verses and a chorus for the colour song and we did it.