Specialist Techniques
- Jack Badby
- Dec 11, 2020
- 6 min read
Primary Specialism Drums
What did you do?
We basically did what I call a drum roulette, effectively we continuously cycled round two drum kits building upon a beat that a previous drummer did for example Jacob in this video starts of the performance playing a standard beat then Munashe would mimic that beat while Jacob would let kelson sit down on the other kit getting ready to mimic what Munashe played, after munashe would play his beat he would stand up and let the next person in line sit and play the kit while kelson the person on the corresponding kit to finish the others beat while also building upon it.
Did you enjoy the activity?
Yeah I did this activity was a great way of expressing and showcasing our creativity, improvisation skills and it was also a great way of getting to know the new drummers.
What learning strategies did you implement?
To organise the activity we use planning and creativity to make up how we would show our skill and what we may have learned during the lesson, we took some time out of practice to organise to performance to make sure we knew what we were doing, using our listening skills we decided to pick how we'd start the drum roulette making it simple then diving into more complex drum beats later on during the drum roulette.
How did you get on with your band members?
Knowing Munashe and Kelson It was fairly easy to get along a work together during this activity and as far as working with Jacob and George it was ok, since I had talked to Jacob before about the drums and drumming techniques we got along well as for george he mainly kept quiet other than when he was imposing ideas for the performance.
What did you learn?
What I learnt during this activity was how I can compare my skill to the other drummers on the course, a few interesting drum roles and techniques to use on the toms and snare.
Has this activity assisted or provided new insights into your learning strategies?
Yes this activity has help me learn about the importance of planning and strategy and will definitely be something implementing it into pod rehearsal sessions.
Secondary Specialism Bass.
What did you do?
Effectively I was tasked with displaying my secondary specialism which beforehand I never had I was so I spent the lesson learning a new instrument so in the video i'm explaining and showing all I learned during the rehearsal time.
Did you enjoy the activity?
Yeah It was refreshing to show off what i'd learned and try to explain what I was taught this activity has made me think about picking up bass in a future band rehearsals.
What learning strategies did you implement?
With this task I needed to take out some time listening to what Nick, Jayden and Alfie where telling me about the bass, I needed to learn a way to connect my current music knowledge like tempo and timings to help me play bass effectively and we also took turns playing the song we were learning each to make sure we all were playing the song correctly.
How did you get on with your band members?
Yeah since I already knew Alfie, Jayden and Jacob learning the bass with them was a breeze.
What did you learn?
I learned that the standard tuning for a 4 string bass is E, A, D, G I learned this thanks to Alfies wonderful knowledge about guitar, I also learned to keep my thumb behind the neck of the guitar instead of over it cause it can get in the way and finally i learned how to play a simple bass pattern.
Has this activity assisted or provided new insights into your learning strategies?
Yes this activity taught me the importance of bass a gave me a appreciation for the effort a bassist has put into learning there instrumental knowing that the skill they have don't come easy.
Specialist Techniques Genre shift.
Why did you select the particular song choice?
Originally we would have done crazy by Gnarls barkley but we actually couldn't think of a way to change the songs genre without it sounding unnatural to the band so we decided on creep and to change the genre to jazz since who doesn't like jazz.
Who took the initiative in arranging the instrumentation, rhythmical pattern, riffs, tempo and tone/texture of the arrangement?
We were going over the song brainstorming a way to play it and since I was learning jazz in my spare time I suggested we changed the song to Jazz and so the band agreed.
As the drummer I had to play 6/8 time signature I also implemented a swing on the ride simbol to match the genre and i also learned to use traditional grip on the snare for this song matching the old vibe jazz gives off.
Who made the decision on what type of genre to shift the original arrangement to?
Mainly me I took responsibility into reverting the drums into a 6/8 jazz pattern and the band members built upon that tempo and signature.
How did you get on with your band members?
Knowing josh already we got along well, stuart was a bit irritated that we didn't go full heavy metal, Ashleigh mainly focused on working on the bass occasionally talking with the band, Gemma was productive and since she new Jack those two got along well and were comfortable with the learning the song.
How productive were your band?
We were extremely productive after picking the songs it did take us 30 mins to pick it but after that we managed to knuckle down and work hard on converting the song.
What did you learn?
I picked up traditional grip in this lesson to match the style of jazz and it turns out I enjoy using it and swapping between the two grips.
Did you enjoy the activity?
definitely this gerne change activity was a good way of showing off our skills, creativity and responsibility it's definitely something i wish to do again
Has this activity assisted or provided new insights into your learning strategies?
Definitely it's taught me to remember all the different genres you can try to implement into making original music and i'll keep it in mind when I my band starts working on the second original.
Specialist Techniques Minor Vs Major
Why did you select the particular song choice?
After getting our bands we headed to pod 1 to pick out a song to play after 5 mins of suggesting songs we decided on Pumped up kicks by Foster the people due to the fact most of us knew the song though this can be considered a mistake since we knew the original song it didn't song right changing it to major.
Who took the initiative in arranging the chord structure and top line melody?
Stuart dealt with the logistics of the change to major but he still didn't seem to interested in playing pumped up kicks, so effectively we as a band kept him on task.
How did you get on with your band members?
Though I was in a band with stuart for the genre swap activity we still had a difference in agreeing with a song, Ashleigh mainly focused on getting the bass together and Ellie and Lara stuck together realistically we got together well enough to get the music to work.
How productive were your band?
We actually excelled at getting the work together effectively though Stuarts opinion that we should do a different song was strong we managed to get a extreme amount of work done in the lesson and I'm happy to say that performance went better than originally intended.
What did you learn?
That songs sound extremely different when sapping around major & minor notes and that being a drummer is literally useless when it comes to adding to activity like this.
Did you enjoy the activity?
Yes definitely it was refreshing to do a activity like this learning something new and working with new people is a nice break from working with the same people all the time.
Has this activity assisted or provided new insights into your learning strategies?
I now understand the difference between major and minor chords and scales boils down to a difference of one essential note the third, The third is what gives major-sounding scales and chords their brighter, cheerier sound, and what gives minor scales and chords their darker, sadder sound.
The performance
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