School of Rock – Week 8 – Melody

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  • PJ’s Post
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Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. – Maya Angelou

SUMMARY

• Write your weekly summary here, last, at the end of the week…
  • Only one to two sentences
• DELETE ALL OF MR. LE DUC’s INSTRUCTIONS, AFTER YOU ARE DONE

PRACTICE ROOM (TUTORIALS)

• I just play bass so I don’t do lessons from Justin but I made good progress on Domination by Symphony X.

CLASSROOM (THEORY & ANALYSIS)

• Every culture used five notes in songs which are in the pentatonic scale
• It isn’t important how many notes you use but how you use them
• Notes are like rungs on a latter and the whole latter is a scale
• a semitone is when you go from one note to the next half step up
• a whole tone is when you go a whole step up from one note
• Its easier for people to sing whole steps than it is for them to sing half steps

LAB (THEORY PRACTICED)

• I have learned that it is really easy to right stuff on hookpad but only if you want to write piano. There is no option for changing the instrument that I saw.

OUTSIDE (CREATIVITY & THE BRAIN)

• I found it interesting that famous people are super stressed and also that Elizabeth Gilbert is afraid of seaweed.

STUDIO (SONGWRITING)

Melody Composition Terms

• Theme – a longer more flowing melodic idea
• Motive – a short rythmic idea
• Period – 8 measures in a song
• Phrase – 4 measures in a song
• Antecedent (Question) Phrase – the first phrase in a period
• Consequent (Answer) Phrase – the second phrase in a period
• Scale Degrees
  • Tonic – one scale degree greates a feeling of stability and resolution
  • Supertonic, Mediant, Submediant – scale degrees with a moderate level of tension
  • Dominant, Subdominant, Leading Tone – several scale degrees createa high level of tension/need to resolve to tonic
• Steps – any movement using half or whole steps
• Leaps – any movement using intervals larger than a whole step
• Conjunct motion – a melody built primarily out of steps
• Disjunct motion – a melody built primarily out of leaps
• Repetition – use repeated material to create a link between the two phrases of a period
• Contrast – write two phrases that contain contrasting material to create tension and interest
• Variation – half way between repetition and contrast; the two phrases includesome recognizable material and some varied material

Melody Resources

Mr. Le Duc’s Key of C Major Notes and Chords Chart (PDF)

WHAT I LEARNED and PROBLEMS I SOLVED

• One thing I learned and enjoyed the most was the song that I have been working on in the practice room. The problem that I solved was time managment