Tommy Tiernan welcoming everyone to join the online composition programme ‘Let’s Laugh!’.
Introduction to the online composition programme ‘Let’s Laugh’.
Kenneth Edge talks about communication emotions through music.
Oonagh Keogh explaining how strings can add melody to a composition.
Mary talks about brass instruments and in particular the French Horn.
Mary explaining the importance of rhythm and adding words and the first notes.
Ken talks about rhythm, adding words and first notes.
Simple melody and harmony when listening to a piece of music. We are really hearing a blend of two things:
1. Melody. The main tune which is the bit our ear is drawn to and the part you usually end of humming after listening to a song. A melody is made up of a combination of the pitch of the notes and the rhythm they are written in.
2. Harmony. The chords that add the colour and emotion to the tune is called harmony. You might not be as aware of it as the melody, but it’s usually the harmony that lets us know whether a piece or a song is happy, sad, scary, exciting, angry or funny. Some of the most famous songs of all time have been written based around only 3 or 4 simple chords and often quite simple melodies but it’s the way these parts work together that make the songs or pieces unique!
The terrifying music from the film theme JAWS is completely conveyed through 2 notes played one after the other and then speeding up! Without this music the film would be a lot less scary!
Rhythm. When people start to play an instrument of any type one of the most difficult things to do is play in time! When you write your first lyrics relating to the title ‘Let’s Laugh’ make sure that you can repeat a constant steady beat for example with simple words.
Mary adds more lyrics, secures a rhythm and suggests new chords/notes to build on our composition.
Conor demonstrates how to add chords and notes to words, creating melody.
Ken talks about adding wind and brass lines to the composition.
Here is a video of Conor leading you through a vocal warmup. You will feel fantastic after this! And be able to sing along with him while you are watching and listening.
Mary adds a simple melody to all the ideas so far.
Plus chime bars, guitar and French horn.
Oonagh builds more into the song by adding string riffs, representing laughter in between the lyrics.
Conor builds all our ideas and brings both words and melody together to create a verse and chorus. Watch how he makes his musical decisions based on what we have learnt so far!
Ken adds some suitable and effective woodwind riffs using 3 consecutive notes for each chord making it simple to follow and sound great!
Watch Oonagh for additional riffs to fit into our nearly completed composition!
Time to get ready to perform!
Let’s think about the posture, breathing and phrasing to make playing and performing most effective and easier.
Mary talks about how important preparation for practise and performance is.
Now think of some more lyrics to add to complete the song!
WhistleBlast performs ‘Laughter is Great! Lyrics and melody by students in BISH, Galway.
This performance is an example of how to create your own song, gradually added together through all previous week’s classes 1-7.