Within this evaluation, I will critically evaluate my final
performance from my Independent Composition Task. My idea was to adapt an
already existing song (Defying Gravity – Wicked) to a 4 part harmony to
potentially teach to my choir.
One strength of my
composition was that it aided my personal focal development point of working on
my higher register, as I was singing the part I intend to be for sopranos in a
choir. The original key for Defying Gravity makes it a perfect soprano line as
it is quite high and sits within a soprano range. This meant I was putting my
newly developed muscle memory to work and to the test. I was surprised when I
listened back to the recording of my composition at how different the higher
notes sounded compared to how they used to sound.
Another strength of this composition was, compared to last semester, the quality of the recording was much better, due to using a different software. This time around, I recorded my composition on garage band. This piece of technology allows you to layer things on top of each other and cut and move them so they are in time with each other. This is a vast improvement on my composition from last semester which had terrible quality and you could hear background noise on it. Using garage band has made my final composition sound much more professional as it is the type of technology that would be used in professional recording studios.
One weakness with my work for this project is that as I struggled writing the ATB (Alto, Tenor, Bass) part of it, I didn't complete the whole composition. This, as a result meant that when having my work assessed I only had the Soprano and Alto part recorded, which didn't really demonstrate how the whole composition should sound when it's all put together.
To improve on this, I would try and find an easier place to start when turning a pre-existing song into a choral piece rather than going in with my eyes pretty much closed.
The process of finalising my composition is another weakness of this project as I didn't leave myself enough time to write my composition and get it down into a score before recording it. Overall, I think that my time management over the course of this project wasn't as good as I would have liked and I should have tried to set aside more time to work on it. “Time management is the key to success. Those who manage time efficiently will get rewards; those who fail to do so, will face disappointments.” (Panse, pg 119).
To improve this, as I said above, I would designate time for individual tasks within my project to ensure things get done to a good standard and on course for completion for the deadline. This would increase the chance of a completed composition and would mean less stress on me closer to the deadline when I'm rushing to get things done.
Another strength of this composition was, compared to last semester, the quality of the recording was much better, due to using a different software. This time around, I recorded my composition on garage band. This piece of technology allows you to layer things on top of each other and cut and move them so they are in time with each other. This is a vast improvement on my composition from last semester which had terrible quality and you could hear background noise on it. Using garage band has made my final composition sound much more professional as it is the type of technology that would be used in professional recording studios.
One weakness with my work for this project is that as I struggled writing the ATB (Alto, Tenor, Bass) part of it, I didn't complete the whole composition. This, as a result meant that when having my work assessed I only had the Soprano and Alto part recorded, which didn't really demonstrate how the whole composition should sound when it's all put together.
To improve on this, I would try and find an easier place to start when turning a pre-existing song into a choral piece rather than going in with my eyes pretty much closed.
The process of finalising my composition is another weakness of this project as I didn't leave myself enough time to write my composition and get it down into a score before recording it. Overall, I think that my time management over the course of this project wasn't as good as I would have liked and I should have tried to set aside more time to work on it. “Time management is the key to success. Those who manage time efficiently will get rewards; those who fail to do so, will face disappointments.” (Panse, pg 119).
To improve this, as I said above, I would designate time for individual tasks within my project to ensure things get done to a good standard and on course for completion for the deadline. This would increase the chance of a completed composition and would mean less stress on me closer to the deadline when I'm rushing to get things done.
Bibliography
Panse, S. 2014. Time Management for Students. PartridgeIndia.
