Assignment 1 Skills Audit Introduction I have been playing musical instruments since I was in Year 2 at primary school. I began by just playing the recorder; however, since I started I have learned how to play 5 other instruments as well. I really enjoyed playing the recorder when I was young, but I had always planned to learn something that was taken more seriously. Therefore, two years later, in Year 4, I began to learn to play the clarinet. I continued from that point onwards to class my clarinet as my main instrument, and up until two years ago, I had still viewed it that way. In the summer of 2015, I achieved a merit in my Grade 8 clarinet exam. Having done every graded exam (bar 7), this was a big moment for me and it ended an 8 yearlong development. Despite stopping lessons on my clarinet, I am keen to not forget some of the Grade 8 material I had learned because I put a lot of effort into perfecting it. I have performed numerous times at the Victoria Hall, mostly playing with the City Youth Wind Orchestra (CYWO), as well as other smaller ensembles. I really enjoyed these experiences because they were the first exposure I had to performing on a stage. I also performed at the Birmingham Symphony hall with a Staffordshire combined orchestra in what was, for me, one of the highlights of my musical career. In more recent times I have performed a lot more with the school orchestra, both in school masses and at the Carol Concert which was also held at the Victoria Hall. These performances were a lot different to the times when I played with the CYWO because the school orchestra played a lot more modern music as opposed to the predominantly classical musical that I played with the CYWO. I started playing the saxophone in primary school a couple years after I began to learn how to play the clarinet. At the time I was solely focused in moving up the grades on my clarinet which is the reason progress slowed on my saxophone quite soon after I had started, and it wasn t until I went into Year 10 and began the GCSE Performing Arts course that I resumed playing the alto. Year 10 was the best time for me to go back to the saxophone because it has given me opportunities to perform in the PA band (as well as the school orchestra); opportunities that probably wouldn t have been available to a clarinettist. It wasn t just my saxophone ability that GCSE Performing Arts helped me improve. I began performing in a much smaller group of musicians, which meant that, when on stage, I was more on show then I had ever been before. This has made me a lot more confident when performing and has made me speak up more during rehearsals. The first song that we learned and performed in GCSE Performing Arts was Get Lucky by Daft Punk. I was featured in it with an alto sax solo Ben Oakes Candidate No: 5081 Page 1
and it was the first time I had ever improvised on the sax. It was a learning curve for me because initially I was very harsh & aggressive with my playing, and to this day I am still working on controlling the sound I produce on the instrument. In the two years I took the course, as a group we went on to learn a set that lasted around 30-40 minutes. We built a brand for our style of playing and we used The Commitments as influence to the way we presented ourselves onstage. Whilst I remember being nervous playing in lessons at the start of Year 10; I was, thankfully, never noticeably nervous to perform on stage and I think this is because of all the exposure I had from a young age playing in concert bands and at venues such as the Symphony Hall. Understandably there were times when I was anxious before important performances, however I am grateful that I can enjoy special moments (like the Carol Concert) and I am proud of how far our GCSE Performing Arts band have come. As well as being part of the PA band, I also spent KS4 helping the (at the time) Year 12 Performing Arts band. I loved every moment of this because it allowed me to meet new performers and play music that the GCSE group, at times, shied away from. I was heavily featured in the Year 12 song As by Stevie Wonder. As well as a strong opening riff, I had an improvised solo in the middle of the item. I worked a lot on perfecting this section with my teacher Mr Gilligan and in my eyes it was one of the best songs I have ever been a part of. Above you can see the opening riff from As. You can see from the fortissimo dynamic that it was intended to be played louder than the rest of the orchestra. Furthermore the part I was given was in alto saxophone, however I transposed my part to tenor saxophone so because there was another alto in the Year 12 band. Ben Oakes Candidate No: 5081 Page 2 Playing with the Year 12 has also provided me with opportunities to play outside of school. I performed at Blakey s Bar in Newcastle, as well as at Staffordshire University Open Day. The gig at Blakey s was an amazing experience because I had never played at a venue like it. The bar was packed full of people, and the audience was very close to the stage, making it quite a personal
performance. As well as providing me with vital musical lessons, the gig also opened my eyes to the behind the scenes of performing. I saw how music technicians set up and run gigs and I was taken back by the amount of work that went into making a show out of the night. The performance at Staffordshire University was a unique experience because we never played to a set audience, and instead people filtered in and out. This meant that it was a different challenge to the Blakey s gig because when there isn t always a live audience in front of you it is easy to lose concentration. It taught me a lot about professionalism in the music industry and it is a lesson I will carry forward in my further learning. I am excited to carry on playing with the Year 12 group (who are now Year 13) because I still think there is a lot I can learn from all of them and I look up to the standard that they are all at. Skill Level On my Clarinet I have taken graded exams since I started when I was 8 years old. Therefore, it is easy for me to gather an idea of my present skill level on that particular instrument. However, I am aware that exams are not everything, and this is important to consider as I have only done Grade 1 on my Alto Saxophone. So in order to determine my ability on the Saxophone I have to look at past experiences as well as feedback I have received off my teachers and audiences. Taking all of this into account I think that I am a very strong player, however I am not as naive as to think I can t improve. Personally in my eyes I think I need to gain more control over my playing, and this can only come from further gigging experience which I will earn throughout this course. Overall I am confident that I am prepared for the step up to A-Level standard and am ready to learn a lot more about music all-together. Throughout the GCSE Performing Arts course I also worked very hard on my stage craft. The ability to command the stage and look confident is a necessary attribute for all performers, whether you are an instrumentalist or a singer. I often receive feedback from audiences saying how calm & comfortable I looked on stage. This is for sure a positive, however I don t want to settle for simply fitting in. I need to work on capturing the audience s attention more, especially to highlight my important riffs & solos. Having talked about musical ability and stagecraft, the third most important area of performance has to be communication. I think communication can be split into two types, one being required communication and the other simply involving having a togetherness on stage. Required communication includes making sure the whole band works together for things such as entry points in songs and queues to transition between sections. Going off the past two years I would say that I do a good job at looking up and watching the other people on stage. I often intertwine my parts with a vocalist which means that I need to be watching, as well as listening, to what they do (i.e. when they emphasise phrases and when they back off the mic). The second type of communication comes into play more often in sections of the band, like the brass section which I am a part of. It is important for Lewis (trombone) and I play as part of a brass section rather than as individual performances. This is quite easy to do as it just involves checking that the other knows what they are doing all the time throughout the song. Since most of the time both of us do it is a not necessary communication, however it is professional it tells the audience that we are both in sync and good at what we do. If all members of the band were to not acknowledge each other and not hold good eye-contact with each other than it would be quite awkward viewing for the audience. My Musical Influences Ben Oakes Candidate No: 5081 Page 3
All of what I do in the A-Level Performing Arts course will be influence by something or someone. For example, my teacher Mr Gilligan will be a constant influence on our band because he will provide us with advice as well as arranging performances for us. Individually we will all be influenced be each other; we will listen to what each other says and plays and it will have a direct on what we say and play ourselves. On a more personal level, we all have people who have, and continue, to inspire us. Here are some of the people that inspire me musically: Yosuke Sato is the saxophonist in Gregory Porter s band. As a group we learned to play Liquid Spirit by Gregory Porter and we all loved it. Learning it lead me to listen to more of his music, which in turn lead me to buy tickets to see him live last Christmas. As I expected, Gregory was fantastic, however I was more blown away with Yosuke Sato who played alto and tenor sax on the night. His style of playing was not one that I had come across before, which was I was so taken aback. In some ways the notes he was playing didn t make sense, which made it fascinating to listen to. The control he had over his top register was unbelievable and, as I frequently struggle with tuning on the very high notes, it gave me more confidence to attempt so more exotic ideas in my improvisation. Sato also uses an effect stamp board on stage, which intrigued me. As of yet I have never used any effects with my sax, however it could be something worth looking into since I will be doing a lot more performing over the next two years. I briefly mentioned my music teacher earlier, Mr Gilligan. I feel it would be unfair not to write about the impact that both he and my other teacher, Mrs Farrington, have had on my playing. Whilst I draw on Yosuke Sato s playing and interpret my own lessons from it, the effect that my two teachers have had is quite different. Mrs Farrington taught me what I needed to know. This didn t just mean teaching me the graded exam syllabus, it meant showing me what I needed to do to improve my musicianship as a whole. I went 4 years without playing the saxophone at all before I picked it up at the start of Year 10. The reason I was able to do this was because Mrs Farrington had installed in me a general equation for playing any instrument; timing, tonality and most importantly control. Mr Gilligan, as well as guiding all of us through the GCSE course, has taught me several skills on the saxophone which I now consider to be vital. Some of these techniques include: growling, the Dorian mode, ghosting, harmonics and articulation. In Year 10 I was at a stage on the saxophone where I didn t know how to improve, just that I could. Mr Gilligan not only gave me the confidence to push myself, but provided me with advice which has allowed me to take my playing to another level. Adapting to A-Level There is a theory that goldfish only grow to the size of their tank. It seems quite random to say, however as a band we can draw something from this concept. We were all very good together throughout the GCSE course and it resulted in a great end of unit showcase. However now we have all stepped up to A-Level the standard that we played at in GCSE is no longer going to get us the top marks: you could say we were in a bigger tank now. We all grew in confidence, to a point that we were great at putting on a show at school. Now at A- Level we are going to have to perform at other venues and this requires new skills. Whilst I have had some experience of this (Blakey s and Staffs Uni gigs), I need to improve my ability to capture the audience when they are in a closer proximity at these smaller venues. There are also more of us taking the A-Level course than there were at GCSE. There may Ben Oakes Candidate No: 5081 Page 4
not be any new brass players but I need to do the same as everybody else and strive to stand out. How I Will Progress in A-Level & Beyond I need to continue to perform outside of school in order to build a collection of experiences that I can look back on and learn from. This will be with the new PA group, as well as with the Year 13 band that I helped last year. I will need to record all the new skills I acquire in a portfolio in order to keep up with my progression as well as plan future targets. As a group, I feel that we need to be more adventurous with the genres of music we chose to play. This is one of many ways that we can put ourselves outside of our comfort zone. I can also do this by playing more piano and learning more complex chords. This decreases the gap in ability between my sax playing and piano playing. Furthermore, if I learn to play the piano better it will improve my saxophone playing because I will be able to a) communicate with Leah & John better and b) play more interesting riffs based off the complex chords. In the future, I want to be involved in the music industry. This does not necessarily mean playing the saxophone in a band, because I would also like to explore the idea of working as a music technician. This would involve doing the sound for live gigs and working with artists in the studio; something, which I thought, was a very appealing career prospect. I am aware that it can be very difficult to make it in this competitive industry; however, I feel my playing ability will help to propel me on my way to the right career. To progress I need to gel with the new members of the band, as well as re-affirming the professional relationships with those that took GCSE. This will allow me to communicate better with them when playing which will help me in performance situations. The only way to test ourselves as musicians is to do as many gigs as possible, because it creates situations of great pressure in which we have to deliver there and then. Along with the performances, I will need to keep up with coursework in order to progress. The coursework is necessary for the course, however I feel that it is still useful for me because it can teach me more about the industry as well as allow me to monitor my progress. Preparation is key for the course because mistakes can often linger and have a negative effect on the overall band. To prevent mistakes we must think ahead about what we are playing, where we are playing it and when we are. We need to be confident in the items we are performing and by heaving deadlines & gig dates we can track our progress. On a more technical side, we will have to set up the stage so that all performances go by smoothly because we need to prevent technical errors impacting our talent in performances. Evaluation (AO4) All the practice and learning I did when I was younger has set me in good stead for this course right now. Whilst I might not have realised, even the most basic of clarinet lessons when I was eight has meant that I can be where I am now on the saxophone. I am very proud of what I achieved last year, with both the showcase and grade, and it has made me feel very confident about my ability. However, that is not to say that I cannot improve, as I highlighted earlier. I simply have to progress in order to hit the A* grade at the end of A2, and progression comes from hard work. The work that I will need to put in can be broken down into a set of targets. These targets, whilst vague, can help me track the rate in which I am progressing which is useful for the course. These are my targets: 1. Improve my piano skills. 2. Master my stagecraft and become completely comfortable on stage. Ben Oakes Candidate No: 5081 Page 5
3. Produce a more controlled tone on both the alto and tenor saxophones 4. Learn and listen to new styles & genres of music. At the end of Year 12, we will have to plan a concert that showcases all of what we have learned. We will do the same at the end of Year 13, and on both occasions, we want to be fully prepared so that we can give the best account of ourselves possible. Ben Oakes Candidate No: 5081 Page 6