Part 1

Project Proposal

Project 1: First Steps

Exercise 1.1.Exploring Ideas

Listing areas of interest

An individual composer, work, or style of composition that interests you
and influences your own practical work.

  • Jazz music arrangements/interpretations in different styles, including blues, soul, jazz-rock fusion and smooth jazz
  • Classical music, focus on specifically chosen pieces over several epochs such as baroque, classic, romantic impressionism

A specific compositional technique or device that you have used in your
own work and you wish to learn more about for future use.

  • Reviving musical skeletons (Project 2 under: https://dianaslearninglog.com/learning-log-16/), which might give good inspiration for the rearrangements.
  • Short scoring (Exercise 5 under: https://dianaslearninglog.com/learning-log-14/).
  • Effective usage of percussion instruments and word settings. I will need to cover those two subject areas more detailed, as they might be important for the practical part of the course, and in comparison to other potential jazz-band instruments, I don’t feel as confident writing voices and drums.

The practical application of a particular technique to a specific instrument
or group of instruments (e.g. the use of extended techniques for viola or
keyboard ornamentation in the Baroque era).

  • Knowing a certain amount of playing techniques for the main instruments in a Jazz band arrangement, especially focusing on guitar and e-bass.
  • Potential work with different effect pedals for instruments needing an amplifier.

Transcriptions for a particular instrument or by a particular composer (e.g.
Lizst’s piano transcriptions of Beethoven’s symphonies).

  • Taking a closer look at Jazz arrangments by Mary Lou Williams, Russel Garcia and similar arrangers.
  • Take a focused look on jazz/smooth jazz arrangements for the piano, as I’m also planning on rearrange some pieces just for this instrument.

Exercise 1.2: Choosing a topic

Reflect on your current practice – what are you interested in finding out about? Do any themes emerge in your work?

I generally would like to know more about jazz arrangements and the strategics behind rewriting a piece for a jazz band. Nonetheless my recent works involved music for synthesizers, this gave me the opportunity to work with and explore different kinds of sound colours.

Look at your strongest works from levels 1 and 2 – can you find any common themes?What could you develop further from this work?

I think I felt especially confident about the works including a piano, or small ensembles. Which would suit my aim for a small jazz-band setting for the Major Project. I might find it quite helpful to have another closer look into piano reductions and extended playing techniques for other jazz-band instruments

Consider your personal creative voice. This may already have a clear
identity, or may still be forming. What makes your work different from
other people’s? Do you see any stylistic elements emerging?

As I am currently working on several different projects, I find it rather difficult to distinguish my work from others. Nonetheless, by this point, I would definitely say that I already developed my own type of style for compositions, I just find it difficult to look at it objectively.

If you already have an idea of what the practical side of your project may
entail, consider what additional knowledge you will need in order to
complete it.

Two points that definitely stand out are the efficient use of percussion and singing voices/text placement.  I would also like to do some research about other Jazz-arrangers as well as extended playing techniques for the instruments I want to use. Furthermore, as I will be using amplified instruments as well, I also want to know more about the creation of different sound with effect pedals for example.

What areas of music excite you? What challenges you? What are you
passionate about?

I would say, that even though I like composing and arranging, the part I enjoy most about music is performing/playing my instruments. Thus, it is important for me to write music thats not only interesting for listeners, but also encouraging, challenging and entertaining for the performers. Furthermore I am really interested in music theory.

Are there any recent developments in your areas of interest that you’d like
to know more about?

As mentioned above, on one side I would be really interested in learning more about the use of drum sets and singing, but I also want to develop my knowledge of jazz chord structures further in order to use them more efficiently in my compositions.

Strengths:
– I enjoy working on projects
– I am well organised		Weaknesses:
– I can get distracted easily
– I sometimes overlook important details
– I tend to do too much at the same time, which delays the completion of projects
Opportunities:
– I know many musicians who are experts with their instruments that I can ask for help on possible extended techniques
– I have a good knowledge and understanding as well as practical experience in Jazz harmonies
– I have access to several instruments that I want to use for my compositions		Threads
English is not my first language, therefore I am slightly insecure about a possible language barrier.

Project 2: Your research question

Exercise 1.3. Formulating a research question

Mindmap of my chosen topic:

All in all I thought this was incredibly helpful. Even though I ended up with some really interesting ideas, the subject I would be most interested in is the comparison between the music theory of jazz and classical music.

The therefore resulting questions, and similar topics would be:

  • What are the differences and similarities between Classical music theory and Jazz music theory?
  • How did Classical music influence the music theory of Jazz music?

As “Jazz” and “Classical” music are both really broad subjects, this idea could be developed in more detail, focusing on the Classical era of music history (1750 – 1820) and a certain type of Jazz such as Blues and/or swing. Nonetheless, most harmonies and chord structures seem to appear in most of the under-categories of Jazz music.

  • What are the differences and similarities between the music theory of the music from the Classical era and Jazz music ?

Exercise 1.4: Evaluating your research question

Here, I just tried to expand the mindmap further and collect some more ideas.

In conclusion, I noticed, that I often come back to the piano as a side subject, thus, I will try to reduce my subject to this instrument, but also want to focus on the music theory in comparison between jazz music and music from the classical era.

Project 3: Investigating resources

Exercise 1.6. Starting to organise

In terms of organisation, I would first of all think of a small notebook to carry around with me during the time of the course, in case something that could contribute to my work comes up unexpectedly. Furthermore, I will keep a folder with sections of notes, separated in recordings I listened to, documents, scores to analyse etc….

Exercise 1.7.The final output

The final output will probably be an essay form of some sorts, either an analysis, or a “traditional”essay. If I happen to come across several smaller subjects, that appeal equally interesting to me, I would also consider writing a portfolio of shorter different topics.

Nonetheless, as the idea was just presented in my study folder, I might also do a comparison between two pieces, with the same origin for piano (one jazz version and one classical music version).