Class 1: Habel, Robyn. “Creative Process”. Lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1A, University of Adelaide

Class 2: Habel, Robyn. “Song Form“ Lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1A, University of Adelaide

Class 3: Habel, Robyn. “Lyric Writing Essentials” Lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1A, University of Adelaide

Class 4: Habel, Robyn. “Melody Part 1” Lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1A, University of Adelaide

Class 5: Habel, Robyn. “Assignment Overview” Lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1A, University of Adelaide

Class 6: Habel, Robyn. “Harmony Part 1” Lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1A, University of Adelaide

Class 7: Habel, Robyn. “Rhythm” Lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1A, University of Adelaide

Class 8: Habel, Robyn. “Arranging Part 1” Lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1A, University of Adelaide

Class 9: Habel, Robyn. “Lyrics Part 2 – Imagery” Lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1A, University of Adelaide

Class 10: Habel, Robyn. “Harmony Part 2” Lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1A, University of Adelaide

Class 11: Habel, Robyn. “Melody Part 2” Lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1A, University of Adelaide

Rehearsal Journals

Rehearsal One

Today’s rehearsal took place in MG10, one of many rehearsal rooms in the Madley Building. The rehearsal was scheduled to begin at 10:30am and end at 1:30am, then leading into the rehearsal time supervised by Derek. Today, all five members of my band were present (Eleanor, Declan, Alex, Ally, and myself) and we decided that today we would throw around ideas we have worked on by ourselves before the knowledge of our band was put upon us. Out of this, the song “Golden Eyes” was written thanks to an old fingerstyle riff/rhythm I had created inspired by artist Jose Gonzales. The lyrics were written by Declan, a piano melody was created by Eleanor, Alex came up with an ambient guitar track to piece together the low rhythm and high piano melody, and Ally began to work up a simple drum beat that would hold the song together as it progressed and intensified, eventually leading to a crescendo and genre-switch towards a more punk-rock sound with distorted guitars, power chords, and a solo. While this is only the very beginning for our band, I firmly believe we will go very far together and am excited to see what comes in the next few weeks

Rehearsal Two

Today we returned to MG10 Madley Building, once again starting at 10:30am and concluding at 1:30pm. Ally and I arrived one hour early, and therefore began to set foundations for a new song to work on alongside “Golden Eyes”. This one, however, was a song Ally had come up with at home and was willing to share with the group. At 10:30 sharp, we were joined by Declan, Alex, and Eleanor, all of us were ready to commence adding and rehearsing “Golden Eyes”, and Ally felt confident in demonstrating her new song to the other band members despite the personal nature of the song. With this, the new song “Falling For You” was added to our band’s setlist. Not only did Ally bring attention to a new song, but so did Eleanor, with a song titled “All Yours”, a soft pop-rock style love song with lively chords and a fast-paced gentle drum beat. At this point, it was very obvious we were succeeding in melding our main genres of preference together in an incredible manner, and songs were no challenge to create as we were all on very similar wavelengths when it came to chord progressions, additional lyrics, and more. With today’s rehearsal, we once again proved that we are on track with song creation and potentially moving at a faster pace than many other bands; allowing us to have an upper hand and stress-free time outside of rehearsal sessions.

Rehearsal Three

Today was the day we finally had the chance to rehearse in the basement. After arriving alongside Ally at 9am, the remaining members of the band arrived at the usual starting time of 10:30am. Today, however, I would introduce a new song different to Golden Eyes; a song known as “Worth Our While” was written and demonstrated to the band, and it was picked up and enjoyed immediately, proving to be a more popular song than Golden Eyes originally was. Unfortunately, this would mean that Golden Eyes would (for the time being) no longer have a place on the recital setlist, replaced by this newcomer song. Aside from this, today was primarily built upon the organisation of song arrangements, suggested by Eleanor. After a quick discussion, it was decided that All Yours would open with a piano solo and Eleanor singing, followed by my chords, followed by Ally’s drumming. Falling For You would open with my guitar followed by Ally’s vocals, followed by my backup vocals, followed by Eleanor’s piano, Alex’s ambience, and Declan’s harmony. It was also decided that Worth Our While, the replacement of Golden Eyes, would be the entire band following from a time-in from Ally on the drums. At the end of this quick session and re-rehearsal of the new sound for each song, we were pleasantly surprised by Declan’s new song “Green Snake” a fast paced funk-inspired song with some extremely fun and exciting potential! Once again the band proved itself to be more than just a band, and we are all extremely excited to see where things go from here!

Rehearsal Four

Today we returned to the basement, and at the same time as usual, we began with everybody present; an almost perfect band attendance has been recorded at this moment in time! Today we sat down and had a serious talk; we need to finish introducing new songs and seriously start to hammer down on the songs that we’re doing on the recital night at Lion Arts Factory in only one week’s time. With this, a necessarily strict rehearsal session was set in motion; opening with All Yours, leading into Falling For You, followed by Worth Our While, and then the opportunity for Alex to bring in his new song as a filler for the empty space Golden Eyes had left in our setlist. While a name has not been decided for this new song, the entire arrangement was organised almost immediately, and the song was completed and up to standards with our older songs in the exact same amount of time it took to organise the arrangement. After this, we rearranged Green Snake and added in multiple dynamics, namely a slower intro and a reggae-fueled second verse and post-chorus sequence, and not forgetting an entertaining stop-section with Alex soloing over the silence we’d create.

With this, our band – now named Aether – had a full 5-song setlist ready to go and ready to burst onto stage in all its lively glory! As a band we have managed to blend together countless genres in wonderful, seamless ways, creating a Fusion Pop sound of extremely unique levels! We are incredibly proud and excited to share what we have created, and are looking forward to the future as a proper band in our free time outside of our course!

Class Ten

Today we revisited Harmony to discover more interesting details: the use of a major key’s relative minor in order to “spice up” the harmony/progression of a song. After hearing multiple demonstrations, it certainly intrigued me and I look forward to being able to implement it into future songs with my band, Aether!

Class Eleven

Today’s lecture was a revisit to the area of Melody, where we looked at further ideas of melodic phrasing and how to create more interesting passages in our songs. We also learned how to identify the differences between stable and unstable melodies, and after listening to both I am very excited to implement them into music with my band.

Class Three

Today’s lecture saw us get introduced and further acquainted with “Lyrics Essentials”, and with this we were taught many things that I’m sure will eventually assist us in the creation of songs once we receive our band details! As someone who has constantly struggled with lyric writing in the past, this lecture opened my eyes to lots of details and lots of potential ways to break down the issues of my writer’s block. While I still struggle to write lyrics that I’m pleased, I found myself able to almost completely dismiss the initial struggle with writer’s block that once held me back.

Class Four

Today’s lecture saw us get further acquainted to the use of Melody in our songs, and introduced us to ideas such as how we can use multiple melodies throughout our songs in order to give more character/mood/personality to the music we make. We looked at both Conjunct and Disjunct forms of melody in the class, and how each form differs from one another; one following an increase in semitones (conjunct), and another focusing on leaps/steps larger than semitones. I was incredibly intrigued, and definitely enjoyed both equally. I look forward to being able to utilise both forms of melody in my songs!

Class Five

Today’s lecture saw us get introduced to our Portfolio Assignment, alongside the idea of songwriting for a “Brief”: a customer of sorts that we may one day write songs for. The process is simple enough, requiring as much communication as possible between the brief and yourself to ensure that you’re on the right track with the song they wish to have written from you. For my assignment, I have chosen to write a song for a Brief that focuses on Mental Health Awareness Month, a globally celebrated month with the goal of raising support and awareness for those suffering from mental illness. My song will be called “Not Alone”, and I intend to create a Lo-Fi inspired song with extremely calm and gentle vibes, to be an easy-listening song singing support to those struggling.

Class Six

Today’s session was focused on Harmony. In this lecture, we learned about many aspects of harmony, such as adding colour to songs and how harmony can be used as either a “topping” to a song, or the base foundation of a song with chords being built from it. The most popular/commonly found chord progressions were shown and demonstrated to us as well, some of which sounded much more interesting and unique than others. My personal favourites were 1645 and 6541, as while they are similar to the more common progressions, there was something slightly different about them that piqued my interest. I look forward to experimenting with these in my band!

As part of our preparation for this class, we were tasked with writing a 30-60 second song for a brief that wanted a theme song for a child’s horror show. Mine was named “Agent Frankenstein:FBI, based on a concept of Frankenstein being made from the body parts of multiple famed scientists, being the smartest monster in the world and tracking down crime across the world.

Class Seven

Today’s session focused on giving us a further understanding of rhythm and rhythmic feels; learning of simple and compound metres, rhythmic subdivisions, and what genres typically use which metres/subdivisions most commonly/prominently. It was a very interesting session, and through learning more about each rhythmic feel, I have been tempted to further push the genre-advancing mission of my band into greater territories. As part of my preparation for this class, I found some songs of separate rhythmic subdivisions. Opeth’s “Windowpane” suited the ideas of straight eighths and also triplets, and Animals As Leaders’s “Song Of Solomon” demonstrated multiple rapidly changing odd time signatures as it energetically bounced through multiple shifts in the space of three minutes.

Class Eight

Today was a Practical session in the lecture, as we were focusing on Arrangement: the use of each instrument in a song, and how changing arrangement can very often assist in creating or altering the feel and power of certain songs. We also learned/were further acquainted with what role is/can be played by each instrument involved in the arrangement, and what genres these roles are often fulfilled or altered in. For example, a bass solo might be more commonly found in psychedelic or progressive genres over more typical popular music, and a guitar solo may be more commonly found in hard rock over folk/acoustic music. This lesson was incredibly fun and through the practical aspect of it, I figured out many more ideas for my band and what we could do in the future

Class Nine

Today we focused on imagery and lyrics, and how we can implement imagery into lyrics of our own, after looking at multiple examples of imagery types. These included Metaphors, Figurative Speech, and Similes. The differences between the three were heavily explained in case anyone needed assistance in determining whether they were writing metaphors instead of similes or vice versa. Through this session, I feel refreshed and open to new ideas in regards to metaphorical language and imagery-rich lyrics, a feeling I have not felt in a while due to a lyrical “drought” of mine. Thankfully, this lecture has helped me get back in touch with my lyrical side!

4/03/2019

Today was my first day in the Bachelor of Music (Popular Music). While I was already given a warm welcome by Dr. Luke Harrald during O’Week, our Songwriting and Performance lecturer Robyn made me feel even more welcome and a lot less anxious about the course. Having a lecture about the Creative Process was incredibly enjoyable and to learn the processes of great artists such as Sia was really enlightening, and I’m really looking forward to carrying on and learning more and more about songwriting over my time in uni. I really hope I’ll have the skills necessary to write at least one decent song that I don’t hate after 2 weeks.. Anyway, here’s to the next years of my life!

6/03/2019

Today was our first session of the Improvisation side of SW+P. Meeting Derek was a great time, and while we were primarily focused on honing our skills, we all had a great laugh and a good time. I really enjoyed taking part in the activities he had for us, and it was an incredibly fun experience all around. I’m really looking forward to more of this course, and can’t wait to see what Derek has in store for us for the rest of the year! As we’ve been told to bring our instruments next week, I’m wondering what stuff we’ll be incorporating into our sessions soon! It’ll be good to jam with everyone and improvise.

Public Holiday-Weeek 2 Lecture interfered with, will be done on the 18th instead

13/03/2019

Bringing my instrument on the long journey to uni proved to actually be a lot less troublesome than I expected – my laptop fits into my Baritone guitar case like a glove, meaning i no longer have to haul TWO BAGS everywhere i go! Anyway, the lesson went great! I was luckily picked on to play guitar in this improvisation session, being granted the absolute JOY of playing through an Orange amp (really really good). Improvising is one of my strong spots, but today was a fun challenge that will definitely help advance my skills in playing. Figuring out my place in the ensemble was what proved to be the toughest part, as we were all trying to achieve similar “places” in the sound.

18/03/2019

Today marked lecture No.2 of Songwriting and Performance, the day where we covered song forms over time, and potential song forms we could use in our songs. Personally, I am balanced between the use of simple and complex song forms, and see them both as equally viable and enjoyable. The comfortable simplicity of a few verses, a chorus, a bridge, so on and so forth, is a warm feeling that can keep most listeners, well, listeners! Of course, complex forms can be really good too, as there are times where your lyrics alone can’t tell the full story; you need the changes in music to show the next act’s arrival, and sometimes more colour and tone in a song opens up more expression, which, while turning away listeners with a lower attention span, opens up a limitless world of appreciation in those who can stomach your full Epic!

20/03/2019

Today was our second session with Derek, and oh did we cover a lot today! Once again amidst his wonderful humour we were introduced to a multitude of different aspects of performance/improvisation and how we can really add some extra colour to our performances, improvised or not! After a session of demonstrations, led by Derek and another fellow student, some of us were invited to pick up our instruments and get a little backing track going, for the others to demonstrate their favourite things from the lesson. We ended up creating a really cool sound that could honestly create quite the audience in Elder Hall if we were given the chance to go there! After this course I went home to mess about with “Glossolalia”, which led to the creation of an incredibly technical riff..