Creative Cycle Reflection: Plan

After we decided our final decision about the theme that we were going to do for the class band, we started to discussed the real planning for the class performance. We started to a short research about the music Legends from the 60's, 70's, 80's and gathered all the top songs that this artist made in the particular time of period. We came up with a lot of results and ideas, we did a revoting for the songs that we were going to do for the performance. The result from the voting was the song "Hey Jude" by The Beatles in the 1960's and "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder in the 1970's.

After choosing the final songs, we started dividing parts for whose going to played the instruments, to sing, and organising the presentations and the introduction. The list of the people in charge of it all was in my previous posts. I didn't took us that long  to dividing these jobs. After that we were assigned to different jobs like for example in "Hey Jude" the rest of the girls in the girls that didn't sing the solo parts were in charge to think about the Harmony of the song (though later all of them were done by Bu Megan but at least we tried, right?), Phoebe and Alysa were figuring our the chords for the piano and guitars, the soloist decided later they sung all of lines together.

I would be explaining the jobs that each people done in the "Create" reflection. In my opinion overall for this stage of process we did it perfectly and decided quickly without anyone unsatisfied with the decisions

Things that could be improved:
- Put more roles in the class band.
- Do like an audition if you want to have the chosen roles that you want in class band.

(Sorry I just posted this today, yesterday and at friday the wifi connection was not working at all)

Reflection Creative Cycle: Design

Investigation Stage, Check! Now let's move on to the next stage process, which is the Design Stage. In this process or stage was where we divided ourselves to different groups of 4 or 5, the group was formed based the top 10 ideas that they picked. In our groups that we chose to be in, we need to research and thinking about how are we going to perform it with this certain topic. Like for example my group the four of us chose the topic “Tributes” we needed to think of how we’re going to perform it and give examples about the songs that we were going to do if this topic was chosen to be the theme that we’re going to do for our performance. We were asked to plan a brief description of what would the performance would look and sound like. My group came up with 2 songs for the example. So basically the “Tribute” theme is where we performed songs that were performed or composed by “dead” artists and it is like we pay tribute to them. To see what we planned for this task you could see it my previous posts.

It took us about 2 weeks (?) for the discussion and planning in different groups, than each group presented their research and discussion to the class. There were a lot of amazing ideas, creative, and fun ideas to do and perform but sadly after each group presented their ideas and presentation we needed to chose our final decision for what theme we should do.

So in the end we chose "Forward to Past" and "Medley", we decided that we were going to mash it up because the two themes is almost similar.

What we done well in this process was:

• Giving and suggested lots of creative ideas.
• Work well
• Good teamwork

What we should Improve:

• Be more organised
• Give more examples and ideas

Reflection Creative Cycle : Investigation

Phew..what a very tiring and fun semester! Today I felt very happy and amazing, Why? It was the D-day of our performance! YAY! Overall I think we did a very VERY good job in performing. Oh yeah! My favourite part of the performance was the "Superstition" song, it was all groovy and up beat that cheers you up when you feel down and all.

Aww, it is almost the end of the semester and that means it is almost the end of our PVA class this semester :(  (I'm actually pouting right now) I had a lot of fun during our PVA class, it was chill out and we joked around a lot (?) but yeah it was a very fun time. Now it is time to do some reflection, did is a must do in everything we have done especially when you went through a lot of steps and process.

For our PVA class we use a process called the "Creative Cycle" (previously called the Design Cycle) where there are:

• Investigate/Investigation
• Design
• Plan
• Create
• Evaluate/Evaluation

Firstly I'm going to recap and evaluate about things that I had done for this step of the process, it is because it was the very first step that we need to went through to be able to create the "product".
In the Investigation stage we did:

• Identifying the problem or the main idea
• Brainstorming Ideas
• Get to know each others Talents, Strength, Type of Genre, Instruments they played, etc.

This first stage took us a lot of time almost the entire term 1 it is because they were lots of ideas that we wanted to do for the Class band all of the ideas that were suggested are very creative and brilliant, some were unexpected too!

Yes, it took us a every long time because it was very hard for us to picked the top 5 ideas from the many ideas suggested and sometimes we hesitated in making/picking some decisions. The good thing is that we have a very good teamwork and somehow could decide the top ideas without anyone opposing to the decisions. As time goes by our skills in identifying, brainstorming, and also teamwork or the bond we have as a team started to grow better and better.

Our overall performance and anticipation in this process/stage was good and excellent for some people (hehe). If we had another to chance to improved, I suggest that we:

• Be more focus
• Think Outside The Box (Haha)
• Be more confident in voicing out our own ideas and suggestion
• Manage our time well

And for my self evaluation, things that i should improve are:

• To be more active in class discussion
• Voice out my opinions and ideas more
• Do more research
• Be more confident

My Group Presentation (Tributes)

This is my group's presentation for the "Tribute" category, sorry I just uploaded it now.. But yeah here it is the presentation.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1WsZUrJDesyH7A73GqJHY5SEYE1b9IA7Zl_uiJGgU76U/edit?usp=sharing

Recap of My group's Presentation:
So we decided to use two different songs to be the example of the planning for the Tribute Performance. Basically the main idea of this category is to pay tribute to the "dead" musician/singer by performing their songs it could be in a musical performance or just like a simple class band. Our group came up with 2 songs that are famous top hit songs that sadly the singers are "dead" (okay that is kind of awkward). The songs are "Somebody To Love" by QUEEN and "You Are Not Alone" by Michael Jackson.

Somebody to love is one of the songs that QUEEN performed and won lot s of awards, this have a slow and very nice rhythm. We suggested or came up with the idea of performing like how GLEE performed it and modify it a bit, so it can sound like a choir and different solo parts. The musicians can also play the background song like there can be drums, piano, guitars. And we can add a simple dance movement in it too.

The second one is "You Are Not Alone" by Michael Jackson. We can make a short (musical) drama with the theme of "caring" because the title of the sone is You are not alone and the lyrics is about to make sure the person to not feel lonely and it can suits perfectly for theme like friendship. For background music in some scene can be played by the musician like an instrumental.

And yes that is the more detail explanation about what my group were suggesting that weren't in the presentation.

Updates and Progress

What We've Done So far

Our progress so far with class band (?) is going very well. Our final decision is that we're just going to play two songs which is Superstition and Hey Jude. We were divided into two groups based on the songs that we're going to focus more on.

"Hey Jude" Group:
The Hey Jude Group consist of 4 Soloist, 1 pianist, 1 guitarist and the rest of the girls the class do the Harmony for the song.
The 4 Soloist are:

• Najwa
• Nadya
• Farah
• Daleescha

The Pianist is Phoebe and the guitarist is Alysa. So far the harmonies are going quite well and smoothly, we still need to work the "Na na na na" part which it is sung in a high note. But the rest of the song is going smoothly. The problems is that we're still too shy (?) I guess and we need to sing more loudly so it will blend with the soloist more perfectly.

"Superstition" Group:
By what I have seen The Superstition group progress is very fantastic. They sound very cool and is going very smoothly. The boys that are working on the Kolintang also finished figuring out the notes and already taught the girls in the "Hey Jude" group. Amazingly (hahaha) the girls can learn it in just a day and on last monday we can already play the Kolintang together and it is going very smoothly and in sync but we still more practice in playing the Kolintang with the "main" band joining us (like the guitars, drums, singers)
In this group there are 2 soloist, 2 guitarist, 1 Drummer, 3 Boys playing the Kolintang
The soloist are:

• Dandy
• Dom

The Instruments:

• Bass - Mike
• Guitar - Amyra
• Drum - George
• Kolintang - Jason, Rasyid, Johan

Last Class Discussion, 27 October 2014

Hey Jude – PIC - Dandy

Superstition – PIC - Johan

Smooth Criminal – PIC – Keizar

Michael- Bass

Amyra/Alysa – Guitar

Phoebe- Piano

George/Johan- Drums

Rest of The class – Singing/ Kolintang

The Creative Cycle

This is the Design cycle that is now called the Creative Cycle because "Creative" is more fit and represent Arts a lot rather than "Design". So basically the Creative Cycle represent the stages, steps, and process that we're going through to make our final product which is the class performance.

Reflection Semester 1

In this semester we learn about the general information of the Creative Cycle and the purpose of doing each step of it. We learn it through a video that is very creative and entertaining for us to learn from it. In most of our class time we were trying to get to know about each others talents, strengths, etc that will help us a lot in the later stage of the creative cycle that we need to complete or when organizing in teams and process of making the final product. After a long discussion and introduction about our own talents (in music) and strengths (personality) we started to discuss the theme of the performance that we wanted to do.

The process of choosing the theme of our performance was first by making a very big mind map of things that are related to music and group performance. We came with a lot of ideas that time than after that we choose our top 5 choices from the brainstorming mind map that we did at class time and post it up on our blog. Than in the next class we make another voting to make a top 6 choices as a class from the many ideas that we came up before in the brainstorming ideas session. After doing another voting we divide ourselves into groups based on what theme or topic that we preferred most from the top 6 ideas. The groups consist of 4 members, in those groups we discussed about what's going to happen and ideas, plans about what we're going to do if we later choose the particular topic as our class performance. My group was discussing about doing a tribute to famous (dead) artist/ musicians and we came up with quite a number of creative ideas ( I think) but after presenting our ideas and plans about doing a tribute we did another voting for our last decision in choosing what topic or theme that we're going to use for our performance. And in the end our final choice is to combine the forward to the past like 60's, 70's, 80's, etc with legends in music and making it into a medley. So our final ideas was that we're going to perform songs from legendary musicians and artists from each decade and perform it in a medley way. I think so far the idea was very cool and very creative.

I hope next term we will be able to came up with a final plan and play the instruments soon...  Can't wait! 

Groups Design Cycle Ideas

Medley

• Keizar
• Dom
• George

Trad vs Mod (Traditional vs Modern)

• Dandy
• Rasyid
• Rifa 
• Jason

Tribute

• Jenny
• Daleescha
• Tasya
• Phoebe

Forward to The Past

• Johan
• Rachael
• Belinda

One Hit Wonders

• Mike
• Alysa
• Fahrani

Legends In Music

• Farah
• Amyra
• Najwa
• Hana

Top 5 Choices From Creative Cycle Ideas

1.     Evolution Of Music

I think it will be very cool that as a class we play the different genre that changes over the years and we can perform this with both the instruments for the earlier music and singing for the present songs.

2.     Legends In Music ( Tribute)

To remembering and celebrate the legendary musicians, singers, etc that make a change in our music industry and how their songs can effect people’s life. It will be very respectful for us to perform their songs that can tell them we the 20^th Century kids/ Generation respect them though we weren’t born yet when they passed away.

3.     Kolintang Orchestra

Almost all of the students in our class know how to play the Kolintang and have experienced in playing the Kolintang so it will be easier to collaborate well with others and the note for the Kolintang is not that hard to read. In my opinion it will be amazing if we cover a mash up song or a song that we modified a bit.

4.     Musical Story/ Street Themed Musical

When we discuss as a class of what our talents are and the results is that there were a lot of people that have amazing talents and to show all these talents we can show it through a Musical. Where we can dance, Act, Sing, Play the instruments. So it’s a big combination of our talents together and make a one Amazing Musical but because I’m more comfortable in dancing, I think the Street Themed Musical will fit more for dancing also for singing. And it will be a very big opportunity both the singers and dancers.

5.     Disney Songs

Because I am a Disney Kid I think singing some the top hit songs of Disney as a class. Disney have a lot of different genres these days but mostly classic and when singing in a group or choir, classic songs are more easier to be sing. And not just the songs are good but they have meaningful messages in them and can maybe give us flashback about our childhood days. That will be fun!

Creative Cycle Ideas

Class List ( Talents, Instruments, Genre, Strengths)

Name	Talents	Instruments	Genre	Strengths
Jason	Writing stories	Singing	Anything but not One Direction and Justin Bieber	Humor Patience
George	Drawing (Cartoon)	Drums	Anything but classic	Creative
Alysa	Talker	Guitar Piano	Acoustic	Motivating
Rifa	Dancing (K-Pop)	Harp	Rap RnB  Folk	Leadership
Mike	Drawing	Bass Guitar Ukulele	Anything but slow songs	Likes to make people laugh
Johan	Drawing	Beatbox	Anything but K-Pop	Enthusiasm
Madina	Writing Poetry	Guitar (B)	Any	Mediator
Tasya	Dancer (Hip-hop)	Piano	Any	Leadership
Rasyid	Good with words Raps	Sings (B)	Any	Learns quick/teaches
Dom	Remixing	Guitar	Any	Fast Learner
Najwa	Drawing	Sings	Any	Mediator
Nadya	Poetry	Singer Guitar (B)	House Alternative Rock	Humorous/Mood Maker
Dandy	Dancer (T)	Singer Piano	Indie Pop Classical	Leadership Fast Learner
Keizar	Communicator Joker	Drums (B)	Any	Likes to make people laugh
Rachael	Drawing	Piano (B)	Any	Follower
Daleescha	Dancer	Violin (I)	Any	Mood Maker
Fahrani	Mediator	Piano	Any
Belinda		Piano (B) Violin (B)	Any	Good Follower
Amyra	Talker	Guitar (I) Piano (B)	Acoustic Pop	Leadership
Hana	Good taste of Music	Piano (B)	Any but not K-Pop	Good Collaborator
Phoebe	Drawing	Piano (I)	Any	Good Follower And Collaborator
Jenny	Good Listener	Piano (B)	Any	Good Collaborator
Farah	Talker	Sing Piano (I)	Any	Independent

Note:

(B) = Beginner

(T) = Traditional

(I) = Intermediate 

Sorry for the late post/update but here it is, the Class List notes from the previous lesson ^^