Music 1: viva voce + performance ideas (1 Viewer)

[miracu]

So for this term our class has chosen "Music for radio, film, television and multimedia" as our topic and we have a core viva voce (week 6) and an elective (week 8). Any ideas on what my focus should be for my viva voce, if anyone's done the topic before?? Our class has only just touched on it, but I'm just trying reassure myself before I stress over the onslaught of assessment tasks that are soon to come. Also, for the elective, I'm a bit unsure on whether I should do a viva voce or a performance (composition no ty) but if I do end up doing performance, what are the most important factors to consider when choosing a piece? I'm currently learning grade 6 piano but I usually need more than 8 weeks to perfect a piece due to other priorities, so I don't want to perform anything too difficult. I'm thinking of performing either "Dawn" from Pride and Prejudice, or "Married Life" from Up- please advise me on whether they're decent song choices or not. On that note, what should the minimum difficulty/grade of a piece be in order to get a good mark? I mean, I know I'm not going to get anywhere by playing some song like mary had a little lamb, no matter how many expressive techniques there are. So where do the markers draw the line between "too easy" and "just right"?

 

[Byron]

Hi, I am in the middle of selecting my Viva voces for both electives and core as well. I've been having a chat with a few classmates and my teacher about some film music stuff as some of them are heavily interested in that. A good idea which I found through having this discussion is looking at the motif and recurring sounds for different characters and how soundtrack for them changes the mood and that sort of thing. Something definitely worth looking into, although might be hard if you aren't big into movies.

As for doing a viva against a performance I'd say look at what you're most comfortable with, I am doing 3 performances as I have a lot of musical friends I play with and am most confident with that. I also chose a viva as I found it to be really enjoyable as well and gives me a break from just practising practising practising songs.

As a guitarist and drummer I probably can't give too much specific advice, but from what I've gotten from my teacher and my friends who've already completed their hsc music in previous years is to find something that has a featured melody on piano. Something like an instrumental is easiest there as you don't have to compete with vocals. Also spending a lot more time just trying different songs will be easier to find a good song, do things like radio on Spotify can help you find stuff.

Personally I'd say that line would be, is this above my current skill level. The songs I selected currently are at a level higher than what I can already do, that way I know I am trying to do something more complex than what I did for my year 11 course, and it'll be a much more technical song.

 

[blackbird_14]

I can't help you too much on the music 1 elective having done music 2, but you don't want to be choosing pieces that you can perfect in 8 weeks- you have at least 40 weeks to work on them- and you don't want to be bored in term 2 of your pieces because they're already great. So choose something that you think you'll be able to pull off in that time frame- something a little harder than you would usually do- and check with your teacher/s for advice about them.