Early Process of Wavin' Flag

Wavin' Flag 
My role in here is as the guitarist. The chords are not hard because there are only 4 chords  (C F Am G) that just repeats. We also did a brief practice on Wavin' Flag because for the past several months we barely taught the whole class the notes and everything they need to know, but the leaders and the band. The pianist and signers rehearsed once months ago and it was only for the beginning part of the song so it was short. 

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For the actual performance itself, we decided to bring as many buckets and any object that have hollows inside them to create a drum-like sound to see what it'll sound like. The band, was great but I couldn't really say that much because we just started on this as a group so we still dont know what'll sound like with the kolintang. But I think my role as a Guitarist is OK, because I can play the instrument I wanted to play as a duet.

Today we run through the song for the entire lesson while the drummers practice. I think the guitar in the intro of the song sounds gentle with the piano because we only strum it once.  The song is coming together, but we haven't done much work on the drums but the kolintang is sounding good. 

Early Process of Candy

Candy Update

Yesterday we had the same rehearsal as yesterday but we had new notes to learn and they were really easy. Maybe the issue we might have with this and the other songs would be the precise timing because timing holds everything for the tempo. We found new notes but they were super easy because it only appear once in the song  (as the bridge). In my opinion, I dont think this is is complicated because it has lots of modern influences like any other pop song. At the moment we just need to figure out the dancing 

Greased Lightning Final and Candy

Greased Lightning

Though there was this one issue we had repetitively; absent students. Yes, it worried the band for certain especially with the different instrument. It time- consumed and held back the whole band too in the end because we had to postpone it for a while before someone took that person's place and eventually learn everything, which took time. And it was difficult because when everyone was far ahead, the person was still left behind when we practiced as a whole class (for weeks) and we haven't even went to the bridge part of the song where there were the saxophone, kolintang and guitar solo that needs to be played together. This was important because it certainly doesnt make the performance very cliche with only the verse and chorus, instead we have bits of solos.

So far, we managed to run though the whole song at last with the class. We had to miss the saxophone and kolintang solo because it'd cost so much time that in the end so we put that aside until we could find a spare time. I'm fairly happy with the progress because it was very hectic and frustrating but then the hard work is paid off with synchronized melodies with the band. 


Candy
In Candy I'm playing the contra in the kolintang because according to the song the into was kind of low because of the saxophone 

Last week, we finally and properly began with Candy as a whole class because Greased Lighting took about 2 months to finish. The notes were quiet easy because it' was basically the same throughout the whole song.It repeats until the end of the song 

Greased Lightning Reflection 3

We've been working with Greased Lighting for quiet a while because we spend lots of time on keeping the tempo. precised notes  and repeating the song. We encountered several problems from the very beginning of the process because there were so much to write down and teach the other kolintang members. The major concern was whether they could keep up with the tempo and listening to others so they don't play alone.

It took a while for the kolintang leaders to finish finding all the notes because there were so many to find by using just our ears on the piano, there were also many sharp notes that needs to be played fast. In my opinion, I think the Greased Lightning band was fine because we collaborated together to synchronize it smoothly. The kolintang players can be hard to be taught because there were only 2 leaders that knew all the notes, sometimes they just didnt commit :( which was annoying because some were just standing there not knowing what to do . Most of us can already remember the notes in our heads and we just used the notes I took on a paper in case we forgot. It was pretty useful too :D

Greased Lightning Reflection 2

We've made some progress on the song. First we practiced what we've got so far in the studio with the rest of the band while the others are outside. What we did was playing together with the band and see if we can fill in some empty spots in the song. For example: during the guitar solo it has a part where the saxophone plays as a solo which the kolintang can play along. The thing that was tiring everyone was finding all these short-but hard- to- find notes because there were so many sharp (#) keys that were used only once but there were just so many to find.

We also had to teach 6 people with these new notes in just a week so that we could spare some time for additional 'modifications' for the kolintang. The first problem we encountered was basically the notes. Sometimes we find something close to the song one's but then it turned awful when we played it because it just didn't blend in properly with the piano and guitar. So it was like playing random notes.

The second problem was actually hearing the original song itself. The song is incredibly fast the first time we thought of it, so it can be hard for us to actually catch the notes without Bu Megan's help on the studio with the band. We  Even though, if we find the notes, for some instruments they need to change the notes because it's eaither too hard or it doesnt sound good on the kolintang. So when we got the notes, we were relieved that it was coming together after they were transposed.

Finally, during the rehearsals it took us time to sort everything out like the singers, band and kolintang. There was this issue with the backup- singers when they were singing the harmonies. Sometimes we could hear it and it didnt sound clear because it was kind of faint. The harmonies are important as much as the band is because the song itself have lots of harmonies which makes the song very energetic and 'musical'. 

Greased Lightning Reflection

Greased Lightning is a challenging song because it has lots of harmonies, fast tempo and it's a nicely synchronized song, there's a lot of efforts needed to be able to perform this song on stage.

When we first started the song, we agreed on the key of the song (Cmajor) because the singer is more comfortable on singing on that key. What I did in the very beginning of the process was listening to the original song and decide which part of the song can the kolintang be placed in. We listened to the piano parts of the song, which later can be also played in the kolintang and the chorus of the song. We used the piano to also find notes for the kolintang because it was easier that way because the piano has a major role in the song, instead of using the kolintang straight away.

It was very hard because we didnt look up for the chords, only the notes from the piano for certain parts of the song only. At the moment, we only used our ears to guess what the notes were and make it sound as similar as possible. We spend about weeks listening to the song again to see if there're anything we didnt catch and we revised the notes we have written down. If we find something, we' played the notes together with the song playing. This way, we didnt need the whole band playing for us, so we followed the recording's

Where We Are At- in progress

Greased Lighting- Grease
So far, my role as the leader of kolintang ensemble with Almira is OK at the moment and we are making small progresses along the way. We were very confused at first when we tried find the suitable note by just hearing it before we found a music sheet for piano because the song is mostly synchronized by the piano and guitar. That time, we were able to decide which part of the song the kolintang should be playing and is also easy for everyone to remember it.

We were told original version of the song is in Dmajor, but I'd often find music sheets in Cmajor so then in the end we didn't changed anything. We already took notes for the saxophone solo part to be the kolintang, with the help of the piano.

Candy- Robbie Williams
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Wavin' Flag K'naan 
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