Making the lullaby
Finding out about what people use to relax
Learning to Play relaxing Songs
I downloaded these relaxing songs and learnt to play them on the keyboard for inspiration
Here is a recording of me practising these pieces:
A video of me learning to play: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SZa-tWZ4cNSyzFwhufVXZVQgTabVZODs/view?usp=sharing
Feedback from Melanie
You are very good at learning new pieces and have a great memory for notes. At the moment, you are only playing with one hand, not both hands at the same time and you are using note names rather than musical notation. However, as you only just started playing, I am very impressed with how quickly you are picking this up and how dedicated you are to learning. You are not shy of performing in front of others. The next thing to focus on is using both hands at the same time and recognising notes so that you can start composing.
Melanie
Using Sibelius
I composed my piece in Sibelius, a music writing software that allows you to hear the music as you play it:
Ongoing feedback: As I was writing the song, I could play it out loud in class, Melanie would tell me if the notes sounded a bit off. I kept playing versions and my classmates and other teachers would comment until it was perfect.
Here is the final piece of music:
Performing the piece
What would good instruments be for this piece? I listened to lots of different instruments on youtube to decide
| Instrument | What I think |
| Trumpet | Too loud and brassy for a lullaby |
| Drums | Loud and doesn’t have any different tones |
| Piano | Can be relaxing if you play softly |
| Cello | This is quite nice, but may be a bit low |
| Flute | This is my favourite, very relaxing |
| Horn | Too loud and not enough different notes |
| Trombone | I quite like it but it won’t work for my song |
| Saxophone | This is cool and makes a Jaz like sound but it is a bit loud |
| Violin | This is nice and gentle and can go very high |
After this I decided on the flute, piano and violin. I could play the piano, but I needed other people.
Working with others
A girl at my school called Kristin plays the violin, she agreed to play the violin part.
Noone at school plays the flute. I asked Melanie to help me find someone and she put this on Twitter:
This was exciting, especially as Alexandra is a professional flute player.
Me and Melanie sat together and sent an email and this is what we got back:
You can see that i got feedback from Alex about the piece and I decided to change it based on what she said.
Kate
All the parts
The Parts are stored here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-ry1x9SCl4LzaKRl59cGJOgutb1cejOx?usp=sharing
One of the violin parts:
One of the flute parts:
Me Playing the piano:
Mixing the parts together
I have used Garage Band before in school music lessons. I used it to mix all the parts together. The end result is me on piano, Kristin on violin and Alex and Kate on Flute. Melanie also played some extra piano for the bass.
The Final Lullaby:
Also, you can see my exhibition page for the piece here: https://treasuremedia.co.uk/peters-lullaby/
I emailed the music to everyone at school and Kate and Alex and this is the feedback I got:
Wow! That’s amazing! Excellent work Cael!
Naomi – Headteacher
Wow Carl, brilliant stuff. Very well done!
Alex – DT teacher
Well done Cael. I am blown away by your work. This is such a beautiful, atmospheric composition. The different parts are very cleverly written. I can imagine it over in a scene in a film, netflix drama or video game. It’s very impressive. Keep doing it! Well done.
Oliver – Art Therapist
Cael, This is brilliant, just had the pleasure of listening to it! Looking forward to your next composition!
Barney – DT Teacher
This music made me feel relaxed and sleepy, which was your goal I believe.
Fiona – SEN teacher
I can’t believe that before this year you had bot played a musical instrument of any kind. I look forward to seeing what you do next. Very well done.
Melanie – Art Teacher
Feedback Survey:
I sent my survey to everyone at school and to Kate and Alex.
There are screenshots from my survey below:
Results: https://melanie568918.typeform.com/report/FLul8um4/mjItINqrfQASgFbR
Evaluation
Unit 1 Part A Evaluation
For my silver Arts Award I made a lullaby which is supposed to make people feel relaxed and sleepy. I needed other people’s help they were Alex Petropoulos who did the Flute, Kate davis who also did the flute, Melanie who did the bass piano, Kristin who did the violin and me who did the piano treble. The hardest part was combining the pieces of music on Garageband.
I developed the skill of using Sibelius, learning notes, directing musicians, using Garageband, and understanding rhythm.
In my feedback survey, my average score was 9 out of ten. Here are some of the things they liked about the project:
“I liked the fact that it was fast and went well with the other instruments.”
“I liked the fact that it was fast and went well with the other instruments.”
“gentle sound”
“the rhythm”
“I just like violins”
“it was pretty”
“The sound is just lovely”
“I enjoyed the way the piano carried the main melody with accompaniment too.”
“The sound flowed and it moved me.”
“I like the sound of the piano best (generally)”
“It was very tuneful and melodic, and very relaxing.”
“It was very clear”
“I liked the fact that it was fast and went well with the other instruments.”
To improve on this people said that:
“I think in the last bit, it got a little bit out of sync.” I can agree that it got a little bit out of sync.
“I really enjoyed the music and think you could produce variations of the melody to develop the lullaby even further” – Yes, i can agree on this
“I think it could of been longer” – Yes, very
“I don’t think it needs improving except I think the violin or flute were a bit out of tune” – I agree
My favourite comments from others were:
“sounds like something you would hear in heaven”
“I think for a first try composing using the piano, you show real talent. The choice of instruments fit well together and the accompaniment instruments have interesting parts.”
“You have a natural talent so keep making music.”
“I am very impressed, and a little envious as I’m not able to write music! Well done!”
“I really loved it. I found it very calming.”
“I loved it and I think you have learnt the skills to compose music in a very short time which makes me feel that you must be very talented”
It was amazing that you wrote this lullaby for so many instruments, well done!”
In my next musical piece I will try my best to improve even more, I will learn to read musical notes and work with a piano teacher. I will practice my playing and work on getting all the instruments in sync. This will be better now we can all be together instead of recording seperately because of the virus.
I am very happy with the project my favourite part of it is the piano