24102207 SHR3C003R~002

I truly enjoyed the ensemble class. I learned a lot from my classmates. I got better at
working with others, rolling with ideas, and even writing lyrics. I was pushed out of my comfort zone as I tried new instruments, played and sung in front of people, and, of course, made mistakes in front of them as well. I loved working with others and seeing how many ideas could come from one simple chord. We’d bounce ideas off each other so effortlessly, and because of that, we’d begin amazing songs. I feel like I truly grew and got better as an artist. In this essay, I will be reflecting on my time in ensemble, specifically my growth in improvisation, collaboration, and different approaches to composition.

Improvisation has never been a strong suit for me, but in this class, I found myself practicing more and more. Songwriting is all improvisation until you find something that works. Before this class, I only really improvised in the shower or by myself. Now I find myself experimenting on every song I sing, trying to find new ways to change it. When we did ‘Got this feeling’, a song we had written, at 2:26, you can hear me improvising in the background, messing around trying to get my ideas out there. (File 3) I also learned to build off of others' riffs and got more comfortable improvising lower rather than higher. Little by little, I started experimenting more and voicing my ideas. But I didn't only improvise vocally but also lyrically. I've never been good at writing lyrics, and coming to uni being a vocal student, I realized that lyric writing fell on me. In this group, I worked with people who were more comfortable with writing, and I learned from them. I would improvise lines and rhymes every class, eventually getting full lyrics. For example, in our song ‘Got this feeling’, I wrote around half of the lyrics. (File 2) Changing our chorus from two repeated lines to a four-line chorus, improvising different riffs each time. My knowledge of improvisation, whether vocally or lyrically, has grown and changed exponentially since the ensemble. Improvisation also helped me work better with others and bounce off their ideas, allowing us to make songs.

Unlike improvisation, I've always been comfortable working with others, but I also have never had to incorporate that many instruments in a single song. In the beginning, we struggled to use everyone and make everyone feel included. As a singer, I never really had an issue being a part of a song or having a part. In our group, we had a drummer, two guitarists, a piano player, a rapper, and three or four singers. At first, we tried incorporating everyone, only to realise it does not always work. In one of the first recordings of “Got this Feeling,” we struggled to incorporate our classical guitarist, later finding out maybe instead he should play bass. (File 1 - 00:54)It took us some time to get used to working together, but soon we fit together like a machine. We would bounce off each other's ideas, really gaining trust in one another. Billy coombs our main lyricist agreed saying, “This allowed me to have trust and faith in my classmates and allow them to be created musically whilst I work on structure and lyrical ideas for the different projects” We would start with things like (File 4) and that would turn into ‘Got this feeling.’ By splitting up and working on different parts of the song, we would get things like the chorus done.&nbsp; We’d often start with something as simple as a guitar progression (File 5) and build on that to make our song. At first, I was a little nervous to speak up, but as we got to know each other, working together became second nature. Oftentimes times not all your ideas will get used, but that never stopped me from trying. I learned to bounce off everyone else and listen to everyone's ideas and opinions full heartily. I also learned how to let someone down easily, by saying Maybe not this time, but we should at least try. I felt a growth when it came to collaboration and learned to love that big, chaotic ensemble group, even when we had different approaches to composition.


Everyone has different approaches to composition, there were times our group would disagree. Our group worked pretty well together, disagreeing mostly on which instruments should play and what type of song to write. I realized the way I imagined the song to go would not always be the way it turned out to be. I write better when I'm given chords and only have to write lyrics, but in this group, I learned more about how to compose. I watched how they came up with something out of thin air, and that inspired me to write more music. We would try to incorporate everyone, and we were a much bigger group in the beginning. Being a bigger group made it harder for ideas to get passed around. Our first song was fully written by one person, and we ran with it, trying to add to his already finished song. (File 7) We later learned this is not the way we work best. Shannon, a classical guitarist in our band, believes “It would have been best to do a cover rather than an original composition,” which I disagree with. I believe I've become a better musician by working and clashing with everyone. I got more vocal, finally voicing my opinions on our final two songs, which were my favorites. One of which was (File 6) ‘When I'm Alone’, a funny tune about falling for your friend's parent. I thrived off everyone always getting inspired by the new, different ways we approached composition.

In Conclusion, our band took time to get used to, but we pushed each other to be better. I learned a lot from this class, and truly feel like a better musician. I have more confidence singing, improvising in front of people, and putting my ideas out there even when I’m afraid. As a band, we wrote a lot of songs, not all good, but we grew together. They taught me to hear someone out, but also be patient with those around me. I feel like a much better artist overall, and I owe it all to my band.