Swale's Big Music Takeover.

This half term Swale's Big Music Takeover have been hosting Audio Camps which is our half term music industry workshops. 

This week was focused on songwriting and the particpants recorded a halloween themed EP at Big Jam Studios in Sittingbourne. 

The week started with focused research looking at all sorts of spooky songs and music like MJ's Thriller and the Jaws theme. This inspired the young people to then start looking at what they wanted their EP to sound like. 

As part of the Audio Camps the young people had to watch and review a performance. They watched a screening of Ariana Grande's Halloween Concert. Their reviews are below. 

Alice - 23/10/18

I enjoyed listening to the Ariana Grande halloween concert as I believe the songs flowed pretty easily. However, some of the song choices, I thought, weren't as effective as they could've been (such as Bang Bang and Problem) as Ariana could not sing all the lyrics due to them being songs featuring other artists. During these other parts she kind of just danced or paced up and down the stage, which I thought looked a little unprepared. The varying dynamics throughout the concert was very effective, including the difference between the more upbeat and slower songs. Ariana's use of stage space and how the dancers were spaced was entertaining. On top of this, I believe the dance choreography was stylistically appropriate and successful in achieving the desired result within the audience in getting them to feel energised too. Yet, the flashing lights and large number of dancers also made it difficult to know what to focus on. Furthermore, the audience seemed to enjoy themselves, even getting involved in the singing, and Ariana's vocals (especially her high notes) were of an unbelievable standard. I am a fan of Ariana's songs and I think that, for a live show, she did them a lot of justice which was thoroughly enjoyable. Nonetheless, as a halloween concert, there wasn't many songs that reflected this theme/event, although the graveyard staging and the costumes were highly engaging. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this concert.

Ben- 23/10/18

Ariana Grande opened up with a popular song which got the crowd excited, howeverthen changed dynamics to make the middle songs calm and the up beat songs at the beginning and the end. I thought that was a good idea as that is better than having the same type of song the whole way through. She used the props on stage however i feel like she should have changed the style of the songs to make it more creepy and more along the lines of a halloween style.

However I feel like could have improved by having something happen whilst she was off stage not doing anything such as dancers or something. She also did not tell everyone that it was her last song, i feel like she should have done so that people knew that it was near the end therefore would try to enjoy the last song more

She asked the audience questions such as "did you like my new album" I thought this was good as she was engaging with her fans. She also engaged with her fans by having conversations with them inbetween songs however the other audience members would only hear half of the conversation that they were having.

Meghan - 23/10/18

In the set Ariana was engaging with the crowd and there was a flow to the concert in the way she moved around the stage. However, I believe there was a poor choice of songs in the opening because she didnt sing half of them. She made an attempt at rapping  but it wasnt as effective as you could hear the original vocals and she only sang a few words. She frequently lost her timings with songs and she spent a lot of time talking to the audience but by doing this she lost the attention of those who couldn't see or hear the otherside of the conversation. Ariana made this worse by leaving the stage half way through the concert completely empty with no music or dancers.

The week was full of rehearsals and focused work to get the EP's finished. These were then recorded in a professional recording studio which the young people really enjoyed doing. 

Check back to hear the finished pieces!!!!!!!