Year 13 Solo Performance Research

1. What are the songs you've chosen to perform?

- For this year I have chosen to practice and eventually perform 2 songs. Which are; Love Rears Its Ugly Head by Living Colour and Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana.

2. Why did you choose this material?

- This year for my drum lessons with Joe, I am focusing on Grade Six. These songs are included in that grade level which is the reason why I chose these songs. It's also because I just really like these songs and I think I would be able to perform them with my personality as a drummer.

3. Who wrote and performed the pieces?

- Love Rears Its Ugly Head was written and composed by Living Colour's founder and guitarist Vernon Reid. The rock band Living Colour consists of 4 band members with different roles;

• Vernon Reid – lead guitar, guitar synthesizer, programming, laptop, backing vocals (1984–1995, 2000–present); lead vocals (1984–1985)
• Corey Glover – lead vocals, occasional rhythm guitar, occasional tambourine (1985–1995, 2000–present)
• Will Calhoun – drums, percussion, keyboards, samples, loops, programming, backing vocals (1986–1995, 2000–present)
• Doug Wimbish – bass, drums, guitar, programming, backing vocals (1992–1995, 2000–present)

- Smells Like Teen Spirit is written by Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, Dave Grohl, and produced by Butch Vig. This song was performed by Cobain (guitarist, lead vocalist), Novoselic (bass guitar), Grohl (drummer).

4. What are the songs about?

- There are no resources to what Love Rears Its Ugly Head, but I will just write a personal interpretation of this song... the meaning of "rears its ugly head" according to google is "something would eventually appear after not occurring for a while. Well with the song, implies that Love can bring out the worst with someone especially if they're obsessed with their significant other.

- Believe it or not, the song Smells Like Teen Spirit, title was inspired by a deodorant that Kurt Cobain and his girlfriend at the time named "teen spirit". Some of the lyrics explore Cobain's hardship around drugs;

And I forget just why I taste
Oh yeah, I guess it makes me smile
I found it hard, was hard to find
Oh well, whatever, never mind

however, as a whole, the song was just Cobain's and the other writer's creativity and they did not intend on putting any meaning to the song as they intended to. 

5. What is happening in the story at the time of your piece. What is happening to your character? Add your set, costume, and prop ideas.

- With the band's album "Time's Up" which was released in 1990. According to sources and articles, this was Living Colour's best album. This album was a genre-bending album with the fact that it features a wide range of songs (hip-hop, jazz, funk and even heavy metal). This album also includes cameos from other artists. Another cool fact with Love Rears Its Ugly Head is that it used a sample from a song called Lush Life which serves as the intro for the song. As a drummer, set, costumes or props is not a priority. But I can embody a personality while I'm playing the song as this song is very catchy and has a "16th feel" to it.

- As a character with Smells Like Teen Spirit, it is apparent that this song is a hard rock, if possible I can headbang whilst playing the piece if possible. 

6. What will be challenging with your pieces?

- With Love Rears Its Ugly Head, I only struggle with the last part but that can be improved by practising more.

- With Smells Like Teen Spirit, I struggle with the bass drum which also can be improved by practising more and focusing on my feet.

Year 13 Group Performance - IT'S OUR FINAL PERFORMANCES!!!!

This year we, the whole year 13 music class, have to perform 2 songs as a group. We had a couple of ideas but in the end, we chose two songs that everyone agreed on doing. Those songs are Kia Mau Ki Tō Ūkaipō / Don't Forget Your Roots by Six60 and Reach Out by Savage, and for the past few days, we had been able to decide who's going to do what. 

For the song Don't Forget Your Roots, I'm in charge to play and learn the drum part. Which personally is easy to do by myself. Since I'm one of the instrumentalists, I am focused on working on my own parts. Right now I'm struggling with getting the kick/bass part of the song but with more practice, I'm sure I'll be done with it soon.

However, the main challenge for this assessment is the fact that we have to work as a group. Even though everyone is focused on their instruments while we are playing, we have to be mindful of our surroundings with our timings, etc when playing in a group. What's special with this assessment is we will perform this song at an event happening at school, which showcases Māori songs and performances. Along with singers and instrumentalists from Year 13, we also thought about including the Kapa Haka group and do like a "flash mob" entrance for them to join us and sing.  This is event is going to take place soon, but I'm sure our group will have this song sussed-out before the event! So exciting!! I wish I could perform the Haka with the performers but that's quite impossible while playing the drums😂

Don't Forget Your Roots - Here's a live performance of Six60!

For my second group performance, I have a choice whether I'll sing in Reach Out by Savage or do a performance with Voices With Soul as a drummer performing a medley of Hamilton songs. I'm also still undecided what I should do but I'm sure both choices would be awesome!