Funk Unit

Now we have started the funk unit. We have listened to music by James Brown who was a funk music artist 1933-2006, he was even called "The Godfather of Funk" and the "King of Funk". The climax of his carrier was in the 60s and 70s. People thought he was the hardest working man in show business because of his crazy performances. Some of his most famous songs are, I Got You and Papa's Got a Brand New Bag.
Within funk music there is a lot of cutting out and repeating, the main instruments are the bass and the drums, the trumpet is also very much included in the hits.
Without funk music a lot of the music we listen to today wouldn't be the same, especially hip hop. 
In this unit we will be mastering the skills of James Brown's song I Got You. I will be playing the drums for it, which is exciting.
Here is the song sheet for the advanced drums. 

  

After looking over the basic version of I Got You and looking over the advanced version I decided to start practicing the basic version first. However after analyzing it and playing it I noticed that I should be able to manage playing the advanced version. So as my plan goes I started with the first part, A, without thinking about the open and closed high hat. This went very well so I started practicing with the open and closed high hat which took some time getting used to, but by the end of the lesson I mastered it. I still feel rusty at that part and I need to practice it more so I can relax a bit and for when the performance comes be really comfortable with it. Because from prior experience I felt like I know my piece until I get on stage. 

The B part was not very hard to get since it is basically the same thing except you are changing the high hat to the ride cymbal. I thought the transition from the high hat to the ride cymbal was a bit tricky. 

Part C was also in the beginning the similar thing and the ending was a bit more tricky. I think the hardest part will be able to keep a steady beat and also making the right transitions at the right moment. Since the drums are such a big part of funk music and any mistakes will be highly noticeable it is quite nerve racking.

I think I overall know the skills quite well, I just need to practice to get comfortable and also work on the transitions.  

Second Practice

6/3- 2013 

In this lesson we had the whole class, well almost, to practice our individual pieces. I started with just going through the song from the beginning and I realized some things were a bit rusty from last time. Partly because I guess that's how it is when you just learned something, but it also made me realize I need to go over it, over and over again before I feel comfortable. After having Sabrina listen to the first part of the song, I got some feedback that I should really make sure to let go and press down the high hat in time so that it doesn't go on for another hit. From this I really paid attention to the high hat and went through it very slowly. Other than that I played the song over and over, starting over if I made a stupid mistake. So I did not focus to much on the end of the song. I think I can improve by making sure I count better in my head, stay focused and press the high hat down exactly when I need to. 

18/04/13

Last practice session we have finally managed to play the A part very well. Philip gave us feedback. This feedback included that we play our different parts well, however we don't play synchronized. So we practiced counting and keeping a steady beat, which we then improved increasingly after repeating the part several times. Something I need to think about is that I sometimes count us in, in a different beat than what I start playing in. This is something I know I can manage if I focus better. I believe we have taken some major steps in our development and now we can start focusing on playing the song with attitude and confidence. I can also improve by playing the advanced part fully, because now I am using the open and close on one part of the song, or rather in one part of the A part. In the future I am striving for fully playing the advanced part.  

29/05/13

The time has come for the evaluation of the Funk unit, we have had our final performance. I must say we managed well. There were no major fails or any times of complete confusion. I tried to have a positive attitude during the song, since that was a big part in the performance and I believe the group was very good at keeping the whole performance fun and easy going by moving around. I found it quite hard knowing what to do, since I was sitting down with my arms at use so I tried to just keep a happy face. I must admit there were times where I made mistakes and I did not use the high hat throughout the performance, but I tried my best. I believe we kept an constant tempo and consistency through the song.

As for the unit I have partially enjoyed it. Instruments are not my strong suit, but I believe my group worked very well to get were we were at the end. I was fun working with a fun and catchy song as this one. In the beginning of the process I do believe we had a slow start, however when working we did it very efficiently. At one point in our practice sessions we felt like we were fairly confident, however with some feedback we realized the importance of practicing it over and over again. I think one thing the group was very good at was working well amongst each other, improving from feedback and giving a good performance with enthusiasm. The things we might could have improved on would be the work ethic and the skill of pointing out issues within the song whilst practicing. What I could have done to improve would be to have been consistent when it came to playing using the high hat.