I Think I Kinda You Know that You Don't Know (part 2)

Welcome back my couch potatoes. I hope you are all doing well with the whole quarantine. You know with the distance learning, social distancing, basically staying inside your house 24/7, especially on a day like today where it's gloomy, icky, and foggy outside :(  I really thought this was going to be a time where I could clean around the house, do somethings I always wanted to do or never had time for and should be doing (like practicing guitar or singing... what? pfft I mean, I do that on a daily basis). But instead, my teachers, mostly AP, are throwing a bunch of work into my face while my dad is yelling at his co-workers. So basically I am sitting in the same seat and staring at this computer for about 13+ hours... fun. Well, writing this blog is so let's get to it.




I wanted to get back on my process of how I arranged two songs, creating a mash-up (previous post on this is right here). Let me recap a little bit. So I discussed how these two songs are written in the same key, with the same tonality, and follow pretty much the same chord progression (if you are already confused, I suggest clicking on that link that you skipped over... please and thank you) which makes it easier to arrange and mash the songs together.

But I am going to go in a little deeper. As I have mentioned, I explained that the chord progressions of the songs "I Think I Kinda You Know" and "Can't Blame a Girl for Trying" follow the almost the same chord progression in the verse. For the HSMTMTS song, the progression is I-V-vi-IV while the Sabrina Carpenter song goes I-ii-vi-IV. Now as you can see the second chord in each progression is different. They have a different tonality and are completely different chords. Meg, what did you do? Well have you ever wondered what makes up a chord???


Actually, Meg, I have never wondered that what so ever...

Well, I'm going to tell you anyway.

The official definition of a chord is playing 2 or more notes simultaneously; therefore it doesn't have to be pretty like the ending of Eric Whitacre's arrangement of the "The Star Spangled Banner" (like literally the last chord is the entire scale of C major plus more... I like to describe his writing as if he blindly put his entire hand on the piano and played every key that touched his hand... obviously that's not actually true, it just sounds like it... anyway please cut to 2:17 if you don't want to listen to the whole thing). But in more modern music and what most musicians use standard chords that are, for the most part, pleasant to listen to. In part one I discussed how there are certain chords for a certain key... well there are also notes for certain chords. Most of them consist of three notes, making them a triad which is a more specific chord.



The V chord in the key of C major is G major and the ii chord is D minor. Now look at the notes each chord consists of. G major has the notes G, B, D and D minor has D, F, A. They share a common note: D. This may not make much sense, but because they share a common note, I am able to substitute the D minor chord for the G major chord.  Let me explain a little further. The notes that are sung in the HSMTMTS song mostly consists of D and not so much of G or B, therefore, it sounds fine to use the D minor chord in this case. If they sang mostly B's then there would be a lot of clashing with the notes in a D minor chord and it would just sound wrong. Substituting a major chord with a minor chord does switch the tonality a bit but the difference is so small that most people don't think about it.

Now what I actually did to create my arrangement was take the chord progression of of Sabrina's Carpenter's song (which is the progression with the D minor) and they rhythm of the chords they use. The four chords follow the same rhythm and is put on repeat. I then sing on top of the chords with the melody and lyrics of the HSMTMTS. I have to sing this part at a little bit fast of a tempo so the correct notes in the melody line up with the correct chords. For the most part, that is the most complicated part of arranging this piece. The next most difficult thing is making sure the songs flow into each other well so I have to make sure the lyrics line up and the chords flow correctly.

To give you an idea, here is how I arranged it based on the lyrics.

So much has happened, think of what we've done
In the time that the Earth has traveled 'round the Sun
Winter, spring, summer an' we're back to fall
We've been together hand-in-hand through it all
From the minute we kissed and my heart skipped a beat
To the night that we danced, I was swept off my feet
Sure is every year has to come to an end
I'd go spinnin' 'round the Sun with you again and again and again and again

'Cause I'm young and I'm dumb
I do stupid things when it comes to love
And even if I always end up crying
Well, you can't blame a girl for trying

Oh, oh
Oh, oh
No, you can't blame a girl for trying
Oh-oh-oh-oh

I should've shut my mouth, I could've kept it quiet
I might have freaked him out 'cause I was so excited
But I just couldn't wait, I took a leap of faith
Oh, the things I say(ing)
is this, what I'm sayin' is this

I think I kinda, you know
I think I kinda, you know
Like the way that we flow
Like the way that we go
And I love
I think I kinda, you know
I think I kinda, you know
Mm, I think I kinda, you know, you know, you know



I still have yet to figure out how I am going to end the song but I will have it figured out and get back to you guys.

But here is a short clip of me singing what I have so far... It's not perfect but that's why I'm not going to school for performance. Also ignore my sluggish outfit and the messy room (quarantine life got me a little lazy).

That's all for now. Thanks for sticking around and read how I struggle to explain things. Until next time, look, listen and lay low.

Sources:
I think lyrics
Can't lyrics

Images:
c major
Lilo
yay me
margo
minnie

And the World Will Know... And You Will Too

Welcome back my couch potatoes! As many of you know I take part in our school's drama club and this year we are doing Newsies! Definitely one of my favorite musicals of all time (but I haven't seen many so it's not a big surprise). 

Last week I started to take you through the process of how I went about arranging two songs into a mash up ("I Think I Kinda You Know" and "Can't Blame a Girl for Trying" and the post can be found right here). 

However, this week I would like to promote the show because it is this weekend! This is definitely one of the best productions I have put on and many people have worked hard to put this together including stagecraft, stage crew, lights and sound crew, and the pit band. (The set is definitely one of the best sets the school has have and it was all built by teachers and students here. So  just like football games and soccer games, you should really come out and support your peers in the hard work they've done. Just like other sports we practice for hours, entertain people, bond, do so much physical activity until our bodies hurt (okay kind of an exaggeration but not to many of the theatre kids) but one thing that I think really sets us apart is the fact that we do not compete. This is for ourselves; for the people to laugh or cry; to share a story with the world. So I would appreciate it if you came and I promise you won't be disappointed. We have a lot of talent at this school.

For this post, I actually like to give you a little history of the people in this show. Newsies more or less is based on a true story and real people. First a quick synopsis...

Joseph Pulitzer, the owner of a newspaper company The World, decides to increase the price of newspapers that Newsies, boys who sell paper to support there families and survive, have to pay upfront. The Newsies are not so happy when they hear about this. So their leader, Jack Kelly, lead the Newsies in a newspaper strike against Pulitzer and The World as entertainment reporter of The Sun, Katherine Plumber follows these boys to report a potential story. 

That was a very quick synopsis for your but the event itself is based on a real Newsboy strike in New York in 1899. Many Newsies in the musical are real people like Racetrack, Crutch and Mush. And the three I have mentioned in the synopsis are real people...well at least Joseph Pulitzer and Katherine Plumber based on real people. Jack Kelly is more of a mix of people. 

The World is a real newpaper company in New York or The New York World and was run by Joseph Pulitzer. He was a very passionate man in everything that he did. He started out as journalist for a daily German paper then came to buy out The World. However, because of his strong passion, Pulitzer put his paper before his health and resigned as editor due to his health in 1890, before the newspaper strike even started.

Real Pulitzer

Steve Blanchard as Joseph Pulitzer

Colin Smith as Pulitzer

I know he's going to yell at me so I'm adding this too

Katherine Plumber is based on two people, one of them I'm not going to say because that would honestly just ruin the whole plot line for you. But in all honesty that one I think is only important to the plot line. The person Katherine Plumber is based on that creates the character that she is, is Elizabeth Jane Cochran, or her professional/pen name Nellie Bly. She was a determined journalist that took many risks to get a story. And she happens to be one of Pulitzer's favorite writers.

Kara Lindsay as Katherine Plumber 

Brianna Davies as Katherine Pumber

Last but not least is Jack Kelly. He is also a mash up to two people, Kid Blink and Jack Kelly. Kid Blink is the real leader of the Newsboy strike, but he had an eye patch which could be a potential reason why he is not the protagonist of the story (or at least what many websites say, but honestly I think it's because his name is Kid Blink and it sounds like a superhero's name; Jack Kelly has a better ring to it). And Jack Kelly, the real Jack Kelly, was a newsboy part of the strike who wanted to be a cowboy and move out to Santa Fe.

Anthony Paterno as Jack Kelly

Jeremy Jordan as Jack Kelly

I left out a lot of information about these people but if you want to learn more there are links down below for each person I mentioned/reference I mentioned.

I think knowing the history, of the story is nice to know. For many actors, they create a backstory for the role they are playing so some research is necessary. As for my role Finch, I did a some shallow research and it seems that though he is Patrick "Finch" Cortes in real life. I created my own back story though. Finch to me is a young girl who ran away from home and joined the newsboys to sell papes. She learned her "manners" from her newsboys friends, and is much more tough and aggressive because she has to stand her ground with the rest of the boys. As for the rest of the boys, she is scene as one of the toughest.

That's all my couch potatoes! Please come out to see Newsies, March 12-14 at 7:00 each day. Until Next time, look, listen, and lay low.

Info:

Newsboy Strike
Pulitzer
Katherine
Jack Kelly

Images:

Real Joe
Newsies Joe
King of New York
Jeremy Jordan
other images by Alexa Dela Cruz