Composition Plan
Song Plan
Song Plan – A neater, clearer version
Initial Idea (Instrumental):
This is our initial idea for a song. It is written in A major. We used the A major scale to create the chord progression, which is Bm (chord 2), D (chord 4), F#m (chord 6), C#m (chord 3) and E (chord 5) in the verse and A (chord 1), C#m (chord 3), Dmaj9 (chord 4) and E (chord 5) in the chorus. We then came up with simple melodies on each instrument.
Initial Idea (Confusion):
In this session, we had Barbora join our group. This meant that we were able to create a pop style song as we had an extra vocalist who could assist with lyric writing. We wrote it in the key of B♭ major. We used chords 6 (Gm), 1 (B♭) and 5 (F) in the verse and 4 (E♭),6 (Gm),1 (B♭) and 2 (Cm) in the chorus. The structure of this was a guitar and keys introduction followed by a verse, chorus, verse and two choruses. The lyrics were made by making a spider diagram of ideas and editing them. We then fit them to the melody, which Barbora created.
First Development (Instrumental):
During the development of the song, we decided that we needed a synth sound to create a more ambient mood. This was very effective and gained a lot of positive feedback. Some people even said that it has a similar sound to bands such as London Grammar, The XX and The Japanese House.
First Development (Confusion):
During this version of the song, we added some rhythm to the piano part to make the music slightly more interesting rather than playing block chords. I also decided to only play in one octave rather than to so as to not overpower the other instruments or distract from the vocal line. The feedback we got said that it was very repetitive. This was due to the fact that the lyrics are the same all the way through and the verse and chorus does not make sense with each other. Another thing to improve on is instrumentation. Our group did not have a bassist or drummer so it would be a good idea to add those into it.
Final Development (Instrumental):
This was our final development of this song. This time we did not change very much again but we did add an extra chorus. However, this chorus is different because we modulated to the key of B Major. This meant that the chord progression had to change to fit into the key. Another word for this is diatonic chords. The chords we used are B (chord 1), D#m (chord 3), Emaj9 (chord 4) and F# (chord 5). As you can see, these are the exact same chord numbers as the choruses in A major but they now fit into the scale of B major instead.
Key Change Notes
Final Development (Confusion):
During this rehearsal, we added drums and bass to our song to link to the pop genre better. This also helped to improve our rhythms. As this was only a brief idea on how it could sound with these instruments it is quite messy. This means that we will need to practice and refine the rhythms in order to have a good sound. We also did not have a perfect ending as no one had really discussed it or communicated within the group.
Mock Performance (Instrumental):
This was our mock performance of the instrumental song. Nothing was changed during this session but we practised our performance. I used a different synth to last time which changed the mood and sounded very different. Looking back, I should have written down the synth setting I used in the previous session to recreate the desired effect. During this performance, I added bass notes so that there was a difference in dynamics throughout the piece. This meant that in some parts I would only play either the bass notes, the chords or both. It was helpful to do this because that way the synth was never too overpowering in certain sections of the song.
Mock Performance (Confusion):
This is where we had final lyrics including a chorus that linked to the verse and more than one verse. In order to write these, I took the original ideas for lyrics and a lot of the ones we were already using to create a song that did not contradict itself and therefore made sense. Due to our adding in a bass and drums, I decided to add the second octave back into the song. Of course, there are no bass or drums in the video but we are going to put them in during the final performance. Finally, We allowed Barbora to have a section of silence where she improvises and then we all played a G minor chord to end the song.
Final Rehearsal (Instrumental):
In this final rehearsal, we tried to iron out any mistakes. The reason for filming this video was so that we could watch and listen back to it to see what improvements or final tweaks we could make. The main one we came up with was for me to learn the chords and smoothly transition into the key change as well as remembering to play the bass notes. I filled out a self assessment sheet and then chose the target of dynamic improvement for the group.
Self Assessment
The Performance: (6:30 – 13:10)
We finally got a name for our instrumental song! This is our final performance of both songs.
(6:30 – 9:55) Horizons:
During sound check, I set up my keyboard to have the perfect synth sound and reverb. However after other people had been using the keyboard in their set the sound had been changed. This completely changed the mood of the song and threw me off. Unfortunately, I ended up making a lot of fairly obvious mistakes and had to keep turning down the volume to make these mistakes less obvious. Despite this minor difficulty, I think that we did well in performing this song and after it was over I knew I didn’t have to worry about the sound as I would be using a normal piano sound instead.
(9:55 – 13:05) Confusion:
This song was immediately better from the offset. Personally I know that I didn’t make any mistakes during this performance and looking at the audience, I can see a few people nodding along to the music. This makes me feel quite proud of our work as it was clearly enjoyed by people. I also love how the bass and drums sounded. I feel as though the addition of these after practice has really brought the piece together. It now sounds like a real song and one that I would listen to.