Firstly, I added a very simple drum beat to use for an introduction. I wanted the hi hat to be louder on the main beats, but quieter on all of the other ones. Therefore, I changed the velocity of the other notes to make them quieter. I also added a bass drum on every beat and off beat to add some rhythm to the piece.
Next, I added a kick drum to every beat, as well as some snares. These help add texture to the piece and make it thicker. You may notice that I changed the velocity of the hi hats to make them even quieter. I did this because when I added the kick drums and snares, the hi hats were still too loud which resulted in them being drowned out.
I wanted to put in a small intro at the beginning of my composition. For this, I put in some simple drum beats that I slowly built up until the first verse started. I also added in the bass at this point too.
After creating the drums for the chorus section of my piece, I moved onto the chords. All of the chords I chose to use were in the key of D major, I played around to decide which chord pattern I preferred. In order to make the piece sound tighter, I quantized all of the notes so that they had the same duration, and changed the velocity so the dynamics were all the same. I then added in some bass using the root note of each chord. In addition to this, I chose to add some arpeggio with a different piano sound, this adds more texture to the piece.
When I finished getting the main parts of the chorus together, I started to work on a melody for my piece. To create the melody, I used notes from the D major pentatonic scale.
After creating my chorus, I moved onto the verse. Nic suggested that I should change some of the chords so that they played off-beat. This way there is some change within the piece, instead of it being the same throughout. I kept the drums for this section quite simple. However, I added in a cymbal at the end so it could lead nicely into the chorus.
I duplicated the sections to make my piece longer and to also give it some structure (intro, verse, chorus, verse, pre-chorus, chorus x2). Harry also helped by adding in some guitar for me, as this adds some more instrumentation into the piece and in my opinion, helps it flow together a little bit more. He played the chords throughput the verse and chorus, then also played the melody for the chorus.
For the structure of my piece, I wanted to start with an introduction, then move on to verse, chorus, verse, breakdown/bridge then go back to the chorus twice. I chose this structure because I wanted the dynamics to go up within my chorus, but down for the verse and bridge. Therefore, I believe the structure worked well with my piece.
After finishing all of the instrumentation for my piece, Lewis helped me mix it so that every instrument could be heard. He also added some reverb to make the piece sound fuller. I then went over to the automation tab so that I could change the dynamics of my piece to make it sound exactly how I wanted it to sound.