What Is The Purpose Of This Project?
The main purpose of this project is simply to create a song. Songwriting arguably one of the most important jobs in the music industry in modern times, as without songwriters, we wouldn’t have songs. Songwriting is an important role as it cannot be strictly defined; all songwriters have different styles and genres they like to write, and everyone has their own unique ways of how to go about writing a song. Therefore, this project is also important because we are allowed to essentially create whatever we want, how we want, giving us a great insight into how different songwriters work. As well as the practical side, we also learn about lyric writing, the history of song and we also create our own artwork, working alongside the graphic design team. All of this combined will give us a great idea as to how songwriting works, what it involves and even how it has changed over time.
Covid’s Impact On This Project And The Music Industry
Initially, this project was all about learning how to use recording studios and making a song that was recorded live in a studio alongside a band. But, because of lockdown, we couldn’t achieve this. We adapted the project and turned it into a songwriting unit, meaning we could complete the work and practical things from home. This means we will be using the resources we have at home to make a song in a group. This seemed strange to think of first as many people record together live, in a studio to make music. However, lots of artists and bands make music online nowadays, because of the revolution of the home and bedroom studios, and affordable software and hardware that almost anyone could learn to use. Songwriting online means that popular artists and bands don’t have to fly out to meet each other in studios and record; instead, they can just send different people files and work on the song from their home, and artists were doing this even before the pandemic started.
What Am I Focussing On?
Following from my feedback from project two, I know what I need to work on to keep up the grades I got. I could take the opportunity to do extra work to make sure my context and research grade stays at an excellent, and my analysis’ need to be even more comprehensive. I could also take into account the jobs that are involved with songwriting and why being a songwriter or someone else in that field is important. I should research things like the history of songwriting and the different periods in music to further gather knowledge about both early and modern takes on writing music.
As this project is songwriting, I plan to create a song along with my group that uses a strong chord progression and has lots of the main elements of music like harmony, rhythm and melody. I need to make sure I record and document the song’s progression through the project by uploading the music onto Soundcloud and taking screenshots of anything important like the production on the DAW.
Because this song will be acoustic, I will be playing the guitar on the song. This means that I need to focus on improving my guitar skills hugely. I could learn interesting chords and begin to know how to play pentatonic scales so I can create compelling melodies and even try to solo if we wanted one. I take guitar lessons in college so during these lessons I can focus on learning the guitar more and getting help to structure the song.
As well as helping the gather ideas for the song, I have also been given the role to produce and mix it on whichever software I with to use (which will probably be Reaper). Before I begin doing this, I need to make sure I know how to get around this software and use it to the best of my ability, to make sure the song sounds as high quality as possible. I will be asking for recordings from the rest of the group and I will be recording the guitar through my audio interface to make the production quality better. I need to structure the song and make sure everything is in time, as well as adding effects, automation and panning if I get enough time.
Targets Overview
-Produce a song that is of a good standard and quality, and uses the elements of music.
-Work on the production and mixing side of the song by learning more about DAWs and this field in general.
-Make sure I do enough context and research work to keep my grade at the excellent standard.