Overall, this has probably been my favourite project so far because there’s a lot more room for creativity and it’s just like you can think of what you want to create and then bring it to life. I did prefer Logic Pro over Sibelius, just because there was more accurate sounds. Also, because you can be more flexible in the sounds you’re creating because you just play it and then you can change it’s sound by picking a different instrument or moving notes around instead of having to retake the whole thing.
Sibelius was a lot more difficult when it came to creating my vision exactly because I can’t read sheet so it took me a long time to figure out which notes would hold it out for how long I want it tore held for and then which articulations would sound most accurate to what I had created in my head. However, Sibelius really dropped me into the deep end for reading sheet which allowed me to force myself into understanding the notes, even though it still takes me a little bit of time to figure out the notes but I can definitely see that I’ve been able to read it at least a little better. I also learnt more about strings, like how they can only really play 1 note for 2 sometimes, which I didn’t know before because I had never worked with strings before really. Sibelius also helped me play a lot more by ear than just relaying on my sight because I couldn’t always understand what I had noted down, like when I started to add in slurs etc.
Logic was a lot more flexible and actually allowed me to expand on my ideas and create sounds that I hadn’t even thought of. I started out with a simple drum beat because I know most songs include that but then the keys sounds took it to a completely different place, the wide range of different sounds really helped form something I hadn’t even thought of really. Logic was really useful for seeing how to add effects and create a lot of different sounds, even if you can’t really play them like it sounds on the track. However, Logic was kind of difficult when trying to change the dynamics of just a single note or a single instrument because you had to solo the problem and then fix it solo and then play it al together and see if it sounds ok.
Music in context was very useful because you get to see how music has developed over time and how the popular sounds today were even brought around. However, I did learn that a lot of big artists such as Elvis Priestly wasn’t as like great as what you’d think really because he just kind of used a lot of other people’s songs that had been wrote without crediting. There was a lot of stealing ideas etc over time because of certain social issues, like racism. However, it did give me insight to how over-credited certain people are for back in time and even today because, most of the time, the real talent lies with minority groups who wasn’t aloud to be credited. It was especially interesting to hear how different social events created different sounds, such as “blues” was mainly POC singing about how terrible their experiences in slavery had been. Blues approach has influenced artists now to keep talking about political issues, even if it’s in different genres. Many people created different sounds by accident, like gated drums, and it shows that you don’t need the mindset of “I’m going to create a hit” in order to create a popular song.
I actually, surprisingly, picked up music theory pretty fast, to say I came to those sessions with no prior knowledge of theory. The circle of fifths really helped simplify the sharps and flats and keys because all you had to do really was remember an acronym. With the circle of fifths, you can play in any key because you can find all the notes in the scale using the method of take a note, miss a semi-tone and take the next one. This was really useful when it came to composing, especially on Sibelius, because it just meant I can work out everything prior the final work and then it’s just about finding the notes on sheet. With the circle of fifths knowledge, I felt a lot more comfortable with the keys and like I could improvise more or be able to figure thing’s out by ear.
Overall, I really enjoyed this project and I think I might take this for my final project because I feel like it allows much more creativity and it just feels quite endless of what you can create. I probably will just use Logic though, in my final, because I find it really challenging when I can’t read sheet fluently yet.