To begin, my first idea was to basically made a video edit of sunrise, mid-day, sunset and nighttime footage and compile them all together, so it takes you through life almost, and them compose a piano piece over it. I was supposed to start with the edit first, so it sparked inspiration for how I felt the piano would describe the video, however, I started the edit but I didn’t quite finish it before moving onto composing the piano. Looking back, this wasn’t really the best idea because, I feel like it would have worked better if I started with my piano composition first because the video just kind of influences the emotion, whereas the piano is like the leading emotion. Also, I found it a little harder to get inspiration from the edit itself so, I just composed to what I was feeling. If I was to do this project again, I’d have started with the piano composition and then created the edit around the piano, because the video can just change the emotion that the listener/viewer is feeling, but the piano like leads the emotion so it needs to be created first so I can get the idea of what emotion I want them to feel.
In my initial proposal, I said I’d research for the first week and gather all my inspiration for my composition. Looking back, I gave myself a little too much time to research because I only ended up researching for like 3 days and then I knew what I wanted to do and how to do it. However, a lot of the research I did wasn’t really necessary because I ended up changing my idea, almost completely. I researched about using Logic, which wasn’t a complete waste of time because I did use Logic to compose on for a while. However, it was a little bit of a waste because my final piece was composed and performed on an actual piano. Another piece of research I did, was the issue of piano and guitar clashing. In the end, I didn’t actually end up adding in any guitar parts so I just didn’t need to research it but, it’s good to know for future reference. I also researched about photography so I could get some really good time lapses etc. This was actually really useful because I’m going to have 2 versions of my composition, one will be the live performance, which is going into the virtual concert video, and one will be of the edit, which will be on my youtube after the virtual concert. Lastly, I researched about merging videos together, which will be really useful for my second version, with the edit video, because I want it to be a video of the live performance and the video edit like fading in and out of each other.
My initial project idea actually changed a lot, over the course of the project. To begin with, the video edit was going to be on top of the piano composition, so both of them would be included into the showcase. However, I’m now doing a live performance video for the showcase and the video edit is going up onto my channel, after the showcase. To start with, it was going to be a collaboration between me and Michael, so it’s piano and guitar, but it end up being a collaborative project between me and my friends from out of college because they gave me a lot of different photos and videos to use in my edit. Also, I ended up collaborating on Faith’s project, by playing guitar for her. I initially was planning on composing onto Logic, because it was more relaxed in the way that I could take multiple takes, add different sounds, edit any errors I made etc, but it turned out that I struggled to think of a solid idea to run with because I kept pausing and recording new little melodies, that didn’t really sound like they were all apart of the same composition. That being said, in the end, I composed onto an actual piano so I could just play around and let the piece kind of write itself; it helped me stick to one composition idea instead of creating like 3 or 4 into one.
Other work I did in this project was collaborating with Faith for her project. On Faith’s project, I was just playing guitar for her live performance, I didn’t record the audio though. This was really fun and relaxed actually, and I really enjoyed playing guitar whilst my friend was singing. This opportunity allowed me to get used to being in front of a camera, but also get used to performing live, kind of. It really helped with my confidence, because I wasn’t performing on my own, but also with my live performing skills. Because it was a live video, it meant I also had to think about my stage presence and I think I did really well, because I kept making eye contact and smiling at Faith, I was angled into facing Faith and I wasn’t really stiff, like I was looking around too and tapping my foot etc.
During my live performance of my piano composition, I think I did really well too and I really enjoyed it. However, I feel like I could have looked up a little more times or tried to express a little more emotion in my performance. Overall, I really enjoyed the experience and opportunity though because I did perform live because there were a lot of people walking by as I played, and I got a lot of confidence from the compliments I got. If I were to do it again, I’d say more in my introduction, because it’s quite brief so I could do with like shouting out my social media accounts or something, but I’d also try to convey more emotion, like maybe through my facial expressions.
I’m happy with how my final composition turned out, however, I feel like I could have composed more than 1 composition if I changed my initial ways of working. For example, if I worked on my piano piece first, and on an actual piano instead of Logic, to start with, I feel like I could have finished that in like 3 weeks maybe, and then I could have composed another one. I feel like I can compose quite fast and to quite a high standard, however, it’s just that I don’t know if I’d have tried to rush my work process because I knew there was a lot to do. It might have been too daunting if I said that I was going to create 2 compositions right from the start so I’m kind of glad I didn’t, because my final in done to such a high standard. On the other hand, I feel like I could have at least created some sheet music to it, if I finished like slightly earlier.
Overall, I’m really happy with the standard that my final composition came out at, however, I feel like I could have done more if I didn’t waste a little bit of time at the start of the project.