- DEVELOPMENT STAGES
- What work did you do in and outside of college to develop your project?
The work outside of college I did was writing the songs and writing lyrics. Me and Ashton wrote both of these songs about 5 years ago but only instrumental and was very raw but about 3 years ago I did a demo for them both and wrote new and better verses. Then when I figured out what I was going o do for my final project about 3 months ago I organised and re wrote the structure of both songs. For Zombie Attack I added a guitar solo section and for New Day I doubled the length of the verses. When the structure of both songs were done Me and Ashton started to think about vocals. Ashton came up with the concept of both songs by using the title and giving it a deeper meaning and I wrote the lyrics and melody for both songs. The work inside of college was to decide what I was gonna do for my final project by doing an initial idea video to explain what I wanted to do. Then I did a presentation to show what exactly I was finally going to do for my final project in more detail. Then I filled out a proposal form to show what I was going to do through out the project like the rationale, the concept, the evaluation and a project action plan and timetable to go even more in depth to what I was gonna do each week of the final project and I had to fill this out before I started so it could be granted.
- How effective was this work in preparation for your final project?
It was quite effective as the work outside of college most importantly gave me more time to finish my final project as I didn’t have to spend a lot of my time actually writing the songs and meant I could start my recording straight away after doing a bit of research. Also the work inside of college was effective as it prepared me for the project I was about to do and made sure I didn’t rush into it and gave me the chance to plan and give me a step by step guide to follow so I didn’t make any mistakes and kept me on track.
- Rate the thoroughness of your preparation, including your adherence to your rehearsal schedule/production plan.
I followed my production plan quite well and used it as a rough guide to what I was going to do each week and used my target sheet as a more in depth guide to follow but with problems like technical difficulties and tutors not being here I could follow it exactly but that’s where my target sheet came in handy and gave me a day to day guide instead of a week to week guide which made more sense and was more accurate and less likely for things to go off track.
2. COLLABORATIONS
- In what way did you collaborate with others during your project?
One way I collaborated with others was recording and mixing 2 songs with my friend Ashton ( who is a singer). Once we did all off the writing stuff together I started by micing up and recording the drums I wrote for both song. I then did the same thing for guitar and bass and any MIDI stuff. Once all the instrumentation was done I brought Ashton into college for 2 days to record his lead vocals for both songs and when he did his takes and we was happy with it I did any backing vocals I had to do. Then once everything was recorded I mixed both songs myself and put them onto Soundcloud and I was done.
Another way I collaborated with others was creating some artwork with Paul Holmes for 2 songs I wrote with Ashton. I got 2 background images and 2 different fonts I liked and me and Paul used photoshop to put them together and made sure they were album artwork size and made sure I was happy with them both which I was.
Another way I collaborated with others was writing and recording some guitar for Blake’s song. He started off by showing me what drum beats he was going to use as he is a drummer and I chose a key for the song for him and he created some MIDI bass to go over his drums. Then when he did that I wrote a funky guitar part, a sustained chord progression and a distorted plucking note and let him choose what he wanted to use.
Another way I collaborated with others was writing and recording some guitar for Leoni’s song. Once she was nearly done with her song I wrote and recorded some acoustic guitar for her and also a little lead part and let her choose if she wanted to use the little lead part.
Another way I collaborated with others was writing a song with my friend Ethan for his final project. He show me a riff and a chord progression he wanted to use. Once I heard the little demo he made I re wrote the structure of it and re recording his guitar parts so they sounded cleaner and tighter and added a lot more guitar parts. Then added bass then did some MIDI drums then used some cool FX’s he found to start his song. Once all the instrumentation was done. He wrote a mess of lyrics and I organised them into (verse 1, chorus, verse 2, chorus). Then because Ashton couldn’t make it to college I sang and recording the vocals for Ethan then once I did that I mixing it and made some artwork for it and put it on Soundcloud.
- Discuss and assess the success of your collaborations
I personally thought I had good success with my collaborations as I produced 2 really good songs from it and another decent one accompanied by some really cool and great artwork and whilst I was doing that I helped other people with their project by helping them sound better and doing what they wanted in the song that they couldn’t do themselves.
3. OWN PERFORMANCE
- Rate your commitment to and engagement with this project
I feel like my commitment has been quite dedicated as I’ve spent a lot of time on it and I’ve even stopped going to English to make sure I do as well as possible on this project and I love music so I’m always dedicated to anything music related.
- What professional qualities have you demonstrated during this project?
I feel like as a musician I’ve shown that I can be independent but as well as being able to work with others. Also the way I’ve written and recorded both songs has shown the professional qualities I have demonstrated as I’ve written the songs how most professional bands write song by jamming together. I’ve recorded the songs using professional micing techniques and tight professional playing/recording.
- How would you improve this project if you were to undertake it again?
I would improve by doing the whole writing part such as context, research reflection and evaluation in more detail and learning to understand it more but its quite hard when you don’t have a passion for it unlike the music playing, recording and writing part. I would also improve by researching and learning more about mixing side like more ways to use compression and understanding what different plug ins do which I would love to do because I enjoy doing it and it interests me.