Pierce The Veil – Emergency Contact
This year I chose a song of a more comfortable genre based on what I usually play, while still challenging myself with some of the guitar parts and testing myself with adjusting instrument tones through Logic. I chose not to record drums or vocals as I don’t wish to progress with vocals in college and I’m yet to learn how to set up my drum kit properly at home for Logic.
My process of learning this song consisted of listening to the tab version on Songsterr and comparing it to the original song on Spotify. I realised there’s a lot more to the original recording than written in tabs, so I started learning the chords to the intro and learnt the rest by ear. I learnt the song in a couple hours and recording took me a total of around 4-6 hours over two days. The video took me about half an hour to put together because the way I recorded it was unnecessarily complex and I had to line up every clip with the audio I recorded through Logic. If I was to do something like this again, I would aim to record each instrument in as little parts as possible to show I can record everything altogether in one video. I DI’d everything using a jack lead and my audio interface and used Logic’s existing tone settings with some modifications. The only other thing I did to the audio was fade some parts in and cut a single recording into several pieces to move the middle part to a track with a different tone.
Evaluation
To me, this recording feels much more professional in comparison to my first initial assessment. Partly because I’m more comfortable using Logic now and because over the last year I have learnt to understand what I enjoy playing and what I’m good at, but I also think my technical ability has improved as I think I would have struggled majorly to stay in time and the amount of layers would have overwhelmed me. I think my understanding of tone made this cover much more accurate to the original in comparison again to my first initial assessment, too. Provided the time we were given, I could have finished the song but chose not to because I crammed this recording into two days and was happy with it. I think I would have burnt myself out trying to finish this without a few days break, so I’m happy with my decision not to continue.
Some parts feel stiff, like the intro pattern and the riff at around 0:35. I think I could have worked on playing it more fluidly so it would feel more natural by practicing this section slowly and speeding it up while watching how long I hold those notes for. My timing is okay, but I feel as though it could have been better in some places, like the part at the end of the recording where I messed up and at the end of the melody someplace in the middle where my note duration for some of the notes was unnecessarily long. I think my timing is mostly off because the pressure of having to record both audio and video makes me feel insecure. Also, there’s an acoustic guitar part that I chose not to record. I didn’t have one available and didn’t want it to sound too crowded with an electric guitar, though I could have experimented with tones that could simulate an acoustic guitar. My finger placement on the fretboard still isn’t optimal.
I should work on my finger placement on the fretboard so I can move quicker and so forming chords is easier, since everything will be convenient to reach. I can do this by practicing scales and movement drills and applying it to the way I learn new songs. I should also work on my timing specifically when I’m recording both video and audio because my confidence depletes as soon as I press record. I can do this by recording more frequently with a variety of different songs. Furthermore, I should focus on time management as I felt the need to cram all of my work into a couple of days since I made myself feel pressured to get it done. I think this is because last year I was running short on time for my initial assessment and didn’t want to be in the same position. I can work through this by learning what my work rate is like ordinarily while recording a song that I’m comfortable with but still pushes me a little bit.
Self Assessment
Practical Skills – Good
I’m proud of this year’s initial assessment as I think I have improved, mostly on guitar. I don’t think I chose a suitable song to display my progress as a bassist but it does show what I’m comfortable with.
Evaluation & Reflection – Good
My evaluation is in-depth and follows a helpful structure. I covered what I did well and what I could improve on, explained why I think what I do for each with reference to the video and concluded each part with a way to resolve any problems.
- Consistency of performance while recording, such as timing.
- I should consistently clarify the positive parts of my work in evaluation an equal amount as the negative points.
- Overall work towards achieving practical grades so I know where I am and what to learn to improve.
SMART Targets (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound)
I want to practice recording overall to improve my consistency, particularly in timing, and overcome the worry that comes with wanting perfection once I begin recording. To do this, I want to regularly record covers or partial covers of songs on guitar and bass. Something I want to do alongside this to ensure progress is record practical grade pieces. I want to figure out what grade I should be working towards on guitar, which I think is somewhere around grade 5-6, and start working on drums by recording a clean and consistent play through of a grade 1 piece. Improving my overall skill on my instruments and improving my ability to record consistently is important to me as I want to be able to record original ideas with accuracy and be comfortable with some level of complexity I plan to record covers throughout the year, completing at least two partial covers or full covers per month.
Another thing I want to work on is my consistency in evaluations and ensuring that I’m not only focusing on the negative points and also pointing out the positives. I should look to at least have an equal amount of positive and negative points on each, as at the moment I usually have a few lines on positive parts and a number of paragraphs on negative points or things that need work. I will review this with feedback from tutors each term in assessments, as well as feedback from friends and family.
I would like to officially get graded for my guitar grade 6-8 over this next academic year so I am qualified to apply to the universities I would like to go to.