To preface, my reflective cycle followed a simple pattern of description, analysis, evaluation, followed by a conclusion joined with an action plan, which is noted as areas of improvement in most of my pages. I have found this helpful as I have used this cycle to improve my project as I go along, using the areas of improvement and action plan as a focus point.
How could you improve in the future?
What I have taken from this project is that I want to level out my skills across all instruments. Having said that, I don’t want my primary instrument to be blended out in any way.
I want to do this because this way, I could be useful in many different settings. Having a career in music to me means constantly learning, so learning both drums and bass alongside guitar will open up many avenues if I become good at all of them. I feel this project has inspired this, and I could definitely use more instrumental practice for similar future projects.
Additionally, I should keep recording both video and audio. I need to improve on these skills and look at interesting video editing to build a stronger portfolio.
What did you enjoy the most and least in the project and why?
The most enjoyable part of the project was the mixing stage, as I had creative freedom and this time around I felt like I was more prepared than last year’s final project. In preparation for projects like this, I had been recording parts of songs, most notably Radiohead songs, as this gives me goals to work towards to recreate certain sounds from scratch or to figure out what is being played, and then how it is edited to sound like how it does in the original song that I’m working on. This has made me cover various different effects and has forced me to be more familiar with Logic.
The least enjoyable part was the recording stage, as it was the most stressful stage due to tight deadlines and limited studio availability. In future, I should consider having a budget that goes towards booking studios external to college since college spaces are always too noisy, and recording drums for example will likely sound better elsewhere because it should be soundproofed better between rooms and the acoustic treatment would likely be better than pieces of foam hanging off of the ceiling.
Was my research sufficient and relevant?
All of my research was beneficial to my project. I used lots of the videos that I linked in various ways, but most notably for video editing.
What else could I have researched?
Something that would have been beneficial to look into would have been individual people that do what I have done regularly. Reaching out and having a chat about these kinds of videos would have been really interesting and could have helped me understand why they do this and what their process is, so in future I shouldn’t be afraid to reach out.
Do I think I have done anything better this project in comparison to the last project?
My confidence in mixing has improved, so I would say my ability to mix a song has improved as a result of practice in and outside of college work. It is also evident that my proficiency on guitar has improved since my last major project, though that hasn’t been displayed in a very clear way. I could have chosen a more challenging song to cover and focus on only bass and guitar if my aim was to display my guitar progress.
Have I gained any ideas for the future through this project?
Yep! I want to continue expanding my portfolio in this format, displaying my progress on drums, bass and guitar. I could also start posting on Instagram to gain a following if I choose to do more performance based projects. At the moment I’m part of the start-up of a punk band, so I would love to start doing promotional art and using different techniques and approaches to promote that band. Media promotion is something I want to look at to benefit my online presence in the context of music.