Time management
Throughout the project, I believe our time management allowed us to work effectively, even though we had to work around delays and the Italy project. We made up for the lost time caused by the Italy project by working through the two weeks of Easter holidays that followed it. In this time, we wrote the whole song after some creative block. I quickly got over creative block by viewing my time spent working as time spent simply doing what I enjoy, as though its only purpose was to be a hobby.
However, I do think we misjudged how long different tasks take, and I feel as though this would change if we were to re-do the whole project in the same time frame. For this reason, I can’t find much to change other than research past student’s work who were working on similar projects, how they scheduled things and what they said in their evaluation about their time management.
I think we fell behind during recording, particularly with drums and vocals, as our time spent in the studio was considerably more than we had planned. This may have been due to not rehearsing enough before using the studio.
In general, I don’t believe we stuck to the week by week plan closely enough. Even if we had, I think we would have struggled to get work done in time as time in the studio would have been limited since multiple people would have needed time in there at the same time.
Instrumental skill
This project tested me creatively and technically. During the recording process, I realised I couldn’t record a bass part due to poor technique, even after practice. Because of this, I had to ask a tutor to record it instead.
Generally, I think my instrumental skill was adequate and allowed me to write and record ideas quickly. If I could do this project again, I would have planned technique specific practice for bass and carefully plan out guitar practice, covering finger dexterity, fretboard knowledge (although I did find the knowledge I already have on this very useful) and general technique exploration.
On top of this, I could have documented my practice in one long practice diary through video and uploaded every video in one as proof, or uploaded individual practice videos and evaluated what I covered after every upload.
Documentation
My documentation of this project was adequate but I think I could have planned to document my work more effectively and tried different methods in previous projects, such as video or audio recordings.
During the development stage, I feel as though I could have kept on top of it better and taken breaks to make sure I have different save files for updates. I’m pleased with how setting up different pages for different stages or topics went, as I think it saved me some stress about organisation.
I stuck to methods of documentation that I knew I was comfortable with to speed up completing work comfortably, which I think was a correct choice. Some variety could have been nice, though.
Throughout the recording stage, I believe I documented the work we did in the studio well but lacked documentation on work that I completed at home, besides displaying the equipment I used and how I used it. I think I should have recorded guitar rehearsal as well as bass to ensure I covered everything equally.
In the mixing stage, I documented everything equally in terms of what I was doing through screenshots but lacked audio files to show the audible change in my work. I think this would have been very beneficial on top of the screenshots.
Overall, my documentation appears, to me, to be to an acceptable level but not great.
Research
My research was in-depth and relevant to the project. I think my research into genres and inspirations was helpful for me to identify key features of the genre we were writing in to apply to the project itself, and the research into specific songs in that genre allowed me to incorporate different ideas.
My research on Logic and how to speed up my work using the software was effective as I found working at a quick rate much easier and it felt more natural, even with just using simple key-binds.
Distribution was a key part of the project, so I’m happy with the amount of research I completed relating to different distribution services and different methods of distribution. It was very helpful as it provided insight as to which distribution service would fit our needs best while avoiding cost and not expecting profit or attention.
Future projects
During the experimentation and writing phase, I found the style in which I’m most comfortable writing in and thought of some ideas that I want to try develop in my free time. I also thought about what I would change for next year’s project if I was to do something similar to this.
The first change I would make would be whether I work with other people or by myself. After trying to work with someone I trust a lot, I have found that I work best alone as the progress of the project can’t be held up by someone else and I can work at my own pace with no stress about having to update someone on what i’ve completed.
The second change would be that if i was doing a project that required me to think of original ideas and develop them, I would think of many ideas before proposing the project so that I have somewhere to start and not have to panic about getting experimentation and writing completely done in the first few weeks.
Additional notes
Being given the chance to choose my own project has sparked some ideas that I’m already passionate about which I would love to either work on in my own time or during the next academic year as a final project. I’ve already been recording ideas through Logic to work on sometime in the future.
Also, I know now that writing ideas for one project births multiple ideas for different projects, so in future I will be thinking of ideas and acting upon the ideas I like more often in order to start building a portfolio and gain experience.
Plus, I’ve learnt that without a deadline to worry about, I do genuinely enjoy songwriting.