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My primary goal for this project still remains to construct a portfolio of music and apply for a masters in composition for film, tv and media. Having spoken with the faculty at Bristol University, I have discovered that the ideal maximum number of tracks is 4 instead of 5 and so, depending on time, output, and track quality, I will aim for 4 high quality tracks instead of 5. That being said, there is still merit in aiming for 5 as then I have the option to select which works are my best output.

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The feedback on my WB10 project was overall positive. The practices I had engaged in were effective, with strong communication and processes laying a good groundwork for my project going forward. The general feedback for improvement and forward progress was to link all my actions, intentions, and decisions to a professional reference of some kind. This term I want to reinforce all my decisions with an industry reference or observation of professional practice.

Additionally, while my plan was strong, I failed to include contingencies and alternative pathways to help combat delays and complications. This term I need to plan with contingencies in mind.

I also plan to pay more mind to my professional opportunities. By identifying my possible income streams, branding options, and marketing capabilities, I will ground myself better to start earning through music alongside my prospective masters.

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One major goal from this term is to increase my workflow efficiency as a composer. I want to be able to write faster and retain a high quality of music.

(Kenyon, 2018) recommends various workflow and creative tips to help with composers, based on his interviews with successful industry models. Two pieces of advice that stuck with me particularly were 'pick up a new instrument' and 'finish micro-tasks before moving on'.

I was already planning to learn the piano to improve efficiency, but I hadn't considered it's creative implications, so I will be starting piano lessons promptly to expand creative opportunity and composition skills as well as personal development.

A bad habit of mine when composing is trying to compose 'vertically'. Focusing on harmony, counterpoint, and ensemble before considering the melody, lenght, or form of a track. In my compositions this term I am going to make sure to complete 'task by task' work. E.G completing an A section melody before fleshing out the harmony of the A section.

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There is no specific time blocked out for research in the writing, mixing, or mastering stages of my project. This is because I want all my processes to be reinforced with research into best practice of specific areas. I plan to research as I work and upload the findings here, alongside the work.

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Composing - Large Output (And it's difficulties)

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Composing - Large Output (And it's difficulties)

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Why I found composing large amounts of music quickly hard. Overcoming professionalism. Professional strategies for efficient output. Practice Practice

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Professional Standards of Output and Quality

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Professional Standards of Output and Quality

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From my interview with Finn McNicholas last term I discovered that the expected output for work is often quite varying. Finn says he produces about 10 minutes of music per day, and one of his peers completes a 1 hour tv episode every week (equating to around 10 minutes per day). With this in mind a focus of mine this term is increasing my speed but without detriment to my quality.

Brantingham (2012) outlines a series of 5 points that define a professional composer over an amateur

1. You compose everyday, like it is your job. You just do it.

2. You learn about your craft. This means theory, instrumental technique, understanding yourself and how you work best. A lot goes into craft.

3. You put your music out there for the public to hear it.

4. You finish the pieces that are nagging you, because you know thats what you need to do. Don’t become too invested in the final product.

5. After you finish, you start the next one, and you always improve.

point 1 and 4 seem particularly important. Composing all the time, increasing output and just practicing as you would any instrument, and finishing pieces without stress of perfectionism. These are two major factors for me to work on to develop consistency and a professional work outlook/process.

RenegadeProducer.com, (n.d.) states that there are 3 different categories that define a professional producer. They break down a required proficiency in Music production Tools (Daws/Hardware/Instruments), Music Theory (Base Music Theory, Arangment theory, Production Theory), and Music Production Practice (Production Process, Listening and Creation exercises).

I feel confident with these currently but they provide a clear outline of areas to focus on continual development and imporvement. Particular areas of improvement for me are best production practices. Navigating mixing orchestra and ensemble works to a high level.

Brantingham, J. (2012). Becoming a Professional Composer. [online] Art of Composing. Available at: https://www.artofcomposing.com/becoming-professional-composer [Accessed 29 Apr. 2025].

RenegadeProducer.com. (n.d.). The Music Production Skills You Need as an Independent Producer. [online] Available at: https://www.renegadeproducer.com/music-production-skills.html [Accessed 29 Apr. 2025].

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I started Piano Lessons this week also. This is something I spoke about in my WB10 proposal as a relevant skill for my applications and professional development. We stripped away everything I thought I knew and are beginning from the basics. I will check in with an update on progress in week 4, identifying wether this is relevant to professional development and progress.

I have attached the notes and practice points from my first lesson as evidence of practice and personal development.

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Slow Progress - Bereavement and Struggles

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Slow Progress - Bereavement and Struggles

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I've struggled with work flow, focus and engagement, and work quality in the last few weeks. This correlates directly with a recent bereavement. I have decided to undertake a body of research to understand how best to move forward, and how I can navigate these problems as freelancer and self driven individual in the future

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Working through Grief and Illness as a Freelancer or Self-Employed Person

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Working through Grief and Illness as a Freelancer or Self-Employed Person

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After performing a body of research on navigating grief and disruption in freelance work (attached) , I have developed a plan for re-grounding and establishing myself in this project. Because I didn't give myself time directly after the bereavement, I will take one week off of working and focus on creative and passion projects. Within this time I will also make use of the resources provided by Fahey, Rumaker, and Ordille, in their journal article Grieving while you work, working while you grieve: Grieving while you work.

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Piano Lesson Check In - Progress and Continuing

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Piano Lesson Check In - Progress and Continuing

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Over the last 3 weeks, since my first lesson, I have progressed considerably with my Piano playing. I can already feel some effect in my composing when working in daw, as I am able to play in my parts more accurately. Additionally I am reading the score faster when composing on Musescore, largely due to Piano and Sight-reading practice recommended by my piano teacher.

I have attached my practice points from the last two weeks. There is a large focus on scales and fluidity between hands, two things which I feel will help greatly going forward as a professional musician.

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I have also come to the realisation that I can expand my revenue streams through my piano playing. In the long term, when my proficiency is greatly increased, I will be able to hire myself out for session or function work as a keys player. I plan next week to do research on the time input required, the avenues to achieve this work, and the viability of function and session work as a secondary income.

The other opportunity I would love to pursue with keys and piano playing is Musical Director (MD) work for Musical Theatre. Prior to research this feels like something of a pipe dream, but I will also research the opportunities in this field next week.

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Macbook Breaking! Backup Failure and Re-Scheduling

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Macbook Breaking! Backup Failure and Re-Scheduling

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New timeline based on 'Current' postion. 3 half tracks completed as of march 3rd

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Because of my Macbook breaking, I was forced to increase my workload to try and get back on track with my original schedule. While this was, unfortunately, not possible, I was able to write three concept tracks, and make plans for more tracks, in the space of just 8 days. Across the end of week 5 and start of week 6 I wrote the A + B sections for a fairytale inspired orchestral composition, a horns focused melancholy ensemble piece, and a 4 part a capella choral score. These tracks aren't perfect, and I'm not overly happy with some of the passages. However, I think this is good for me.

Being forced into a time crunch made me place my perfectionism to one side. I now have 3 strong tracks to work from, editing the sections I don't like, adding variations and closing sections to the tracks should take less time now than constructing new tracks from start to finish. I feel I have made a breakthrough in compositional process. I need to focus on creation first, and then refine the product later in the process.

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This is the score as a result of the first working session on a new piece. I decided to make sure to work with the melody moving forwards always, focusing on fleshing out an A + B section. This is the best I have felt in regards to time to output ratio. Around 2 hours work for roughly 2 minutes of music

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This is the score from the first working session on a track for 4 horn sections in an orchestra. I foudn the textural dynamic to be lacking and the impact of the more intense sections missing so I included all 4 string sections in order to bolster the horns. This track was also worked on with melody as a focus, but I found a natural interplay between the 4 horn sections (particulary F horn and Trumpet) and the harmony constructed by the 4 instruments simultaneously outlined the melody.

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The score from my first session working on a new choral quartet. I lost a quartet when my hardrived got corrupted so I wanted to recreate it. The goal with this track is to recreate some of Eric Whitaker's harmonic choices. I'm not overly happy with it, the hormic choices feel more like mistakes than dissonance at points. Nevertheless I will push to finish this track as recommended by various industry professionals.

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This score and the one above are the 2nd and 3rd sessions working on my choral quartet piece. I have decided the piece has promise, with strong dissonant and diatonic harmonies interplaying well, and good vocal placement. However, I don't have access to a choir, and I don't think submitting MIDI vocals showcases enough professionalism for my masters applications. For this reason I have decided to shelve the finished choral quartet.

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This is the score from my second session of writing my piece for horns and strings. The speed of development on this track is slightly less quick but I've managed to develop on a full A section moving through a B section melody. Happy with my progress

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Cooking in solitude is a track I wrote as part of the innovation module of level 5. It was highly commeded by Bessi Smith and is the track that prompet the quote in my Elevator pitch 'fresh, authentic, and sophisticated'. These are exactly the traits I want to show in my portfolio submission so I am bringing the track forward into this project and refining it with a proper mixdown this time

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I've been avoiding re-visiting this track as it is my favourite so far and I don't want to ruin it. After the second section of work, however, I have built on my A nd B sections and am developing a third C section (or some kind of AB recapitulation section). Really happy with my progress and glad to put perfectionism aside and focus and process and professionalism

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This is my third session scoring 'Fairytale Ditty' and it all just came together. The third C section worked out really well and I've decided to call this work finished. It now needs exporting and mixing.

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Copyright laws are different as a composer than as a singer songwriter or producer. I did a body of research on how copyright, ownership, and licensing functions as a composer for media.

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As I will, more often that not, be working as an individual entity, when I begin distributing and licensing my work I will register a sole trader. As my income will almost certainly be less than £85,000 I will not need to register to pay legal tax and, as I will be registered for self assesment, it should be relatively straight forward (as straight forward as taxes are) to include tax write-off's. This will be necessary due to the lump sum nature of many contract payments, as well as budget payments including expenses such as studio time, musician hire, etc.

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I spent quite some time playing with the ending for this track, deciding how it should come to close. Most things I tried were slow reductions of the texture but that didn;t feel right. Instead I decided to bring the full ensemble back in for one tense and slightly unresolved chord. This tracks is now considered done and I need to move on to mixing.

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The mixing process for all of my ensemble tracks was incredibly similar.

Step 1

placement and panning - Panning all the instrumetns to their place in a traditional orchestra

Step 2

reverb + spacial - I send all the left side instruments through a reverb panned far right and vice versa to emulate sound directions and where it tends to bounce from, as well as using reverb amounts to place the instruments further forward and back by sending more or less through the send to the wet verb.

Step 3

Compress and EQ - Everything gets at least 2:1 compression and then. I further compress some instruments for volume purposes also. At the same time I EQ the instruments for clarity. I find compressing the instruments alters the frequency spectrum slightly so there was little value in EQing before

Step 4

tweaks and adjustments - Using my ear I just go back and forward through all the instruments until the mix feels well balanced an clarified

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I said from the beginning I wanted 4 tracks in project and, with the non inclusion of my choral quartet, I had to sort somethign swiftly. I decided to pull from previous works to shwocase diversity. This is a track that was highly commended by Tim Arnold and he even gave me his buisness card when he heard the first live version of it in 2nd year. I decided that this meant the track is of a strong enough quality to hold it's own, and will show a good range of genres in my portfolio.