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26/11/25

Band name not chosen yet

Whole band present - Nadz, Ethan, Oliver, Jackson, Aidian, Evan, Ellie, Iona, Maysen

Worked on Star Girl - McFly, Mr. Blue Sky - ELO

Set-up:

Set up instruments (plug in guitars, set up cymbals), mic levels check.

Took a while to set up, a few people late, mic levels sounding balanced, some guitars too quiet.

Warm-Up:

Tune instruments, scale/chord exercises

Vocal warmups, full band soundcheck.

Some playing over others/warming up with volume up.

Song Work:

Try Star Girl in full, work on bridge and end sections, split vocal duties, work out transition into Mr. Blue Sky.

Try Blue Sky to second chorus, work out harmonies during choruses, chord inversions for verse, solo guitar too quiet (boost with pedal), need to work out individual chords/lead lines for each guitarist

Songs are enjoyable to play and need more work on structure but overall good.

Arrangement:

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Progressive rock/metal

Guitar, bass, keys, drums

Mood mystical

70s-90s prog influence - Genesis, Rush, King Crimson, Camel, Marillion, Dream Theater

Evil breakdown

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I wasn't too anxious to perform as I've been doing so for a few years, but I was hoping everything would go smoothly as we hadn't spent as much time practicing one of our songs compared to the others. I feel our song choice/order was good as the energy of the songs ramps up throughout, and everyone loosened up a bit during the set. We did have to restart a song, thankfully quite quickly, and our sound could've been better. In my next band I hope to arrange more practices, work on getting transitions between song sections tight, and to show more energy onstage.

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Before my presentation I was worried about speaking in front of an audience, as I've not typically had to do that much, but I was confident that my notes would help me cover everything I wanted to talk about without having to read a full script. I think everyone did well in overcoming our anxieties about speaking, and that we managed to get our information across in a decently clear manner. I believe I could've come across more confident, and we should've practiced a bit more to make sure we hit all of the talking points concisely. Next time I would like to focus more on planning and being able to explain my points better.

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I believe I achieved roughly everything I set out to do in this piece, despite certain problems with Logic Pro. My original plan is loosely similar to the final version, as the genre and instrumentation didn't change, though I did end up leaning more towards a metal style at the end. I learned a lot about midi, mixing, editing, and setting up an interface as I hadn't used Logic Pro before. I feel the guitar and piano blend well in the clean section, and I like the transition from clean to distortion. Next time I'd like to spend longer creating a good mix, and have a wider range of instrumentation.

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Soundtrack based

Lydian, diminished

Suspense/danger

Chase

Ghibli Japanese scales

Music kicks in as chase starts

Builds up until bag is taken/trails off a bit after

Synths, strings, percussion, mellotron(?), wind instruments

Ascending string runs

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03/12/25

Band name - Sex Wax (possibly)

Present - Nadz, Ethan, Oliver, Jackson, Aidian, Evan, Ellie, Maysen

Not present - Iona

Star Girl - McFly, Mr. Blue Sky - ELO

Set-up was relatively quick, everyone on time, checked mic and amp levels, set up drum kit. We put the piano through the PA for better sound quality this time.

Warm up was as usual, tuning, scale exercises, vocal warmup, try get harmony balance correct.

As we had to perform we got straight into running through Mr. Blue Sky, and cut the end short so we could end the song cleanly and work on the rest later, volume balance sounding good this time. Star Girl almost there in terms of sounding finished, use 2 part guitar harmony for the horn section. Bridge still needs some work but overall sounds good, using chord chart to time chord changes with lyrics, and for string arrangement to guitar for Mr. Blue Sky.

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For this project, I decided to go for a more serious tone, despite the silent clip having the opportunity to take on a lighthearted dark humour air. In my original plan I knew I wanted a keyboard sound each time the protagonist reaches through the paper, and that the office setting required fluorescent light hum. The clip has a very obvious build up of tension, so I decided to save the musical aspect until he enters the locked room, during which the light hum starts to repeat on time with the music to tie ambience and soundtrack together. I had originally planned to keep the credits silent, but decided to add some quiet sinister piano so the piece would feel more finished. During this project I've become more adept with Logic, and used a large amount of automation on the sampled tracks as to time them to the clip accurately and realistically. I'd like to think using a recurring noise for the portal gives it a more coherent feel and that it captures the vibe of the clip quite well, while giving the audience hints by becoming louder and more drawn out as the tension builds. I'm quite happy with the musical aspect of this piece as I've been interested in film and media scoring for a while, and I think the instrumentation reflects the situation occurring well, as I chose tremolo strings to give a vintage horror movie feel. For the next project I'd like to focus on recording my own foley so I can create more accurately timed parts and have more ambient sound. I had lots of problems with my onedrive trying to export this to other computers so I was not able to fully record everything.

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Overall our performance went well. Our set order was Miss Moonlight (original), Star Girl - McFly, and Mr. Blue Sky - ELO, which I believe created a good atmosphere and build up as our original is very relaxed, and we transition Star Girl into Mr. Blue Sky, saving a crowd pleaser for last. We chose the name Miss Moonlight to tie into the other song titles to create more coherency throughout, and wore blue outfits to reinforce the theme. Our sound wasn't too bad, though I feel some of the guitars could've been louder and more balanced. I think we were quite rhythmically tight, and any slip-ups were resolved quickly. In terms of my playing, I believe my tone was decent and my main sections (lead on original, harmony horn section in Star Girl, lead and accompaniment parts in Mr. Blue Sky) went very well, though my volume could've been louder (I changed it so it has improved by Mr. Blue Sky). I think everyone in the band was quite excited and not too stressed and that definitely showed in our playing, and gave a better impression to the audience.

For our next project I'd prefer to have more time to write and rehearse, as we ended up cutting a section out of our original due to running out of time, work on set up and tear down so we can be efficient on stage, and have a more thourough sound/line check to make sure our sound is balanced and clear.

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Our original song is called Miss Moonlight, the lyrics were written by Jacob, Nads and Maysen. The music was mainly written by myself, Ethan, Jacob and Ellie. We started writing the song based off two chords Ethan chose, and having a jam with them. The full song was written while just Ethan, Jacob, Ellie and I were in, expanding on the two chords and applying theory knowledge, changing to A, as it is the fifth of D (the song key), for the prechorus, and to the minor third (F#min) for the chorus, then changing key to Emaj for the guitar solo. We had a few troubles agreeing on certain parts, namely the vocal melody during verses, and the song ending. We worked out the vocals by sending voice messages on whatsapp, and deciding on what harmonies sounded best for the song and the singer's ranges. We originally planned to have the chorus change key a whole tone after the solo, but ended up not having enough time for everyone to get comfortable playing and singing it, so we decided to keep playing the solo chords a bit longer and give Nads and Maison time to introduce the band. My main contributions would have to be the chorus and solo section chords, a little melody during the second verse to add some variation to the guitar sound, and the lead guitar. As I've been in a band for years, I'm quite used to songwriting, though it tends to be a different experience with every person. I learnt about writing more relaxed music (as I usually veer towards metal and prog), and figuring out how to create a full sound with four guitars playing different inversions and rhythms.

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I decided to use this backing track, as I find it is most accurate to the original track and the guitar has been removed cleanly with the levels of the other instruments preserved well.

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Dream Theater- Overture 1928 guitar backing track

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04/02/26

SEXWAX

Nadz, Ethan, Oliver, Ellie, Maysen, Aidian, Jacob

Evan not present, Jackson left college after Project 2.

Mr. Blue Sky - ELO, Original song Miss Moonlight

We decided to keep Mr. Blue Sky and our original as we think they worked out really well at our performance, and dropped Star Girl as it didn't really fit the kind of style we're going for.

Play through set, Miss Moonlight still needs some work to sound tighter, especially during pre-chorus and chorus.

11/02/26

SEXWAX

Nadz, Ethan, Oliver, Jacob, Ellie, Evan, Aidian, Maysen

Mr. Blue Sky - ELO, Miss Moonlight (Original), Bad - Michael Jackson

Play through set, sounding better than last week, though levels aren't that great.

Decided to add Bad - Michael Jackson to the setlist, jam along to original track to figure out arrangement and structure. Talk about other possible set choices, - Into the Groove - Madonna, Ain't no Mountain High Enough - Marvin Gaye, Stayin' Alive - Bee Gees.

25/02/26

SEXWAX

Nadz, Ethan, Oliver, Jacob, Ellie, Aidian, Maysen

Evan not present

Mr. Blue Sky - ELO, Miss Moonlight (Original), Bad/Smooth Criminal Medley - Michael Jackson

After seeing a concert, Nadz got the idea to combine Bad with Smooth Criminal, transposing Bad down a semitone so both songs are in A Minor. We were inspired by the Alien Ant Farm version of Smooth Criminal to add heavier aspects, such as distorted guitar and solos, but wanted to still have some of the more 80s sound that the original version has.

04/03/26

SEXWAX

Nadz, Ethan, Oliver, Jacob, Ellie, Evan, Aidian, Maysen

Mr. Blue Sky - ELO, Miss Moonlight (Original), Bad/Smooth Criminal Medley - Michael Jackson

Play through the set, still figuring out where and how to transition between Bad and Smooth Criminal in an interesting manner. Decide to have one final chorus of Bad at the end to tie everything together, and add a guitar solo to Smooth Criminal, where there is originally an instrumental break. Starting to sound decently well put together, but still have some timing issues with the transition and chorus of Smooth Criminal. I have decided to solo in a bluesy-shred sort of style, using the pentatonic boxes and the Dorian mode.

11/03/26

SEXWAX

Nadz, Ethan, Oliver, Jacob, Ellie, Evan, Aidian, Maysen

Mr. Blue Sky - ELO, Miss Moonlight (Original), Bad/Smooth Criminal Medley - Michael Jackson

As we have been given an opportunity to perform during the catwalk at the Granton Campus' Gie It Festival, we have chosen two setlists, so we can play songs that work with the atmosphere there and then later in the Mash House for our final performance.

Catwalk Set

Toxic - Brittany Spears

Don't Start Now - Dua Lipa

Sexy Back - Justin Timberlake

Young Hearts - Candi Stanton

Stayin' Alive - BeeGees

I'm Every Woman - Chaka Khan

(Set may change as it's unconfirmed whether the set will be instrumental or not)

Mash House Set

Murder on the Dance Floor - Sophie Ellis-Bextor

Miss Moonlight - Original

Bad/Smooth Criminal Medley - Michael Jackson

Touch Me - Rui Da Silva

Love Rears - Living Colour

Car Wash - Rose Royce

In practice we focused on getting the transitions in Bad/Smooth Criminal to flow naturally, and have the song sounding pretty finished. Decided to learn and work on a new song each week leading up to the performance, so we have a day dedicated to solely focusing on the song we're learning, then practicing the setlist as songs are added. I will be bringing my MacBook in so Ellie can use the Logic Pro synth sounds, to get a more accurate sound.

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Using the NeuralDSP Nano Cortex, which is a pedal controlled by an app with hundreds of tone presets, I used the Mesa Boogie JP-2C Distortion effect for my tone, a sound modelled after the amp head of the same name, and used by (and named after) guitarist John Petrucci of Dream Theater. I use this preset in my regular live set as I love the tone, and knew it'd give me the sound I needed for my solo performance.

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Exercises and Techniques used by John Petrucci

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Exercises and Techniques used by John Petrucci

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In this video, John goes into depth about his left and right hand technique, provides useful exercises and warmups, and breaks down many tricky skills such as legato and sweep picking. This video was very useful to me and my playing in general, and helped me during practice for the solo performance by letting me see how John's technique affects his playing style.

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Mixing Task - Like You Do - The Western Den

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Mixing Task - Like You Do - The Western Den

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For this task, I decided to choose Like You Do by The Western Den, as out of all of the options I believe it suited the spacey, airey mixing style I wanted to go for, and there were enough instruments and vocal harmonies to allow lots of panning to make it feel sort of tangible and less flat. The first thing I did was create a decent starting point by changing the volume levels, and panning the tracks to where I thought made most sense (drums panned as if you were sitting at them, keys and guitar at around -20/+20, trumpet and violin solo opposite each other, lead vocals centre with low and high backing either side). I used a compressor on lots of the tracks to get certain parts to stand out in the mix, namely the lead vocals, the kick drum and, due to the violin being rather overpowering, the trumpet harmonies. To give the drums a wider vintage feel, I used a very slight chorus on the overhead mic, as well as some stronger chorus on guitar and keys. The lead vocals have a limiter and de-esser as to dampen some of the harsher syllables, and a quick tape delay to fill some of the space. During the start of the song, and each trumpet/violin interlude, I used tracked panning to make the instruments sort of circle around each other for some added interest and variation. Everything except the drums has varied degrees of reverb, and the entire song is EQ'd through the master. Overall I think the mix suits the tone of the song, and has enough kick during the louder parts. Next time I'd like to spend a little more time exploring the rest of the FX, and I think the lead vocals could've maybe been smoothed out a bit more.