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This week, I changed the choice of authentic cover I will be doing as I realised that it was arguably too easy on guitar and would have pushed myself and Felix (The other guitarist) enough. At first I was apprehensive about it as we didn't have any ideas on the next track but once we spoke about it we decided on the track Hypnosis by Sleep Token. This has turned out to be a better choice as it pushes all 3 of us adequately whilst also allowing for lots of room for innovation.

In the future, the only thing I really could have done differently and will do differently is be less apprehensive as it is early enough in the project that it's fine if these things happen and arguably will lead to better results.

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Gibbs cycle // Reflecting on previous semester

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Gibbs cycle // Reflecting on previous semester

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Gibbs cycle __ Reflecting on the previous semester_

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Specific: This semester, I plan to innovate in DAW recordings by using technology in ways that it wasn’t necessarily designed for.

Measurable: This is measurable by judging how much I have done with technology and how the end result sounds.

Achievable: This target is extremely achievable as it is relatively easy to do using the access we have to the waterbear studio space and the small pond studio.

Realistic: I believe that this target is realistic as it’s easy to pull off with some experimentation.

Timely: This will depend on my work ethic during this module, but this should be easy to finish in a timely manner.

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Gibbs cycle // Reflecting on my formative feedback

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Gibbs cycle // Reflecting on my formative feedback

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I was pleased with my formative feedback in the sense that I now know where my work exceeds relative to the criteria, however also where it is severely lacking.

The feedback I was given said that my work hits LO2 (Techniques) and LO3 (Performance/Presentation) and checks all boxes in those categories, however it is severely lacking in LO5 (innovation).

This is something I knew I would struggle with however I have some ideas on how to be more innovative and argue that effectively in my innovation pitch. Whilst LO5 is where the majority of the marks lie for this assignment, the fact that it is the only area that needs some major work takes a lot of the workload off of my back and means I can focus and hone in on that area specifically.

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In this week I decided to fully commit to alkaline as the creative cover, and I have change the original track to a track that myself and a drummer wrote a while back that I haven't used in anything yet and shows technical ability in a more significant way than Binary. This track is currently titled pirate but will definitely change. These are likely to be my final song choices as I am feeling a lot more inspired by these than the other choices I have made in this semester.

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Innovation project proposal // First draft

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Innovation project proposal // First draft

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I'm including these to show the work outside of the assignment that I have been doing that contributes to my playing and future assignments (WB10/11)

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Original track // Initial ideas and writing

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Original track // Initial ideas and writing

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My initial idea for the original track is to do a track I've written with my band Cimmerian currently called binary. This will be a DAW track as there is more room to innovate using a DAW in my opinion.

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My initial idea for an innovative cover is to recreate "Clockwork" by Northlane. I will do this in a DAW as I can get closer to the sound that Northlane have on their studio track and I have more room to be creative with my own additions to the track.

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Social media post 1 // Zagreus solo - Periphery

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Social media post 1 // Zagreus solo - Periphery

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Zagreus - Periphery // Solo cover #shorts

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Social media post 2 // G.O.A.T - Polyphia

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Social media post 2 // G.O.A.T - Polyphia

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Social media post 3 // It's only smiles solo - Periphery

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Social media post 3 // It's only smiles solo - Periphery

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Social media post 4 // The Summoning solo - Sleep Token

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Social media post 4 // The Summoning solo - Sleep Token

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Social media post 5 // Garden in the bones solo - Periphery

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Social media post 5 // Garden in the bones solo - Periphery

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Social media post 6 // Whiplash - main riff playthrough

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Social media post 6 // Whiplash - main riff playthrough

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Whiplash - Liam Benn // Main riff play through #shorts

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Social media post 7 // Under a glass moon solo - Dream Theater

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Social media post 7 // Under a glass moon solo - Dream Theater

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Reflecting on WB07 // Post-assignment reflection

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Reflecting on WB07 // Post-assignment reflection

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In week 5, I was talking to one of my housemates about the assignment and he gave me some ideas when it comes to a fully creative cover. He suggested stripping a track back in a different way instead of stripping a track back in an acoustic style.

The track I now have in mind is alkaline by Sleep Token. This track is heavy however there is a lot of room to strip it back in an ambient way. I have been piecing a version together and it is looking more promising than the Atlantic creative cover. I'm still not 100% sure however I am leaning towards the Alkaline cover more than the Atlantic cover.

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This week I changed the cover I'm going to be doing again, This should be the final time I change cover as I'd like to start working on getting the cover put together and recorded. We are now doing The Summoning by Sleep Token. We are going to stick to largely the same reasons for innovation however some things will change but I need to figure out how and what will change exactly.

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In week 3 I once again changed my choice of cover. This time it has changed to "Atlantic" by sleep token. The idea behind this change was to take the song and flip the style of each section as 2/3s of the song is piano and vocals only with the other 1/3 being heavy. My idea is to flip this to be 2/3s heavy and 1/3 piano and vocals. This is what I will submit for my formative however there are no guarantees that this song choice will stay the same.

All in all I'm having a hard time choosing the track I would like to do for the creative cover as it is hard to find a track to use and innovate on. This is largely due to the definition of innovation from person to person being very different. For example, the tutors I have on Monday mornings think what we are doing is very innovative, but the tutors on Thursday are having a harder time in seeing the innovation in our tracks.

I will keep at it for the time being however and hopefully I will come out of this module with a good grade and some good material.

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This week was mostly spent preparing for the formative. I am currently sticking with Atlantic by sleep token which has been a nice level of stability and has allowed me to focus more on practising my keys skills.

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This week we did the first rehearsals and live take of Alkaline. I was not happy with how these went but we got good feedback that we could act on. If nothing else this week showed the potential of the creative cover. We also decided to make things easier we would cut down the amount of tracks as a group, meaning that now 3 of us are working on alkaline as a track for the summative.

This means we will hopefully put in more effort into the track in the coming weeks and it should develop nicely.

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This week we worked on alkaline briefly, however most of the week was spent developing the other tracks for the people in the group.

There has however been a big development in the personal innovation side for alkaline. I am now playing the keys which I never normally do and meant that the practice I did on Atlantic and my keys techniques was not pointless. This will also be a big thing to talk about in the innovation pitch and should help me argue the innovation side of the module.

In week 8 I also performed Pirate for the first time and got some feedback on how the innovation could come more from a live sense than a compositional sense. This was helpful and the plan is to now use multiple GoPros and set up a live feed of me performing on a projector behind me, getting multiple angles of a performance and being innovative in a sense that people don't normally get to see that perspective of a live performance, let alone live whilst it's happening. This needs to be verified that it 100% can happen but it would be a good way to innovate.

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Week 9 was a rocky week for me in many ways. During week 9 we celebrated both mine and Daniel Davies' birthdays which meant that we did not really get a lot of work done. This left me in a bad mental state as things weren't progressing and alkaline seemed to fall by the wayside for a lot of people which meant that it didn't get worked on and didn't improve much. This was something I expected and have had to tale the reigns on more starting from this week as it is now vital that it really gets moving.

As I write this, we had a rehearsal earlier today for alkaline and it started to sound a lot better this time. Whilst my keys skills aren't perfect, they are a lot better. All of the flaws I identified in vocal melodies etc I brought up and made sure they were fixed by the end of today's session. I am in a much better mindset around the track now as today was very productive and really cleaned up the track as a group. The last thing left to do on the track is to tighten it up and make sure that everyone stays in time and knows their cues and parts.

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This week, we did some backup recordings of both Alkaline and Pirate. These are a high enough quality that I am happy to submit them, however I will decide which I think I played better in after the recordings take place on the 18th of April.

Sadly, I wasn't able to do my initial idea for the innovation for Pirate, however I have another plan. Some of my feedback on the formative assignment was to try performing in unusual places, I have had the idea to use a green screen and lean into the name and feel of the song but using the green screen to place myself in front of a pirate ship backdrop. This hopefully will adequately hit the performance in unusual places and also the larger than life performance idea spoken about earlier in the semester.

In the backup recordings, I made a lot of minor mistakes in my playing in alkaline and in pirate I mixed up a few sections. These are simple mistakes to fix as I've played the tracks correctly many times and it was likely just a pressure in the moment issue as opposed to a lack of preparation issue.

I also started my write-ups this week for this module. I have completed my first draft of the innovation pitch and press release and now I am working on fully finishing those ready for the summative assignment.

WB07 has taken a backseat this week for me however in comparison to WB08 as the due date for WB08 is sooner than WB07. This has obviously meant that WB08 has been a higher priority.

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Week 8 // Live P1 - Original track "Pirate"

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Week 8 // Live P1 - Original track "Pirate"