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Future education opportunities and alternate career paths

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Future education opportunities and alternate career paths

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Two of the main elements that go into R&B melody writing are rhythm and pitch. Britannica describes rhythm as the structure of sounds in time while producelikeapro.com suggests that pitch is how high or low a note sounds. These two elements of melody writing go together to structure a melody. An example of using rhythm and pitch to write a melody is the main melody Will Darling wrote in the video referenced in 'Useful links'. He uses one note to establish a melodic rhythm then alters the pitch by using different notes that are both higher and lower in the scale. In order for the melody to stay in key, the notes must stick to the scale chosen. For R&B, the type of scales used can range from natural minor or major to pentatonic or blues. Whippedcreamsounds.com describes how pentatonic scales are 'some of the most important scales to learn'. The article also says that pentatonic and blues scales are frequently used in R&B music.

What is a pentatonic scale?

A pentatonic scale is a musical scale that only uses five notes. The two main types of this scale are pentatonic major and pentatonic minor. A major pentatonic scale consists of all the notes of a natural major scale with the 4th and 7th notes of the scale missing so it contains the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th notes of the scale. Similarly, the pentatonic minor scale consists of all the notes of the natural minor scale except the 2nd and the 6th. This means that it is made up of the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th notes of the scale. According to percussionsounds.com, the pentatonic scale helps musicians with improvisation. It is also beneficial because it has no semi-tones. This means that there will be no suspense or tension. As a result, the notes of the scale should fit nicely together giving the melody a smooth R&B sound.

Tempo

I again used whippedcreamsounds.com to research the most common tempos used in R&B music. The article mentions that tempo does not define the genre of R&B music so it does not matter if you go out of the average tempo range. However, the article analyses the BPM of 50 R&B tracks and came to the conclusion that the average tempo used in the genre ranges from 80-120 BPM (beats per minute).

Summary

The research from the first week of R&B melody writing has taught me that manipulating rhythm and pitch can establish a simple melody. In addition to this, R&B music can be written using a range of different major and minor scales and typically has a much slower tempo to other music genres ranging from 80-120 BPM.

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Week 1.1- F natural minor and F minor pentatonic scales

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Week 1.1- F natural minor and F minor pentatonic scales

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To write this melody, I am using the F minor pentatonic scale. Above is a video of me using the classic electric piano patch to form the f natural minor scale which is beside the F pentatonic minor scale. You can visually see the difference between the two scales. F minor pentatonic has no G or C sharp which restricts the tension as the notes played in order smoothly jump up a whole tone each time. This smooth and fluent transition between notes already gives a smooth and subtle R&B sound.

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Week 1.2- Establishing a rhythm and manipulating the pitch

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Week 1.2- Establishing a rhythm and manipulating the pitch

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Prior to writing the melody, I had already constructed a 6-2-5-1 chord progression in the F natural minor scale. To write the melody, I listened to the chord progression and wrote in a rhythm using the same note of F.This method is something I learned from Will Darlings YouTube video on melody writing. I then began to manipulate the pitch these notes by changing them to different notes in the f minor pentatonic scale.

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Week 1.3- Experimenting further with rhythm and pitch

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Week 1.3- Experimenting further with rhythm and pitch

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After I got my basic idea on how the rhythm should sound, I altered it further by using different notes and changing some note lengths. I picked up the pace of the melody at the end to replicate a rhythm that would commonly be used in an R&B lead sound. This also adds an unpredictable element to the melody. This is because the melody in bars 1-3 is quite slow but then changes in bar 4.

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Finally, i developed the simple melody further by adding some extra notes. I changed the notes in the 2nd bar to a prolonged note that leads to the B section of the melody. Overall, the melody is quite simple and repetitive. In my opinion, the start of the melody has catchy elements where I can imagine the listener singing along to. However, it is lacking in unpredictability. This is something I can work on in the next 3 weeks to come. To me, the melody written this week sounds more like a vocal melody that an R&B artist would sing. This could lead to future opportunities of me working with singers or vocalists to write a vocal melody.

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Call and response is a melody writing technique that refers to similar phrases interacting with each other like a conversation. The call can be referred to as the 'A' section and the response the 'B' section.

How to write a call and response melody

The Flypaper article points out that keeping a melody simple and not overly complicated allows the listener to familiarise themselves with the melody, making it catchy. To keep the melody simple, you could restrict the amount of different notes used and use a consistent rhythm that is not constantly evolving. In the EDMProd video, he describes the most important element of a call and response melody as the tones/sounds used. He says that you should use sounds that blend together but still have their own unique sound so that they have presence in the melody. He creates the melody using a piano sound for the call phrase and using a bell sound for the response. The two phrases use the same rhythm. However, the piano is a darker sound while the bell is more bright. This is how he uses the voicing to differentiate the call from the response to structure the melody as if it was a conversation. Furthermore, he uses three notes to start with for the call section then duplicates it and moves it two semi-tones down. In the response section, he does the exact same thing and takes away the final note. This structuring of the call and response melody is something I will be using to write my own with the application of the stylistic features of R&B discussed in week 1.

Writing my call and response melody

To write my version of the call and response melody, I will be using two different tones like EDMProd. These will be an electric piano sound and a bell sound which are commonly used in R&B (instrumentation and stylistic features of R&B will be analysed in week 3). Using the F minor pentatonic scale already restricts me to the maximum usage of five notes meaning I can keep the melody simple like the flypaper article suggests. The electric piano will be the call, while the bell will be the response. An example of a call and response melody in the R&B genre is "Dead man walking" by Brent Faiyaz. At around 26 seconds into the track, a synth pluck sound is introduced. The melody plays one note, briefly pauses, then plays two more notes. The first note is the call followed by the response of the resolving two notes. This call and response melody becomes the main and most prominent melody heard throughout the track. It is simple and catchy to the listener as the call and response section altogether is made up of three notes which is easy for the listener to follow along to. This is an example that helped me understand that call and response is also important in R&B for writing a catchy melody.

Summary

From my research for this week, I can infer that call and response melodies are quite simple but can be used in R&B to establish a catchy melody. From the EDMProd video, I can also gather that using two different sounds that blend together will make the melody stand out more to the listener.

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The video linked is me constructing the 'call' section to my R&B call and response melody. To start off writing this call and response melody, I removed the melodic phrases in bars 2-4 and used the shortcut 'command + R' to duplicate the first phrase into bar 3. Next, I altered the notes in bar 3, like EDMProd did, so that it has the same rhythm but can be differentiated from bar 1.

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This video is me writing the 'response' part of the melody. The response melody consists of three descending notes. These notes contrast to the mostly ascending rhythm the call section. I then experimented with the notes in bar 4 to stick to the same rhythm but give different tones. The response part of the melody gives a more R&B feel than the call due to the tonality and the rhythm.

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In the video linked, I am copying the response part of the melody I have written on the electric piano track, on a separate synth bell track. I then rename the electric piano track 'call' and the synth bell track 'response' by double clicking on the track name. Next, I delete the response sections from the call track and the call sections from the response track so the sounds are not layered. The final result is a catchy call and response melody with R&B features. It also has unpredictable elements by using the synth bell. This is because the listener is accustomed to the electric piano sound as it has been used for the chord progression and the call melody. The synth bell is a sound with way more depth and texture than the electric piano.

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Week 2.4- Changing the tone (alternative)

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Week 2.4- Changing the tone (alternative)

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As an alternative to using two contrasting sounds in a call and response melody, i have demonstrated in the video above that you can also use two similar sounds. In this instance, I did the exact same process but used an electric piano sound for the call and a chorused electric piano for the response. The chorused electric piano is more modulated and has more of a bell sound giving it an overall higher frequency so it can be differentiated from the call melody. I did this to ultimately, glue the call and the response together and not make the tones sound too distant from each other.

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So far in the process, I have constructed a basic R&B melody in the F minor pentatonic scale over a chord progression by manipulating rhythm and pitch. The melody written in week 1 was a good starting point which had an R&B feel to it at the end of bar 4. However, it mostly lacks the stylistic features of R&B which I believe is mostly down to the dull instrumentation used. Instrumentation will be addressed in week 3 which should give the melody a more R&B feel. The YouTube video I found on melody writing was only used to help me establish a rhythm. Instead of using the source for just the first part of the melody writing process, I believe it would have been more beneficial to follow more of the tutorial to give me more guidance, this would not necessarily have to be the tutorial I used. To respond to this, I followed the tutorial used in week 2 more consistently, using more elements from the video in my melody writing process. The call and response melody written in week 2 was more successful because it demonstrates how I have understood the source used more effectively while still adding my own creative input. Furthermore, it had a more unpredictable element than week 1 because the instrumentation changes giving the listener a different sound. In weeks 3-4 I need to work on capturing the stylistic features of R&B more effectively.

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Week 3- Instrumentation & stylistic features of R&B

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Week 3- Instrumentation & stylistic features of R&B

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A key feature that defines R&B as a genre is the instrumentation and the chord progressions. The chord progression can set the tone for the whole track. I have used an R&B chord progression under my melody but the R&B instrumentation and feel is lacking. Modern R&B commonly uses sounds such as; synths, pianos, electric pianos and guitars.

Synths

One of the most common sounds used in modern R&B is synths. Synthesisers are particularly dominant in mainstream R&B music used by artists such as Drake, The Weeknd and Brent Faiyaz. Stefan guy uses Serum to construct his R&B synths. The synths he uses have a bright tone but still some low-end frequencies. Synth pads are used frequently to be layered underneath chords in R&B. They can add tension to a track giving it a darker or a brighter tone. I will be using a pad to layer over my chord progression to already give it a more R&B feel before even altering the melody. Synth plucks are also widely used in R&B. They are usually used in the main melody or counter melody. They are heavily prominent in Brent Faiyaz's music such as "Jackie Brown" and "Dead man walking". The synth pluck in general is usually a brighter sound used to establish a catchy melody. Another extremely common synth sound used in R&B music is the synth bell. The synth bell can be heard in the first and final section of the track "Lie again" by Giveon. The synth bell is typically a bright sound with mainly high-end frequencies. It generates a brighter tone contrasting to other sounds used in R&B such as pianos and electric pianos.

Pianos and electric pianos

Piano sounds are incorporated frequently in R&B and are used to write melodies and chord progressions. Soft and mellow pianos are a key stylistic feature of R&B to generate a calm, soothing tone typically used in tracks with an emotional feel. Soft piano and electric piano sounds are used by artists such as Giveon or Daniel Caesar, who usually makes emotional modern R&B music. In the track "Always" by Daniel Caesar, an electric piano is introduced first to set the tone of the track. This gives the listener a soft, mellow feel.

Guitars

R&B music also features many guitar sounds whether it is acoustic or electric. Acoustic sounding guitars are more frequently used in 2000s R&B while electric guitars are widely featured in modern R&B. The guitar melody used in Brent Faiyaz's "Talk 2 U" uses an acoustic sounding guitar sound which has similar features to guitars used in 2000s R&B tracks such as "Halfcrazy" by Musiq. In more modern R&B music, electric guitars are more frequently used. These electric guitars usually have a clean tone, giving a similar soft tone that is generated by pianos and electric pianos. An example of a clean electric guitar used in R&B is in "Easily" by Bruno Major. This is a soft guitar sound used as a chord progression as well as a melody. The clean electric guitar is able to give a brighter tone from the higher pitched notes than what would be heard from a piano sound. In a separately linked document titled 'R&B tracks' I have analysed the instrumentation and melodies used in successful R&B tracks which can inspire me to use similar instruments and tones.

Summary

From the research I have conducted this week, I have come to the conclusion that R&B sounds are typically quite bright, mostly high and mid end frequencies with still the presence of some low end frequencies. Furthermore, I have discovered that synths can be used to establish tension which can be used to make a melody feel more unpredictable for the listener. Pianos and electric pianos are more commonly used to create a softer more relaxing tone. Finally, acoustic and electric guitars can be used for a similar function to pianos but can generally sound brighter the higher the pitch.

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The videos used this week are mainly experimentation and do not necessarily have to follow a particular order or format. If you are following along, you can use any sound you wish. In this video, I am altering the sound of the chord progression and changing it to a bright synth pad. At the start, you can see me changing the attack and sustain of the amp envelope and the attack, sustain and release of the filter envelope, as well as the overall volume of the sound. I believe changing the sound of the chord progression was necessary because by changing the sound played under the melodies, I am able to set the tone for the entire section and easily build layers of instruments around the bright synth pad.

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The sound used in the video above is the same sound I used in the response section of the melody in week 2.3. After changing the sound, the melody already becomes brighter and can easily be heard over the chords despite their loud presence within the track. This is quite a bright sound which matches the brightness of the pad but it can still be recognised by the listener as its own sound because it has a higher frequency sound and reverb which gives the sound more depth.

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As an alternate approach, I used the 80s FM piano as the chord progression. This is a much smoother sound that would perhaps be head in 90s R&B as well as a modern R&B track. I wanted to create a strum affect with this electric piano so i quantised the track to 1/16 notes so that I could Q-flam it. This creates a strum affect and is faster than moving the notes to the right individually. As for the melody, i used searched for sounds which could be layered on top of the chords and eventually found the gentle sine bells sound. This is a soft sound which blends well with the 80s FM piano. Because of the sounds softness, it is able to make room for other sounds in the track that can be used for other melodic elements such as counter melodies without overpowering them. From an overall music producer perspective, it also leaves room for other elements of the track such as drums and bass.

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For the response part of the call and response melody, I came to the decision to change the sound to a synth lead. Synth leads are a sound commonly used in R&B tracks. The original sound had delay on it which I turned off because it was overshadowing the other section of the call and response melody. The sound itself is a bright synth lead with unique voicing making it stand out to the other instrumentation used in the track. This is a sound that I plan to use for the final melody. The knowledge learnt from this week will help me in future to easily construct an R&B track more easily because now I know the type of sounds the genre uses. This is something that will be useful for my original music material in the next project.

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Week 4- Counter melodies and layering sounds

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Week 4- Counter melodies and layering sounds

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A counter melody is a melody that is written and played on top of the main melody which may have a different tone or motion compared to the already existing melody. In the Busyworksbeats counter melody YouTube tutorial, he highlights the importance of contrast. He plays the main melody using short notes with a synth guitar pluck sound combined with a sustain pedal. As for the counter melody, he uses a synth sound and plays much longer notes. The different sounds being used and the length of the notes contrasting is what makes the secondary melody a counter melody. Counter melodies are widely used in R&B music to make the melodic elements of a track more unpredictable. An example of this in modern R&B is "Dead man walking" by Brent Faiyaz. The main melody of this track is a call and response melody which can be heard through the synth sound. The counter melody of this track is an ascending synth melody that is played in the background. This adds texture to the track and breaks away from the repetitiveness of the call and response melody. In the same track, at around 1.33, other counter melodies are introduced using different sounds. This introduction of new sounds and tones gives the listener something they were not expecting and therefore makes the melody unpredictable. Some of the different counter melodies within the track only play once and only for a short period of time, further adding texture and reinforcing the unpredictable element of the track.

Layering sounds

Adding different layers to a single sound or melody can make it sound fuller and give it different characteristics without actually manipulating the original sound. In the Hyperbits YouTube tutorial on sound layering, he adds darker and brighter tones to his chords in order to give it a larger sound that is more full. He uses bass and lead sounds to accomplish this. Layering can also be applied to R&B by using R&B instrumentation. For example, a synth pad could be pitched up an octave and layered over an electric piano to give the melody more brightness. Alternatively, another sound can be used and pitched down to give the sound a much darker feel. The technique of layering sounds is useful because it shows that you don't need to do any mixing to enhance the frequencies desired in a melody or counter melody.

Summary

The research from this week has led me to conclude that writing different counter melodies can add more textural variety to my melody and perhaps writing counter melodies that only get played once within the whole track will make it more unpredictable for the listener. Furthermore, layering sounds with other sounds will allow me to bring out different characteristics in the same melody which will ultimately make the instrumentation sound more refined and unique.

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The first thing I wanted to develop this week was the chords. I layered the bright synth sound with a mellow electric piano sound. This is to give the overall sound of the chords more depth and thickness in the track. The mellow tone of the electric piano contrasts to the brightness of the synth which evens the sound out more. Next, I was trying to take away some of the brightness of the synth so that it doesn't overshadow some other synth sounds that I knew I would be using for my counter melodies. I changed the fixed velocity to 60 and tried to do some inversions. Lastly, I decided to edit the velocity of individual notes specifically with higher pitches so that I could decrease the brightness to make room for other sounds.

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After I was happy with the tone of the chords, I decided to add some background textures by layering the response section of the call and response melody with a violin sound. I chose the violin sound because I wanted a more live-sounding instrument with a similar tone to the synth but also contrasting. The bright tones of the violin go well with the synth sound I have selected making it sound like one full sound. Sticking to the theme of live-sounding instruments, I then wrote a counter melody using strings. The writing process of this counter melody was simplistic as I just copied over the chords into the string trap and deleted all but the top notes. I found the overall tone of this to be too bright and distracting. Therefore, I copied the chords back over and using shift, selected all notes but the 5th of each chord and deleted them. This was an improvement to the brightness of the previous notes used.

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I used the melody written in week 1 as a counter melody played underneath the call and response melody. This has the gentle sine bell sound which has a mellow sound so it can easily be played in the background. I deleted the notes of the fourth bar in this counter melody to leave more room for the call and response melody to be effectively heard so the listener can familiarise themselves with it as it is the leading catchy melody. The section originally written in fourth bar would then come in later on in the next four bars. This is a melodic section that gives the most R&B feel so I wanted to layer the sound to give it more impact on the listener. I layered the sound with a mellow organ which enhances the end of the counter melody. This gives the track an element of unpredictability. I then spend the next section of the video constructing a guitar melody using a nylon guitar sound. The guitar melody begins with two notes in bar ten which are later played in bar twelve with an ascending progression of notes. The sudden ascension of notes adds to the unpredictable element of the track.

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To enhance the effect of the guitar counter melody, I layered it with a different nylon guitar sound. This nylon guitar was a pluck sound which I only layered on top of the original guitar at the end of the melody. This is because I wanted to make the end of the melody a thicker sound which could be heard over the sound of the of the synths in the background. I then layered the nylon plastic guitar with the same sound to make it sound fuller and louder. This meant that the guitar melody could be heard over the bright synth sounds that dominate the mix more than the other sounds.

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After some final adjustments to the guitar counter melody and arrangements of the different sounds within the track, the final melody was ready. The leading call and response melody can be heard first alongside the chords and strings. I then start to introduce different layers and counter melodies using different sounds. These sounds play different melodies adding to the unpredictable element of the track.

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The R&B melody writing process has now been completed. Over the 4 weeks spent on R&B melody writing, I have learned how to write simple R&B melodies and call and response melodies and how to make these sound more R&B using different instrumentation and layering of sounds. Something I learned in the process was that a melody can sound more like R&B just through the instrumentation. My first two melodies lacked stylistic features of R&B but then started to sway more towards the genre when I started introducing synth and piano sounds. This shows the improvement I have made and gradual understanding of what musical devices can be added to a melody to make it sound more R&B. For the final melody, I think the background sounds such as the violin, strings and gentle sine bells give the overall melody a much fuller sound and they blend together so that the texture sounds are not too distracting. However, the guitar melody can sound distracting to the listener which I believe is something to do with the instrumentation. The logic stock sounds used lack stylistic features of R&B which is why some of the sounds do not blend together as well as others. Another reason why the guitar can sound out of place is because none of the sounds were mixed because I wanted to focus on the melody writing and the raw sounds. Overall, I think you can learn how to construct unpredictable and catchy R&B melodies from my progression from week 1 to week 4.

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I have found through research and analysis of R&B tracks that some of the most common drums used in R&B music are; kicks, snares and hi-hats. The kick is the bass drum and the downbeat which is the first beat of each bar. The kick is the drum with the most low-end frequencies giving it more thud, body and power. The snare can be placed on the upbeat which is the final beat of the bar which would then lead to the downbeat. It can also be considered the backbeat which is the 2nd and 4th beats of a bar which gives the drum pattern more movement. As for the snare itself, it generally has mid frequencies and high frequencies as it has body and click. The hi-hat is a cymbal that uses high-end frequencies. Their high frequency range allows balances out the overall frequency range in a drum kit. The hi-hats are more commonly played simultaneously with other sounds such as the kick and snare. The hi-hat is usually a background sound to leave room for the downbeat, upbeat and backbeat.

Drum terminology

Some further terminology I will be using in the next four weeks are phrases such as; syncopation, polyrhythms, drum fills and swing. A polyrhythm is when multiple drums are following multiple different rhythms. For example, the kick may play on every quarter note while the hi-hat is playing on every sixteenth note. Syncopation is when offbeats are expressed within a rhythm. This is supported by the definition given in the Icon collective article. The expression and emphasis on the off-beats gives an unpredictable element to the rhythm. A drum fill is a phrase or section of a drum groove that differs to the rest of the groove. It is used to transition a previous section into a following section using suspense. As stated by the Landr blog article, swing means that a note or drum hit has been delayed slightly to make it sound more off-beat which links to the concept of syncopation. The article also suggests that this makes the groove sound like a real drummer is playing it. Therefore, swing is useful for humanising a drum pattern if I choose to write a real-time sounding R&B drum pattern this week.

Summary

To summarise the research that has been conducted this week, I have learned about different drum parts used in R&B and the terminology used when writing drum patterns which I will be applying to the grooves I will be writing over the next four weeks. I will now write a simplistic R&B drum pattern used the drum parts I have learnt about this week.

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To construct the drum pattern, I used a live-sounding R&B drum kit in Logic Pro X. I firstly sequenced the closed hi-hat. This is because I wanted a basic foundation of rhythm in which I could layer other drums on top of. To start off, I sequenced 1/8 notes which, given the tempo of the project, proved to be too fast for the R&B style I was going for. I then changed this to 1/4 notes which was much slower and more suited to the type of music I am creating.

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Originally, I placed the snare on the 2nd and the 4th beats. Like the closed hi-hat, this rhythm had too much movement for R&B. Snares can be placed on the 2nd and 4th beats in R&B but the tempo was too fast to do this in this case. As an alternative, I placed the snare on the 3rd beat to leave room for the kick on the 1st beat.

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I placed the kick drum on the 1st beat of each bar. This is usually where it is placed in many different genres. This completes the simplistic drum pattern and adds a natural flow to it. I added a double kick to the 4th beat of the 2nd bar, this adds an unpredictable element instead of just having the kick on every 1st beat of the bar. This also connects the end of the loop to the start of the loop more fluently.

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Week 6- Applying stylistic features of R&B

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Week 6- Applying stylistic features of R&B

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For this week, I will be relying on the research and the tracks analysed in a separate document to draw a conclusion of the stylistic features of R&B drums. In the soulful producers YouTube tutorial, he uses two kicks layered together, one with more punch and click and the other with more reverb taking up more space in the mix. The producer also uses multiple different snare sounds and says that you can use snaps, claps and rim shots as well in R&B. He then goes on to mention that hi-hats with stylistic features of R&B tend to be more live-sounding as if a real drummer was playing it. For the drum writing process, the producer adds swing to the snare which I believe gives the drum groove more bounce. The overall drum groove he constructs sticks to a theme of having a real-time sound and also having bounce.

In 'Talk 2 U' by Brent Faiyaz, the kick has for the most part a constant rhythm with occasionally an extra kick playing at the end of a loop for variety. The kick is fairly powerful and has a strong thud sound which makes it go well with the bass guitar. As for the other sounds, a snap and a clap are quite prominent throughout the track. The snap is heard more frequently, with the clap appearing at the end of the loop to break the repetition. I can hear multiple snaps throughout the track. The first one is one without reverb which lacks prominence within the mix. The second snap is one with reverb which has more presence within the mix. Alternating between the two snaps throughout the track creates an unpredictable element in the overall drum pattern. As for the clap, the sound has lots of reverb making it a big suspenseful sound. When it is first used, it acts as a drum fill to tell the listener that the chorus of the track is about to be introduced. In the chorus of the track, a closed hi-hat can be heard which follows the kick pattern and plays a triplet pattern in the B section of the kick. There are also multiple percussion sounds being used for texturing the drum pattern throughout the track such as the shakers and the triangle. The shakers are a high-frequency sound that textures the drum pattern and gives it more bounce and a 2000s R&B feel. As for the triangle, it also serves as a background texture adding a more unpredictable element and more rhythmic variety. This texture sounds give the drum pattern more overall bounce and make it more unpredictable than having just the kick, snap, clap and hi-hat.

Summary

In conclusion, I have discovered that the stylistic features of R&B drum patterns include; having a live-sounding feel and having a strong element of bounce. These are features I will be experimenting with in this week's drum pattern writing process.

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For my research for this week, it was concluded that key stylistic feature of R&B was capturing a more 'live' feel. This feel was already captured by the drum kit I used in week 5. However, to enhance the live sound, I attempted to add swing to the snare and hi-hats. I did this by manually shortening the notes so that they play just after the beat. Being off-beat introduces that unpredictable element that I have been aiming for. I discovered that the swing did not suit the hi-hats as much as it sounded too off-beat. However, it suited the double snare played in bar 2.

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In this video, I selected all drums and duplicated them over to the next 2 bars using the shortcut cmd+R. I turned the double snare at the end of bar 2 into just a single snare hit. The double snare now only comes in at bar 4. This was to break the repetition and introduce more unpredictable elements for the listener. You can then see my process of further experimenting with swing this time attempting to add it to the kicks as well.

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In attempt to again break repetition, I added a open hi-hat. This is introduced in the 4th beat of bars 1 and 3. This gives the hi-hats overall more variety instead of the constant 'ticking' sounds. As a result, this breaks the drum pattern apart giving it more movement. The process this week will help speed up my workflow when creating R&B drum patterns. This is because now I know the stylistic features so I can identify features that can be incorporated in my drum pattern e.g. adding swing.

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So far, I have been able to write an R&B drum pattern using a kick, snare, closed hi-hat and an open hi-hat. I am happy with the progression of the drum pattern I have written and the sound of the drum kit. I believe that I have effectively captured the stylistic features of R&B in the drum pattern. I am now ready to move on to weeks 7&8 in which I will be placing the drum pattern on my already existing chord progression and melody from weeks 1-4. This may immediately fit with the melody or it may need adjusting to suit the rhythm. The drum pattern written in week 5 was a natural sounding drum kit, already giving it an R&B feel. However, there was no key stylistic features of R&B applied to it. To respond to this, I added swing in week 6 to enhance the R&B feel of the drum pattern.

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This week, I will be taking my already existing drum pattern and place it over the chords that I constructed from week 1, using the same instrumentation that was used for the final product of week 4. This is an important skill to learn as a producer because being a producer requires layering different instruments together to make a whole track. I may need to alter my already existing drum pattern to fit the feel of the chord progression otherwise it may sound out of place and distracting. To make my drum pattern match the chord progression, I will need to listen to the rhythm of the chord progression and find suitable places for each drum. In the video from LifeStyleDidIt, the producers establish a chord progression and melody and then at around 8.55, they add there drums to the track. The producer who adds the drums experiments with the sound selection and placement to make it fit with the initial feel of the track. Similarly, in the Busyworksbeats tutorial, he hums of the piano loop to establish a rhythm for his kick drum to start his pattern. He does the same for the hi-hat and uses this to establish the whole drum pattern. Another way I can make the rhythm of my drums fit with the chord progression is by referring back to traditional drum placements in R&B. For example, the kick on the downbeat, the snare on the backbeat and the hi-hat on every beat. Another important element that ties into the drums and the chords matching is sound selection. The drums I originally chose for the drum pattern have a wide range of diverse frequencies. Some of these frequencies may compliment the chords whether others may not. Instead of Equalising the out of place frequencies out of the track altogether, I will be substituting different sounds so that it can be demonstrated that you do not need to do any mixing for the music and the drums to match each other.

Summary

Overall, to make my drum pattern fit into place with the chord progression from week 1, I can establish a steady rhythm by listening to the chords and experimenting by placing different drums over it. Also, I can experiment with the sound selection and swap out different sounds and see which compliments the chords best. For example, the kick may sound too punchy and overpowering so I may want to swap it out with one with less punch and power so that it dis not distracting for the listener.

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Week 7- Merging the drum pattern and melody

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Week 7- Merging the drum pattern and melody

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I firstly began by dragging the drum kit track to the top where i could see it side by side with the chord progression tracks and therefore make my workflow easier. i combined the drum pattern with the bright synth pad and electric piano. This initially did fit but i decided to mute the bright synth pad as it was quite distracting from the drum pattern. With the electric piano, the drum pattern blended with the rhythm of the chord progression quite well. I then began to level some of the drums so that they blended with the chord progression more effectivley.

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Week 8- Experimenting with percussion and velocity

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Week 8- Experimenting with percussion and velocity

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Oregon symphony describes percussion as instruments that make a sound when hit, scraped or shook. Examples of a percussion instruments can include; a tambourine, triangle or maracas. Percussion adds more texture to drum patterns and gives it more bounce. Percussion is widely used in R&B tracks such as in Talk 2 U by Brent Faiyaz. In this track, a triangle and shakers are used to add a layer of texture to the drum pattern. The shakers add bounce to the track, a feature commonly found in 2000s R&B while the triangle adds texture making the drum pattern sound more fuller giving it extra high frequency sounds as well as the hi-hat. As well as being common sounds in R&B like shakers and triangles, percussion can also be unique sounds like a high-pitched bell sound. Using unique percussion sounds is a method which can make the drum pattern more unpredictable. This is because unique percussion sounds can be sounds that the listener is not usually accustomed to and can make your track or drum groove memorable.

Velocity

As Apple states, velocity in music is how hard a note is hit. Velocity can be a useful element to manipulate in drum grooves. Playing around with the velocity can make more drums seem more impactful than others. This can create suspense and the unpredictable element I am aiming for. For example, if there was a section of the drum pattern where the kick drum plays two notes in the same beat, the velocity of the first note could be lower making the following note seem more powerful and impactful. The velocity can be changed on any drum in the drum pattern. In Logic Pro X, the velocity can be changed by clicking on the note moving the velocity bar left or right in the left side of the screen. If you wish for the velocity of a group of notes to be the same, you can go to functions in the piano roll, then to MIDI transform and then fixed velocity. You can then match the velocity of a group of notes. Alternatively, to do the opposite, and randomise the velocity of all the notes, go back to MIDI transform and into random velocity.

Summary

As a result, I will be using percussion and velocity this week in order to add the final textures to my drum pattern. The percussion will allow me to add different feels to the drum pattern and texturise it further. As for the velocity, this will allow me to highlight parts of the drum groove for the listener making them more powerful.

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In order to change the velocity in logic, you need to select a note and move the velocity bar left or right. The higher the velocity, the more harsh the note will sound. The lower the velocity, the more light the note will sound. I started by decreasing the velocity of every other hi-hat and increasing it on the other hi-hats. This meant that the first hi-hat played was more quiet leading to a much harsher hi-hat being played next. This is to bring more movement to the ticking sounds of the hi-hats mentioned earlier. The same process was applied to the double kick, making the 2nd kick sound more impactful. I then decreased the velocity of the open hi-hats as they sounded to harsh and overpowering. I finally did some general manipulation of the velocity, making the higher velocity drums sound more impactful especially with the kick.

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Taking inspiration from 'Talk 2 U' by Brent Faiyaz, I used a shaker for the percussion sound in hopes to create that bounce feel. In order to do this, I aimed to syncopate the shaker so that it was off-beat and further bringing in the unpredictable element that I was aiming for. After experimenting, i found suitable places within the drum pattern to place the shaker. I then adjusted the level of the shaker so that it was not too distracting from the main part of the drum pattern because it is only a percussion sound for background noise.

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In weeks 7-8, I believe there are some useful elements which demonstrate my understanding of my research. However, I feel that very little progress was made. I believe that this was to do with the fact that in week 7, the drum pattern immediately fit with the chord progression, leaving me very little to edit. This is something that I did not anticipate in the planning phase of the process. As for week 8, I believe that the shaker sound did not fit with the drum pattern and can arguably be too distracting. I believe this is because the logic stock sounds for percussion didn't suit the music I had previously written. Despite this, adding the shaker still demonstrates I understand the stylistic features of R&B and how I can apply them to a drum pattern.

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In conclusion, I believe that I have made progress with both my R&B melody and drum pattern writing. Because of my research, I am now able to identify stylistic features of R&B more easily and apply them to future melodies and drum patterns. However, there are areas where i feel I am still lacking progress such as applying percussion to an R&B drum pattern. I believe the final melody written was catchy but not that unpredictable which are two features that I wanted to combine in order to improve my overall melody writing skills. This is because i was too focused on providing a catchy melody than an unpredictable one. The drum pattern however, contained more unpredictable elements and I purely focused on making it unpredictable. This demonstrates that i learned from the major mistake I made in weeks 1-4. I feel that i made the most progress with R&B drum pattern writing in weeks 5-6 where I was physically constructing it where as in weeks 7-8, it was more manipulation of already existing drum parts and adding percussion. Taking into consideration the process as a whole, I believe sticking the sounds and plugins contained within logic put me at a major disadvantage. This is because I was trying to use similar sounds and instrumentation to the R&B tracks I previously researched as well as the research conducted in the blog posts. None of the sounds used in the research were logic plugins which is why I advise that if you are following along, to use your own sounds that you feel comfortable and happy using. If I was to do this process again, I would use my own sounds and purely focus on making both the melody and drum pattern unpredictable. I still believe i made a considerable amount of progress looking back on week 1 and the research conducted contributed to this massively.