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Disclaimer all of my videos for LPW and PPW are under the link above

During my diary I will document anything of relevance regarding my journey as a guitarist.

I will also talk about my LPW & PPW sessions and be critically reflecting on what skills I have gained and knowledge I have learned from these lessons. This diary also benefits me as it allows me to keep track of exactly how much I am progressing as a guitarist and performer

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me and my band Pantheon are coming together to help me and Josh Bentley do "Live & Learn" by Crush 40 for our summative performance, during our first rehearsal of the song we came to the conclusion that this song is much harder than previously thought and that we would all need to practice this at home, so instead of just going home we worked on an original song so it wasn't a waste of a session.

one part of this song that scared me a little bit was the string skipping in one section swell as the tremolo picking and fast playing at the beginning of the solo, so with this in mind im going to try and make it easier in terms of practice im going to ask my housemate Dylan who is one of the best guitarists that I've ever met to help me with a practice routine to ensure I can play this song within the coming weeks.

he suggested that to work on my tremolo picking play the intro over and over again very slowly and speeding up buy 10bpm when I feel comfortable, this was a slow and frustrating process as I just wanted to be able to do it straight away however I noticed that practicing like this wouldn't be beneficial so I took a break and relaxed by playing some games.

I came back half an hour later and was determined to keep at it, its very hard however I believe this is an attainable goal

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To start with my skills are a guitarist are that of intermediate level. I say this as I have a lot of areas I need to improve on, such as knowledge of fretboard, improvisational skills and also accuracy when picking and playing fast. I have a few ideas on how to improve these such as for learning accuracy I can try and challenge myself to play harder songs and possibly some exercises

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(I don't have a copy of the sheet given to us so I will be handwriting it)

Musical instrument proficiency

instrument 1 (guitar) - 3

instrument 2 (Bass) - 3

Music Theory Knowldege

Music Notation - 2

Chord Progressions & Harmony - 2

Scales & Modes - 3

Songwriting Skills

Lyric Writing - 1

Melody Creation - 3

Song Structure And Arrangement - 2

Production & Recording

DAW Proficiency - 1

Recording Techniques - 1

Mixing & Mastering - 1

Collaboration & Communication

Working With other musicians - 3

Communicating Musical Ideas Effectively - 3

Giving & Receiving Feedback - 4

Performance Skills

Live Performance - 3

Stage Presence And Audience Engagement - 3

Improvisation -2

Music Business & Promotion

Copyright & Liscencing - 1

Marketing & Self-Promotion - 1

Networking & Self-Promotion - 1

Self-Reflection & Goal Setting

Strengths - 3

Areas For Improvement - 4

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I have decided that I want to improve my speed and accuracy as a guitar player for soloing as I feel. my rhythm playing is very strong however I really want to work on this as its my weakest area in terms of skill, I am weakest in these areas because I have never been a solo guitarist and found them to be very daunting but I wish to overcome this.

I will measure this by trying to learn harder songs, in my own time such as learning a very specfic run I have never been able to by pantera in their song "cowboys from hell" as well as a song I've decided to do for my performance "Live & Learn" from my one of my favourite games ever and one of the BEST games ever "Sonic Adventure 2".

I believe these are attainable as I really like both of these songs and believe this will give me motivation to improve, in addition to this the skills I want to learn aren't impossible for most intermediate guitarists, therefore I believe they are appropriate for my skill level

My goal is relevant to me and my career because I aspire to be a lead guitarist in my band Pantheon, and I want to improve my soloing skills before I start to try and write any originals and we're still undecided which genre we want to stick with.

I feel as though there are some techniques you need to learn in these songs to play them well such as tremolo picking and string skipping.

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This week focused on some basic music theory I already had a small understanding on from my A-levels. The content would also be covered in next weeks lesson.

we took a look at "The Lick" and briefly worked on ear training and were given the task to figure out the lick without the use of any form of notation, this was a very helpful exercise as I feel it has helped me listen closer to my own playing and been able to spot mistakes easier.

we were eventually shown the tabs as most of us were very close but no one got it perfectly, later on once we had understood how to play it, we played an exercise where we had to then repeat the lick in a different key meaning we also practiced learning the notes on our fretboard which was a helpful skill to start to understand as I was somewhat okay at navigating my fretboard but I believe this will seriously benefit me especially with wanting to write my own solos.

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for this week we were given the song "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac to learn prior to the lesson.

We were given a small brief on what the structure of the lessons will be based on and how each new week will help us develop a new skill. and also some challenges each instrumentalist may face with this song, for guitar I struggled with the strumming pattern because it starts on an upstroke which felt very unnatural

we soon split off into groups of our choosing and given a room to practice together in, this was my first time doing band practice since a levels and even then it was only me and another person so there was never er much to discuss as we relied on backing tracks in our performances. (insert week 1 practice video)

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In this lesson we performed the song that we had rehearsed as a band the day before, we would play it to the rest of our peers and then receive feedback,

I was very excited to perform with my band because I had no real live experience so this was very exciting for me as a musician and would give me some insight as too just what the live industry is like. I played the rhythm guitar and think our performance went very well as it felt as though everyone was well rehearsed in their respective parts

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for this week we took a look at the pentatonic scales and major scales and its different shapes aswell as learning what notes make up this scale.

I was previously taught about the major scale in my A-levels.

I was already very familiar with the pentatonic scale however I had never broke it down and studied what notes it was made up of. the graph made it very easy to understand just how the scale was structured.

we also covered intervals within an octave on the E and A string covering all the note names, we also covered all the intervals within a major scale

once we had a good concept of these we then went over group sequences and legato in G which was helpful as it gave me some ideas on how to write my own riffs and solos.

the lesson was nice and fast paced because we all had a prior understanding of some level

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strengths:

I am confident in. my ability to learn new songs very quickly and confidently

my sense of rhythm is very strong as I've been able to play with odd time signatures somewhat confidently

I have very good stage presence and like to present myself as passionate with the music I love to play

I'm well versed in bass meaning I'm able to give and take criticism on another instrument which helps with being able to communicate with a band well

Weaknesses:

my main weakness is I have a very bad habit to procrastinate and leave a lot of my work to within a week of the deadline

im not on the same skill level as the large majority of my peers meaning it'll be very hard when I try to stand out amongst the rest

I am also not well versed in any form of music software as it was something we rarely touched upon during previous education in music

Opportunities:

as a student of waterer Im very lucky to have access to equipment and resources I otherwise wouldn't such as professional grade recording studio and music software alongside tutors who are well versed in these areas

I have the oppurtunity to get my name out there and play at local venues

Threats:

one threat I face is my own motivation to be able to sit down and do work on a regular basis however I might talk to well being and see if there are any strategies I can use to combat this

I also don't have access to a lot of helpful equipment such as a good music software

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For this week we were given "Treasure" by Bruno Mars

Personally this is my favourite song so far as it is very funky which is a genre I had never previously explored however it felt very at home and I felt very comfortable during our rehearsal, I feel as though this will soon be one of my favourite performances tomorrow,

the only challenge I faced with this song was fatigue as it can be very tiring on my strumming hand as its always moving constantly at a very fast pace however I will try to relax it when I play tomorrow and hopefully it will be amazing

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Today we performed our cover of treasure and it went amazingly, there was still a few issues such as structural issues which were partially my fault but overall our performance went very well,

All of the instrumental tones were on point making our sound just that much better and allowed us to serve the song very well

for myself I think my stage presence was pretty good in this performance however I feel as though I need to work on band interaction as I felt as though we weren't playing together rather we were all just playing our part, this is a key element for stage presence and something I need to work on

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This week we went over the Minor Pentatonic scale and its different positions up the neck, this was a very helpful bit of knowledge as it helped me connect the rest of the fretboard In my head.

we also went to cover something slightly more advanced which I wasn't versed in prior, this was the major pentatonic scale and the Dominant Pentatonic scale, these were very helpful as I feel it broadened my musical horizons

we also touched upon the blues and country scale which added a non-diatonic note for tension

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in this lesson we looked into something called the CA.G.E.D system in C Major, this was met first lesson where I struggled to grasp the concept right away and I understand it now but it was definitely challenging as a new thing to understand, however I appreciate it as I feel as though it helps me understand scales and scale shapes used in solos.

we also covered C.A.G.E.D chords in C minor

this was a lot easier to understand once we had gone over this in Major,

to help break both ideas down we broke each chord up in to triads in groups of 4, teaching us where these notes our the chord shapes to follow as well as being able to play it any where on the fretboard, this really expanded my knowledge of my fretboard and doing this I felt like a more confident player

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This week we went over modes and we learned what they are and their characteristics, we learnt the 7 different modes in C major; those being C Ionian, D Dorian, E Phrygian, F Lydian, G Mixolydian, A Aeolian and B Locrian, my personal favourite to use was Aeolian, the emotions the scale evoked were so fascinating to me.

I understood this lesson well as I had previously touched upon it in my own time before university.

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During this lesson we looked at the Harmonic Minor scale, Phrygian Dominant scale.

these were slightly more confusing to get a hold of as may muscle memory wants to just do the natural scale as opposed to this however I feel as though this will be a good thing to practice in my own time as it would widen my musical vocabulary and make my solos more complex and tasteful

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The song for this week is "Crosstown Traffic"

by Jimi Hendrix

now admittedly I wasn't in a good headspace this week and as such I had no real passion for the song and just didn't enjoy the rehearsal nor the performance, none the less I still tried why best and I did play the song in full and I'm proud of myself for doing so.

putting this aside the performance did go well I thought but again due to my low mood this week my stage presence was lacking as opposed to normal

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I was prepared for this song quite a lot but as mentioned beforeI had just woken up feeling in really bad mood and just wasn't in a great headspace and it lasted for about a week which was unfortunate for my academics, I still attended lessons but found it hard to focus as such my rehearsal was okay but you can hear in my plying I'm not passionate I'm very stiff, aside from this setback our rehearsal sounded pretty decent.

in addition to this my communication with the band wasn't t great as I found it hard to concentrate and overall found it very draining to be social that day

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The song given to us this week was "Call Me"

by Blondie

I was actually very excited for this song as I was eager to create a cool harmony for the intro with my 7 string, this was very good in rehearsals as it made the intro sound so much more full and fat, there was no structural issues apart from one bar of 6/4 but our tutor said this had caught everyone out today but we managed to get over it as a band and pushed through and it all was coming together amazingly.

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This was one of my favourite performances so far as I was excited for the bar of 6/4 because I was ready to smash it swell as the fact I was excited to show off my addition to the song with my 7 string doing a perfect 5th harmony, my stage presence as well as the bands was very good on this song

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This week we had to play the song "son of a preacher man"

this was not my favourite song to do as in my opinion we had too many guitarists and it realistically only needed two, whilst we sounded good during rehearsals we had some structural issues we didn't have time to properly iron out sir they were gonna be present in the performance, some of the timings were a little and admittedly I didn't prepare m myself swell as I should have for this song so these issues will hurt the performance.

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Our performance went better than expected the second time after some feedback from our peers and this time we had the help off a structure chart that reminded us of any and all chords swell as the structure for each section.

this was a very helpful tool to have as we weren't all terribly confident with this song as it was a big change up in genres for most of us

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From Eden by Hozier is probably my most difficult song so far, I very much struggled with this song as I'm normally proficient in odd signatures however the fact that we have to finger pick is what really made me struggle, in the end I decided that I would let the other two guitarists take the lead and I would try to figure out a top line for the song, I originally done this as a sign of defeat however I really began to like what I was hearing so I worked on it a lot. I really hope the performance goes well tomorrow

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the performance was great on both takes we had, everyone said my top line really complemented the lyricists vocals, however unfortunately the first take I was out of tune and in the wrong scale at the very end but fixed my mistake the second time around.

I still sometimes struggled to stay in time but I just focused very hard which made my stage presence a little lacking but I think it was a good tradeoff personally as its a very vocals focused song so letting our vocalist take the spotlight was probably a good idea

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I was very much looking forward to this song as I think my stage presence will be really good during this song as its my type of music and the genre I most enjoy playing, I faced a small challenge when playing this song with the large stretch in some parts but I quickly got over it as I just had to play the song over and over again to work on dexterity, rehearsals went really well as everyone had really mastered their part, we never really had any issues to communicate so we just went through it like 6 times

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This song was so fun to play! "Cochise" by Soundgarden is a song I have been eagerly waiting for to do, it was so great to perform because the whole band felt electric, when we played it was sounded spectacular, the only critique our tutor had was that in the bridge where we played octave chords we all had a tendency to accidentally hit our strings making a small click, he said instead of doing this just let go slightly so our second take was so much better because of this one small change, my stage presence I felt was really good and energetic

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For our final song off the term we had "Ain't It Fun" By Paramore and this song was very nice note to end the term on and it was indeed fun to play!

it was one of my favourites to practice and play with everyone else, it was sad to have our last PPW & LPW of the term, we didn't really have any issues during this song

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The performance of this song was possibly my favourite yet, everything about the song was just an amazing opportunity to perform, the only issue with this song that arose during the performance probably due to nerves was the swing feel of the main riff, I fell out of time a few times however I quickly recovered so its barely noticeable, besides that. my stage presence was really good also it easily made up for it

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This week I faced some major setbacks with band members to be specific. Originally my band Pantheon consisted of 5 people, 2 guitarists, drummer, bassist and vocals, unfortunately we had to have the conversation with the bassist and vocalist about kicking them out of the band because they weren't showing up to rehearsals, weren't messaging us back and overall weren't contributing to the band, they also weren't learning their parts for me and josh's song even though we had given them weeks to prepare.

despite this setback I reached out to the waterbear students group chat on instagram and asked if anyone would be able to fill their place not as band members just as session musicians for my performance. I had two people message me back fairly quickly however it wasn't all great as a few days later they both messaged me apologising that they couldn't do it because of a medical condition which is understandable, it was at this point I felt I was out of options.

so I then turned to my housemate and she kindly agreed she would do it and this filled. me with confidence, however we still faced the issue of not having a bassist, luckily our drummers housemate is also a sonic fan and just happened to be learning the baseline for the song which was nothing short of a miracle.

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with our new band we decided to each book a slot and practice as much as possible just to iron out any small details.

overall these rehearsals were very useful as there was some small issues that we had only now noticed with a full band, my solo was one of them as I was missing two notes near the beginning and I had to correct my playing, it didn't take too long to correct myself however it was challenging to change my muscle memory for the song.

I also couldn't do the shredding part at the very beginning so I changed it to what I think sounded better, I changed it to a chromatic walk down across the b and g string and this was far more do able and led in to the next bar. very nicely.

Another issues was the syncopation of the two guitars as josh was missing a chord in the chorus however it was very quick correction that really made the song sound much more powerful.

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I went over the song with my housemate Leia the morning of just so it was fresh in my mind, I feel this was very beneficial to my performance.

I was very excited to perform this song as I'd put in the handwork and learnt it it to a very good standard.

this was very apparent in my stage presence as I was moving around a lot and overall was very expressive. I wanted to be professional so I turned up early and spoke to my band just to check how they were feeling incase any of them were slightly nervous or anxious.

my first take of the song is my favourite stage presence wise, however the levels became a small problem as when my solo came up I was very very quiet and this hindered the performance slightly. and I was slightly disappointed but I knew the issue would be solved by the next take, in addition top this my stage presence was great however it did affect my playing at times and made me slightly off key or I missed a few notes.

with all this in mind my next take was amazing, the energy was still there but just as importantly the levels were perfect, you were able to hear my playing much more clearly and my solo was also one of my best takes so I was very happy with how my performance turned out.

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the last few weeks weren't as important to mention I feel as they were essentially just going over ways to practice and improve knowledge.

however our last lesson whilst fun and interactive felt really challenged me as a guitarist and also a musician as we were given Four rounds as a team of selected challenges.

for the first activity we were told we weren't allowed our guitars and to put them aside, I was originally confused what was to come and it was ear training. both teams were given to notes and were told to guess the interval, this is one of my weakest areas and I struggled so we turned to another teammate to take the lead on this one as his relative pitch is the best of our team, this showed me that I really need to practice my ear training and improve on intervals and being able to pick and play stuff up by ear.

the second challenge we had to make a solo to a mode given to us, this was challenging to remember as im not great at improvising but I gave it a go and I didn't sound bad however I should learn to play into the characteristics of the mode to really get the most use out of it.

the next challenge we were given a random genre and told to try and play as accurately to the original as possible, my ear isn't well trained but I wanted to give it a try and to my dismay I was getting fairly close but again ear training is one of my weaker skills as a musician.

the final challenge was guessing famous albums covers whilst they were partially covered which was also very very fun

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My reason for choosing this track is because it reminds me of my childhood and gives me nostalgia. At 8 years old my dad gave me his copy of what is one of the greatest games ever. The first time I booted up the game and heard this song was very memorable for me. so this song will always hold a special place in my heart.

I changed a few things within the song on both versions, first being the guitar is now double tracked, from what I know this is not in the original, I also changed the solo slightly as the originally at the start of the solo is a fast shred down a scale, I wasn't able to do this so instead I changed it to a chromatic walk down played at the same speed because I found it easier to play, its still a challenge but it was attainable. Additionally there was one bar of 2/4 in the chorus after the solo which caught us of guard so we decided to make it a drum fill of 4/4, in my opinion this sounds better.

in my research I looked at beginner level videos on logic because music software is one of my weakest areas, I looked at lessons on EQ and Compression and had knowledge from lessons but I felt unsure, whilst my mix isn't perfect its the best I would be able to produce alone, I also needed to do some research on guitar techniques as I struggled to get the technique for tremolo picking as I can't play fast, I learned how to with some practice playing slowly and then faster when I felt more confident

I made a schedule that kept track of what tasks needed to be done and also give me an educated guess as to how long each task would take .one example being I planned to join/form a band by week4, luckily I made friends with Josh who invited me into the band after we performed together during LPW. Additionally I gave myself 2 weeks to work on my mix and have everything recorded, I felt this was ample time to get a decent mix and sound I was happy with, this was useful for me as it allowed me to plan when I was going to record my guitar parts more effectively.

in my own preparation and my groups, we tried to fit in everyones schedules however in my first band both the bassist and vocalist were kicked out for poor communication and unprofessionalism such as not showing up to rehearsals, despite this with my current band we agreed to book one session for most days of the week so we could regularly practice together, we still had issues with people showing up on time because means of travel weren't reliable or something unexpectedly came up. whilst unfortunate we kept moving forward regardless. Despite many setbacks with a week before our performance we had 3 rehearsals and we were sounding great.

The demo-ing phase I have no music software at home so I asked a friend if I could borrow his equipment to record with. the guitar took lots of takes as I would tense up nearer to the solo as I was focused on getting it perfect, luckily everyone else in my band has access to music software so they had all sent my friend their parts for me to mix, the mix is to the best of my ability so I am happy. my only notes on the song would be a slight mistake from the drummer nearer to the end but he had no time to re-record so I had to work with what I had.

I was very excited to play one of my favourite songs ever live with a full band, I was filled with confidence as I knew I had put in the hard work to get this song to a good standard, I also practiced with my singer the morning of the performance, the first take was my favourite in terms of stage presence but the levels weren't great but this was fixed on the second take and it sounded just how I had hoped, everyone played their parts perfectly and my solo was so very cleanly played. The end of my performance was a big moment for as I was just overwhelmed with relief, nostalgia and pride.

From this project I have learnt a few things; the first being that I should invest in some form of music software for myself so I am able to practice my production tool's lessons more effectively, mixing this was the hardest part of the project for me as I really struggle to understand how to use it effectively. secondly time management is going to be one of my most useful assets going into next term as well as over the next few years as it allowed me to direct my schedule and plan ahead to give myself an idea on how and when to complete my tasks given to me. I have also learnt how to work with other musicians effectively and learnt to give and take criticism and ideas efficiently. I didn't really have much experience prior to uni as I hardly knew any musicians back at home.

if I did this module again I would focus on my weaker areas. Because of my weakness in mixing I felt my demo was not amazing when I listened back to it but I could never manage to fix the issue, so I will work on this for next time. I will also make an effort to make sure that the musicians I ask are reliable and are able to communicate and actually show up to rehearsals when asked as this was a major setback that was hard to come over as trying to find a singer to sing a very hard song in such a short time. I would also choose a more popular song because as excited as I was to play the song I knew others would find it hard to learn as its such a niche song, I will choose something more like Deftones in future as they are far more popular. finally I would make sure to update my diary more regularly as I struggled to recall exactly what happened in a lot of my lessons.

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What tempo is my track?

172bpm

What is the Key signature?

C# Minor

What is the time signature?

4/4

What is the structure in bars?

Intro = 5 bars

verse= 8 bars

pre-chorus = 4 bars

chorus = 4 bars

verse = 8 bars

pre-chorus = 4 bars

chorus = 8 bars

solo = 10 bars

chorus = 16 bars

outro = 2 bars

What harmonic ideas (chords) are you using?

C# minor, A Major, E, Major G# Major, B major, C major, D major, F# major,

C Major 7, D7

What are the main rhythmic,melodic ideas?

I use the A aeolian scale in the solo and occasionally a chromatic walk down

Include Lyrics ( the "/" symbol is a line break)

"But you can hardly swallow/ your fears and pain."

"Live and Learn!/ you may never find your way"

"There's a face searching far, so far away"

Include tabs

these are in a photo at the top

What are the key technical/ performance techniques you're using in your track and what is achieved by these?

I use tremolo picking which achieves a very dynamic and musically pleasing sounding solo

What are the key production techniques you're using in your track and what is achieved by these?

in my cover of the song I use double tracked guitar, as well as a harmony during the end of the solo to create a richer sound. I also used EQ to get the bass and guitar tone I desired, I also changed the placement of my microphone on both guitars so they're not the exact same tone, this creates a much wider and fuller tone especially since I used panning to. y advantage

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“Crush 40.” Discogs, 2015, www.discogs.com/artist/2198885-Crush-40?srsltid=AfmBOorOB71RT1lu70-t1IbPnYf3BVBf2P6fbJxqN5eibepiRuvSaeuy. Accessed 16 Dec. 2024. priority_highWebpage authorclose

How. “How to Use Compression | Logic pro X Compressor Tutorial.” YouTube, 23 Oct. 2019, youtu.be/PtZgZ0sQkzs?feature=shared. Accessed 16 Dec. 2024.

Logic, In. “How to Use EQ in Logic pro X.” YouTube, 20 Oct. 2020, youtu.be/nRk1ZKorRR0?feature=shared. Accessed 16 Dec. 2024.

“Sonic Adventure 2 - Live and Learn.” Ultimate-Guitar.com, Ultimate Guitar, 8 Oct. 2010, tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/misc-computer-games/sonic-adventure-2-live-and-learn-tabs-994181. Accessed 16 Dec. 2024. priority_highWebpage authorclose

“Spotify.” Spotify.com, 2024, open.spotify.com/track/12xJWY5Dx0OIIZjKTa1UMK?si=cbcc2d52df954bbb. Accessed 16 Dec. 2024. priority_highWebpage authorclose

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“Your Guitar Academy.” Youtu.be, 2024, youtu.be/EdA8UYV3q8c?feature=shared. Accessed 16 Dec. 2024. priority_highWebpage authorclose