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Here is my reflection of what I did well and what can be improved in terms of my Level 4 Summative results:

WBO3- Your Process and Reflection
My feedback states that my work is well written and competent and identifies key skills needed for musical outputs. To improve this in future I need to do more research into the trickier areas like performance & production and to ensure these skills are identified, practiced then put into the live tracks. I also need to make sure that I back up all research that I include in my diaries with the correct referencing.

WB03- 2x Different and Contrasting Songs
My feedback states that entry was 'very good' with 'fantastic track choices that suit my musical style' and that they have allowed me to showcase more artistic potential. It also states that I should work on pushing more artistic boundaries in both live and studio settings. The marker suggested that I apply more creativity in terms of changing the melodies a bit more.

After analysing what went well and what can be improved after my level 4 project, I have come up with some SMART targets:

1) To use the influences and inspirations that I have laid out in my previous post to help me to choose 2 contrasting songs that resonate with me and my personal development as a musician.

2) To change the melody/ instrumentation in my chosen songs so that the songs portray myself as an artist and not the original artist(s) ideas (if I was to choose a cover).

3) To do as much research as I can to develop my skills and ideas, and to back up any points that I make in the correct format.

4) To use at least 3 new production techniques in my DAW recorded track.

5) To research stage presence ideas that fit the genre that I am performing and work on my confidence and audience interest.

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Two of my biggest influences for my creativity are emotion and feeling. Whenever I experience emotions like ecstasy, excitement, nostalgia, love or misery, I realise that other people experience these things too. Just like how listening to songs written directly from the artists emotions and experiences helps me to relate to and enjoy their music, having these emotions myself encourages me to make music that other people can connect with. With that said, I can only listen to and enjoy music that I resonate with not only in terms of the story, but with keys, chord progressions and harmony too.

I am sometimes inspired by movies/ stories, experiences that I see in day to day life, or even events that friends and family might encounter. For example I could be influenced to write a song about a breakup caused by infidelity after watching  a friend experience this.

I have also recently realised that by giving myself random prompts like scene, location, weather and situations I have a place to start getting creative.

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I can confidently say that Taylor Swift is my biggest musical inspiration and I am looking forward to researching her further as one of my case studies. One of her many niches is that all of her 220 songs that she has released so far, she has written herself based on her own experiences, or from other influences like stories, fairytales, books etc. She plants 'easter eggs' throughout each album to create an even more exciting experience for her fanbase. Her music succeeds in the effort for her music to resonate with all of her listeners because each album represents a different era in her life in chronological order, 'eras' that we all go through at some point in our lives. Listening to her music inspires me to create music that makes people feel the way I feel when hear that of Taylor Swifts creations.

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Who Are You? Reflective Interview with peer.

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Who Are You? Reflective Interview with peer.

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1. Who first inspired you to make music?
My father

2. Who are your current biggest influences musically?

Taylor Swift, Amy Winehouse, James Bay, Hayley Williams

3.Of all the ways to express yourself creatively, why music?

Music has always resonated with me from a young age, having been brought up around music. The only way I can explain is that the music that I listen to/ sing gives me the dopamine that nothing else can provide me with.

4.What or who motivates you?

Working with like minded people, working in a mentally satisfying space.

5.What are 3 of your biggest strengths?

Accurate, grade 8 vocal techniques,

6. What are 3 of your biggest weaknesses?
Lack of confidence, improvisation, staying in one genre.

7. If you could make and perform music anywhere in the world, where would this be and why?

New York,

8. If you could make and perform music in a different time in history, when would this be and why?

The 1960’s. Working towards a career in music was arguably less complicated than it is today. I feel that it was more hands on in terms of contacting record labels and advertising yourself as an artist. I also love the music at that time.

9. When did you last feel proud and why was this?

When my band and I did a cover of ‘Hold Back The River’ by James Bay, we altered it to an Indie/Rock version. I was really proud of my gritty vocals and also how my stage presence had improved.

10. How do you know if a song is good?

The feeling it provides, how well the chord progressions, instrumentation, harmony etc fit together.

11.  What time of day are you most creative?

Night time

12. Who is your music for?

Myself and those who can relate to it.

13. Which present/past musician/producer would you like to collaborate with if you had the chance?

Taylor Swift and Sam Fender.

14. Has the internet impacted the music industry for better or worse and why?

I feel that the internet has made listening to and making music a lot more accessible to the public and has also made it easier to share your music. Although, I feel that it makes it harder for a lot of talented artists to shine from an ocean of aspiring artists.

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Condensed list of influences and inspirations.

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Condensed list of influences and inspirations.

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I have created a list of my 5 main influences and inspirations that I can refer to when I am in need of some motivation for my creativity.

* Taylor Swift's writing techniques.
* Experienced events.
* Emotions and Feeling.
* Theme Prompts.
* Movies/stories.

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Key Challenges I may face in this module:
I always struggle to choose songs that best shows my abilities so I imagine that this will be the case again. I feel that the pressure to perform better on stage will get to me more this year as I am now a Level 5 student with Level 5 expectations. I also find production difficult so creating a good mix will be a slight struggle.

Although I have these struggles, I feel that these provide me with an array of opportunities to learn new skills and be the best artist I can be.

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This week, me and my housemate (Sam Harris) started to write a song in his bedroom for fun. He started to play a chord progression on his guitar that I really resonated with. I started to sing a melody over this chord progression and we were very happy with. Sam then helped me to come up with some lyrics which I based on some of my past experiences that have influenced me. So far, we have written this song as a duet. The future idea is that I will be singing lead and sam doing a lower harmony but he isn't yet confident in singing harmonies so for the purpose of writing the song, I will be singing the harmony. I am 80% confident that I will be using this song as my DAW track.

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Verse 1:

You didn't wanna make me cry,

I just need a little patience,

I know I do it all the time,

I don't like this situation,

Tell me did I cross a line,

I can't feel my hands again.

Verse 2:

You said you needed extra time,

But I don't wanna do It all again,

Incase you change your mind,

I don't wanna be a friend,

I'm spending every night,

Wishing I was dancing with you.

Chorus:

Oh I'm numb,

I haven't seen you in months,

Im starting to believe I was wrong,

I still need to catch my breath.

I'm still here,

And in my mind its so unclear,

that everything we built turned to picking fights and slamming doors,

posing like we're not at war.

Annotation:

The lines 'I can't feel my hands again' and 'I still need to catch my breath' are both there to indicate an on going feeling of panic and desperation ( key words being 'again' and 'still'. The lyric 'and in my mind its still unclear' can also indicate the mind scramble and fog associated with anxiety and panic.

I feel that the lyrics 'I don't wanna' used twice in the first verse display the sense of down to earth innocence quite well with raw and real emotion.

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This voice note was taken the night where we wrote up to the end of the first chorus. As you can hear I am singing the lower harmony to give sam time to learn it.

Out vision for the song is a story of someone who is feeling desperate to save a relationship that is beyond repair so we want to work on the lyrics being down to earth, raw and relatable.

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This week, sam and I finished the lyrics and structure of our song. We also came up with a name for the song: Change Your Mind.

Originally, we were going to find a lyric that resonated best with the story we were telling but we couldn't decide. I then said to Sam (to help jog our inspirations a little) that the song is about convincing your former partner to change their mind about their feelings. We then realised that 'Change Your Mind' would be the perfect name because it is an order. When you get to the end of your tethers, people usually result to abrupt orders out of frustration.

My next post will hold the new finalised lyrics of our song 'Change Your Mind'

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Verse 1:

You didn't wanna make me cry,

I just need a little patience,

I know I do it all the time,

I don't like this situation,

Tell me did I cross a line,

I can't feel my hands again.

Verse 2:

You said you needed extra time,

But I don't wanna do It all again,

Incase you change your mind,

I don't wanna be a friend,

I'm spending every night,

Wishing I was dancing with you.

Chorus:

Oh I'm numb,

I haven't seen you in months,

Im starting to believe I was wrong,

I still need to catch my breath.

I'm still here,

And in my mind its so unclear,

that everything we built turned to picking fights and slamming doors,

posing like we're not at war.

Verse 3:

I don't wanna try again,

but I don't wanna throw it all away,

We can make pretend,

but I wish I could make you stay,

but there you go again,

cause you could never understand.

Verse 4:

That I really tried to get it right,

but you never gave me any patience,

you always try to start a fight,

cant we have a conversation?

Maybe we would be alright,

If I could ever catch my breath.

Chorus 2:

I'll just bite my tongue,

sitting with my eyes wide shut,

while you tell me that I am insane,

I still need to help myself,

I'm still here,

And in my mind its still unclear,

that everything we built turned to picking fights and slamming doors,

posing like we're not at war.

Bridge:

Sitting here collecting dust,

you watch me fade as I try to adjust to your expectations,

void of touch now.

Im still staring at my phone,

The silence grinds me down to the bone and im through with thinking I was ever enough.

Verse 5:

You didn't wanna make me cry,

I just need a little patience,

I know I do it all the time,

I don't like this situation,

Tell me did I cross a line,

I can't feel my hands again.

chorus:

Oh I'm numb,

I haven't seen you in months,

Im starting to believe I was wrong,

I still need to catch my breath.

I'm still here,

And in my mind its so unclear,

that everything we built turned to picking fights and slamming doors,

posing like we're not at war.

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Attached above is my demo so far.

I decided to sing this solo for my demo so that I could take advantage of the backing vocals ideas that Taylor Swift inspired me with. She is known for her hard hitting, intense bridges so I composed a 3 part backing harmony of 'ahh's along with a lower harmony that dips in and out of the melody throughout the song.

I used lots of reverb and ambience in my vocals to create a 'stuck in a void' effect which also resonates with the lyric 'void of touch' which is in the bridge.

A stylistic decision I made was to make myself cry whilst recording the quiet verse before the intense last chorus to create a raw feeling to the listeners after the emotional chaos of the bridge. This brings the listeners back to a brief sense of reality.

This demo is not finished yet but I am happy with what I have created so far.

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After showing my production teacher my demo so far, he said that the vocals and backing vocals are great, musically accurate and add the right amount of vocal texture to the song. He also said that I should add more texture to the song in terms of instrumentation. He said that, in his opinion, the song is too long. I do trust his opinion as a very experienced producer, but I feel that in this case, my song needs to stay at this length due to the story its telling and the structure that it follows. the song is meant to be emotionally moving and each section has its own importance in the story. However, I would like to add that I will be including more- instrumentally- to keep the steady build up to the climax and resolution of the tale which, in turn, should make the song more interesting despite its length.

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After several weeks of struggling to pick a song for my performance, I have finally made a decision. My chosen song is Body Talks by the Struts. It was only by chance that I fell in love with this song since my friend, Sam, asked me to perform this song in one of his sets. I listened to it in the car whilst driving home to London and picked it up quite quickly. This song fits perfectly in my belting range and I felt like this song could be my breakthrough in terms of stage presence. There's elements of spoken word, stylistic/ rhythmic breathing, energetic instrumentation and contrasting vocal ranges. The second verse is spoken (in a slightly descending melodic way) which was originally quite frightening for me as it opens a new door for vulnerability on stage but I am taking this as an opportunity to face these worries. I am very lucky that I get to perform this at a real gig before my video assessment as it will give me a taste for performance and the effect that adrenaline has on performance and stage presence.

Between 0:22 and 0:33, you can hear the use of spoken word and stylistic use of breath between the lines. I find it interesting how the use of breath signifies the idea of aggression and prowess that the song is about and fills in the rhythmic gaps (being used as an instrument).

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Attached above is a full video from the gig where I performed Body Talks- The Struts.

Overall, I feel that this went really well despite my nerves almost getting the better of me. you can hear in the first 10 seconds of the video that my voice is slightly shakey due to vocal tension (stemming from nerves). Soon after this I was able to relax and gain back my vocal control. I feel that my stage presence was adequate but there definitely could have been more movement on my part.

One of my favourite parts about performing this song (which you can see between 1:44 and 1:55) is where I was in control of the band coming back in for the last chorus. The use of breath to reel the audience in for a 'breather' (from all of the tension described in the song) was a good way to show chemistry between us band members since they followed my vocal cues to come back in and did so seamlessly.

The only stumble we had in this performance was that our drummer was nervous and played faster than what we rehearsed which was surprising to us all. Despite this, every member of the band was in time and I got through the song without running out of breath.

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Attached above is a video of me and my band rehearsing 'Body Talks' at Small Pond Studios.

This was the first time I was able to sing this properly with a full band and a PA system. We also used this time to attempt the type of stage presence we will hold as a band. I realised the difficulty of controlling my voice whilst moving around. The highest notes in the chorus were just shy of my breaking point which means that I need to be very careful when I am singing by having complete control over my placement and breathing.

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Since speaking to my production teacher about adding more instrumental parts and melodies to my song, I experimented some small counter melodies between verses using 'electric piano' setting on the MIDI keyboard. I used the pitch bend to make them sound more interesting and played the same melody in a 3rd below to create a harmony. This was inspired by Taylor Swift's 'Dear John' which contains influences of John Mayer's guitar tones.

After listening to 'Dear John', the idea of merging Taylor Swifts song craft skills and full airy vocal tones and John Mayor's slow pitch bends and fast, chromatic licks came to light. I realised that crossing genres in this way could be fun and could also be what's missing from our song.

Attached above is a snippet of Sam improvising a guitar solo which will run alongside vocals on the last chorus. He used a similar guitar tone to that of John Mayer and took inspiration from his bluesy licks and pitch bends. I asked him to record power chords with his electric guitar over the bridge to create more depth to the first climax of the song which turned out to be exactly what was needed.

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Since starting this project, I have found that what really sets me apart is my ability to harmonise and work our intervals by ear. This allows me to create lots of variations of backing vocals.

Another thing that I feel sets me aside is the way I write songs to match emotion and feeling. I use instrumentation and texture to mimic feelings I have experienced. For example, the feeling of overwhelm and spiralling- I would use layered backing vocals, countermelodies and thick instrumentation to portray all of the thoughts spiralling and the feeling of overwhelm. In addition, all of this would be in a tasteful and satisfying way.

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Above is a Soundcloud link of my finished DAW track.

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Since my formative submission I have made a few additions to my DAW Track 'Change Your Mind'.

The tracks that are green (0:11 and 0:18 seconds) and (1:43 and 2:01 seconds) are counter melodies that I composed to fill in the spaces between vocal sections. As spoken about before, this was influenced by the guitar techniques in 'Dear John' by Taylor Swift. I used an electric piano setting on MIDI keyboard, added lots of reverb and ambience, high density, slight sustain, a medium amount of hold, bass and treble. I used this instrument over a guitar to match the atmospheric vocals and overall vibe of the song.

As you can see on the second track down named 'Old School Punk' ( roughly between bars 81 and 97) I also power chords to add more depth to the bridge, which were recorded in with an electric guitar. I slightly dampened the high mids of the EQ to make the guitar sound less crunchy/ scratchy. This allowed the guitar to add bass tones to fit the texture but blended well with the layered, airy backing vocals I created before. From 3:25 seconds, to the end of the song is where the texture varies and really starts to get interesting starting with the bridge. Up until this point, the texture only consists of 1 lead vocal, 1 harmony vocal, acoustic guitar and electric piano. After this point, three more backing vocal tracks are added ('ahh') building a three part harmony acting as a chordal instrument pedaling through the bars of the bridge. Each of these use the 'Soften Background Vocals' EQ plug plus lots of reverb and ambience. The lowest harmony is panned neutrally in the middle with the middle and high panned either side. This created a thicker, sandwiched harmony and feel. The reverb ensures little to no silence between phrases to create that airy sound. I also used the same mixing techniques for the higher harmony over the lead vocals (a 3rd interval higher).

This full texture drastically thins out in bar 96 (4:06) where there is a repeat of the first verse. In my opinion, this section between bars 96 and 104 (4:06-4:25) is the most emotional section of the song in terms of intimacy and rawness. The texture here is purely acoustic guitar and lead vocals. The lead vocals all the way through have a generous amount of reverb and ambience while still keeping a realistic tone to my voice, along with 'Soften Lead Vocals' which cuts off some low end while maintaining some treble. As explained in a previous section of my diaries, I actually made myself cry to sing this section to make the vocals the most raw and hard hitting as that could be, also while singing fairly close to the microphone. I created the brief drastic disappearance of texture here to create a sense of 'coming back down to earth' after the big bridge before ending the song with an even bigger end chorus/outro.

From bar 104 (4:25 onwards) The texture is even fuller.

Firstly, I added a bluesy, bendy guitar solo which was improvised by Sam (my co-writer). This used the 'Classic Drive' plug in (as labelled in the track list on the left side of the attached screen grab) and was double tracked. I added reverb and slightly lessened the drive to help it blend in more but still keep its appearance. In Bar 117 (4:58), a third track- using the same guitar and tone- harmonises a major 3rd lower. Originally, this section wasn't going to be bigger than the bridge in terms of instrumental layering but I started to experiment with my backing vocals. Whilst aware that the chord progressions in the bridge and chorus differ in terms of order, I copied and pasted the three part harmony back into the last chorus and I found that it still worked really nicely. I then had the idea of bringing back the lead and harmony from the bridge into the last chorus. At first this sounded like there was too many melodies happening at once so I started to play round with mixing these vocals to make them sound less out of place. I cut out some low end and some treble to muffle the consonants (so the vocals weren't as prominent but you could still identify them slightly),and I turned up the reverb and ambience. This worked really well in creating a background chanting sensation.

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The Importance of Genre in my song choices:

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The Importance of Genre in my song choices:

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In my DAW track, genre is quite significant since I have created a merge. I would say my track is a mix of folk/rock/pop. It contains influences of Taylor Swift through my use of backing vocals, vocal style, song craft and storytelling. I was inspired by her song 'Dear John' which was written after her relationship with John Mayer, a relationship with an older man. According to 'college.berklee.edu', John Mayer is a pop star, a renowned guitarist, a heartthrob, a serious student of the blues, and a gritty comeback artist who specialises in pop, rock and blues. He is known for his bluesy guitar style containing lots of pitch bends. Taylor Swift used John Mayer esque guitar styles in her song to subtly signify that it is her story about this relationship (seventeen.com) https://www.seventeen.com/celebrity/music/a44473529/taylor-swift-dear-john-taylors-version-lyrics-explained/

This inspired me further to add bluesy guitar parts in my song.