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For the first project of this course we have been assigned to do a Logic task where we use 2 or more audio tracks and 2 MIDI software tracks. I would like to do one of my original songs. Keeping it as simple as possible as I have very limited time to do this assessment. The song I would like to pick from are either "Escape from Reality" or "Dying in the Wind". These two songs are very vulnerable and emotional. I would like to set the mood of unhappy and unloved. I would like to use guitar, keyboard, drums and my voice, possibly using bass as well.

I found in Logic a ride bell and a ride symbol for the intro of the song which emphasises the "sound of the church bells" lyric. I am taking inspiration from Lachryma by Ghost, I am going to change the key, chord and time structure and tempo. I have a rough idea of wanting the chords to be Fm, Cm and Em, other chords are yet to ignite my interest.

We have been learning in class how to do this as we were shown an editing tasking that was completed via Logic and a PDF provided by Andy Duncan. For my project, I would like to use my voice for one of the audio tracks and a keyboard for the second audio track. For the software instrument, I would like to use drums and violin. I am interested in keeping this audio track mellow as it matches my singing voice the best. The deadline for this assesment is October 10th.

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Project 1 - Lyrics to Escape From Reality 

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Project 1 - Lyrics to Escape From Reality 

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As part of my first project, I have provided the lyrics to the song.

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For the first project, I did a logic project. I did one of my original songs "Escape From Reality". I have achieved what I wanted to and what Andy was looking for. I changed some things for my original plan, for the actual final project, I used 2 vocal audio tracks and 2 software piano tracks. I have learnt quite a lot with logic while doing this project, I learnt how to crossfade audio tracks, how to create a sustained pedal on software instruments and also learnt how to play keyboard for this song thanks to a friend in the course. For my track, I think that the harmonies complimented the lead vocals, the keyboard and vocals work really well together and I got what I wanted from this song in such little time I had. I think for next time, I shouldn't give myself such a big task, even though my song is no where near done, I believe it will be enough for this project.

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For Project 1 for Musicanship, we were assessed on a group presentation and the group consisted of the band members I work with for Band Performance. When we started this project, I was worried about some members of the group as there was a sickness and we didn’t have a lot of time to get through it but we managed to make it work. I was confident about our presentation because of the way we came together as a group and had amazing teamworking skills. I was also confident about my slide as I know exactly what to talk about and we were given great tips by the lecturer. During the presentation I felt like we worked well as a time to make out points across to the class and lecturer. I can’t really think of what could’ve gone better, it wasn’t perfect but for our first time doing a group task, it was amazing. For the next time, it would be good to see more energy in the presentation from my fellow group members, when I was talking at the presentation, I felt like some of my members body language wasn’t the best.

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For Band Performance, I performed with my band “Happy Hour”. We did three songs. Linger by The Cranberries, Blow Up The Outside World By Soundgarden and Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. Before this performance I was a bit worried for the band as they seemed stressed, I was mainly worried for one of my fellow vocalists as he did not seem to really know one of our songs. I was confident about our band as they tried their hardest in rehearsals and would give it there all no matter what. I was also confident about my song in the setlist as I studied every single thing about that song so it was as perfect as possible before the last rehearsal and final performance. I feel like the cues to start songs went well and the band worked well to engage with the audience. I felt like sometimes we were flying of the handle, for example we had to restart a song again as one of the vocalists didn’t sing their part, we had a mishap where the drummer threw his drumstick by accident but told the band to play on anyways and we managed to keep things going. Next time, I think we should rehearse more, we should make sure we know the songs before rehearsing them and our chemistry on stage could be better.

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For this task I would like to add suspense and danger to the music, a sort of classical and instrumental piece. I would like to put strings and piano into the instrumentation. The music will start when Mary comes in to the picture. It will start off slowly and when Beatrice comes into the picture, it will rise and cause suspense and then when the chase happens, the strings will become louder.

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For this project, everything went smoothly, it was good to think out of the box and get out of my comfort zone. It wasn't my original plan but I would say it was better than my original plan. I used sound effects and panning to create drama and cartoony vibes which was my favourite thing abut my project. Next time, I would try and stick to my plan as much as possible instead of changing the whole concept but apart from that, everything went well and I was giving some good guidance during the making of the project to elevate it more.

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For Project 2, I am planning to use sound effects and music. I am going to be using music because I believe it will cause more suspense. For the music, I am going to be using piano, strings, drums and maybe some choir-like vocals, I will be recording the vocals but the others will be from Logic. It will start off slow, build up at the middle and will get louder at the end but fade out. For sound effects, there is a lot to cover in this project, there will be a list attached to this. I will be using some effects on the computer and incorporating some in audio. The general atmosphere I want to create will be spooky, suspenseful and dark, hence why I have chosen these instruments to play around with. The Black Hole itself gives off a whispering spooky vibe which I hope to incorporate into my piece.

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Our fourth rehearsal was a success, we primarily rehearsed Sweet Child O' Mine as it needed the most work, by the end of the rehearsal, we had the harmonies and vocal arrangements down. Our whole band were in attendance, Anna, Alex, Nadia, Sophie, Ellis, Cayden, Kieron, AJ, Rory, Dez, and Luca. I would say that the guitar solo needs the most work which Cayden has been working on as he showed me and the band members his progress in our groupchat. We agreed as a band that next week we would prioritise our whole rehearsal time for Sk8er Boi by Avril Lavigne as we prioritised Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns and Roses for this rehearsal. Myself, Sophie and Anna are taking the lead for Sweet Child O Mine, while Alex and Nadia are harmonising on choruses. Myself and Anna are doing the bridge together in a battle type of way as you will see in the performance. Alex and Nadia are taking the lead for Sk8er Boi as we jammed at the end of rehearsal.

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Verse1

If you come with me

Maybe there you’ll see

A bit of my magic world

Promise you there isn’t cold

Chorus

And if you don’t you won’t have so much fun

And if you don’t then you’ll regret choosing not to come

Verse 2

If you come with me

We will stay there free

release our fantasy

And drift away in ecstasy

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This is my interpretation to what is being seen in the short movie. The Black Hole is manipulating the man and the man thinks he is capable of everything. But The Black Hole has the man tricked. The Black Hole is the boss. At the start of the short movie, we see The Black Hole come out of the printer, the man drops the cup in the hole and thinks he is unstoppable, fast-forward to the door to the safe, the man gets The Black Hole to help him steal money. The man gets hungry for money.The paper falls and The Black Hole disappears. Nothing ever happened. The man is left trapped

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For this Project, we were tasked to write an original song within 2 separate groups in our band. The week before the festive holidays, I was unwell on the day our band first rehearsed the song. I have been caught up on all the arrangements within the band. Our song didn't have a name until the first week back at College. It has now been confirmed to be called "Come With Me". Anna wrote the lyrics with Dez, Cayden, Rory and Ellis. The band came together and decided to do the song Anna wrote even though there was two songs to choose from. The band winged the melody as a collective contribution. In terms of my absence, I was informed of the lyrics and sent two links to the band's jam by Andy. After the break, me and Anna sat down and discussed which harmonies and parts of the song I would do. It was made clear that I had a lower octave and that I would accompany the other vocalists during the verses and bridge. During the songwriting process, I leant how to work within a team and overcome any obstacles in terms of my vocals.

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For Project 2, we have been tasked to do a short composition working on a Logic task without audio and bringing it to life. In my original plan, I wanted to use sound effects and music to bring drama and that is what I have done. Minor changes were made from my original plan, I was going to make an audio track on vocals based off of the choir that is in the published project. I used MIDI to do this instead. I learnt how to use Logic more throughout this project, it really made me dive deep into the technical aspects of this course and really made me use my imagination and get out of my comfort zone. In my submission, I feel like I work well giving The Black Hole a voice in some circumstance. As wrote in a previous side, more or less gave the project a fan fiction story. Next time, I would attend more classes as I was ill for quite some time but came back better than ever.

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First, the bad news, guitars could’ve be louder, solo was ruined due to technical difficulties and my mic was cut half way through Sweet Child O’ Mine. Then the good news, being called a rockstar by Ni was a massive accomplishment and a heartfelt compliment to me. I feel like I’ve put in all the hard work for a reason that I get emotional when people compliment my stage presence. I also got told my audience members that every move I done was incredibly diva of me and the energy I bring to stage is just “chefs kiss”. I feel like I haven’t done anything bad while on stage and I could do what I could do. Live in the moment and let people be jealous of you because you only live one. Seeing my hardwork pay off is genuinely empowering.

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For my performance next Monday (2nd February), I will warm up by stretching every muscle in my body, warm up my vocal cords and drink some tea that contains manuka honey. For the mash house, considering it is a live venue out with the public, I usually use the same pre performance ritual but instead of tea, I have a single of Jack Daniel's Apple.

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When I have mistakes in the future I will go over to the lead guitarist and they'll most likely wink at me

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For this project, myself and Ellis will be doing Zombie by Yungblud (Acoustic). I will be doing vocals as it is my first study instrument and I will be accompanied by Ellis on guitar. For the research aspect, I looked up the lyrics and music sheets to help with timing. Ellis is using guitar tabs from Ultimate Guitar. The technical challenge for myself will be making sure I'm in correct timing and I don't mess up the lyrics (because I have a history of forgetting). Myself and Ellis have been rehearing this piece since 19th January knowing that a solo performance project was coming.

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On the 19th of January, Ellis went on a date with my friend, went horribly wrong, so then we decided to do what musicians do and play it out. We hung out with Nadz and played through the song whilst Nadz harmonised. Ellis thought it would be a good idea to do the Open Mic at Whistle Binkies but by the time we got there, it was fully booked. So we drowned our sorrows in Banshee Labyrinth instead, with the help of the almighty diva, Alex.

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Me and Ellis went through Zombie three times. And the photo attached was because I put a microphone stand in front of Ellis.

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Location - The Vennell

Time - 4am

Why? - Ayla Esroy and Jazz Bar fault (we missed our buses)

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In attendance - David and Ellis

Location - Booth 6

We set up, Ellis tuned their guitar and David did his before rehearsal ritual which is stretching, vocal warm ups and hydration. We got ready to start rehearsing. Ellis jammed the song while David finished his ritual. We started rehearsing and went through the full song. Afterwards, we took personal notes for feedback. We started again so David could work on timing and he messed up twice. Luckily, after Ellis' hand cramps went away, we went through the song again and packed up.

FEEDBACK -

"Better than it has been previously" - Ellis

"I need to work on timing but that was smooth" - David

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Ellis randomly played the intro

David joined in

We played through the song

And it finally started to come together

David started on the rehearsal log from the day before

David did his before rehearsal ritual

Ellis played the wrong chord so we had to start again

David messed up

Started again

Went through the whole song

David sped up during the song which needs practise

Ellis tried to match David’s tactics but didn’t work

We finished the song and spoke about what’s next

Ellis deadnamed their self in Korean

(Break)

Went through Zombie again

David don’t mess up timing this time

Ellis played the wrong chord but quickly rectified the mistake because they’re amazing like that

Feedback

If David messes up at the performance. Ellis will play until he chooses to come in because it is an easy mistake to rectify.

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David and Ellis invited Ellie and Nadz to show them how they’ve got on with practice and it also gives them a taste of performing for an audience. We went through Zombie once after David did his warm ups and we got feedback from Ellie and Nadz.

Feedback -

“That was the best I’ve heard you sound so far” - Nadz

“I love the emotion you’re putting to the song” - Nadz

“You have distortion in your voice and it’s cool” - Ellie

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On Sunday February 1st, I lost my open mic virginity with Ellis at the Black Rose Tavern. We sang through the song and the crowd were lovely. The open mic took place one day before my performance with Ellis. It was a great opportunity to sing in front of a crowd before doing the Solo Performance in College

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For this project, myself and with the help of my college bestie, Ellis Scobbie performed an acoustic version of Zombie by Yungblud (Dominic Harrison). The main objective for this project was peer feedback and this isn't nessarialy an "evaluation", but more of a reflection and notes of what my classmates and Andy said to me after the performance and what I plan to take from it and improve my musician skills. Many classmates said that my vocal tone, breathing technique was a great match for such an emotional song as this one. Some also said I had very nice supported tones and nice dynamics. According to the crowd, I looked very relaxed and confident but in fact, I was extremely nervous but didn't want to show it as it may have been off putting to the crowd. My breath control also came up in the peer feedback which I have been working on for ages considering I suffer from asthma, it takes a lot and it probably one of the best comments I could have got from anybody. One of my classmates, Ava said - "One of the best performances I've seen from you so far". And I am very happy it came off as that, me and Ellis worked extremely hard on this. For the criticism side of the feedback, I have to work on my timing a bit better, do more of an adapt warmup, especially for the high notes. Apparently I looked introspective (I have no idea what that means but thanks Andy). The first chorus was clearly weaker than the second one but I believe it was suppose to be due to the high note in the second one, I had to use my innovative and make it more dramatic for the second chorus to make sure I would hit the high note. For next time, I would now like to ask my peers and audience how they enjoyed the show and if they had any feedback because if no one tells me, I will not know.

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No rehearsal due to Project Two Marking Week

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Attendees - Myself, Anna, Alex, Nadia, Ellis, Cayden, Rory Dez, Luca and AJ.

Absent - Sophie was sick and Kieran left the course.

Going on from the vocalists lesson in the morning with Ni, we tried to do Come With Me harmonies but the band made it very clear that they didn't want to do that song. We went through the songs we are keeping on the setlist. Sweet Child O' Mine and Sk8er Boi. As Vocalists, we sorted out the harmonies and who's part was who's. We also ran through Don't Look Back In Anger as we knew we would be added that song to the setlist. Cayden told the band he was taking lead on that song.

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Attendees - Myself, Anna, Sophie, Alex, Nadia, Ellis, Cayden, Rory Dez, Luca and AJ.

We prioritized our new song, Don't Look Back in Anger. David made it clear he did not want to do that song but would harmonize in the chorus and bridge if needed. We ran through the two songs from our original setlist and made sure the band knew where they stood and vocalists knew where they were and what part they were doing.

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Attendees - Myself, Anna, Sophie, Alex, Nadia, Ellis, Cayden, Rory Dez, Luca and AJ.

It came to the band attention that Dez, Under Shadows drummer would be in another band which was not made clear to the band by Ni or Dez. This decision obviously made the band very stressed and none of us knew what to expect next. Looking back at this rehearsal, the band clearly like to take long excessive breaks and that meant that Dez could go into the rehearsal room with the other band. We made it clear to him at the end of rehearsal that we should be the priority and not his other band.

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Attendees - Myself, Anna, Sophie, Alex, Ellis, Cayden, Dez, Ethan M and Luca

Absent - Nadia and AJ left Under Shadows and joined new bands

After the February break, we came back and were ready to go! On the Snapchat group chat, Ellis asked the band if we could have talk about our next steps and planning. Cayden was clearly very argumentative and took his anger out on David because apparently David "called the meeting", when in fact, he did not. We spoke to Dez about where his priorities lie, Luca literally had to get him from the other band, which was ridiculous, as we said to him before, WE ARE THE PRIORITY! But he did not listen until we pulled the big guns into the equation, Andy Duncan. Thankfully, he's Superman and worked his DC magic.

We made it clear to the band members that if you in any case need to leave early or will not be in attendance, you NEED to let the band know before Wednesday starts. Not on the day. The day before. Its a simple rule

The Collective of Under Shadows spoke about the set times for Out The Box Fest in May and it was made clear that 20 minutes is the allocated time.

We went through the full setlist in this order -

1. Don't Look Back In Anger

2. Sk8er Boi

3. Sweet Child O' Mine

After a break and when we were about to go again, Anna took a list from the band on which song they wanted to do, David then played the songs through his microphone.

The day after rehearsal, we took to the WhatsApp group chat and decided we would be doing Mr Brightside.

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1. Don't Look Back in Anger

2. Sk8er Boi

3. Mr Brightside

4. Sweet Child O' Mine

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Attendees - Myself, Anna, Sophie, Alex, Ellis, Cayden, Ethan M, Dez and Luca.

Absent - Rory was sick AGAIN

Whilst the guitarists and drummer were setting up, the vocalists took their time to sort out whose part was whose as Nadia made a departure.

We ran through the setlist twice.

Guitarists need to be more organized and communicate better because they didn't know what they were playing.

Dez said he needed to leave 1 hour before the rehearsal was suppose to finish as his new band communicated with The Collective of Under Shadows.

Due to marking week the next week after this rehearsal, Anna spoke to Ross and Laurie to use the Auditorium which they were happy to provide.

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Don’t Look Back In Anger (Sophie and Alex to lead. Anna and David to help with chorus harmonies)

Sk8er Boi (Sophie and Alex to lead, David to help with chorus harmonies)

Mr Brightside (David to lead and Sophie, Alex and Anna to harmonise at Chorus and Bridge)

Sweet Child (Anna to lead and David to help out with high notes. Sophie and Alex to help with chorus and middle 8 harmonies)

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Logic Project with Pan, Volume, EQ and Compression

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Logic Project with Pan, Volume, EQ and Compression

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This project really messed with my brain a lot and I think I have either lost brain cells or gained some. It was well out of my comfort zone than Project Two was but I am happy on how far I have come with my producing skills and I can't wait to learn more in the future. For next time, I would rather have picked a different song as this is the last thing I have had to complete for this project due to the amount of headaches I've had just listening to this song. Also, when it comes to future projects, I have realized that I procrastinate things that do not seek my interests but I'm grateful that it's finally over (no more headaches and I'll be able to sleep at night).