Task- We started off by discussing song choices, and what we felt would suit both of us best and eventually settled on “Twin Size Mattress” by the Front Bottoms. We started off with Ben doing a rough play through of the entire song on an electric guitar, and we then layered mine and Ben’s vocals over the guitar, and finally we added a second and third (acoustic guitar with a pick), a midi bass, a drum beat and Ben added a solo near the end of the song.

Approach - To do all of this, we started off by creating an audio track and plugging the electric guitar into the interface. and set it to input one. Ben then pressed record so we could do a rough play through of the song, and once we had finished that we went back and layered over parts that we weren’t happy with/where we had messed up. We repeated this process for the vocals, acoustic guitars and solo until we were happy with this result. We then added midi bass to match the song and ben recreated the drums for the song in logic as best as he could.

Result - I think we covered this song quite well, and I feel because it was a song we both connected with it made us more passionate about the project. I do think we could’ve gave ourselfs more time as while we did manage to finish the project I think there was definitely room to improve as we didn’t give ourselfs much time and I think this could have really elevated our cover if we had worked more on the practical elements of it.

Being a singer with a higher vocal range, I was worried my voice would crack or break on stage. Part of me was also worried of the “Talking” aspect before the performance as I struggle to talk infront of large audiences even though I can sing confidently, talking is something I’d like to work on to become better at in future performances.

-Things I was confident about before the performance-

I was confident that even if I did mess up, I knew my band members would not draw attention to it, as I felt everyone in my band had been very supportive of each other during band rehearsals and any criticism given was always constructive and never meant in a mean way. I was also confident that I knew the lyrics well enough to get through the entire song and not mess it up. I think next time I wouldn’t have my lyrics on stage because I ended up not needing them anyway I just had them there as a sort of pillow/crutch.

-What I felt went well during our performance-

I felt that in “Creep” our start was quite strong, and I think we all looked engaged in the song and I think we were all able to change our “vibe” to match each individual song while again still looking engaged in the performance and not bored. I think by FAR “Sex On Fire was definitely our strongest song. Instruments wise and definitely vocals wise. I felt our harmonies were really strong on “Sex On Fire” especially when it reached the chorus of the song and with the singers specifically our own individuality came out in that song as we had all added our own little parts that weren’t in the original song but I felt this made it our own.

-What I felt could’ve went better in the performance-

While I though creep went well, I felt my run at the end could’ve been a lot stronger, as I came in late and didn’t end it with as much force as there should have been as I went quieter towards the end. I also felt I could have had more moment, as while I was moving I wasn’t moving quite as much as I would have liked to and I felt this would have amplified the performance much more. I also felt that there could be more crowd engagement (even just looking up at the audience) as a lot of us were either looking at the ground or our instruments(myself included)

-what I would have done differently next time-

For future performances I think I probably would’ve spend more time going over parts of a song I found difficult rather than practing the whole song. I would also not use lyrics on stage less time as this gave me less opportunity to look at the audience, and was almost distracting in a way. Finally, for my future band I’d probably make more of an effort to being open to learn songs as I wasn’t as open to this in my last band but I’d like to try out different genres aswell that I wouldn’t normally sing.

Starting this project has been pretty difficult as I’m not very confident with working in logic but I’ve enjoyed doing this project so far. This week i imported the audio/video into my logic project to begin with, Then i started off by using a microphone to record audio to sync up with the video. i recorded myself sighing for the first part. Then i wanted to add some music so i used the midi keyboard, and “ghostly reversed organ” effect to give the sound of the black hole appearing.

-Situation-

For my logic project I added music/sounds effects to the short movie "The black hole" I did this by using voice memos, samples, and they keyboard feature implemented into Logic Pro.

-Task- I started off by importing the movie into Logic Pro. Then I recorded all the voice memos I would need for my project which I used for things such as the sigh, the button and the sound of the paper. I used BBC to get free samples for my project which I used for things such as background noise, the printer and people talking. I used the keyboard feature implemented into logic to created the noise of the black hole appearing. I did this many times throughout my project and used the "Ghostly revered organ" as I thought I sounded very cinematic and gave the eerie vibe of the black hole.

-Result-

Im quite proud of what I did as before I was not very confident with logic and I think this was a huge learning experience for me and definitely helped me become more confident with using music software in general. I think for future projects I would have just made everything just a little bit tighter as there were definitely areas in my project I could have synced up better and I think If given more time I could achieve a tighter project in future.

One of the worries I had before performing was definitely performing our original. I think it sounded solid, but obviously lyrics are very personal and I was worried about being judged for the lines I had wrote. We ended up having an amazing audience tho and I think our original went really well.

-Things I was confident about before the performance-

I was confident in knowing my lyrics for all of our songs as for my first performance I had the lyrics on stage with me which can be distracting. I did have the lyrics for my parts in the original as even though I knew them quite well I didn't want to mess up or original but in future I think I would definitely use no lyrics as its more distracting than actually useful and I knew all my songs very well. Another thing I was confident about was that we all knew went to come in and went to stop. As we had either ques by looking at each other or using our fingers.

-What I felt went well during our performance-

I think our original was probably our strongest song, as I felt all the parts suited our vocal ranges and we even wrote parts with peoples voices in mind. I think it was very cohesive, and overall I think we performed it really well, and this was definitely the one I had the most fun performing. I was definitely a lot more confident in this performance than last and hopefully will keep getting more confident the more I perform.

-What I would have done differently next time-

Although I had more moment/emotion than my last performance I think I still could've had a lot more and if I was to perform in future id definitely try to be more expressive. As far as the singing there was definitely a lot more we could've done vocally, such as adding harmonies and adlibs and I think in future id definitely try to get more practice in outside of class with my band so we could add these things and bring our performance to the next level. I think we could have also delegated the lyrics better in future, as I felt they weren't distributed all that well. Finally I think we could have set up A LOT quicker and also had a nicer transition into each song. We did talk about how we would do this but ultimately left it too late..

Ⓦⓗⓞ ⓦⓡⓞⓣⓔ ⓣⓗⓔ ⓛⓨⓡⓘⓒⓢ:

Maya wrote most of lyrics, and me and dorian helped to either tweak or add more lyrics to the song.

Ⓦⓗⓞ ⓦⓡⓞⓣⓔ ⓣⓗⓔ ⓜⓤⓢⓘⓒ

Maya already had a melody in mind for our song, Ava came up with a picking pattern for the start which is also used throughout a lot of the song, and Jason and oilibhear added chords for our verse/chorsus. Jason also came up with a heavier section after our middle 8.

Ⓗⓞⓦ ⓦⓔ ⓦⓞⓡⓚⓔⓓ ⓐⓢ ⓐ ⓖⓡⓞⓤⓟ ⓣⓞ ⓒⓡⓔⓐⓣⓔ ⓞⓤⓡ ⓢⓞⓝⓖ

We were very encouraging of everyones ideas and I think everyone all had really good ideas, and we would even give others ideas on potential things they could be doing to elevate the song on their instrument/for their part.

Ⓒⓗⓐⓛⓛⓔⓝⓖⓔⓢ ⓦⓔ ⓔⓝⓒⓞⓤⓝⓣⓔⓡⓔⓓ ⓐⓝⓓ ⓗⓞⓦ ⓦⓔ ⓞⓥⓔⓡⓒⓐⓜⓔ ⓣⓗⓔⓜ

For a while we were stuck on how to end our song but me and Maya suggested that we do a dropout. For or last verse we had the "da da da" part and for each line of that we had something drop out. First we had everyone playing together and singing, Then we had Ivan and the guitars drop out. Next line we had me and the drums drop out, Then bass and dorina dropped out, and the final line was just Maya acapella.

Ⓗⓞⓦ Ⓘ ⓟⓔⓡⓢⓞⓝⓐⓛⓛⓨ ⓒⓞⓝⓣⓡⓘⓑⓤⓣⓔⓓ

I personally contributed by writing some of lyrics to our original. I wrote some of the lyrics such as

Your touch was warm,

It felt like home,

You walked away,

Left me alone,

I also wrote the line:

You were the one,

That I adored

Ⓦⓗⓐⓣ Ⓘ ⓛⓔⓐⓡⓝⓔⓓ ⓐⓑⓞⓤⓣ ⓢⓞⓝⓖ ⓦⓡⓘⓣⓘⓝⓖ

I learned that it's really hard to write songs in a group, and im glad I was working with my band as to write lyrics you definitely have to be compatible with the people. its also really scary to share lyrics, especially hose early stages and I feel like in a group you don't really give yourself as much creative freedom as you would if you were writing a song yourself.

SONG/BAND:

"Aint it fun" -Paramore

Band members and roles:

Haley Williams(lead vocals, backing vocals, synth, keyboard)

Taylor York(guitar, percussion, drums synth, backing vocals, key board, ukulele

Jeremy Davis(bass, keyboard, synth, backing vocals)

STYLE/MOOD:

The song aint it fun is a mixture of pop-rock, funk-rock, and soul with a heavy influence from new wave music. Aint it fun is a very energetic song and has a lot of sarcasm in places. With the message of the song being about the harsh reality of life but ultimately an upbeat energetic sound

STRUCTURE/CHARACTER:

STRUCTURE:

Intro, Verse, Pre-chorus, Chorus, verse Pre- Chorus, Post-chorus Bridge, Chorus, Outro

Tempo: BMP: 104, Medium pace.

Time signature: 4/4 simple time

GROOVE: Straight

TEXTURE: Verses, slightly sparse

Choruses, bigger sound

Very sparse instrumentation in bridge and outro.

LYRICS:

THEME:

Aint it fun is a song that follows the struggles of going into adulthood.

The song highlights that life sucks when your own your own and have to do things for yourself showing the contrast between being a child and adult. The line "Aint the big fish in the pond no more you are what they're feeding on" Highlights the harsh reality of moving to a place and suddenly becoming a "nobody" Essentially the song "Aint it fun" is about finding strength when when life's gets hard or you feel overwhelmed or lonely.

PERSPECTIVE:

The song aint it fun is written in the 2nd person perspective.The lyrics are heavily directed at the singer (Hayley Williams) as a sarcastic, self-reflective message to cope with her move from Nashville to Los Angeles and the epiphany that even you move away from your problems will still follow you.

AMOUNT OF WORDS: Aint it fun has quite a lot of words but not an insane amount

REPTITON OF LYRICS:

There's repetition in the pre-chorus and chorus and all the chorus and pre choruses are mostly the same.

There's also repetition in the bridge and outro as the line "Don't go crying to your mama, cause your on your own in the real world" repeats its self multiple times.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHORUS VERSE AND MIDDLE 8:

Verses and choruses are very upbeat and energetic, with a heavier sound being added into the chorus to one make it "different" and amp up the intensity of the energetic feel as there is a build up before the chorus. The middle 8th still has this energetic feel but this is done vocally instead of instrumentally and there are not many instruments in this part(even none at some point) but the energy is still kept with things such as harmonies, adlibs, vocal runs and even clapping at points, Lyrically there is much more repition in the middle 8 of the song, with the same line being sung over and over again, The choruses follow the same lyrics(mostly) while some choruses being longer) and the verses have the same melody but lyrics are different for each verse.

MELODY:

KEY OF SONG:

C#m, Stays the same throughout the entire song

RYTHM OF VOCAL MELODY:

Short and fast apart from bridge and outro where it is not slower but is more drawn out

HOW DOES IT CHANGE FROM VERSE TO CHORUS TO MIDDLE 8:

The verse of the song aint it fun Is catchy and upbeat, and this sound follows into the chorus of the song but with a fuller instrumental song to make this even more energetic and interesting at the chorus. In the bridge of the song, this part has sparse instruments even being acapella at points(yet always having drums to keep the beat. There is also a lot more going on in the bridge vocally as there are things such as layered harmonies, vocal runs and a lot of adlibs especially towards the end.

REPETITION/USE OF MOTIF:

There is repetition in the melody as the riff played a throughout the intro and pre choruses. There is also repetition in the vocals and instruments the start of each verse ("I don't mind")

The main melodic motif in "Ain't It Fun" is a repeated, syncopated vocal phrase that acts as its hook, mainly during the chorus and the bridge. it has a "triplet swing feel" that emphasizes the "fun" in the lyrics, often following the rhythmic ending of "Aint it fun, Living in the real world"

RANGE:

Big range and varied. The lowest note in the song is a C#2 in the second octave. This happens in the breakdown of the song in the main bass line(Don't go crying to your mama)

The highest note in the song is a C#5 during the final chorus and outro of the song.

HOOKS:

WHAT ARE THE HOOKS IN THE SONG:

Vocal:

There a hooks in chorus for example the repeating phrase "Aint it fun living in the real word? which acts as the main, catchy vocal hook There are also hooks in the bridge and outro. The bridge and outro use a gospel choir which add layers of these vocal hooks. including repetitive backing vocals such as "Dony go crying' To your mama cause your on ur own"

Instruments:

There is an instrumental hook in the intro of aint it fun a recognisable hook played on a xylophone, and also an electric guitar with the xylophone eventually fading out and the guitar just playing the same riff.

There is also a 6th-note drum push, which in recurring in the choruses which helps with the energetic feel to the song.

CHORDS:

CHORD SEQUENCE:

C#m, E, Amaj7 played in this order up until The post chorus where it changes slightly and goes Amaj7, E, B

It also changes slightly at the bridge and outta where it goes Amaj7 to E

SIMPLE OR COMPLEX:

The song consists of mostly simple chords but there is one complex chord in the song being the Amaj7

MAJOR/MINOR:

The song consists of a mix of major and minor and one isn't really dominating the other. There Is also use of a 7th chord(Amaj7)

MY OWN PART:

- I did vocals in aint it fun I sung the first verse, the choruses and I did harmonies on the bridge.

-I had a lot of different roles as I was doing the second verse my part there was the main melody but I also did a vocal harmony in the bridge section.

-I also did adlibs at points in the song such as the "oooo" in the first pre-chorus, and also and adlib on the last chorus ("aint it goo-oo-od")

your canes are so pretty,

you sink them deeper in my skin,

im feeling pretty sickly,

begging like a dog to be let in

I want to kiss you softly,

but then you'd bite my lip again,

sometimes the blood tastes salty,

but I like it too so I can't complain,

chorus 1

you got me,

in some type of way,

im fighting,

I don't know if I can stay,

and im begging,

don't wanna be hurt again

but your canines are taking their grip,

and you know that's when I start to slip

verse 2

you said you liked in when the blood dripped down my face,

I start to whimper but its really hard to hate,

the things that you do,

when you make me feel alright again,

I keep falling for you,

when you sink your teeth right in,

chorus 2

you got me,

in some type of way,

im fighting,

I don't know if I can stay,

and im begging,

don't wanna be hurt again

but your canines are taking their grip,

and you know that's when I start to slip

bridge

and I don't wanna have your marks left on my skin,

cause you don't like the love you only want the pain,

I tried but somehow,

I can't ever get myself clean,

and your at your best when you sink your teeth right in,

outro

you canines are so pretty

oh baby bite me one more time cause when you sink your teeth in

you know you make me feel alright

-WHAT I THINK WENT WELL-

-I managed to stay on time throughout the entire song

-I didn't forget any of the lyrics

-my strumming pattern stayed pretty consistent for the entirety of the song

-even though I was quite shaky and nervous before I got infant of everyone when I actually got up there and started playing I think I was a lot for confident especially when I got into the song

-I kept it interesting as I had parts where id change my strumming pattern/ strum quieter or louder and also picky parts too.

THINGS I COULDVE IMPROVED

-even though I hit the high notes I definitely held myself back, and I would've liked to have been more confident in myself in that regard.

-I could've added more chord variations and I think for that song im gonna try add more chord variations or even just more chords for future performances.

-I think I had an okay stage presence but I was mostly just looking out the window or at the ground because I was nervous, so in future id try make more eye contact.

-WHAT ID DO DIFFERENTLY -

-if I was to do it again I’d try to have more stage presence and better eye contact with the audience-

-I would also check my guitar is in tune next time as it was slightly out of tune but it wasn’t too noticeable-

-I would do breathing exercises before my next performance as I felt the nervousness affected the overall quality of my performance so I’d want to try calm my nerves before hand-

-I feel permanence for me is definitely a strength and id like to do more band work as its something I really enjoy and hope to make it even more of a strength and build my confidence up espesically. I'm not too well versed with more technical parts of the worse which is why I'm probably leaning towards a performance based project but I do want to get better at the more technical aspects and I've been recording stuff and home and I hope to see some improvement and hopefully I can get better at using logic.

-The first thing I did was I adjusted the volume of all the vocals so they would all be more even. I made Jason the loudest in the chorus, while turning the harmonies down.

I also decided I want to turn the guitar track up to give it a fuller sound

-I then started on panning the vocals. For Jasons vocals on every part I kept them in both bears as he is the main vocal and the main thing to be heard. I panned Chris' vocals in the chorus to the left, and brains to the right. I did this as it would give it a fuller affect and again it would still let both harmonies be heard while keeping Jasons vocals the main focus and also spreading the sound out making it sound fuller.(I also did all these same things for the acapella part for the same reason.)

-I then used the inbuilt eq setting to adjust my entire sound. I will admit this part was definitely a challenge as I was going in pretty blind as my knowledge on eq was very little, so it was mostly me just adjusting line until the levels sounded okay.

-I used the compressor tool to adjust the volume on my project, I mainly used this for the harmonies in the choruses as while they sounded good they were very loud and screechy when the exceeded the volume limit and this was the main thing I wanted to sort out with the compressor.

-As I final touch I added a little bit of reverb to the entire song, but mostly in the acapella "ooo's" as I wanted them to sound more dreamy and fuller as they were acapella.

-WHAT I WAS AIMING TO ACHIEVE-

I think the main thing I wanted to achieve with this project was to make the song sound fuller, and have more balanced vocals and I felt that adding the reverb and panning the vocals in the chorus to each ear really gave it a grander feel and definitely gave it more clarity when all the vocals were at the right levels as everything could be heard clearly

-WHAT WORKED WELL-

-I think adding a lot of reverb especially to that acapella section really gave the song a fuller sound and it felt a lot more fleshed out than it did before.

-Panning the secondary vocals in each ear added a lot more depth to the song and an overall better sound.

-WHAT I COULD IMPROVE-

I think I could researched eq a little more because I hadn't known much about it before this I definitely didn't use it to its full potential and it was more of a guessing game/figuring out what worked where so next time id definitely do more research it to eq so I could use it to its full potential and hopefully achieve and even better sound if I was to do something similar to this again

-We also rehearsed "All the things she said" for the first time and while it definitely needs more practice I really like it and it was really fun to sing

-We did also time our setlist in full which sat at around 17 minutes.