common skillsets and attributes leading to success:

time management, originality, work ethic- resilience, growth mindset and adaptability, technical proficiency/ knowledge, consistency and quality, qualifications/ experience.

SMART targets

academic: keep up to date on work.

Technical: improve my ability using double pedal for my performance track.

Performance: focus on dynamic improvement in my playing.

Professional: Network with more people by attending events.

This Spotify link is the playlist I made that incorporates all of the 8 songs for this terms Pre-production and creative performance workshop

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3z9w8ZWdZGJTjf17AhvqOo?si=zlfuCc1-QWm_4dwDujsWKw&pi=u0k7k4-bRs-nf

My goal for next week is to make 2 playlists of songs I want to do for performance and recorded versions to get a good idea of techniques and styles I want to achieve.

For the first technical development lesson of the term we covered some samba patterns around the drum kit, I found this really difficult as I'm use to playing more heavier styles and haven't put much time into practicing.

The video of me is me practicing some of the patterns, I managed to get the more simple kick and hihat foot pattern pretty easier but I defiantly need to work on the the 2 kicks and 1 hihat foot pattern as I was really struggling wit getting the grove with my hands put over that.

This weeks song was "Don't start now" by Dua Lipa, Me and my group really didn't like this song so we looked online for more 'heavier covers of the song and took inspiration from to make a more rock orientated version of the song.

The video is of my group practicing the song, I think some of the challenges for drums for this song is interpreting the drums from the original track as they are electronic and not played by a real person.

I think my performance for this weeks track went really well the only thing I think I could improve was the dynamics felt a bit too much in some sections and I feel like I could of got a couple of the hits with guitar a bit tighter in places but other than that I believe that my performance was super solid and I felt content with the way it went.

I also ended liking the more "rocky" version of the track my group came up with and felt it was a unique twist on an otherwise uninteresting song in terms of my taste.

The photo is me using logic to chop up all of the sample my group recorded and make them into a drum loop, I feel like this is a good skill to learn to be able to incorporate samples effectively into my work.

Also this week I made a weekly time planner to help me layout my week and made me keep to a strict practice schedule in order to help me improve and develop my skills as a musician.

This weeks Pre-production song was "River boat song" by Ocean Colour Scene. I really liked this song this week and so did the group I played with so we decided to keep most of the song the same.

In terms of the changes that we made for the song: we made the song a bit shorter by cutting out the last chorus and some of the intro as we felt like it was a bit too long. We aslo decided to change the transition from the verse to the chorus to make it easier for everyone.

I think some of the challenges for this song is the odd timing of 6 in the verses which makes the beat and fills tricky in this song.

The video is my band playing the song in small pond before or Pre-production lesson.

This week in technical development we were coving some reading exercises with six stroke rolls putting different accents on different hits in the bar.

The video is of me practicing some of the patterns we went over in class to reinforce my understanding of them.

I think practicing these exercises helps me improve my independence on the kit and my playing overall.

The video on the top is my groups performance of this weeks song, I believe that the performance went pretty well and I really like the version that we did as it stayed true to the original but the adaptations we made let the guitar shine through more which I believe was super effective.

I think i could of tightened up the timing of some of the fills and maybe added some extra flair in the big bridge/ breakdown section that we played but other than that I think the outcome was really effective.

Also in this lesson we did some work in the studio with setting up microphones and other devices into the correct inputs, I believe this is crucial to know if I ever want to do recording by myself with out an engineer in the studio.

This weeks song was "Chain Of Fools" by Aretha Franklin, our group thought the song was really basic an boring so we decided to completely change up the song and only use the lyrics from the original.

The video linked is us practicing our version of the track in the lesson which I think went well but there are still a few thing I we wanted to get perfect before the performance the next day to make it sound as good as possible.

We tried to write an song using everything Aretha Franklin wouldn't do and making the track into a piece much more fitted to the style my group likes to play. some of the key thing my group changed about this track were: the multiple different odd time signatures, tricky drum fills and the big breakdown section at the end of the song instead of a last chorus.

I really liked the way the composition of this song went and I think I will use a altered and developed version for my performance track for this unit as its very well suited to be a drum focused track and has lots of challenges for me to work on and overcome.

This week in technical development we covered linear drumming and its uses and some exercises that will help us develop the techniques needed.

The video I linked is me trying to practice and create some of my own linear drum fills and beats.

I think this is an important skill to learn in order to develop my playing and expand on new ideas around the kit to overall make me a more creative and proficient player.

The link to the video is to my groups performance for this weeks track I think despite how much we changed the song around this week I really think the performance ended up being super clean and went smoothly which ended up sounding really good.

I think the only part of the of the song that I could of improved in this performance is I feel like I rushed the timing in some parts like the breakdown, I feel like if I held back on the timing in some of the elements on the song it would of been an even better performance.

I try not to get to get distracted by the finer details but I feel like when I'm recording drums I can get caught up in getting a perfect take. I feel like when I play live and perform I'm less of a perfectionist because I can't go back and rerecord the mistake.

I feel like it's important not to get held up on the quality and not be a perfectionist but it's still great to take time so you're focusing on details in the music.

I think that I am going to take into consideration the argument o quality vs quantity and apply it to my project this term especially in the recorded track in order not to spend too much time getting caught up on small details in the track.

this week I also finished off my proposal form my project outcome and completed an action plan and timeline which is attached at the top.

The link at the top is to my action plan for this term covering what I need do to be successful and keep on top of deadlines.

This weeks preproduction song was "Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin, I wasn't the biggest fan of this song because I didn't like the weird timing of the some of the parts. I feel like this was definitely the biggest challenge for the song in terms of the drums.

The group I was with didn't really change too much about the song because we felt the song had already very set parts to it however we did add a ore dramatic intro and nitro which I felt worked well for the song we also made the chorus more swung because we felt it worked for our arrangement and sounded good.

The video linked above is of our group practicing the song we had 3 guitarist for this song which was a challenge to figure out parts but I feel like we all locked in and got our parts down to fit with the song in the end.

This week in technical development we covered polyrhythms and how to read and play them. I feel like this is really important to learn about because it's a technique I have not looked into in too much detail and something I might like to integrate into my performance track. I feel like this is also a important technique to develop as it will hopefully make me amore creative player overall.

The video linked at the top is me practicing some examples of polyrhythms and then me putting them into a beat that I could use in my playing.

The video linked at the top is my groups performance of this weeks song in creative performance workshop, I feel like this weeks performance went fairly ok but there were definitely quite a few things that we could improve on. I think some of the timing for some of the sections could definitely be improved such as coming into the last chorus and some of the fills in the last chorus too weren't good. I feel like I lacked certainty on when some of the parts came in and I feel like if I had put more time into practicing the song I could of tightened up some of the elements to make for a more well rounded performance.

Also for this week my group had 3 guitarists which was difficult to communicate all of the different parts of the song but overall I feel like it went fairly well and we ended up with a performance that I was happy with even if there was a couple of parts that I could improve.

The photo is me experimenting with adding synthesizer effects to midi tracks on logic.

We also did research into contrasting techniques in our work for our performance and recorded tracks for creative performance assignment, I feel like I need to go more into contrasting techniques and reference them using resources such as you tube to support the evidence, I want to do document this in my creative performance Padlet to show my devlopment.

The next week is development week and I'm going to use this time to develop and practice my techniques catch up on my coursework and have a rest.

I think some of the challenges for me for this song is really holding back on the drums when I felt like I needed to this song is defiantly a lot more dynamic than some of the other songs that we have done in previous weeks. Also I feel another challenges was getting fills with a lot of character that matched the song was difficult especially as its slightly swung which adds another element of challenge to the part for this week.

This week in technical development we covered even more on polyrhythms this week we really went into depth in 2 over 3 specifically and how we would play it around the the kit as just a rhythm, integrating into fills and incorporating into drum beats.

The video is of me practicing the rhythm with my hands and feet and trying to incorporate it into fills.

I believe that this is a useful skill to have as it helps me develop my playing with new ideas to use around the kit which I believe will make me a more creative player, furthermore I think it also helps my limb independence especially when practicing with my left foot which is something I feel like I need to develop on.

This was a good week to practice my dynamics around the kit as its it's in a more laid back style to what I usually play which I feel is a useful skill to improve on.

I think this weeks performance went super well but if I was to improve on any of the elements I would hold back on the kick drum because I felt like in parts I used to much for the style. I think if I did this it would of made the performance better than it already was.

I think this is super important to learn about this as I feel it's a tool that can improve my drum recording in future and use it towards future projects that I am working on.

We also covered qualitive data which is quality and research with out data and quantitative data where numbers and stats are involved in the research.

In my research I want to use a combination of primary and secondary data in my research and use both quantitative and qualitative data collection in order to get a strong and academic outcome in my diary.

Over the next 2 weeks I would like to develop my research in to dynamics I would like to use these research techniques to build up my technical proficiency in my playing to make me a better player overall you can me develop on this in my creative performance diary.

The video on the top is my group rehearsing the track. We changed the song to be a bit heavier than the original especially at the end of the track, we also leant into a more swung feel for the track and added stops top create tension and musical interest to the track.

I think the track this week was fairly straight forward but some of the challenges I came across was holding back the groobe to serve the song and locking in with the rest of the people in my group for the stops that we added to the track.

I think moving on forward I would like to intergrade the kick into this pattern to turn it into a complete beat, I think this will greatly improve my limb independence as each one of my limb is doing something different and unique in the rhythm.

There wasn't too much that I could think of in terms of what could do to improve my performance however I think if I was to revisit the rack I would of experimented with some more thought out swung fills that would of complimented and added to the track musically creating interest in the piece.

The photo is me applying it to a mix and using my other knowledge of Logic to incorporate other techniques I have learnt this term such as: using bus sends and compression and reverb.

This is important for my summative as I'd like to make my track not run super hot due to gain.

My WIFI cut out for 2 weeks a couple of weeks ago and i didn't have a lot else to do other than coursework so that was a good way to motivate me. Maybe I should have a certain time i the day where I turn of the WIFI in on my phone just to focus on coursework.

I did a quiz on different types of procrastination and it said I'm a pleaser and I will often put others needs above my own which contributes to why I may be procrastination.

The 4 types of procrastination are warrior pleaser rebel and perfectionist, I feel like I relate to all of them to some extent but I got the highest score for pleaser.

This weeks pre-production track was "Hard Times" by Paramore, I thought this track was not the best choice and I wasn't overly a fan of it as the drum parts are electronicky and fairly basic and bland.

While I am not the biggest fan of this track specifically I really like a lot of Paramore's music so my idea for this week was to mix the track up with another song by them. my group chose to blend it with the song "Crush Crush Crush" which stylistically is much more my cup of tea. with more complicated drum parts and a much more heavy track.

The video linked at the top is my group rehearsing in the lesson. I believe that some challenges for this combination of tracks is defiantly locking in with the transitions in the 2 tracks and also trying to get the tempo right for those transitions.

I believe that these our super important to learn about especially as it is a drum style that I don't think i have ever really looked into and I think I would like to further develop on the this in the future as I think it work on improving my limb independents greatly.

I think in terms of my actual playing and the whole groups dynamics was really solid and worked well to create a professional sounding piece. I also think that the mash up of the 2 songs worked super well together and was a very creative idea and made the the original track (Hard Times) much more tolerable and more to my style as like Crush Crush Crush more style wise I also feel like mixing other Paramore songs with this weeks track would also work well to create a similar effect as my performance.

The picture at the top is me EQing some rhythm guitar to make it sound a bit punchier, I think it's a skill I defiantly want to research into in order to develop record DAW track for the assignment to make it sound as good as it possibly can.

We also covered the content for you're strategy and what we need to do next I started taking into consideration my feedback and the next steps that I need to do to make it as good as possible and make it cohere to the brief for the assignment.

The last thing in this session is we covered are formative feedback that we got I made some notes that I need to work on in order to make my work the best it possibly can:

Action 2 - Pre-production - re purpose the explanations of the drums for each weekly track - this will have key terminology leaning into drum technique each week and can be used to support your commentaries in these sections 

Action 3 - look to create mini actions / targets from each practice video i.e next step (love hoe you link the why to your professionalism)

Link up all diaries - it would make sense to have each thread in one place in case this gets missed by the marker - o a clear contents that links up the other pallets 

The video linked at the top is the group I ended up going with for the lesson and we ended up doing a very different sort of "Lo-fi" style to the track. I thought this was fairly boring but it was interesting getting a different insight into a genre I have not put too much research into.

Overall I think the rehearsal went well however I believe that I need to tighten up some of the changes form verse to chorus and also we need to cut down the run time of our version of the track. I think the main challenge for me in this song is holding back and keeping to the chilled out feel of the piece.

I believe that learning this important to help my journey threw music as it widens my drum vocabulary, further more I feel like it is also a good skill to help lean more independence with separate limbs. I think if I was to further develop this I would try and add a hi hat foot pattern to further work on my inderpendence.

I think as well as dynamics if I was to go and revisit this I think it would defiantly benefit from a piano/keyboard player to add some more sound character to the piece.

This was the last official creative performance workshop of the year but in the next weeks I am going to book in to use the lesson time to demonstrate my playing for my performance piece for the formative hand in and try and get feedback on that.

I didn't spend too much time working on the reverb approaches as I wanted to use a lot of the lesson time to really focus working on my DAW track as I feel this is really important. I think mines coming along nicely and in the rest of the session I focused on getting the drums that I recorded for it sounding as good as possible implanting knowledge I learnt from previous lessons such as using bus sends to add limiters and compression and adding EQ to the drums to make the kick and snare a bit punchier in the mix.

Some things I can look for when I am active listening Dynamics, textures and production techniques, the picture at the top goes into more detail on the different techniques involves in active listening.

This week I really want to lock in on my DAW track and my performance track as it is approaching the deadline soon and would like to get them both sounding as good as they possibly can.

The video is my band playing my song I chose and I thought this turned out really well. Some of the positive feedback we got as band was really tight parts and good energy for everyone, however something I got told to work on was my communication to the other members of my band as I don't really look up much in the song and am very focused on the drums for most of the track.

Also this week we don't have creative performance workshop but I want to book in and get feedback on the actual performance side of the song and also get as many chances to perform it as I can before the actual performance.

The video linked at the top is me practicing these phrases and integrating them into fills. I believe this is an important thing to learn about to improve my playing I also think that I could integrate it into the feet in further practice in order to work on my smart target of getting better at double pedal and incorporating it into my playing.

The video linked at the top is my band playing through my track I picked for the performance side of the assessment. I think it's important to get as many opportunities to play live as possible to make sure I have as good of understanding of the track as I possibly can.

Some of the thing I want to improve when I practice and perform the song next week that I feel didn't go so well in this video is the fill going into the ending section and tightening up some of the double pedal elements in the track.

My track has a lot of guitars so it will probably take the longest to finish I want to experiment with different EQ's amps and pedals to make them sound as good as they possibly can and fit too my track.

I think before the final lesson of production tools I will book a mac suit and focus on trying to get my track as close to finished as I possibly can so I can get feed back in next weeks lesson so I can then work on that and hand the track in for the formative assement.

Outside of lessons this week I didn't do too much but I rehearsed with my band as we're trying to write some new originals and also learn more covers to hopefully start doing shows by the end of this term.

As well as this I started work on some my smart targets by trying to consider songs with lots of dynamic variety and also double pedal.

Also this week my band was really focused on writing originals and getting started on our record DAW tracks as soon as possible as last term we left them fairly last minute and got quite stressed about them.

Also this week I went a gig that Queens Park Sound put on which was a great opportunity to network and meet new people which relates to my smart target.

I also thing the technical development on linear patterns was really interesting and is something I believe I would like to to go into more detail with in the future as I feel like it will develop my playing and make it more interesting and unique.

Lastly this week my band went busking for the first time which I had a lot of fun doing as it gave us a chance to perform some of our originals and covers in a more relaxed environment.

As well as the lessons this week I really focused on starting work on the recorded DAW track and booking the studio to get different elements such as drums recorded. I think by the time the half term break is over I would like to have everything in the track recorded so I can be on top of it and spend the second half of this term really going into detail mixing the track.

As well as the Amy Winehouse song I also got a good recording of my performance track for the summative hand in which I was happy with which you can see in my performance Padlet.

We don't lessons next week so I am returning home which I am exited about because it means I can practice on my acoustic drum kit in my room.

When I am practicing drums I would like to take into consideration the dynamics and how I can broaden my range more to relate to my smart target and hopefully make m in to a better and more versatile player.

Finally in this week I went to the Water Bear jam night which was a great opportunity for me to build on my smart target of networking and getting to know and play with new people and I had a lot of fun getting up on stage and jamming.

Also my band is starting to become more serious and we started thinking about booking potential gigs and meetings with Kieron Pepper which we feel will help us gain traction in the local scene with our new original songs that we're also recording ready to release in the future.

Finally in this week I went to the Ruckus debut gig which was really good as it was a great opportunity to develop my networking smart target, and also I really enjoy the music that all of the bands played.

Since we don't have pre-production and creative performance workshop I want to really use the time to practice as much as I can and also keep on top of my coursework in order to keep t o my smart target and not get overwhelmed by it all.

This week my band had a meeting with Kieron Pepper which was super helpful and gave us some next steps for our band and how to progress in the right direction moving forward and developing as a band.

I am very happy I also got a fairly good recording of my performance song and I also feel like my recorded DAW track is coming along and progressing nicely.

Finally this week I went to the Water Bear Mega live event which gave me a chance to work on my smart target of networking with new people and it was also great seeing more people play live and getting an idea to what other water bear bands are up to.

I think next week is going to be just as busy for me as the deadline continue to approach but i will try my best to keep on top of everything including the written coursework and use my evenings to really focus and keep on top of that.

I also want to make a separate page for documenting the process of my recorded track using a DAW and what tools and techniques I used to try and make my track sound as good as it possibly can I think I also want this page to be about 1000 words to support my project reflection.

The video at the top is me trying some of the 16th note phrasings in my playing the first beat I play is a shuffle beat where I try and add ghost notes over the top and the second beat is a pretty straight forward beat but with accents on the upbeat, I believe both of these beats are important to master and are something I might consider looking into over the summer.

I'm really happy with all of my rehearsals and other lesson for this week I feel like i am progressing nicely as I finished mixing my recorded track and also handed in the "My Strategy" assignment.

I have my performance slot next week and you can see the progression leading up to that in my other Padlet but I feel fairly confident so hopefully that goes well.

After I have submitted everything I am looking forward to having a break and some time off before making preporations for next year.

Mastering is trying to make the track as ready for a release as it possibly can be, this can include making the volume levels as loud as they can be with out the gain being crazy high and tweaking the EQ of overall tracks so that they sound as good as possible.

https://padlet.com/autumnmckay567/creative-performance-practice-fpjqpr6ngxf80sco