My final project

My final project was preformed in at the summer gig. awaiting the video.

Evaluation

FMP Evaluation

Critical analysis:

With my work I submitted, I am defiantly pleased with it but compared to professional artistic work with the music industry I need a lot of work to match up to those standers. I would say my work fit into the musical industry since I tried my best to study and apply features showed by one of my favourite artists J Cole. This is proven by the fact the in my song I dod the same thing J Cole does and added singing and rapping in my song. With my work, I think I struggled with coming up with the lyrics at the start that I had to ask others for help. If there was more time what I would do differently is come up with more lyrics for my song and maybe come up with more song to perform. In the future, I will manage my time so that I can get to do more on my work. 

Research:

My key area of my research was looking at J Cole and how he's chords work well with on another and different way he structures his lyrics (verse, chorus, etc). My method towards researching this case study was analysing his techniques and he was a think when performing by watch and listening to how he perform and sing/rap and understanding why he does what he does. I also looked up on web pages the help me as an individual musician to enhance my skill is chords singing and writing lyrics. In my work, there is some element that I have researched and applied into my work. I feel that I've researched enough to understand and try to apply some of those techniques towards my work effectively. Topics I could of research if I had more time would be mixing and mastering effectively for a gig and maybe how to present myself on stage. In my research, I've learnt that jazz players use cluster chords and much complex chords to give the music a much more rich and in depth sounding in their music which take us to J Cole and how he use that to make his music stay interesting throughout. 

Technical/Practical skills:

My research has informed me giving me a clear understanding on how I should structure my song how I should write it and different chords to make it interesting. A new skill I've gained from my research is the ability to write lyrics for a song and write interesting chords for my song. My skill from the start of the project to the end I think has grown quite a bit in terms of knowledge of different type of technique and then putting into practice that will later on in the future help me.  

Project management/working methods:

A problem from the middle of the course was that I had writers block for my music and how I got passed that was seeking out help from my classmates to help me write or give me some ideas on what to write about. I would say I kinda completed my project goal. I planned on doing two covers and two originals but because of my time management, I could only do one original so I cut it short cause it was too much to balance out with all my other works. In my access time, that was provided to me, I would listen to Charle as he talks to my class about writing up our research posts and giving us different ways of improving our work. If I didn't have him I would spend my time focused on my music writing lyrics and editing it to make sure everywhere fit in perfectly within the music.

Collaboration:

To help me in my work I sought the help from two students from level 3 performance and they helped out a lot. their role was to help me come up with a theme for the song and write lyrics for it. the collaboration between us was very fun and enjoyable I was able to get so much done for my song if wasn't I don't think I would have had a song to perform. The problems however, I faced with them was that they one min they said the wanted to sing it with me next they said they did so in the end i decied to do my song on my own but i still thank them for there help towards the song and maybe in the future I will turn to them again.  

Research

I have been researching jazz chords so i can try use them to make my song sound interesting and complex. most artistes use jazz chords mostly in hip hop so people like j cole uses it in his music which inspires me to try put that in my music.
 

This is a video of the different chords in jazz which includes cluster chords. They look very complex to learn but with practise I'm sure ill get the hang of it.What i've learnt from this video in that 7th chords progression are extended chords that are  used to give a fuller sounding and richer harmonic progression.

This is me attempting to play those chords and for my first time I picked it up quick.  How I used theses in my music was by playing it as chords for the main part of the song. 

My successes and failure making my song

This is the song I will be performing at the gig called "you got me".

How I started to make was listening to a song called grass ain't greener by Chris brown and like the chords he used so I learnt the chords and used them and the main part of the song. the chords are

F*
Ab
Bbm
Ab
Db Sus2











I played the chords twice for the sustain which give it a more rhythmical complex sounding to it.

I use a pad to play these chords cause I really liked how it sounded with it but there was a problem when it was playing. It was making popping sounds and I had to get rid of it. How I want about getting rid of it was by using the EQ plug in.

These got rid of all that popping noise which gave it a much smoother sounding for the pads. 

With lyrics I got help with a few of level 3 performance students at the start. Being influence by there lyrics I started writing my own lyrics based on the subject they wrote about which is about love towards a person. I failed on coming up with a significant chorus for the song but a came to an understanding that it really doesn't need it and instead came up with a repetition saying "my feelings" so it give it a sense of resonance. Also, I wanted to copy a technique from one of J Cole's song "Crooked Smile" where at the chorus Its repeated. While recording the lyrics onto logic I used Reverb and Echo on all of the audio tracks.

I use buses to send it straight to the track so the have the some level and some sounding Reverb/Echo. for my vocals (Excluding my rap verse) I used pitch correction cause it sounded good with my voice for the song.

performing my song to Olly he gave feedbacks on my vocals and how I should project them in the song. he said I should "support my top notes more" throughout the I've been coming up with ways to go about that and I've researched on singing techniques. 

here some singing technique

These are the song i was going to do but I didn't come around to cause I was to focused on one song so my time management was poor when it came to dividing my time spent on each songs.

Bibliography

Bibliography

JazzPianoOnline (2015) JazzPianoOnline.Com. Available at: http://www.jazzpianoonline.com/jazz-piano-lessons/chords-voicings/#sthash.CtNgyP5u.dpbs (Accessed: 23 May 2016).

Citations, Quotes & Annotations

JazzPianoOnline (2015) JazzPianoOnline.Com. Available at: http://www.jazzpianoonline.com/jazz-piano-lessons/chords-voicings/#sthash.CtNgyP5u.dpbs (Accessed: 23 May 2016).

(JazzPianoOnline, 2015)

These reference are about jazz chords and voicing on the piano. i wanted to look up on these cause J cole, one of my favourite artist, uses most of the time of jazz chords and voicing in his music. so being influenced by him I wanted to know how he goes about playing his chords and i came across these.

In these I've fount of that jazz players uses complex and rich progression chords to keep their music interesting. A device that jazz player sometimes uses are cluster chords to add tone diversity 
within their music.  

Bibliography

Williams, T.J. (2014) How to sing high notes without straining your voice. Available at: http://www.howtobecomeaprofessionalsinger.com/how-to-sing-high-notes-without-straining-your-voice/ (Accessed: 5 June 2016).

Citations, Quotes & Annotations

Williams, T.J. (2014) How to sing high notes without straining your voice. Available at: http://www.howtobecomeaprofessionalsinger.com/how-to-sing-high-notes-without-straining-your-voice/ (Accessed: 5 June 2016).

(Williams, 2014)

This is a web page about singing techniques and how to effectively sing and project high note. Reason for researching this is cause I was told I had to support my high notes and this page should me how to do it effectively and it work well. 

Bibliography

PianoGroove (2016) Cluster Voicings for jazz piano. Available at: https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/cluster-voicings/ (Accessed: 23 May 2016).

Citations, Quotes & Annotations

PianoGroove (2016) Cluster Voicings for jazz piano. Available at: https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/cluster-voicings/ (Accessed: 23 May 2016).

(PianoGroove, 2016)

This shows me how cluster voicing works in jazz which I find interesting but I still don't understand like why people uses it.  Because most hip hop artist have cluster chords in their music and I want to include that in my music cause I loved how it sounded and the feeling it gave to thorough out the mix of the song.  

Bibliography

Lyric writing – how to write better lyrics (no date) Available at: http://www.ultimatesongwriting.com/lyric-writing.html (Accessed: 9 June 2016).

Citations, Quotes & Annotations

Lyric writing – how to write better lyrics (no date) Available at: http://www.ultimatesongwriting.com/lyric-writing.html (Accessed: 9 June 2016).

(Lyric writing – how to write better lyrics, no date)

This is a page that show different way of coming up and writing lyrics for any genre of music. some tips were to write about a personal event or experience that happen to me or to someone I know/knew. For my song I decided to write about love towards someone beside my family due to what i was feeling when making the song.  

Key Song Analysis

Power trip by J Cole.

Chords:


In this song the chords he uses for the chores are 

Bb minor
Ab major
Gb major 7th

the verses has a sample from Hubert Law called no more of a flute that goes on through out the verses of the song. the key in Minor to give it a more subtle feeling to it.

Melody:

with the melody is mostly from the sampled flute accompanied by the vocals. the sampled flute is used for the chorus and cut out in the verse for the vocals.

Tempo/Rhythm:

For the tempo for this track is in the middle from fast and slow to give it that chilled vibe and it never changes. the rhythm of the song is mainly made by the drums and the percussion within the song. The rhythm is very bouncy and will definitely get your feet moving.

Mix:

The song was very well mixed from how all the instrumentals and EQ are balanced out from one another. The loudest in the song would have to go to the kick drum. reason for this to be the loudest in mix is to get you to move or bump your head to the song. I would describe the kick punchy and thick to get that "in your face feel"

Instrumentation:

This song has a lot of instrument play different chords different melodies differently. First, we got the strings playing the chords above accompanied with piano playing the same chords complementing on another. Next, we have the sampled flutes that provides the melody for the song which helps out with the backing vocals. finally, as said for the mix what keeps the rhythm is the drums. reason for using strings and the piano as the chords is cause it has a chilled vibe to it so you can appreciate all te effort he put into making the song and same could be said for the sampled flute.


Structure:

for the structure of the song, it starts off  as an intro which lasts for 2 bars with a different section from the song he sampled which then drop into the chorus with the main sampled flute he sampled. then the verse kicks in which last for 12 bars. then as followed the chorus etc. after the 3rd chorus he repeats it again with another 8 bars.

Lyrics:

The lyrics for this so has a real feeling of how it feels to be in love with someone. What J cole usually tries to do with his lyrics is to paint you a picture of a story he is rapping/singing about  and this song is no acceptation. He paints an image of a guy falling in loving how can't sleep can't eat keeps writing love song thinking about the one he love. His flow for this song is not at all aggressive but calm with fits for this song. the singers flow (Miguel)  is smooth which fit perfectly for the chorus. J cole and producer Elite came up the lyrics for the song. there also 2 or 3 offensive words in it to also sure the love can be frustrating as well.  

my project presentation

The feedback I got from my classmate was that I should first and for most get a band to preform and fast. they also said when making my original song i should keep it simple and when preforming take the drums out and let a drummer drum on it.

With these feedback i'm taking in to heart and doing every I can do to at least came close to reach those goal. How I will reach these goals is to do a 4 week schedule of rehearsing since the L3 performance have band workshop from the beginning of the term. This will help to balance out my original songs and covers and also time to edit things that needed editing.  

case study

In this case study i'm going to look at j cole and how his chords and lyrics work with each other and with that i'm hoping to achieve in my music. The area I need to work on it the use of complex chords and J Cole is a great example of the and a good example of is work is not to self.

with the chords in this song their very simple and repetition. the reason for that is to give the lyrics and the other instrument in the song more room in the song. With his lyrics it like he's telling a story. He sings about his childhood with his mother and how much he loves her and in the chorus he talks about himself and how he all see things positive. In the rap part there no specific subject he talks about. In this song, he raps and sings the chorus and verses . how he goes about doing is that he sing the first verse and the chorus and then switches the verse to rapping then switches it back. With his vocals in this song, they are the melody of the song which work well with the bass and piano.    

this song by j Cole has really complex chords and I've been trying to work out them out
working out the chords for this song I've come to a conclusion that the chords contain for the verses

B Major
E Minor
C Major
and  G Minor.

The lyrics in this song talk about love and the feeling you get over it. he talk about no matter who no matter where no matter how you will feel it. Thought out the song he sings the song instead of rapping.Then he dose an outro. The vocals follows with the chords both in the verse and the chorus.



With researching J cole's song I tried to copy some of his ideas like lyric, song structure, chords and how he wrote his lyrics that fit with the beat of the song. How would try copy these feature J Cole presented is to follow the same why he made his song and sings/rap the same type of genre he sings/raps about. for the chords, I will learn them and then play them in different ways.

Here an example of one of my work.

My Proposal

Introduction

What I would like to do for my project is to make a couple songs and perform some of them. I also want to work with other people on my songs and do one cover at least. I would like to use backing tracks as well as a live band to perform my song and cover. I also want to learn and embed different chords in my music so it sounds interesting and complex to those who will be listening to my song

Context

As a composer, my work sounds a lot like game beats. what I would like to make hip-hop beat instead with samples and the type of music that making people remember my lyrics while bumping their hand or making some kind of gesture. For this to happen I need to look up on using plug-ins and how to use the sampler on logic x and also how to make my music loud but at the same time not clipping.

As a songwriter, I find it hard to write verses and come up with chords so I need to work on that. I also find it hard to come up with ideas on what to write about which always gets to me when writing lyrics which I would need some help on that by my classmate or teachers.

Researches 

I would be researching artist that write hip hop songs. this will help come up with idea on both my song writing and composing skills. I'm gonna also research old hip hop artist and how they make the song and come up with ideas from them I can put into my work. artist, I would look up on will be: Nas, J Cole, Kendrick Lamer and other people like them. I also research lyrics and chords hip hop artists use which contains: jazz voicing, cluster chords, etc. How I plan on using these is for the chords of my song that will hold up the whole song. Weekly I'll be sat on a computer learning and practicing these chords until they became second nature to me and hopefully be able to use them in my music. 

\

This video is J Cole preforming crooked smile and this is a way I would like to preform my music with a live band also. I chose this video cause I was heavily inspired on how J Cole performs with his band. This is also my ideal way i would like to try and preform and for that to happen I need to gain much more confidence on stage to include it in my performance.

Timeline.

In 3-5 weeks I will be working on writing the music for my song and editing it. I'll also get a band to preform 2 covers and practice with them. In 6-8 weeks I will finish with my song and be writing lyrics for it and finishing my practicing the covers and both covers and originals to ready to preform.