The Type of Music I will be studying today will be Modern R&B. One Area in which this genre has its own identity is the audio sound of the music. R&B has a very distinct sound, the chord structures and progressions are mainly derrived from soul music. Most of these soul chords are played in the key of E flat major. Examples of famous artists who used these chords are Erykah Badu and D'angelo.
Modern R&B has a mix of these groovy jazzy soul/Neo soul chords alongside modern electronic drum kits. Examples of these modern R&B artists would be artists such as Bryson Tiller, Tory Lanez, Post Malone. Another main different in the sound of modern R&B is the use of samples in music. This is a modern technique used for a number of different reasons. i.e. to implicate complexity into the music or for atmosphere, or contrast perhaps.
Another area which Modern R&B has its own identity is the visuals used. For example the visuals for music videos. Music Videos for Modern R&B usually consist of a story being told, beautiful women an ideal location in the sun. This is because the song is being made to be as appealing as possible. An example of this is shown here in DJ Khaled's-"Wild thoughts"
The Use of equipment in Modern R&B play a key part to the identity of the genre because without the specific equipment, the so famous and loved sound wouldn't be achieved. key equipment that is used includes the DAW that was used to compose the track. Usually either FL studio's or Pro Tools or Ableton Live. these Daw's are typically used because they are able to produce the right level of clarity and complexity for sounds within Modern R&B for the professional industry. Many famous Modern R&B producers have also revealed that this is some of the technology that they use when they are producing. some examples of this are from producers such as "Teddy Walton" and "wondagurl".
There are many diferent ways that you can encounter Modern R&B. A few ways to consume this music include, Through Radio, TV streaming services such as spotify, soundcloud, apple music and you can also purchase modern R&B music from Itunes or even download it illegally from the internet. I believe that the increase of technology in terms of consuming has had a direct impact with the popularity of the Genre. I believe this because the advancement of technology and the internet has made it almost effortless to, not only find and stream songs of youre choice, but to also upload aswell. I also believe that this increase in technology has had a direct impact on the Way that Modern R&B sounds.
There are human elements incorporated into R&B as well, one of these human elements is the use of live sounds and instruments, the use of live instruments is effective because it adds more complexity to the music. In the video above, there is an example of the producer "Teddy Walton" adding lives sounds and successfully blending them in with his midi sounds on fl. He uses a sample that he recored of the forrest with birds singing and chirping in order to create a sense of ambience in his track.
R&B is a genre that allows artists to express themselves fully, the atmosphere is often focused on the emotion of love, however that does not mean that artists are restricted to making love songs, for example Bryson tiller has a song called 'Sorry not Sorry' which is a song about heartbreak, its important to make songs which can relate to your listeners everyday lives so they able to connect with you on a deeper more personal level.
I believe that modern R&B is a genre that will exist in time for a while. The birthchild of hip/hop and neo/soul, R&B is a genre that has managed to keep elements from its predecessors for example chord progression and instrumentation but has managed to incorporate lots of technology as well in order to achieve the best, complex and most developed sound. Not many genre's can offer the listener this unique listening experience which is why i believe R&B is a very versatile and successful genre.
Bibliography for Ethnography:
https://spinditty.com/learning/Cool-RB-chord-progressions
Thursday, 16 November 2017
Friday, 3 November 2017
Personal statement
My passion for music production stems from age 5 when I attended Barnet Music school for singing, recorder and Steel pans lessons. My interest expanded into keyboards and led to me attending keyboard classes at Finchley Music School when I was 8. Although I enjoyed playing instruments I was always more fascinated with the working of the actual keyboard and the sounds it could produce rather than playing the keyboards. I became more interested in the production side of making my own music when my uncle handed me down his old Yamaha PSR-295 keyboard when I was about 9. Discovering I could make my own music opened up a whole new world for me. I am lucky enough to have access to a small basic home studio set up as my dad had a historical interest in music technology having studied the subject at college and encouraged me to use his equipment.
Having successfully completed the Music Performance and Production Arts - UAL Level 2 Diploma last year, I am currently studying for the Music Performance and Production - UAL Level 3 Extended Diploma. I chose this course as I wanted to gain a sound all-round grounding and knowledge of all aspects of music production in both the practical and academic sense. I was looking for a course that could give me practical exposure to different music genres and allow me to apply what I learnt to my academic progression. I feel this two-year diploma course has done this and firmly sealed my interest in studying music production at degree level. Fast forward a few years and I am excited to finally be able to apply to university to continue my passion at degree level. I have chosen to study this discipline as I feel it will allow me to both expand and enhance my academic capacity within a field I intend to make a career out it, which is why I am applying for this course.
I enjoy going to music concerts and write a blog as part of my diploma reviewing gigs. My exposure to varied musical genres is fairly wide and ranges from gospel to R and B to classical music. I am a fairly Adaptable in terms of music and have found myself writing reviews for rock, metal and pop concerts as part of my course. My main aim is to keep on growing musically and expanding my production knowledge with long term goals of working as a professional music producer eventually. I produce my own music now and work with a vast array of artists including poets, rappers and vocalists. I am keen to collaborate with as many different genres of artists / producers and performers as possible and believe exposure to new things brings new knowledge. I regularly collaborate with other students at college to produce shows.
I am a fan of travel and always enjoy seeking out local music when I travel, recent trips to St Marten and Amsterdam have exposed me to Zouk music which mixes influences from Caribbean soca and calypso music with a basic disco beat and synthesized rhythms. Since studying Japanese GCSE at school, I am a huge fan of all things Japanese from their Culture, to Food and Animations and plan to visit Japan for the 2020 Olympics. I have played American football competitively since I was 10 years old and still train with a London based team. I enjoy meeting and making new friends and regularly meet up with friends I met through doing the national Citizens service a couple of years ago as well as friends from the performing Arts school Stomp I attended for 6 years at weekends. As you can see music plays a huge part in my life and forms the basis of many positive friendships and experiences I have had, my plan is to continue this positive association through this course.
Thursday, 2 November 2017
Portfolio Assignment
1) What are your career goals – where do you want to be? Be as specific as possible – identify people/record labels/companies/brands/venues that you want to work with.
I have many different career goals, a few of them to list consist of me: producing for films, producing for myself, recording artist/DJ.
2) Why have you identified this as your target? Talk about your skills as well as your aspirations.
Film Composition is one of my targets because I feel that it is appropriate for me. it all challenge me to think outside the box, allow me to learn and further my understanding of music on one of the highest levels in the industry. I also believe it will develop my production skills in areas such as mixing and mastering and sound design. Furthermore this occupation consists of lots of collaboration in the professional industry
Production for myself is also a target because production is my main area of interest. this is a target because i would have to reach a certain level of professionalism within my music to successfully produce for myself and make a living from that. i would also release my music on a Soundcloud page and use different forms of social media such as instagram and twitter to publicise my music
3) Who are your role models? What did these people do in order to get to their position? Choose at least one leading professional in your field and write a detailed account of their career, including a biography and history as well as their current position. In your opinion, what were the key moments in their ascension? How can you mimic their career path?
I would like to produce for films as I feel like it would push me to think outside of the box in terms of creating sound and just sound design as a whole. To do this i would Research successful people who are already established in that region of area of work. One person I began researching was Hans Zimmer who is probably the best/most notorious film composer/producer. Zimmer entered the world of film music in London during a long collaboration with famed composer and mentor Stanley Myers, which included the film "My Beautiful Laundrette". turning point in Zimmer's career came in 1988 when he was asked to score Rain Man for director Barry Levinson. The film went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture of the Year and earned Zimmer his first Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Score. The next year, Zimmer composed the score for another Best Picture Oscar recipient, Driving Miss Daisy (1989), starring Jessica Tandy, and Morgan Freeman.
I also conducted some research into Sam Gellaitry a young producer only aged 18 years old from Stirling, Scotland. I researched Gellaitry because he is successfully making a living from producing and DJing around the UK and Europe. Some of the steps he has made included learning Fl studio's from a young age of 12. This decision alone was key to Gallaitry's success nowadays. Aged 16 Gallaitry left school and decided to study music production at college. The summer after that his soundcloud gained a lot of attention and when he released his Soulection EP, he managed to get over 1Million views. He is now performing various DJ sets over the UK and in LA including the infamous boiler room and still producing. His music is also stremead often of youtube and soundcloud through well known streaming labels such as majestic casual.
4) What steps are you going to take to achieve your goals? Be specific, break it down into all the small steps that will get you to your targets. Justify your decisions based on research, explain in detail why you have identified these actions as being integral to your progress.
One step I need to take in order to achieve my goals would be to buy a set of DJ decks. This would allow me to effectively hone my DJ'ing craft. A step after that would then be for me to go out and network at various events and gain the opportunity to become a warm up DJ in a smaller venue. From there I'd have to stay consistent and keep networking until I get the opportunity to be the headline DJ at that venue or a warm up DJ at another venue.
In order to become a successful producer I would have to complete certain amount of steps also.
The first step which I need to take is to regularly and consistently produce and upload content.
To do this I would first need to conduct research into the most effective method of releasing, uploading and promoting new music. Ive already conducted research into Sam Gallaitry who started uploading his music to Soundcloud. So I will also use soundcloud as the platform to release my material.
Another reason why I decided to use soundcloud as the streaming platform for my music is because its quite a supportive music community, you receive criticism and opinions from other Artists, Producers and listeners. Soundcloud also offers the opportunity for collaboration which also opens up various doors to other possibilities and opportunities. I would also begin to make an EP and start promoting this.
I conducted research into how Sam Gellaitry would promote his music. He would use social media. Twitter and Instagram are the most practical platforms of social media for me. Twitter is practical because it encourages short regular messages(Tweets). I can use tweets to keep my followers updated with progress for my project, whats happening and how I feel. This is also effective because it creates a relationship between me and my followers. Instagram is the most popular form of social media currently. Its effective because unlike just writing about whats happening to my followers, I can show them through photo's and pictures. This will also make my followers feel more involved and included with my progress through the project, because they can see for themselves. A very useful feature that instagram also has is live streaming. So I would be able to stream studio session's allowing my followers to feel as if they are in the studio with me. this is effective because it helps build the relationship between producer and listener.
I would then conduct research into how I can get my music published on some other streaming services, for example Spotify or Apple Music.
5) What will be the content of your Portfolio? What are you going to create? And where/how will it be displayed? Justify your decisions based on what you have learnt in your research.
My portfolio will consist of an EP of about 3 or 4 tracks which demonstrate my ability as a producer. I would like the EP to have a theme and some artwork created to suit. I will promote it through social media and release it on soundcloud. I also have the idea of creating a music video for one of the tracks, but i haven't fully reached a discision about that yet. my portfolio will also contain an artist statement. My portfolio will be uploaded to an accessible through my blog.
I have many different career goals, a few of them to list consist of me: producing for films, producing for myself, recording artist/DJ.
2) Why have you identified this as your target? Talk about your skills as well as your aspirations.
Film Composition is one of my targets because I feel that it is appropriate for me. it all challenge me to think outside the box, allow me to learn and further my understanding of music on one of the highest levels in the industry. I also believe it will develop my production skills in areas such as mixing and mastering and sound design. Furthermore this occupation consists of lots of collaboration in the professional industry
Production for myself is also a target because production is my main area of interest. this is a target because i would have to reach a certain level of professionalism within my music to successfully produce for myself and make a living from that. i would also release my music on a Soundcloud page and use different forms of social media such as instagram and twitter to publicise my music
3) Who are your role models? What did these people do in order to get to their position? Choose at least one leading professional in your field and write a detailed account of their career, including a biography and history as well as their current position. In your opinion, what were the key moments in their ascension? How can you mimic their career path?
I would like to produce for films as I feel like it would push me to think outside of the box in terms of creating sound and just sound design as a whole. To do this i would Research successful people who are already established in that region of area of work. One person I began researching was Hans Zimmer who is probably the best/most notorious film composer/producer. Zimmer entered the world of film music in London during a long collaboration with famed composer and mentor Stanley Myers, which included the film "My Beautiful Laundrette". turning point in Zimmer's career came in 1988 when he was asked to score Rain Man for director Barry Levinson. The film went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture of the Year and earned Zimmer his first Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Score. The next year, Zimmer composed the score for another Best Picture Oscar recipient, Driving Miss Daisy (1989), starring Jessica Tandy, and Morgan Freeman.
I also conducted some research into Sam Gellaitry a young producer only aged 18 years old from Stirling, Scotland. I researched Gellaitry because he is successfully making a living from producing and DJing around the UK and Europe. Some of the steps he has made included learning Fl studio's from a young age of 12. This decision alone was key to Gallaitry's success nowadays. Aged 16 Gallaitry left school and decided to study music production at college. The summer after that his soundcloud gained a lot of attention and when he released his Soulection EP, he managed to get over 1Million views. He is now performing various DJ sets over the UK and in LA including the infamous boiler room and still producing. His music is also stremead often of youtube and soundcloud through well known streaming labels such as majestic casual.
One step I need to take in order to achieve my goals would be to buy a set of DJ decks. This would allow me to effectively hone my DJ'ing craft. A step after that would then be for me to go out and network at various events and gain the opportunity to become a warm up DJ in a smaller venue. From there I'd have to stay consistent and keep networking until I get the opportunity to be the headline DJ at that venue or a warm up DJ at another venue.
In order to become a successful producer I would have to complete certain amount of steps also.
The first step which I need to take is to regularly and consistently produce and upload content.
To do this I would first need to conduct research into the most effective method of releasing, uploading and promoting new music. Ive already conducted research into Sam Gallaitry who started uploading his music to Soundcloud. So I will also use soundcloud as the platform to release my material.
Another reason why I decided to use soundcloud as the streaming platform for my music is because its quite a supportive music community, you receive criticism and opinions from other Artists, Producers and listeners. Soundcloud also offers the opportunity for collaboration which also opens up various doors to other possibilities and opportunities. I would also begin to make an EP and start promoting this.
I conducted research into how Sam Gellaitry would promote his music. He would use social media. Twitter and Instagram are the most practical platforms of social media for me. Twitter is practical because it encourages short regular messages(Tweets). I can use tweets to keep my followers updated with progress for my project, whats happening and how I feel. This is also effective because it creates a relationship between me and my followers. Instagram is the most popular form of social media currently. Its effective because unlike just writing about whats happening to my followers, I can show them through photo's and pictures. This will also make my followers feel more involved and included with my progress through the project, because they can see for themselves. A very useful feature that instagram also has is live streaming. So I would be able to stream studio session's allowing my followers to feel as if they are in the studio with me. this is effective because it helps build the relationship between producer and listener.
I would then conduct research into how I can get my music published on some other streaming services, for example Spotify or Apple Music.
5) What will be the content of your Portfolio? What are you going to create? And where/how will it be displayed? Justify your decisions based on what you have learnt in your research.
My portfolio will consist of an EP of about 3 or 4 tracks which demonstrate my ability as a producer. I would like the EP to have a theme and some artwork created to suit. I will promote it through social media and release it on soundcloud. I also have the idea of creating a music video for one of the tracks, but i haven't fully reached a discision about that yet. my portfolio will also contain an artist statement. My portfolio will be uploaded to an accessible through my blog.
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