If I compared the work that I have produced during this project with professional work in the same area, then i'd say that i was satisfied with my work. However I'm still not where I want to be in terms of development. Although I feel like my work was at a good standard I believe I can still get it better.
One area which i have struggled in was being able to produce three songs. I struggled with this because I misjudged how long it would take to me to produce each song to a standard where I liked it.
I also struggled with writing lyrics, I think this is due to the fact that i spent too much time on the production side of the EP rather than the recording. The lyrics are just as important as the music, in my project I did plan to do research into modern writing techniques but i didn't manage my time in order to be able to conduct the research. I realised that as I was doing a lot a of collaboration, the time I had to invest in my own project became less and less as the final performance came closer. In the future I will now put in a lot more time into developing and research different writing techniques, concepts and flows to add more depth and complexity to my music which will allow it to fit in with the music industry.
One of my key areas of research was Travis Scotts use of his voice in his production. It was key in my research because I wanted to implement complexity into my music through using the voice.
Another one of my key areas of research was Metro Boomin's modern sound It was key because I had to carry out research in order for my music to have the modern Hiphop/trap/R&B sound that I needed.
One research method I applied in my work was case studies. I applied this method of research because it allowed me to focus specifically in one area of research and allowed me to go into depth so I fully understood and comprehended what I was learning. If I didn't apply case studies in my project then my research would be too broad and I probably wouldn't of found the specific area's of key research which I was looking for. Another research method I applied in my work was a weekly diary of updates. This method was applied to my project in order to keep me organised so I know what I've done and they helped me plan what I would do next.
Although I feel like I have completed sufficient research for this project, I still believe that more research could have been carried out. This is due to my opinion which is that you can't do too much research. meaning that doing as much research as you can would be ideal. In hindsight, one particular area of research that I intended to carry out was the Modern Production Interviews in my project. This research consisted of me playing some music from the producers to some professionals. Through expert opinion I was going to dissect some information regarding how they achieved their distinct sound and how I could implement this in my project. However due to my time management between my project and other peoples projects which required collaboration I was unable to carry out this particular piece of research.
One thing I've learnt that I can apply to my future projects is Weekly progress updates. I feel as if these are essential if you have a specific time period that you have to work during. It also keeps you organised which will allow you to focus elsewhere and work more efficiently.
My research has informed my practical work. examples of this are enlisted throughout my project. For example if you look at my case study of the flute. The flute is an instrument which recently in the past couple of months, has become a key instrument in the genre of modern production which I am focusing on. I researched different ways how modern producers used the flute and from this I learnt to implement it into my on work. Another way of how my research has informed my practical work can be seen in my song 'The City'. A lot of the information which I obtained from my research on Travis Scotts vocals, were used on my vocals to create a more modern and complex sound.
I feel like in this project one skill of mine that has developed and help me finish this project is my use of EQ. EQ(which stands for Equaliser) is a tool in logic which helps me manipulate the different amplitudes of the different frequencies present. I feel like without my use of EQ my music would sound a lot less complex and dull. EQ is also a tool used frequently by many modern producers.
Another skill that I feel has developed in order to complete this project has been my ability to play piano. I feel like my melodies are becoming more and more complex which is adding more layers and textures to my music.
I definitely feel as if my practical skills have developed sufficiently during the course of the project. This is because while completing this project I could see the gap between the level I was at and the professional music industry standard. Looking back I can see the development and how my music is not that far from the music industry standard, However I'm still not there yet.
One Problem which i encountered during the FMP was not changing idea's. I found this difficult because in the beginning I was not sure wether I wanted to carry out that idea for the project, but once I got into it I realised I quite enjoyed it. Another Problem which i encountered was songwriting. This was a problem for me because I focused a lot more of my research and time into the production side and i had little time to write lyrics. Lyric writing is also an area which I struggle so it took me a while to get some lyrics for my music. I also used some Profanity in my music, I felt like it was necessary because it allowed me to express myself to the most full extent. My music is an extension of myself and profanity is implemented in modern hiphop/R&B/Trap music and case studied in my proposal all had examples of profanity in them.
I definitely felt like I tried to do too much work over the course of one term because I did not have the opportunity to fully explore all of my different areas of research. luckily this did not directly impact my work too much because the other areas of research still went into enough depth. In order to effectively complete my work I had to scale down a lot of things. For example I was going to do songwriting research and case studies into 3 or 4 different modern artists but I didn't have enough time.
During the access time that was available to me, I was using the production rooms on my own project and rehearsal rooms for all the band rehearsal also. I felt like this access time that was allocated was very productive especially for band rehearsal because this is where we were able to practice and work in order to bring our performances to a high standard. which was very important because at the halfway point, we had to audition our performances and if they were not up to a certain level they would be removed from the final performance.
During this project i have worked with multiple people. More specifically, on my project I've worked with two other artists.
RCMD and
ZAKH. I chose to work with these two individuals because I knew that they we're reliable and efficient. Another reason I chose them was also because I had previously worked with them, and I knew their stye would compliment my production. They were both features and added another layer to my music so the listener can understand the contrast between me as an artist and what the music felt to me, and how it felt to them.
I personally enjoy collaborative projects, this is because I believe the best work is made when everyone works and puts their idea's together. However I felt like their were definitely some problems which I encountered. One problem was that because I was in quite a few different bands, the rehearsal time wasn't spread out equally amoungst the different groups. Another problem was organising rehearsal time though it is the band leader's responsibility to book the rehearsal times and I felt like some band leaders were more organised than others. This was quite obvious to see at the auditioning stage of the FMP.
As a band we would overcome problems by making sure everyone is organised. For example one of the bands I was in made a group chat to make sure that everyone was aware of what was happening and we could discuss things that we think are going well and not going well in order to have the most polished performance in the end. I felt like this was a very useful method because as a band people became closer as well. I also feel like despite the fact that there were some problems in terms of organisation in some bands, all the band members are still competent players. This allowed us as a band to overcome a lot of obstacles and still have a successful performance.
