Wednesday 30 May 2018
FMP - The proposal
Introduction - The Proposal
In this project, I will focus on completing three to four songs which will be part of my FMP. I will try to get a few collaborations with Monet and another artist from outside the college and one to two of the compositions will be performed in the summer gig. In these tracks, I will gain my musical and production skills in order to make my songs sound professional. The reason I choose to do a couple of tracks rather than a single is because I want to gain experience on collaborating with other artists and be aware of time management and plan my work carefully. The main reason to perform one of the songs live is mainly to do with promoting my songs. The good thing about performing the songs live is that it is a good way of promoting my music as myself as an artist, also, since this EP has different aspects of collaboration, an artist that features on my EP might have a certain group of people who like his or her specific music style, however, having collaboration might get an audience who would necessarily identify themselves with my style of music to maybe appreciate my music or even enjoy my way of writing or producing music. My EP will be released on different music platforms such as: Sound cloud and iTunes as well as social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. I will be using these social media platforms and social media platforms because they're the most popular platforms out there which will help my EP to get noticed by different audiences and people on the internet to listen to my music. Since this is all in relation to promoting, I will also use business cards which I can give to them at the end of my performance, the card will have my Facebook, Instagram and YouTube links to my original music and music pages so that if they like my music they can go to my social media and check out any other music related posts and I can keep them updated in terms of future music releases.
Context Studies:
Since I am a songwriter and I normally start out writing a song on guitar, I tend to record my guitar melody down and vocal melody on logic so I have a certain idea of how I want it to sound using my voice recorder from my iPhone so I remember my ideas and so I can develop my song. Since I will be collaborating with other people, I will get some of my class peers to input their instrumental ideas by booking practice rooms and having jam sessions to get some ideas on how the track could sound. At the moment, I would say this is a beneficial way of making the music because it puts less pressure on the artists and makes the process hopefully easier to go through, it will also develop my sound as an artist and know what kind of EP I want to make. This will be a very exciting process because my collaborations might change the way I choose to introduce might vocal melody and the direction I choose to go musically. By choosing to do an EP, I will develop my musical skills as well as my production and social skills. In relation to social skills, I mean being able to work with other people and sharing my ideas with others to make a great EP. This will evidently have a positive impact on my music as I will be able to work with other musicians or producers in the future without worrying or being uncomfortable. As well as making an EP can positive as I get to work with other people, the negative side of releasing my music is getting criticism from people who don't enjoy my music which I personally think might be a good thing because it then allows me to analyze my own music and know how to make my music sound even better, not necessarily to fulfill a certain audiences needs who don't like my music, but to be able to take criticism with a pinch of salt and show progression through the music I make.
Research Plan
In this project, I will look at the work of many artists such as: Luis Fonsi, Maluma and other pop/Latin influential artists. The reason for this is because my EP is mainly based on that pop/Latin type genre. By listening and researching their music it will help me use similar technical and musical skills to make my music sound current and catchy. This will also help my songwriting as I will have more inspiration in terms of what I want to write about. The main idea is to mainly have an EP with the concept of love and heartbreak which is what I want to write about. However, the productions will have to be catchy and melodic and the lyrics need to have a special meaning so it doesn't become boring or too repetitive for the listener. This is why looking at different artists that have similar types of songs will benefit me because I can get inspiration from these artists and use techniques that they use in my own music. Also, since one of the songs will be performed live, I will also research live performances from these artists' songs so I know how to be on stage and how to deliver my song live to make the audience feel my song. Since I am doing a ballad, I need to perform the song in a specific way that makes the audience interested, I can do this by making eye contact with the audience but not move around too much whilst on stage because moving around too much might shift the attention away from the emotion of the song. To make sure the audience remain interested throughout the entire song the main focus is the vocals so I need to make sure to put full emotion into the song and connect with the lyrics so the audience feel the emotion.
Methodology
For me to meet my target I will plan my productions before hand so I can have a certain idea of how I want to follow through with my tracks. As every week passes, I will put an alarm on my phone every couple of days to put a reminder of what I need to do or any idea I can continue with. In terms of my song writing, I will always use the cut-up technique which involves writing down lyrics that relates to the song I am trying to write. This makes the songs easier to write and sing about. In the production side of things, I always stick to the same strategy and technique, I start off with a four bar loop and make any melody that comes to my mind and continuously add in sounds that are catchy or melodic. However, every time I add in a different sound I think about the structure in terms of the pre chorus and chorus and where I can add in these sounds to make the song grow effectively. I will effectively progress in terms of lyrics by listening to songs that have interesting lyrics and that have a deeper meaning. My goal for this project is to successfully complete it with songs that I personally feel people which I will enjoy listening to and other people will too, and the only way to do this is to continuously to write songs but not force them out. One method I haven't tried before is putting myself in another persons shoes, this means writing a song from another persons perspective and use their feelings and opinion to write lyrics down on paper and try to see how it would make me feel if I was in that position.
Timeline
Week 1 - This week I plan to research different types of musical artists to get some inspiration and see what ideas I can get from different artists.
Week 2 - In the second week I plan to get into a recording studio and get some music started with the ideas I have got from the previous week.
Week 3 - This week I will start an idea for a track which I am planning to have a feature on with Monet, I will possibly start the track myself and send the track to Monet so she can have an idea for her part of the song.
Week 4 - In the fourth week I am planning to research my case study and what techniques and strategies I can use in my music.
Week 5 - Get into a practice room and rehearse songs that I have finished up to that week and make sure I am confident with the performance part of it.
Week 6 - This week I will try to collaborate with an artist from outside college and make a track which I can hopefully finish in that week.
Week 7 - Get into a rehearsal room and practice songs from other people's projects which I will take part in, this involves playing instruments on other people's projects.
Week 8 - Mix tracks that I have completed and make sure all levels from the songs are balanced.
Week 9 - Rehearse cover song that I might ask people to collaborate on for the live performance.
Week 10 - This final week is the FMP performance which will take place on the 21st of May.
Case Study
In this video, Charlie Puth talks about his strategy to make his music sound better and to stand out and this relates to my music because I will try to use different production skills or maybe even vocal skills to make the music stand out.
Case Study
This a video of Bruno Mars playing a piano and singing which shows the emotion and the intimacy between the audience and the singer which similarly relates to one of the covers in my FMP which I will perform live.
Literature Review
Literature Review
In the book "The Blue Moment" Miles Davis talks about how he would use different instrument from different musical genres to create jazz music. This book can help me a lot because he says that this is what made his music uniquely appealing and I can use this technique to make my music appealing and stand out. By doing this I am making my music my much more approachable to all audiences and can attract more audiences. Even though I don't make jazz music this technique can be used in all areas because it will help me expand my musical ability to create something more unique.
Richard Williams, (2009) The Blue Moment. London. Faber
Literature Review/
I am making this literature review because it can make help me in my music for promotion and how to sell my music. This source is a book which was written in 2005 for the business side of music and the book also mentions the advantages and disadvantages of sales and social media in this day and age. For example, it says that the internet has become the new radio for this generation which is a good thing, however, music in this day and age isn't appreciated or as special as twenty years ago. It also has information about the advantages of media and how it can help an artists success. The book talks about how CD's in the industry now is not the best way to promote music because it takes more time to make and it is less recommended since the year 2000 the CD sales has gone down by 20 percent. However, since the book was written in 2005, this book is thirteen years old which means that the internet has changed a lot and has progressed by a lot in the past thirteen years.
Source Reference:
David Kusek, (2005) The future of music. Boston. Berklee Press
Literature Review
This review was written based on the business of artist management, the book contains information which relates to me as an artist due to the fact that it talks about how an artist can become successful and succeed in the music industry. The book says how an artist in the beginning of their career needs to recognise and be aware that they will have to put all focus and dedication to their life in music. This is one of the biggest steps in music decision making because it requires an artists' full time effort. Also, it mentions the steps to getting a record deal, it says that the key to a successful music career, however, this book was written in 1997 which makes this book outdated, in this day and age their are many artists who aren't signed to a record label. A key example of this is the rapper Not3s, he was an independent artist who got a fan base without any support from a record label, he constantly released music but relied on his fans to share his music and create opportunities for him.
Source reference:
Xavier M. Frascogna , Jr . H . Lee Hetherington (1997) The business of artist management. New York. Billboard Books
Literature Review
This review is about the process of songwriting and the book has interviews from around sixty songwriters from the industry, they talk about their process of writing music and ways to make a good song. Songwriter Willie Dixon writes about how his inspiration from songwriting comes from his life experiences and his preferred genre of blues came from the slavery times in the 20th century. He also says that writing poems helped him get a song together rather than forcefully trying to get a melody come out from his voice. This book relates to me as an artist as it can help find different ways to write music and make the songs that I write more special and contextually more interesting to hear.
Paul Zollo, (1991). Songwriters on songwriting. De Capo Press
Literature Review
This video talks about how one of the songs from Demi Lovato's album was made the producer talks about how he uses a sample from Splice, even though the sound wasn't made from him, it is better to use a sample which sounds clean on a song to make a song sound professional and clean. This relates to me because one of my songs includes a synth sample which is used through out the entire track, I used this because it makes the track sound professional and the melody itself is really catchy.
How Demi Lovato & Oak Felder made “Sorry Not Sorry” from royalty-free samples
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD1tIcDlunE
In the book "The Blue Moment" Miles Davis talks about how he would use different instrument from different musical genres to create jazz music. This book can help me a lot because he says that this is what made his music uniquely appealing and I can use this technique to make my music appealing and stand out. By doing this I am making my music my much more approachable to all audiences and can attract more audiences. Even though I don't make jazz music this technique can be used in all areas because it will help me expand my musical ability to create something more unique.
Richard Williams, (2009) The Blue Moment. London. Faber
Literature Review/
I am making this literature review because it can make help me in my music for promotion and how to sell my music. This source is a book which was written in 2005 for the business side of music and the book also mentions the advantages and disadvantages of sales and social media in this day and age. For example, it says that the internet has become the new radio for this generation which is a good thing, however, music in this day and age isn't appreciated or as special as twenty years ago. It also has information about the advantages of media and how it can help an artists success. The book talks about how CD's in the industry now is not the best way to promote music because it takes more time to make and it is less recommended since the year 2000 the CD sales has gone down by 20 percent. However, since the book was written in 2005, this book is thirteen years old which means that the internet has changed a lot and has progressed by a lot in the past thirteen years.
Source Reference:
David Kusek, (2005) The future of music. Boston. Berklee Press
Literature Review
This review was written based on the business of artist management, the book contains information which relates to me as an artist due to the fact that it talks about how an artist can become successful and succeed in the music industry. The book says how an artist in the beginning of their career needs to recognise and be aware that they will have to put all focus and dedication to their life in music. This is one of the biggest steps in music decision making because it requires an artists' full time effort. Also, it mentions the steps to getting a record deal, it says that the key to a successful music career, however, this book was written in 1997 which makes this book outdated, in this day and age their are many artists who aren't signed to a record label. A key example of this is the rapper Not3s, he was an independent artist who got a fan base without any support from a record label, he constantly released music but relied on his fans to share his music and create opportunities for him.
Source reference:
Xavier M. Frascogna , Jr . H . Lee Hetherington (1997) The business of artist management. New York. Billboard Books
Literature Review
This review is about the process of songwriting and the book has interviews from around sixty songwriters from the industry, they talk about their process of writing music and ways to make a good song. Songwriter Willie Dixon writes about how his inspiration from songwriting comes from his life experiences and his preferred genre of blues came from the slavery times in the 20th century. He also says that writing poems helped him get a song together rather than forcefully trying to get a melody come out from his voice. This book relates to me as an artist as it can help find different ways to write music and make the songs that I write more special and contextually more interesting to hear.
Paul Zollo, (1991). Songwriters on songwriting. De Capo Press
Literature Review
This video talks about how one of the songs from Demi Lovato's album was made the producer talks about how he uses a sample from Splice, even though the sound wasn't made from him, it is better to use a sample which sounds clean on a song to make a song sound professional and clean. This relates to me because one of my songs includes a synth sample which is used through out the entire track, I used this because it makes the track sound professional and the melody itself is really catchy.
How Demi Lovato & Oak Felder made “Sorry Not Sorry” from royalty-free samples
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD1tIcDlunE
Case Studies
Case Study
In the beginning of this project my initial idea was to make an EP which was mainly Latin influenced, the reason I wanted to do this was because in my opinion, summer time is when the Latin market is the most popular which could be a good approach to engaging an audience and promoting my EP for the summer. However, as the first month went past and the half term break approached, I started listening to a lot of music and I realized that it would be good to have a contrasting EP to show a contrast of styles and to make successfully grab many audiences attention rather than sticking to one genre. However, regardless of this, Latin music has influenced me a lot in this EP because it is the type of music I enjoy making and that makes me dance. I looked at various songs and artists such as: Drake, Maluma, CNCO and many others and the way they introduce this into their music. A very simple approach to this was to evidently make the beat have that Latin feel to it. By this I mean the way the pattern of the kick drum and the snare is used, in many popular Latin music the typical beat is: kick, snare, kick, snare, kick, snare, kick snare, kick, snare, kick and snare. The pattern is quiet simple, but the simplicity of this drum pattern is what makes people dance and enjoy the music. Here is one key example of this technique.
From the 1900's, Latin music also shares parts of its sounds from African music from slaves who were transported to America by European settlers, they would bring there instruments when they were forced into slave trade to create sounds in order to communicate. Due to them coming to America and introducing beats that were completely different from the music that was being put out in the 1900's, this then eventually started to spread through out America and this specific genre of music started to become successful. As this continued to happen through the years Latin music has become much more popular and has become successful world wide. The Latin music is mainly known for its catchy rhythm and betas that make people dance, this is a big part of why I chose to do this for my FMP because Latin music creates a very positive vibe and makes everyone want to dance.
Another way Latin music has influenced my music making is also in my vocals. In one of my songs, I used the contrast between speaking English in a Latin influenced track but introducing Spanish into it, even though I am not Spanish, I can speak Spanish fluently which is a positive technique to use to make the music stand out and this is also a way to promote myself not just in England or America but also in places such as Spain and Colombia. Using Spanish lyrics could help me build an audience from different parts of the world because even thought the production itself is Latin influenced, it doesn't necessarily mean that they will like the song or the fact that song is in English so introducing Spanish into my music could be beneficial in relation to building an audience and even myself as a musical artist by singing in another language.
Case Study
During the process of this final major project, I have had a number of things that have influenced the way I make my music and the way I perform my music. One artist that has influenced me massively is Charlie Puth, I would say even before this project had started, Charlie Puth is an artist that has influenced the way I choose to make my music and strategies and techniques that make my music sound more professional and enjoyable. In his interviews he mentions the way he makes his music is mainly based on what the song is about and how it should come across, what I mean by this is that it is all to do with what the song is about. For example, if the song is about heartbreak, he would use production skills to make his music somehow represent that anger or sadness from the story in that particular song. He explains this technique in one of his interviews and mentions the effect of layering vocals and even beats. This is a technique that in my music I have been able to use, once this technique comes to use, it can be very helpful in terms of making your music sound fuller and richer in sound. In my song featuring Monet, I used the layering technique by another layer of the phrase in the chorus but in chest voice on top of the falsetto to create that mix of the vocals and create more emotion during that part of the song. Since the chorus is the most important part of the song that people get hooked in to, it is significant for me to use this technique to make the listener feel the emotion of the song.
In the beginning of this project my initial idea was to make an EP which was mainly Latin influenced, the reason I wanted to do this was because in my opinion, summer time is when the Latin market is the most popular which could be a good approach to engaging an audience and promoting my EP for the summer. However, as the first month went past and the half term break approached, I started listening to a lot of music and I realized that it would be good to have a contrasting EP to show a contrast of styles and to make successfully grab many audiences attention rather than sticking to one genre. However, regardless of this, Latin music has influenced me a lot in this EP because it is the type of music I enjoy making and that makes me dance. I looked at various songs and artists such as: Drake, Maluma, CNCO and many others and the way they introduce this into their music. A very simple approach to this was to evidently make the beat have that Latin feel to it. By this I mean the way the pattern of the kick drum and the snare is used, in many popular Latin music the typical beat is: kick, snare, kick, snare, kick, snare, kick snare, kick, snare, kick and snare. The pattern is quiet simple, but the simplicity of this drum pattern is what makes people dance and enjoy the music. Here is one key example of this technique.
From the 1900's, Latin music also shares parts of its sounds from African music from slaves who were transported to America by European settlers, they would bring there instruments when they were forced into slave trade to create sounds in order to communicate. Due to them coming to America and introducing beats that were completely different from the music that was being put out in the 1900's, this then eventually started to spread through out America and this specific genre of music started to become successful. As this continued to happen through the years Latin music has become much more popular and has become successful world wide. The Latin music is mainly known for its catchy rhythm and betas that make people dance, this is a big part of why I chose to do this for my FMP because Latin music creates a very positive vibe and makes everyone want to dance.
Another way Latin music has influenced my music making is also in my vocals. In one of my songs, I used the contrast between speaking English in a Latin influenced track but introducing Spanish into it, even though I am not Spanish, I can speak Spanish fluently which is a positive technique to use to make the music stand out and this is also a way to promote myself not just in England or America but also in places such as Spain and Colombia. Using Spanish lyrics could help me build an audience from different parts of the world because even thought the production itself is Latin influenced, it doesn't necessarily mean that they will like the song or the fact that song is in English so introducing Spanish into my music could be beneficial in relation to building an audience and even myself as a musical artist by singing in another language.
Case Study
During the process of this final major project, I have had a number of things that have influenced the way I make my music and the way I perform my music. One artist that has influenced me massively is Charlie Puth, I would say even before this project had started, Charlie Puth is an artist that has influenced the way I choose to make my music and strategies and techniques that make my music sound more professional and enjoyable. In his interviews he mentions the way he makes his music is mainly based on what the song is about and how it should come across, what I mean by this is that it is all to do with what the song is about. For example, if the song is about heartbreak, he would use production skills to make his music somehow represent that anger or sadness from the story in that particular song. He explains this technique in one of his interviews and mentions the effect of layering vocals and even beats. This is a technique that in my music I have been able to use, once this technique comes to use, it can be very helpful in terms of making your music sound fuller and richer in sound. In my song featuring Monet, I used the layering technique by another layer of the phrase in the chorus but in chest voice on top of the falsetto to create that mix of the vocals and create more emotion during that part of the song. Since the chorus is the most important part of the song that people get hooked in to, it is significant for me to use this technique to make the listener feel the emotion of the song.
Bibliography
CNCO music, (2018), CNCO - Mamita (Official Video) (Online video) Available at: https://youtu.be/OHELU6I10wQ (Accessed on 20th March)
EL BEBO Lyric, (2017), Felices los 4 - Maluma (Letra) (online video) Available at https://youtu.be/iqwuGQzoj5U (Accessed on 26th May)
Frascogna, X. and Hetherington, H. (1997). This business of artist management. New York: Billboard Books.
HoneyALmusic, (2013), Bruno Mars - When I Was Your Man (Live Performance) (online video) Available at https://youtu.be/8vQzuHdY0pw (accessed on 29th May)
on air with Ryan Seacrest, 2017, Charlie Puth Reveals Layers Of New Single "Attention" | On Air with Ryan Seacrest (online video) Available at https://youtu.be/-qdLwfRooz8 (accessed on 36th may)
Rolling Stone, (2017), See Charlie Puth Break Down Emotional Hit Song, "Attention" (online video) Available at: https://youtu.be/IU8BEMi8UyM (Accessed on 29th May)
Splice, (2018), How Demi Lovato & Oak Felder made “Sorry Not Sorry” from royalty-free samples (online video) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD1tIcDlunE (Accessed on 29th May)
YungenOfficialVEVO, (2017), Yungen - Bestie (Official Video) ft. Yang Bane (online video) Available at: https://youtu.be/9UQoHSo9-Io (Accessed on 16th March)
Zollo, P. (n.d.). Songwriters on songwriting. Williams, R. (2009). The blue moment. London: Faber.
Monday 21 May 2018
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