As this FMP has come to an end I have to be honest and say that I have done a great FMP but there are many areas that I could've improved in to make my music stand out even more than it has. One area that could have been improved is the mixing, for example, in one of my research studies I was influenced by artists such as Maluma and Charlie Puth. Maluma was mainly influenced on the genre influence of latin music and Charlie Puth on the production side of things. Both of these artists' music have songs which are mixed to an amazing standard, however, my music was well mixed but could've been mixed to a better standard in terms of levels of instruments and maybe even vocals to a certain extent. Due to this I can only say that I worked to the best of my ability but in comparison to the artists I was influenced there needs a lot of work in terms of mixing to get the song sounding more professional. In terms of fitting into the music industry, I would say my music fits into record labels such as: Island records, republic records and atlantic records. This is based on the fact that my songs are mainly pop/latin influenced which could be suited for these type of record labels because artists like: Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes and some others pop artists. One area I struggled with and I still struggle with is the mixing part of making music, this is really important because this is what makes the songs sound more professional and suitable for radio and adverts. To make myself get better at mixing I need to make more music and research different youtube videos to make my music more professional. Something I would do differently is do more research during these 10 weeks to make my mixing better and collaborated with more production students to get more experience in producing.
My key areas of research was production techniques and genre influence, this includes looking at genres similar to the EP and see what production methods they use to make the music stand out. this includes things like drum patterns and similar chord progressions. I have been able to introduce the research into my music, for example, one of my key areas of research included looking at Charlie Puth's techniques when producing, this included using layering to make songs sound fuller and richer, I used this technique in many of my songs which helped my songs sound fuller and more professional. I think I have completed enough research because I have been able to fit these things into my music which has helped me progress massively. I don't think I needed to research anything else, however, I think I should've perhaps researched even more to see what other information could help me progress. I have learnt to layer instruments when needed and I have increased my instrumental knowledge, by this I mean using my strengths which is playing guitar and interpreting it in my music and my guitar lessons have become useful to put things I have learnt such as: pentatonic scales and other scales in my music to show a diversity of skills.
My research has developed my practical work because it has helped my production skills to progress in terms of levelling out instrument and even vocally knowing how to affect vocals and introducing vocal effects such as reverb and echo to make my vocals sound clean and more professional. I have therefore been able to incorporate this into my music and develop my musical skills. I think my practical kills have developed immensely, this includes my vocal skills because I have practiced with other people and developed things such as vocal range and vocals runs which I have been able to introduce into my music. My guitar skills have also improved due to my weekly guitar lessons, in the beginning of the year I didn't know guitar scales and how to play them but I have been able to increase my scale knowledge and become confident in playing them.
Problems I have encountered whilst doing my FMP was my timing and keeping up to date with my work, I didn't always keep tack of my work which slowed down my progression, however, I managed to keep up with my work. Also, one thing that also caused problems was my plan always changing, from deleting songs to not finishing them. This slowed down my project which I regret doing, but I have learnt to keep my unfinished tracks because I may use them in the future, however this didn't stop me from finishing all my work in this project. During the term I did overthink a lot in terms of my songs and trying to make every song sound perfect, nontheless, I thought that it was better to monitor my progress rather than overthink my songs which will evidently help my songs progress at a quicker rate. I had to reduce the amount of songs I did otherwise I wouldn't be able to balance my written work with my practical work. I didn't use the production rooms a lot for my project because I have a home studio that I used for my whole EP. However, when it came to featuring on other people's projects I used the rooms to feature on there projects and record songs from their EP.
I worked with Monet on my project, she featured on one of my songs which helped my song sound amazing because my initial idea was to get a female interpretation into the song to create a balance in the concept of the song and in the vocals. I also collaborated with: Ashley, Juan and Melika which they featured in my cover performance. Juan played the piano and sang with: Me, Melika and Ashley. We were able to use rehearsal rooms to practice the song many times and develop ideas such as harmonies and lead vocals. My collaborations only had one problem which was being able to find time to rehearse enough or to even get my songs recorded. However, I managed to get my songs recorded in time. I overcame these problems by being in contact with the people I am collaborating with and use the time affectively. I enjoyed collaborating because it has helped me develop my confidence and work with other people has also helped me work harder because it requires a full group effort to progress.
