Solo Performance week 3

In this week we performed our songs again including both dynamics and changing tempo within our songs, what I managed to do with my song is I started off with a mid tempo on the verses and within certain parts I slowed it down to make it more intimate and I repeated certain things on the chorus.

We also looked at how to take our songs to the extreme using our instruments, when it came to playing the guitar I was using different effects to see how we can make our performances different and stand out. 

Solo Performance week 2

In week two of Solo Performance,  we performed our song for the second time using the dynamics we learnt in last weeks lesson. In my performance I added in different examples of dynamics such as: changing the volume of my vocals through out the song to create a flexibility in the song and to make it different. Also, naturally as I go higher in pitch I usually go louder in terms of volume, however, I do something completely different which is in that specific phrase I keep the volume the same as I go higher in pitch but change my tone softer instead of being too harsh. In terms of the guitar I also changed the way I play the guitar as I went through the song by changing the way I strum the guitar.

After this we looked at different examples of how we can change tempo to make our songs sound more interesting. We looked at an example by Queen "Bohemian Rhapsody and we looked at how they change their tempo from starting off slow for the first half of the song and then the tempo gets faster as it leads to the Acapella parts.


This week I will add this into my song, I will play around with the tempo and use certain parts throughout the song to slow down or speed up the song.

Solo Performance/ week 1

In our first lesson of Solo Performance we performed our chosen song for the performance in January and discussed and worked on dynamics.  We looked at various examples of dynamics using an artist called Bjorke and her song "its oh so quiet" which shows various examples of dynamics in terms of changing the level of the vocals throughout the songs and the change of tone from soft to hard.


This week I will practice this dynamic technique in terms of using my guitar playing and vocal performance. I will change the level of the way I singing certain phrases and play around with tone which also helps with making the song sounding more dynamic

Portfolio - Research and Planning

My goal is to collaborate with other artists in terms of: producing, song writing and releasing. I would also like to work with people who come from different genres that I'm not used to working with or making, the reason I want to do this is because I don't want to limit myself to one specific genre because if I limit myself to one genre I wont be able to work with people from different areas of music. I am planning to release my music on: iTunes, Spotify,  Apple Music and a music video on YouTube. I plan to promote my music by doing campaigns on Facebook and Instagram which will come up as adverts on these social media platforms. As well as working on my own music, when I also go to university I am planning to study music business, this involves working for record companies as an A&R or manager etc... I am choosing to do this so I have a back up plan and so it is guaranteed I will have a career in music as long as I study hard and smart. However, my main goal is to evidently work on my music and get my music to a very good level. I will most likely co produce because to mix and master all by myself is too tiring and I wont have enough time to work on other things. I plan to also have my EP done which will follow the concept of love, relationships and heartbreak. However, these songs will entail a story that each song can have similarities to. By this I mean each song has a story in which the lyrics are very meaningful and thoughtful. Once my EP is complete, I plan to promote it online social media platforms and music apps such as: Apple Music and Spotify. When I save up money I will plan to have a press release which will make people aware of the music that will be released. This includes letting the people know who you are and information about yourself as an artist.

I have identified this as my target because I am in a place in my career where I have improved a lot vocally and I can write many songs and come up with very catchy melodies. Therefore, even though there is always room for improvement, I am at a stage where I can write many songs and put them on social media and promote my music. My dream is to hopefully get a record label or a management to be interested in my music and get opportunities from that. 

One of my role models is Bruno Mars, he is a 33 year old singer/songwriter/dancer/producer from Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. He started off his career as a Singer when he was a young child and in his home town he would perform in local places and on the streets. As he got older he performed in small concerts and would cover songs live. At the age of 18 he got signed by Motown records in which he managed to perform in different places, however, as the record label realised that he didn't know how to write music, he got dropped some time after which caused a massive upset for him. However, sine he got dropped he stopped making ,music for a while and then he managed to gain the confidence and  ability to go back to music and right for his dreams. He turned to songwriting when he moved from Hawaii to Los Angeles and started to work with a producer called Philip Lawrence. He suddenly started to find success by songwriting by writing songs such as: Brandy's "Long Distance" and Flo Rida's "Right.,Round." Currently, Bruno Mars is one of the most successful artists in the world and the last album he released was two years ago which was his most successful album with 3 million album sales. One thing I can do is use songwriting as a tool to write for other artists and use this to find a different way to get into the music industry. 

The steps I will take to achieve my goals is clearly related to working hard and working smart. One example is to continue songwriting and writing my music to eventually release an album and promote it. One thing that is also really important in my goals is to keep active online so I can keep people aware of what I release etc. One thing that is important for me is to keep my songs written very dynamic in terms of genre and what I can do to make the songs sound professional and enjoyable for someone to listen. One important thing for me though all of these years is to figure out who I am as an artist, this means what kind of music I want to make and what I enjoy doing. I'm still learning what kind of music I enjoy doing but I know for a fact that I love to make and write catchy, melodic and upbeat music because it makes me happy and I enjoy it a lot more which is something that I will continue to learn from by listening to a lot of music and finding that motivation that makes me want to move forward and succeed. In terms of songwriting I will expand my songwriting knowledge by possibly reading love and relationship poems because my songs are generally about the topic of heartbreak and relationships. When it comes to melodies, I will use my voice notes on my phone to record one or to vocal melodies which I come up with as well as production ideas that I come up with to develop a structure.

The content of my portfolio will be a record of all my performances on the exact days throughout the year and also keep record of all the songs that I release which will also help me see the progress of all my songs. I will arrange this in terms of dates and where my performances were located. As I continue to perform on a regular bases, I will also keep track of the capacity of all the venues I will perform at. 

When it comes to getting my music video filmed, the person who will film it will be a video producer called Pierre Jermaine, he is a professional video editor, director and producer. He's worked with many artists such as Rita Ora and many other UK based artists. Equipment that will be used is a canon camera, tripod and a dji ronin which is used to get better camera angles for different shoots as Pierre has used this equipment in recording other artists. 

YouTube. (2018). Bruno Mars - Unorthodox Jukebox : The Making Of The Album. [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/-e_2IXvKKJA [Accessed 7 Dec. 2018].

YouTube. (2018). The Smeezingtons at the 2012 ASCAP "I Create Music" EXPO (Part 1 of 2). [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/-d2Lt0Zk3aE [Accessed 7 Dec. 2018].

Cbsnews.com. (2018). Bruno Mars on songwriting: "It has to sound like me". [online] Available at: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bruno-mars-on-songwriting-60-minutes-overtime/ [Accessed 7 Dec. 2018].