The solo lessons helped me a lot with my performance as weekly I managed to test my songs in various different ways especially with the techniques that we used in the first half term when we were rehearsing using dynamics, tempo and level changing. Also, feedback I had gotten a lot of the time from Chloe was to try out my songs on different instruments to see what way I could change the songs and the different vibes that each instrument makes. At first I was using the guitar for most of my songs but towards my performance I figured out that piano was the instrument I wanted to use as it made my songs stand out more than guitar.
I also used my own time to practice which helped me immensely as confidence is everything when it comes to performing and confidence comes within known your songs well and having the knowledge of how good you are and believing in yourself which is relates to self preparation which leads to a strong mental state. This is mainly why self preparation helped me, it helped my mental approach to the performance as confidence grows within practice. However one thing I could've possibly done more or considered more in my preparation is use peers in my class to also perform in my songs such as: instruments used and backing vocals more in my set.
I feel like my performance went really well as I was able to interact with the audience and use m humour to make the audience more excited. In terms of my actual performance, I really enjoyed performing and I felt like I managed to show what I'm about in terms of my style and my personality. This was also a very important performance for me as it was probably my first time being myself as an artist as in my whole 5 years of my career I have been very self conscious of myself as an artist and I haven't been able to show who I really am but in this performance I was really happy to show how I really am. The audience really enjoyed the performance as they seemed to like my personality and my performances by cheering and laughing.
It was a strange place to perform as it was probably the smallest place I had ever performed and since it is such an intimate place you have to adapt to that environment and make the audience enjoy it. However, I was able to adapt to it and I use my personality to lead the whole performance and my music to show what I enjoy making and if the audience choose to follow me in my journey they are now aware of what music I make and what to expect.
When coming up with our own Hip/Hop song, we used a drum beat at first so we could come up with our own ideas using a Hip/Hop type drum beat. Normally, Hip/Hop is associated with having rap and catchy phrases backed up with harmony which is what we done. For the chorus we made a catchy melody for the vocals and then rap for the verses. The instruments were fairly easily played as for the guitar a simple A minor pentatonic scale was used and for the piano was two chords which D major and A minor and the bass followed a repetitive sequence. The aim of the song was to make everything flow and to not create any complexity in the song.
When working on "Heaven in Las Vegas" we used techniques from the actual genre in terms of really identifying what makes the actual genre stand out from all the other genres which for me was more about the clashing of vocals in the chorus and the reverb and ambience creating a lot of space in the song. Also, the use of 7ths and 9ths with the piano creates this brightness in the song which for me is what makes the song sound the way it does in relation to the reverb and the combination of notes used. There wasn't much to change as the song itself is very full with all the instruments used and the multiple singers. But we also played around with harmonies in the vocals to create a very vibrant sound and to expose that space and shoegaze throughout the song.
Our group decided to do arguably the most famous song in the Disco genre "Freak" by Chic. During the process of this song we experimented with many different things such as: melody, vocal changes in terms of notes and instrumental breakdowns to create a use of dynamic in the song. However, when coming to rehearsing the song we came to realise that the song itself already has a use of dynamic to a certain extent in relation to the bass line because somehow a difficult baseline to play but simultaneously the song being very easy to play for other instruments such as the piano (strings) and the drums. When it came to the piano which I was in charge of playing, I decided to play about with the notes in terms of using octaves in the chorus to make the strings sound very distinctive and present in the chorus. Also, in the bridge the experimentation of notes of 7th and 9ths created this presence of tension and dynamics which is what made the song stand out in general. This is what I had to do in the verses which is quiet simple.
Paulo Reiss is an eighteen year old Musician/singer/songwriter from London. He is also known to produce his songs and considers himself as a performer as the songs he writes have an element of 90's pop/RnB influence which is what makes him a performer as well as a singer. Audiences tend to enjoy his music across all ages as his music contains elements of 90's music which makes his music stand out to all audiences rather than a specific age gap or preferred audience.
Reiss has always been inspired by the effect of multi genre experimentation of music in general such as how experimenting with production techniques from different genres can make a song interesting because of the different genres that can be combined to create a single genre or to create a certain sound. This also helps him to discover who he is as an artist and what kind of music he really wants to make and release.
Past:
Performed at Excel
Performed at Harrison (Opened for Luke Toms)
Released a music video
Present:
Performing
Producing and making music
Beginnings of interviewing career with upcoming artists
Future:
Interviewing artists and upcoming musicians
Presenting
Continue making music and collaborating with other artists
Reiss is highly influenced by many musical legends of the 90's such as: Michael Jackson and Prince. He says he highly identifies with both of these artists because soulful/pop/disco music is what he grew up listening to and the creativity that these artists use in their music is what he admires within their music.
Paulo’s is fan base varies between various different ages, however due to the fact that his music is modern and up-tempo he has a lot of teenage fans around the same age as him. However he has also mentioned that he is inspired by 90s music which makes his music popular to the older audiences from that decade as his music is influenced from 90’s soulful pop which makes his music very relevant to all audiences and ages.
He plans to release his album within the next year and is collaborating with different artists during the process of the EP and is working with producers and songwriters within the music industry. Also, he plans to go on tour as soon as the Album is released and will be going across many countries in Europe. He is known for wearing eye-catching clothes such as trainers and denim jeans and jackets which makes his style very recognisable.
In my first song, the idea was to create a track that had more of a 90s feel in terms of instrumentation and vocal idea. I wanted to create a song that defined my style and my way of using my voice, in this song there is a mixture between soul and pop music which defines me as an artist as I have developed my vocals and music listening skills to determine my overall sound. The main objective was to figure out what sound I enjoy singing the most and which kind of music I would be able to show what my voice can do in terms of dynamics. What production technique I used in this song was the use of a higher octave effect - pitch changer in the second verse. When adding this affect on the vocal it sounded quite robotic and a natural. However I found it interesting so I added that in the background and I panned it to both sides and all you can hear is rather a low level vocal brightness rather than a loud higher octave phrase. The people I used as an influence in the song range from Stevie Wonder to Charlie Puth and soulful singers from the 90s.
In my second song I decided to make The final project A lot more modern, I done this by researching a lot more Artist that I am influenced by such as Michael Jackson, Charlie Puth and Stevie Wonder. I used the baseline as the main instrument to guide me through the song and which many artists that I am influenced by such as Michael Jackson, Charlie Puth and Stevie Wonder have used this technique which benefited their songwriting greatly. . I used the baseline as the main instrument to guide me through the song and I wrote this song in that particular way as the use of the bass is what makes my songwriting come along at a much quicker flow and creative flow. I think this is purely because
my style is more to do with Soul and pop funk music so I become a lot more interested when it comes to songwriting. I used vocal layering as a technique to make the vocal sound much fuller and richer, this was used in the pre-chorus and the chorus. When it came to writing the song it was more about improvising and using my emotions in that particular moment to make the song come across more natural rather than have a structured way of singing and not as dynamic or natural.
Week 1 - 17th January
During this last week I have created an up tempo soul/pop song. During the last year I was able to identify myself as an artist purely by the music I am influenced by and music that improves my music ability in terms of vocals and production techniques. I have also researched different pop-soul artists such as Charlie Puth and the way he uses melodic changes and vocal harmony to create a certain feel and layering to create a significant and specific sound. Both of the songs I am going to finish for my portfolio will both be songs that I would portray as songs that I love to make and that I will want to release as they are songs that stand out for me.
One thing that went wrong for me was that at first I found it quite hard to create a baseline myself that had the exact note changes and that I wanted to create and the sound of the different bass' on logic weren't exactly the ones that I wanted to use as they aren't natural sounding basses and from there I decided to find a drum pattern that made the song stand out, since the song is soul-influenced I decided to use shakers and claps as snares to mix both real life sounds and logic sounds.
Week 2 - 24th January
In the past week I have been able to research the way vocals on a song is performed. One of the artists that I love is Michael Jackson and the way hr uses his lyrics in first person to create a scene or a story. This, in my opinion is a very interesting way to write lyrics as the listener will feels as they are being taken on a journey and feel part of the song. In the song "Place With No Name" he uses this way of writing which I manage to take inspiration from and used it in my original song. During this process of making music, I also done research on MJ's music to see what techniques he used in relation to vocal harmony
Week 3 - 31st January
In the past week, I managed to finish my first song and I started developing a new song whilst mixing my first song. I done this as the process of mixing is quiet difficult especially for me as I am at a place where I am still trying to develop my ears in terms of mixing and finalising my songs. Also, this week I done more research in 90's/00's soulful pop music to get more inspiration and to listen to vocal details as when I listen to music I'll eventually pick up vocal techniques naturally and I looked and listened to different artists such as: Prince, Stevie Wonder and Justin Timberlake.
Wee 4 - 7th January
In this week, I done a performance in college which was our end of term performance featuring other artists from my class and when performed different genres such as: Blues, Psychedelic soul, Shoe gaze, Prog Rock, Hip Hop and Disco. The performance went really well as we performed the songs to our higher standard and the audience really enjoyed our work, however, one thing that could've went better is that we made some mistakes in terms of timing as some times some instruments went out of tempo but we manage to always bring everything back in time. I didn't manage to do much original music this week which is usually something that is unusual for me as I usually work on my original music every week but this week i had the performance to rehearse.
Analysing other people's songs
Kai
I love the way the song is structured in terms of how the song builds up. My favourite thing about this track is how he uses the panning tool to make the song sound interesting and to create space and ambience in the song and the balance between the instruments are very smooth.
Hold My Heart - Lila
One of my favourite things in this song is the change of tone and vocal dynamics. By this I mean how when she sings their is a change in tone such as smoothness and then their is a more harsh tone which is a great use of dynamics. Also, the song being created with real instrument is something that makes it much more interesting for me personally because I am a big fan of live performance songs as I listen to 80's/90's music that have that element of pure live instrumentation.
Omega
Omega's song reminds me of latin music because of the common use of the string chord progression which I am a big fan of. Also, I really like how the song changes in relation to tempo, the song stats off slow but then changes to a quicker tempo and the mood of the song changes to a happier and more cheerful emotion.
Minjoo
My favourite thing about this song is the natural sound of the piano or the "raw" sound of the piano because I like the cleanness of it. However, I think it would be even more beneficial if the song had more dynamics in terms of having more than just the same melody playing throughout the song, something like a key change would be interesting to hear.
