When it came to doing this track, we had also done another song but since our classmate wasn’t in, it was difficult to get the song done especially since it wasn’t recorded properly in terms of timing. Therefore, what we did is record a song that we already knew and that we wouldn’t have any pressure on making. We recorded the Guitar and the Vocals all in one raw take.
The aim of the track was to make it more of an acoustic feel, rather than a fully edited song with loads of instruments. In my mix, I used the space designer reverb and lowered the wetness down from the default setting. Also, when it came to recording the guitar we used an amplifier with a reverb setting already on the amplifier, however I decided to add a silver verb on top of the reverb to make it more of a spacious sound to make it sound more of a soulful-R&B song. When using the equaliser, I made sure I took out all the tiny areas where there was a slight weird sound of high-frequency noises in the recordings. This includes finding an area within the EQ where there is an unusual high pitch sound within the recording.
During the one take, we also recorded a improvisation on the guitar which is used on the second verse and chorus and I slightly panned it to the right as I wanted it to been more of an added feature rather than the focus of the song and to create a bit of dynamics in the track so the song wouldn’t sound tedious as the listener would listen through the whole song. One thing that was important when editing the song was adding compression to the vocals as the raw recording you could hear all the plosives and mouth noises in the phrases which sounds unprofessional, not just because I think it does not sound good because their are songs which have this feature but I since the song is an acoustic and intimate song I wanted to make the song as clean as possible. Therefore, what I done is I lowered the ratio and made sure their was a balance between the threshold so the vocals wouldn’t be too loud and the mouth noises weren’t too noticeable. It’s
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.
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.
Throughout the week I have been practising songs that I am planning to use in my performance in January. I have been using dynamics and techniques in my songs to make sure they all have a difference in terms of tempo, tone and dynamics. In my performance in January I will be doing a couple of original songs using piano which I will show a lot of dynamics not just on my vocal performance but also on my piano playing.
In today’s class, I performed human nature by Michael Jackson with accompanied piano and me playing guitar however I think I will play the piano with all my songs to avoid any complications on stage.
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.
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.
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
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].
