ASSIGNMENT: With a partner, use the basses, drums, keyboards, and guitars provided to you in class to create a song reminiscent of a track from Mac DeMarco’s Album “One Wayne G”.

This project will be a crash course on the basics of playing bass, drums, and guitar as both the player and producer.  These are some of the most commonly used instruments in a studio setting.  Ultimately, the goal of this project is not mastery of these instruments, but basic knowledge of these instruments.  Additionally, this will also set you up with enough knowledge and fundamental skill to use and mix these instruments in other projects.  

In conversations with a handful of other musicians, the language of the studio is often not based on reading written music, but on the ability of a producer to communicate an idea with an artist that they can play on an instrument.  The biggest goal of this project is to start the process of you developing a vocabulary on an instrument, whether that be guitar, bass, or drums, to help you get to a place where you are able to communicate with another musician through an instrument.

“One Wayne G” was released by Mac DeMarco not as a standard album, but as a nine-hour long anthology of instrumental works he created between 2018 and early 2023`.  This album includes many great examples of pieces that employ few chords, a simple bass line, and a sparse drum beat.  Mac DeMarco played all of the instruments in each of his tracks, and this project aims to do the same.  Using foundational skills on each instrument, you will record all of the parts for a song you create along with a partner.

Click here to access the One Wayne G playlist on Spotify

Click here to access the One Wayne G playlist on YouTube (you may have to endure ads...)

Click here to see some common chord progressions on HookTheory.net

1. Listen to multiple examples from the “One Wayne G” Track Example Shortlist

2. With a partner, sketch out your song:

   • What style will your piece be?  Tempo?  Style/groove?  

   • Which key are you going to play in?

   • Which chord progression will you use?

3. Build your song in your Global Tracks.

   • Use the Arrangement track to block out sections of your piece

   • Use the Markers tracks to give labels to each section

4. Track your song one instrument at a time.

5. One person will be the performer and the other will be the recording engineer

6. Repeat step 4 as many times as necessary.

7. Collaboratively, mix the song 

8. Submit the final project to Schoology:

   • One person in the group should submit under their Schoology Account

   • The other person should submit a note in the assignment that their partner submitted their collaboration.

Additional note: songs for this project should not include lyrics

Although some songs on the album include lyrics, this project should serve more as a re-creation of the instrumental tracks that make up the majority of the album than songs with lyrics already attached.

For this project to be considered complete and receive full credit, it must meet the following minimum criteria:

• Song must be longer than 1:30

• Drum part must use bass drum, snare drum, and hi-hat at a minimum

• Guitar/keyboard part must include between three and six different chords

• Bass part must include root notes for each chord played (can contain more than the root note)

• Use at least one comp track (comp tracks are where you overdub and mix multiple takes together)

• Discuss reasoning behind creative choices in performance and engineering

  • This will be a separate assignment on Schoology and will be graded seperately from the song.