Project blog(weekly)

Week 1-

Monday- planning

Practical- Song writing, get video evidence

Tuesday- Blog/ Research, Ensure im keeping up 

Wednesday- practical, song writing , videos (finish song 1)

Thursday- Practical- start song 2, Blog, Continue song 2 and complete weekly evaluation

To start off my week, i decided that i needed a plan of action in order to complete everything to the high standard that im looking for. My main aim for this week is to complete writing my first song (name it) and if i manage that i will start writing my second song.

On Monday during my first practical lesson i started writing my first song, before i began writing i knew that i wanted a solid storyline that interlinked all of my songs within my EP that i am in the making of currently. The first idea that came to mind was to write about a situation that i was recently in but i want to make the lyrics quite metaphoric so that they can relate to things other than my own situation. During the lesson i wrote down a few ideas in my notes that i think could create a few really good songs. At the start of this year i lost a few of my friends and had quite a hard time, i think this is something that i could easily channel into my songwriting but its also something that i think people my age and around my age could easily relate to themselves.

After i got some ideas together regarding my songs i began my songwriting, due to the fact that i have a keyboard at home i decided to try and figure out some chords to allow me to get straight into songwriting. After figuring out the chord progression which is C, D major, E minor, whilst in college i came up with a somewhat catchy melody and started writing the first song on my EP. To start off i wrote the first verse then followed that with a short pre chorus and a chorus. When my song is complete the structure of the song will be Verse, Pre-chorus, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge Chorus.

On Wednesday, during my practical lesson i sat with Lydia playing through my new song. Lydia is going to be one of my collaborators on this project, she will be playing mainly bass for me but potentially also some guitar. As i was playing through the song i told Lydia the chords and she played along with her bass, i didn't get any videos of this session but i am so glad we played through the song together as it ensures i am definitely on track to complete everything on time. I also had Kyran come in and practice with us for about 30 minutes, he plays guitar so when he knew the chords he also played along making song sound more like its coming together. Overall, so far this week i feel that i have made great progress and so far am really enjoying how my song is sounding though i do still need to pick a name for the song.

Thursday- The first thing that i wanted to get done on Thursday was to figure out a name for my first song and potentially a name for my EP as a whole. As of right now, song 1 is almost complete and only needs lyrics for a small bridge section therefore i figured it would be the right time to figure out what to title my first song. The first song on my EP will be titled "waiting" reflecting a lot of the songs meaning. Waiting is written in the prospective of a girl who has been waiting around for people she knows no longer care for her, she has been fighting for so long for something that was a lost cause in the first place. When writing this song i knew that as it will be the opening song on my EP therefore i really thought about the way i wanted the lyrics to sound and how much power is put across when my audience listens to it. I also wrote the lyrics in a way that i feel is relatable, 'Ive been waiting here so long cant sit and watch you win it all', within these lyrics i want other people to listen to them and know that its okay to not want to watch people who hurt you supposedly do better than you in what they are doing. My message is that no longer how much you don't want to watch it at that moment, it does get easier and you will not feel that way forever.

Later on during Thursday i had a think about some EP names that i could use, this is something that took me a while as this is the first thing people will see when going to listen to my EP. The first idea that i had was to name it " No longer waiting", i decided against this name as my first song is called Waiting therefore i don't want anything to be to repeated. In the end i had a think but have landed on the EP name of "The Darkest Smile" as i am anticipating a few of my songs to be quite dark and i also would like to write a rock song. The Darkest Smile when finished should essentially tell a complete story and so far i am happy with the way that i am working. 

Prep for week 2- start and finish song 2?

work with collaborators, start teaching my songs

keep up to date with research/blogs

Work on piano skills

Sing through "waiting'" with Finn playing acoustic guitar alongside, preparing to perform it at the phoenix

Week 2-

At the start of week 2 i was unwell therefore was at home on Monday and Tuesday therefore i couldn't manage to get much done, despite this i did make a few minor tweaks to my song waiting. I ended up deciding that i wasn't overly keen on the second verse of the song i wrote so i sat and rewrote it. Rewriting it in my opinion was the best decision iv'e made as i find the song flows a lot better now with the changes and i overall much prefer the new version.

On Wednesday when i came back into college i spent a lot of my time alongside Fin practicing for a showcase that we have in The Phoenix at the beginning of next week. At this showcase we will be playing 3 songs, 2 of them being originals and one cover. We will be performing my song Waiting, a song we wrote together around a month ago called Childhood Remorse and we will also be performing a cover of tattoo by Loreen. This showcase is a great opportunity for me as i now have the chance to perform a song that will be going onto my EP. If all goes well i will also use this chance to begin posting on my social media about my upcoming EP, i will post a short snippet (around 30 seconds) of waiting and as i continue to get more professional level videos i will post more on my social media.

Something else that iv'e been thinking about this week is how i would like my photoshoot to look, i spoke to Lydia earlier this week and she asked me what vibe i wanted it to be, how i wanted the photos to look and where i was thinking about doing the shoot. I decided the easiest thing for me to do was to make a mood board, i did this on Pinterest as it was what was most accessible to me and have been adding to this throughout this week.

The vibe that i want for my photoshoot is very chilled and calm but with a twist. i want the photo to look effortless and to match the vibe of my music. Im very excited to do this shoot and look forward to seeing the final outcomes of the shoot.

During the last lesson of the week i once again spent my time practicing with Fin and Josh for the showcase. We performed the song in front of our tutor Jordan and he advised us to keep Josh in our songs but have him playing the cajon instead of a full drum kit. During this rehearsal we solidified all three songs and i am now confident that we have the songs at a level where they are almost ready to be performed. Due to the fact that i have had to use some of my rehearsal time to practice for the showcase i have slightly gone off of my original timetable that i made. Because i went off my timetable this week, i am planning to write my second song at home over the weekend in order to be up to date with the timetable that i made.

I also sent Lydia my mood board and she suggested to do it at night time, at first we were going to attempt to do it during the day on Monday as we have quite a long break on a Monday and we wanted to maximise the time we had to do things. We were then thinking of doing it after college on Monday but i'm doing the phoenix gig then so will be unable to, we have chosen to do it on Tuesday after college as its going to be the next time we are both free to do it. Right now our plan is to do the photoshoot in Exmouth as there are nice beaches there and overall in my opinion there are better spots to take aesthetic pictures.

Week 3

Due to the fact that i am currently running slightly behind i decided that i need to at least start writing on of my other songs so i spent a bit of time sat by my keyboard and wrote some rough lyrics. As of right now im not sure weather i will keep all the lyrics i wrote as i feel i could spend maybe half an hour on the song making it better with more complex lyrics. Despite this i'm so glad i began writing it in the short amount of time i had as i am now more on track with my original timetable i created for my FMP.

This song was written about growing around people that you struggle being around, it makes you feel like you cant cope with the pain of everything. I also use a lot of lyrics that link to time and how its running out so fast, these lyrics were written as more of a metaphor to say that life is to short ad there is pretty much no need for drama or upset with other people. I feel that with the meaning of this song its a very good second song to go onto my EP.

On Monday when i came in to college my main aim was to get in a last practice n order to be ready for the Phenix showcase, therefore me Fin and Josh spent our time in our practical lesson preparing for it.

Here are a few clips of our performance at The Phoenix, overall i think that me, Fin and Josh performed really well considering the lack of rehearsal time we had and the fact that i had to teach the guys my original in only 2 rehearsals. I feel that my performance of Waiting was really strong although as i was so nervous i did slightly sing the wrong lyrics in the end of the first chorus. Although this slightly bugs me i am not beating myself up over it as its the first time anyone has heard my original so no one else actually knew or noticed that i slightly cocked up. Performing Waiting was the first time i've ever sang an original that i fully created by myself and i couldn't be more proud of myself, my stage presence, confidence and overall persona has gotten so much better over this past year and i can really see how much i've improved from watching the videos back. I feel that all of our songs were really well performed and am really proud and happy with how well thee whole evening went.

On Tuesday i had the plan of doing my photoshoot but that plan has now had to be slightly changed again due to the fact that unfortunately i have to leave college early to collect my brother from school. Despite this slight hiccup we have decided that it will be best for both myself and Lydia to do the photoshoot over the half term holidays as we both will have a lot more free time and dont want to be stressing about getting it done on a day of college.

On Wednesday during our practical lesson i thought i would take the opportunity to go down to a practice room and begin writing my third song. I started by coming up with a chord progression on piano, the verse progression is Cmaj B diminished Fmaj and the pre chorus is Gmaj, Amin, Dmin, Fmaj. I feel like this song is going to be more of a ballad as in my opinion the chords i have used give it quite a sad melancholy feel to it. As you can tell this really was the first draft as i am still not overly confident playing piano, despite this over the past few weeks i have noticed my own improvement.

Half Term

To start off half term i wanted to finish all of the writing for my songs, i started by finishing writing my most recent song which still doesn't have a name but i am figuring it out.

I didn't get any videos of me singing along but i plan to get some videos when i have a little more free time, though i probably could have found the time at the time it just wasn't something that i was really thinking about. So far i think this could be my favourite song iv'e written as i really like the melody and flow of the lyrics, i really can feel the story being told in this song without it being to sad. Also something that i wanted to ensure my songs had was a change in the sections, although you can tell where the sections are i want the first and second verses to have versatility (you should be able to feel the changing part of the song where it goes louder and quieter/more powerful and less).

During the half term i also met up with Lydia and we did my photoshoot  around Newton Abbot. We walked for a while the found a spot that matched the vibe i was going for. The spot ended up being on a bridge but we also did take a few photos off the bridge as below there was a river band therefore we went to both spots and i think overall we took over 100 photos. I think that the photos turned out so amazing, they are exactly what i was going for before doing the photoshoot. The only thing i think ill struggle with now is what picture to use for my EP cover as we got so many pictures that i love so much. Due to me being so indecisive and not being able to pick a photo i came up with the idea of making a small servey to get other people opinions.

I also started to write my 4th and final song in the holidays an got quite far with it. Whilst sat at my keyboard at home i was trying to figure out a way to make this song sound completely different to my other songs. First i tried something different on piano and figured out what i wanted to play at the start of the song then went on to starting the lyrics. With this song i wrote the lyrics in a completely different way than what i would usually do. I played the piano to start then just improvised a verse which is something i haven't done as usually i say that i'm not creative enough to think of something on the spot. Safe to say i proved myself wrong as i actually really love the flow and lyrics that i began writing and although this song doesn't match the story so much, i think its a really god last song to have on the EP as its a completely different vibe to the rest. Whilst thinking about my progress of the week i was haaving a look into tome of the research i have been getting done lately. This is the part at the moment that i am finding myself struggling to find the motivation to do. This is why, i decided that in the first few week my research would be mainly focussed into song writing and how to connect with your audience. I did this as i knew i would be spending a lot of my time during the start of the project sitting and writing powerful lyrics whilst also learning how to better my writing along the way.

Week 6

On Tuesday we came back to college and although we don't have any practical lessons on Tuesday i know that i have a lot of things i need to figure out still such as studios. I messaged my producer a few days ago letting him know the times i had booked the studios, due to so many people wanting to use studios this was very limited so i had to take whatever i could get. Unfortunately i only managed to get 4 recording sessions which gives me one session per song, this at the moment does worry me because i am worried that i wont be able to complete a song a session. This isn't something that i am worrying about quite yet as i could record my songs very quickly and manage to get it all done anyway. After messaging Harry he told me that he has already been booked for 3 of the sessions that i have the studios therefore i only have him for the first session which is tomorrow. This is a very big issue for me as i didn't really have a backup plan for if this was to happen. I spoke to my tutor to see what he could do and tanfully he managed to speak to a few people and i am just waitig to hear back. I also spoke to harry who has spoken to Issy (producer) to see if she could help me out instead and as well as this i spoke to Izzy Gale earlier who told me to just drop her a message if i need any help and she will see what she can do. Overall this was quite a big problem that i ran into, although this does worry me a bit i still have faith in myself and my collaborators that we will manage to record and release the songs on time.

I have also noticed that within my EP 'The Darkest Smile' i have only actually got names for my first and third song, 'Waiting' and also 'Walk Away'. As of right now i am withholding the name of the second song as i feel that i might have another look at the song and perhaps change some of the lyrics as right now i'm not to sure i like the flow of lyrics. Although i want to do this it does all depend on time as i still need to compete my fourth song.

During my last lesson on Tuesday i make an instagram story asking for peoples input on my cover photo.

On Wednesday i had the studio booked from 10:30 to 11:45, during this session i worked with Harry (producer) Fin (Guitar) Josh (Drums). Seeing as waiting has been the song that i've had written for the longest it only felt right to start with that song, also due to the fact that myself Fin and Josh performed at the Phoenix meant that they both already knew the song. We made out way down to the studios where Harry was setting up the drum mics and also preparing Fin to start the recording with guitar first. I would love to say that this session went smoothly but unfortunately it didn't quite go as well as i would have wanted. Firstly setting up the mics took a bit longer than i had anticipated so that set us back about 20 minutes at the start, just as i thought we could get into it, Harry couldn't manage to get the headphones connect. This was something that we needed to try and get sorted fast as Fin needed to be able to hear us speaking to him from the studio and also the click that we had set up which was at 100 BPM. Overall it took us around an hour to get started. Fin then recorded his guitar, this did take a bit longer than expected but we got in in the end and im very happy with the results. Overall i think Fin had to re record around 6 times as during the second verse he was ending it a bar early and going straight into the chorus, although this was frustrating i am just glad that we managed to get it recorded. We then moved onto drums which also took a bit longer than i wanted but eventually we managed to get the drums and guitar (we did end up staying in the studios for an extra hour which enabled us to even get that much done).

Unfortunately i have no studio time next week so will have to see if i can do the vocals in a different space with a mic and perhaps a mac, same with bass. Another issue that i have ran into this week is the fact that my producer have severely overbooked himself to the point that i am now having to find a new producer. This now brings a lot of stress to me as i am quite worried about getting everything done on time anyway as i only have 3 studio sessions left to record 4 songs anyway. My plan now is to ask around to basically see if there are any production students available to help me, i have spoken to my tutor who is also trying to help along with a few people in my class. Although i am trying my best to stay optimistic during this, i have really been struggling to fins the motivation to keep going as quite often lately i have really just felt like giving up. This isn't because i don't want my songs to come out, its due to the fact that i know in my own head that i'm probably not going to have 4 songs at the end of it. I am trying to stay positive but even after speaking to Harry and telling him how much i have to do he told me that as a producer he doesn't think i will have the time to record mix and master 4 songs and have them out in 5 weeks time. At this point in time i think that my best bet is to aim for 2 songs and if i manage to get more studio time i will try and get a 3rd done. Depending on how many songs i release will now be the decider as to weather i release a few songs as singles or weather i do manage the EP. Despite weather it turns out to be a few singles, i am happy with the fact that i managed to get some primary research for my project this week as its probably what i have least of right now. Asking people about my album cover has given me much more clarity on what photo i will perhaps use, i am so shocked and happy with the overall responses i received from my story.

Week 7

On Monday my plan of action was to firstly attempt to sort out a new producer, Harry suggested Issy for me so i had a talk with her and she is more than happy to help me out. This also works a lot better for me as Issy has a few studios booked therefore i have a few more sessions down in the studios to get as many songs recorded as i can. Last week i was starting to loose hope and really didn't think that i would manage to get what i wanted to done, i now feel optimistic again and think that i will for sure have at least a 3 track EP out before the deadline.

During Mondays practical lesson i worked with Lydia, Fin and Josh teaching them my second song. We managed to work so quickly that i managed to also teach Lydia and Fin my 3rd song whilst Josh was needed elsewhere.

We are now relatively prepared for the next studio session that iv'e got, I was under the impression that i would have no studio time at all during the week but have now got a session on Wednesday at 3:15 till 4:15 and ive also managed to get the studio for an hour after college to. 

During our recording session on Wednesday we decided to re record the guitar as it was slightly out of time the first time we recorded it. We also recorded Lydia on bass, when this was done i started on the vocals for the song. To start off the vocals were going really well until the song got to the second verse where i realised that the guitar was slightly wrong therefore we had to record it again but didnt quite manage to get the time to do it as it also took us quite a while to set up. This was because the headphones were being a pain and wouldn't connect therefore we couldn't get started until it was sorted out. Luckily when we sorted out the issues we got straight to it and i even managed to start on some vocal harmonies.

This week i also based my overall research into promotion and also distribution websites as we are now way over the half way point in the project. Whilst researching i learnt how easy it really is to upload your own songs onto streaming platforms such as spotify and apple music for also really affordable prices. Each distributing site offers something different therefore there is a deal that will be there for everyone, personally i will be using distro kid just because it is the website i personally know the most about, it is also a website that a lot of people c lose to me have used and haven't had any issues with at all.

Week 8

Planning- To start off week 8 my plan for the week is to hopefully get my entire second song recorded. At this moment i feel that this is definitely a reachable goal for me as i have the studio booked for a bit on Tuesday and also on Wednesday. I would also like to spend some of my week this week looking over and adding to my research section as i feel this is the least populated section on my site at this time and definitely needs a bit of my time and attention.

Due to it being a bank holiday this week we weren't in college on Monday so i couldn't get the practice in that i wold usually do during our Monday practical session. Luckily for me this didn't change any of my studio time or anything that i desperately needed. When i came into college on Tuesday i had been selected to go off and do a bit of content to help out Lydia and Josh with their FMP, this included spending a few hours out of the classroom making relatable TikToks and content in order to help promote for a big event. 

After helping out Lydia and Josh with their content i headed back to music in time for my studio session, In this session i once again worked alongside all my collaborators ( Fin, Josh, Lydia, Issy) and we started the process of recording my second song. To start off the studio session we arrived to see that Issy my producer was already setting up and preparing for us all to come down. Whilst Issy was adjusting the levels, we practiced through the song a few times ensuring everyone remembered what to play and all the timings for everything were right. The first instrument i wanted to record was guitar so we started with guitar, it took a few attempts to get it to the standard i wanted but after that was complete we moved onto recording for the drums. Recording for drums was a bit more difficult as Josh had only played that song for the first time that day when we were in the studio. This wasn't a huge issue as i knew that as soon as Josh Knew exactly what he was doing that he would be able to record really fast.

On Wednesday during the first lesson i worked with Fin, Lydia and Josh again to try and solidify the song. We overall had about an hour to practice the song, we also used this time to sing through my 3rd song. This song hasn't had quite as much attention as the first 2 because i just haven't quite had the time to give it more focus, i figured that at least if everyone knows the instrumentation and structure of the song it will be a much quicker changeover from doing song 2 to song 3.

We then went back down to the studios and recorded the guitar again, as we were doing this we also just decided to redo the drums as well because i want all the instruments to sound really tight and Josh overall wasn't to happy with how the first take went.

 During the studio session we overall didn't get much more done as we recorded the instruments again, next time i am in the studios i plan to get bass recorded and also vocals. Im not stressing to much about getting the vocals done in college as there are a few people in the class who have said that i am welcome to do it outside college at there house.

I was absent from college on Thursday therefore didn't get anything done.

Overall this week was okay foe me, in my opinion it didn't particularly go well but it also didn't go bad. The only thing that i would have done differently would have probably been to have just left the recording the way it was after Tuesdays recording session. This is only because i now genuinely think that i will be able to release 2 songs meaning it will be 2 singles. Although this wasn't my initial plan i am trying to not think to deep into it as i really need to ensure i keep my focus over the next 2 weeks. This week i focussed my research into vocal techniques specifically whilst in the studios as over the next few weeks this will be where i am spending a lot of my time, giving myself this time to research different techniques i feel much more confident in myself before heading to the studios due to the fact that i have that extra bit of knowledge.

Week 9

Planning- Finish second song, ask producers to begin mixing

Catch up on some research

Blogs need to be up to date!

During the start off week 9, i didn't have the studios available therefore there wasn't much i could do other than practicing singing through my song to ensure i am ready to record my vocals. During one of the lessons on Monday i went down to a practice room by myself and sang along to a video of the song that i had on my phone. I instantly knew that i would be able to do this song in minimul takes as its really in my vocal range, i find it really fun to sing and can sing it with a lot of power.

Also during Monday i had a think about how and when i will manage to get my songs onto streaming platforms, this is something that i really should have thought about probably around week 7 as i didn't take into account that some distributing services such as DistroKid can take around a week to upload your songs. Despite the fact that i could probably have time to get them out if i was to get DistroKid, i now have to wait over a week to get the money i need to pay for distrokid. This is something that i could have easily avoided by sorting out the distributer a few weeks ago when i had the money in my account, this now causes me the issue of potentially not getting my songs out by the deadline.

On Wednesday i had the studios booked therefore i asked Josh Fin and Lydia to come down wit me incase i needed their help. We had a listen to the song before we started recording bass and once again noticed that the guitar was still out of time. This made me quite stressed as i knew this was my last studio session i had therefore i had to make sure we all worked as quickly and efficiently as possible. We got Fin back into the studio first and he recorded his guitar fr a 3rd time, luckily as he had played the song so many times by this point he got it done in only 2 takes. This was amazing as w had the other hour in the studio to record bass and also vocals. The way in which we recorded bass was slightly different in the fact that Lydia hadnt played the song as much as the others so wasnt as familiar with the structure of the song. Due to this i sat in the recording studio with her and whilst she recorded the bass i sang along to the trach with drums and guitar on for her to be able to differ the sections of the song a bit easier.

This week for me went okay, i think that there are lots of things that i could have done quite differently in order to get more of a result from what ive been working on. Firstly i really regret not thinking about distributing services before this week, i should have sorted it all out when i knew i had the money in my bank. I also feel like Myself and my collaborators should have spent more of our time practicing my songs before we went into the studios. This is because each time i have been down in the studios it has taken each of us quite a while to get started and it has also taken Fin and Joah quite a few takes to get the instrumentation in good time and all as perfect as i want it to sound. Overall i got everything done that i needed to get done this week and will work on getting my songs onto at least soundcloud by next week.

Week 10

Planning- See how the mixing process is coming along

• Have a look into DistroKid and other distributors

• Get my songs onto soundcloud

• Final research and finish all blogs/ evaluation

On Monday i received my first mix of Waiting which Issy mixed for me. I had a listen to it and really like how the vocals sound on it and i also think that the instruments all sound in time and together. The levels of the instruments all sound great to me (nothing is to loud and nothing is to quiet). Though there were many things i liked about the fist mix of Goodbye, there were a few things that i felt still weren't quite sounding how i wanted them to sound. The first thing i noticed when i heard the vocals was that most of my harmonies sounded like they had been turned down quite a bit. This was something that i definitely wanted changing as soon as possible as throughout the song i only did minumul harmonies, therefore at the sections where there is a harmony i would love it to be heard. To sort out this issue i messaged Issy and told her how i wanted it to sound and that i would like her to turn up my harmonies just slightly so that they can have there moment to stand out. Also something that Issy mentioned to me was that my vocals were slightly out of time during the second verse, she tried her best to make it sound as in time as she could but couldnt quite get it perfect. This isn't a major issue as in my opinion it is only slightly out, this is something that i could have easily solved if i had just recorded that section again but due to my limited time and the fact that i hadn't heard how out of time the vocals were beforehand, by this point there wasn't much either myself or Issy could do.

On Tuesday i received my second mix from Verity. I gave it a listen and she changed everything i asked her to exactly how i wanted it. The vocals now have much more reverb on than before and sound much more haunting. Due to the fact that this song is more dark i wanted it to have that haunting, ghost like sound to it specifically in the vocals of the song. I also am glad that towards the end of the song, Verity has played around with the drums and they now sound much more in time. Despite the overall mix of the song being really good, i am not sure that i am 100% happy with the outcome as i think during some of the changeover sections of the song the drums go slightly out of time. This again is an issue i had due to not having more studio time, if i was to go back and do it again i would definitely re record the drums and potentially even vocals. Although i am happy with the vocals, i feel that within myself i could have done better, i also feel like the way i recorded vocals has a part to play in why i am not 100% loving my vocals. For this song i recorded it verse then chorus and so on, between each section of the song i stopped and started. I think this was particularly an issue when i go into the chorus singing 'im gonna get you highhh, highh' as when i sing high for the second time i dont think it sounds like its from the same take, it almost sounds like ive taken a big breath before doing it. Despite all of these small issues, i am very proud of the end result of Goodbye and am happy to say that i have now got versions of both Waiting and Goodbye on soundcloud.

On Wednesday, i didn't get any practical work done as by this point i am just waiting for Issy to finish the final mix of my song Waiting. I spent a lot of my time during the day catching up on my research and ensuring my whole website is consistently filled with all the information needed.