My Process

For preparation to complete my final composition piece, I completed multiple music starting points from the 1950s to the 2000s on  Logic Pro, which is a complete collection of sophisticated creative tools for professional songwriting, beat-making, editing, and mixing. With these starting points we had to listen to music from that decade to get inspiration, on what instruments were used, what chord structures were used, and what genres were available at the time. At the end of the project we had to take one starting point and turn it into a fully composed song, I chose my 1990s starting point. With my 1950s starting point, I closely looked at the walking bass line and the 12-bar blues. My inspiration for the piece was in the style of Little Richard who incorporated rock 'n' roll with the classical piano, making his style upbeat and highly energetic. I enjoyed the process of my starting point and the instruments I used replicated what was used in the 1950s. But an even better element would be making the drums a bit more complex, by adding a few more fill making the piano sequence a bit quicker and not using such high notes, therefore this is not my favorite starting point as I was not too keen on the genres in the period, as I prefer soul and funk music.

My 1960s was really enjoyable to make as I explored the instruments of Motown. The genre embeds soul music, to empower black artists in the musician's industry that was heavily white-dominated. My starting point was groovy to make and I felt a bit more in my element than in the 1950s. The 1960s Motown movement inspired Hip-Hop, with the horn arrangements that followed James Brown, and the sparseness found in jazz contemporaries such as Miles Davis, Charlie Mingus, and Sonny Rollins helped put hip-hop on a new scale. The 1970s groovy bassline followed in the 1960s, James Jamerson was a popular bassist who played on tracks such as Marvin Gaye's 'Let's Get It On' in 1973, embedding a fingerstyle bassline that influenced the Family Stone Sly and their grooviness genre. The genres that I enjoyed the most on Logic were the 1960s, 70s, and 90. Exploring the themes in disco music in the 1970s, and listening to the Family Stone Sly was a major influence to re-create.

Starting the process, my starting point was inspired by Hip-Hop as I like that genre as well as R&B, I started with drums and I chose the pop R&B beat and turned the tempo to simple but loud for the beginning of the song.  This led to more layers and texture, as I wanted to sound a bit like Slum Village's song 'Players' which was produced by J Dilla. By adding claps to my piece it made it have another layer with the drums, with a quick clapping pace.

I added a fade-in with the drums at the beginning to give it a slow and steady start and then the clapping comes a second in. Along with the drums, I used a track machine when the song was leading into the verse to build intensity, and combined the sampled voice effect attached to logic that I incorporated into the track. In the beginning voice effects are used five seconds in, with 'Is the American DJ' and then 'Well I didn't expect that coming', I wanted to challenge myself by using audio, which would've been a common technique to use sampled material in artists songs. After the voices are heard, the finger bass line kicks into the audio with a long note, staggered with single notes throughout the verse. Additionally, another layer is developed and I listened to R&B and Hip-Hop tracks from the 90s and most use gentle piano sequences such as Wu-Tang Clan's track C.R.E.A.M., the piano is classical and repeats the same progression. In my piece, I used a piano synth, but I wanted to tone it down and make the sound more echoey with a slight delay. 

The target audience that would have listened to this track back in the 1990s, would have been hip-hop street artists or anybody because the genre was so popular at the time and became the best-selling genre in the mid-1990s. Hip-Hop formed a style of street dance in New York among black youths in the 1970s, originally inspired by African dancing. The genre was seen as a secret, as gangs would come together to create their own culture of music instead of mainstream music at the time wasn't reflecting their cultural and social needs. Hip-hop today can be relatable for some people, as rapping consists of talking about social problems that have happened in the world; predominately with race. In the 21st Century Racism is slowly changing, as stereotyping is still an issue when it comes to crimes such as stabbings and robberies; people associate black youths with those and adapting as people spread awareness and more diversity of people listening to world music. Fin Johns is rapping within my final piece, and he incorporated a key theme within the lyrics. "People stop and ask me if we're gonna die young, I ain't got an answer except, grab that gun" The theme of violence can link to frustration and the battles with adulthood and having the fear of being an adult with a major responsibilities, especially for young men battling with mental health expected to be manly and not weak.

As the verse played out for a couple more bars, the pre-chorus creeps in with the drums fading out, but the track machine and bass continue, slowly fading out until the high-pitch saxophone note is heard, the complete tone of the song has changed, but the repetitive track drum machine is still heard. I wanted to add more depth and layering is important within hip-hop tracks as it creates a bigger and thicker sound. I decided to add strings that weave in and out of the song, as well as the saxophone proceeding, and add a jazz quality to the track to make it sound more authentic. Using the blazing hot electric piano, was another instrument that I thought would create a deep beat, as well as a catchy rhythm with the strings and vocals weaving through one another. 

Freya's Final Project With Vocals

Freya's 90s Beat

What did I do well and what could I work on next time using Logic Pro?

For my first time using Logic Pro or any software like it, it has been a challenge, but I've enjoyed developing sounds and experimenting with what instrument and chords and instruments are the best, with what style of music I wanted to achieve. There are a large variety of instruments as far as different synthesizers that will first your desired sound and I like going through them and picking carefully what I want to do. My Hip-Hop track would be my favorite therefore I wanted to expand and create a full-length song, and im going to be having vocals put into it as well, which would add another layer and create a body to the song. What I could work on next time, would be to try using the plug-in instruments and recording my bass as well as getting guitarists for my next track as well. Additionally to try and use more mixing techniques, as I did a bit in my final song, but I didn't feel confident with what i was doing and that would be what I wanted to practice next time.

After adding vocals to my project and working with my good friend Fin who really helped out with the lyrics and creating my intended sound. An even better if would be getting the timings rights as we both tried our best to line the recordings with the beat, but we did the best that we could. But it was difficult as my track was full of off-beats. But overall I think my final project turned out well and next time I will have more knowledge on the recording set and therefore I will be more confident.