Project 4 Skills Audit
Name: Freya Cashman
Self-Assessment
Identify/ Outline skills, explain how these are useful and important to you as a musician, and how they could improve your professional development.
Within music performance, the skills that I bring to each performance that I participate in would be as the bassist, and as a part of the rhythm section of the band. Within a live performance, one of the most important skills would be keeping in time with the drummer having strong communication, and connecting and adapting our playing styles to lock in with each other. Keeping in time with the tempo of the singers and listening to whether the speed should be slower or faster. Therefore giving eye contact and cues to the rhythm section and communicating to one another is a key skill that I believe I adopt.
Although it can be daunting to perform in front of others, I have a good attitude with those whom I work with. I believe I am a good communicator and will bring up any faults that I don't feel happy with or want to acknowledge, to work together and adapt changes and make everyone included. It's important to acknowledge and listen to their guidance as they are there to support you. I believe that communication is an important skill that improves my professional development, as I would be working with multiple people plus the band and other musicians. Therefore, this will help to improve my music profession and work with other musicians that I may have never met or played with before, so being patient and confident with what I am playing will make me easy to work with.
I enjoy making music and creating unique and different sounds with others, I am always thinking of groovy sounds on the bass. Some of my favorite genres are funk and R&B, and these are the genres I like to, but I am always open to exploring new genres and expanding my knowledge. Artists that I enjoy listening to and want to create similar music to would be Loyle Carner and Olivia Dean combining jazz instrumentation with modern R&B. Additionally, I like some of the old musicians that paved the way for modern artists. Such as Marvin Gaye, Michael McDonald, Sly Family Stone, Sade, etc. I enjoy the music of these artists and aspire to play in their style and genre.
Recently, my band and I have worked on an original composition and we were all happy with the outcome. Taking the genre of 1990s alternative rock and inspired by The Cranberries, starting with the piano and breaking down the chords and then onto the rhythm section with down strumming on bass and guitar. In other situations where I have worked with other musicians, there are always different approaches as sometimes I may have a bassline already made and then I show others, then the drums begin tempo, and so forth the guitar begins. Or additionally starting with lyrics and finding a rhythm to go with the mood of the song intended. There are multiple ways that I have worked within a band and tried out original material, and ultimately I prefer either of those methods. I like to come up with interesting bass lines, especially if it's within the funk genre, and I like to take inspiration from other musicians and listen to that genre either to a live band or on Spotify. Being inspired by other bassists within the music industry helps creative compositions flow, as I'm excited to create further original material with other people and work as a team to come up with ideas.
Currently, my practical performance skills that I possess include stage presence, and not fully standing static. Sometimes it is difficult with confident while performing, but I like to try my best to move around while performing and ensure that I connect to the audience or fellow band members. Especially with drums, when there is a bridge approaching or a change in key, I like to make eye contact or a gesture when the change occurs. My role as the bassist is to lead the rhythm, joining with the drums, we create the pace and tempo. It is important within a performance to not change the tempo, as it would exhaust the singers if it is too fast.
My theoretical musical knowledge is varied, as within the early stages of learning the bass two years ago, I had a teacher who taught me all the basic scales and chords along the bass. I was never graded as my teacher never chose to do so, but instead, he got me to play along with him on the guitar, creating rhythms including the 5th and octave. I enjoyed this way of learning as we worked together to create new material, which is an important component of creating songs. As for reading music, I have not used sheet music before, but instead, I have used tabs when learning a song, as it is much clearer and easier to learn a song much more quickly. I have proceeded to try to learn and master my scales, by using the exercises that my teacher had told me. As well as the chords along the neck, finding what chords are on each string and fret. These skills are important when working with other band members, as within creating originals, someone may come up with a rhythm on guitar, bass, or piano, and others will need the chords. So it is important to know your way around your instrument.
Music Production Skills- What music production skills do you possess? Can you use a DAW to a good professional level? Do you have a good understanding of how to use microphones and other music production equipment? How important are these skills to you as a musician?
I believe it is crucial to know your way around the production side of music, even if you are not confident with the tools it is still good to have a basic understanding of how you should set up your instrument. I haven't had much experience with using production equipment yet and I am still not confident with how to plug in other instruments such as microphones, but I do know how to plug in my bass in the DI box. The DI box is the best choice for guitars because it protects your signal from noisy outside disturbances. For me, my experience with DAW would be through the software Logic Pro. I found it difficult at first to create sounds and get my head around new technology but in the end, I think I have become more confident, and creating my final composition on Logic was fun to make as I edited the tempo of drums, and learning the plugin and set up microphones.
Other Relevant Skills- Any other skills that you feel are relevant to you as a musician.