Proposal 

Centre Name and Number: Exeter College - 54221

Student Name: George Humphries

Project Proposal Title and Date: Creating a country fusion EP15th May

Main Pathway/Medium (Performance / Production): Performance

Section 1 Context

For my FMP I am going to be making an ep consisting of 4 songs all of which being a part of the genres country or sub genres to highlight diversity in my local area. The style I am going to create is country fusion with genres like blues and folk music to see what kind of country music I like and then merge it with other genres I enjoy. I am going to assign different job roles to the EP with collaborations like production however I will work with social media. I am trying to make music in the genre country as it is not seen much in the United Kingdom or even my local area and it is a genre I love and want to pursue in the future. that genre in the future. We are going to be researching loads of different song writing techniques and instrumental techniques. I really want to do this as I have not really created original music and do not know what music I want to go into and this way I can branch out to people who like this genre as well as me. We aim to have many listeners on every track and hopefully reach many people, and the variety of music is going to be so different, for example, from metal to country song.  After the last two years I have Grown as a musician, and I have also learnt so much when it comes to performing or even working in a studio and producing. I have learnt a lot of vocal techniques being a singer for example my false Set and belting. I have been able to meet some amazing musicians and have many ways to progress into the music industry after college. I was able to make a band in which we are now a cover band and have over 30 gigs this year. The projects I have had in the last 2 years have helped me develop and learn a lot more about being a musician in the industry but also all the different techniques in how to make original music. In my last units I had a large amount of songwriting involved and this allowed me to pursue this for my Final Major project. I want to take lyric writing style like place writing people writing and the cut-up technique in my work and then possibly learn more techniques along the way as well. I. also going to take information from my Unit 10 extended Essay as in it I explain mixing two genres into one to make music unique which is what I want to do when making my different fusion songs on my EP. 

Section 2 Research

To gather primary research for my project I'm going to be conducting interviews with people I am working with but also not to see what their views are on my music so far or the way I went about a situation. I also would like to interview my peers as they might give me different ways to deal with a situation or know something I need to and go into detail about it. At the end of my project I'm planning on doing a survey or question are regarding people's views on my project and which song they like the most and then see which one people enjoy the most as I'm taking my FMP as a social experiment to see if people enjoy country music in the area and if not can I mix well know genres with it to help people enjoy it more.  

My secondary research I'm going to get the larger amount of my research from for my recording for example and also my songwriting with the EP. The kinds of sources I'm going to use will include will be YouTube videos as this has worked extremely well for me in the past with learning about equipment especially. I'm also going to be using reliable websites like sound for sound which is run by talented musicians as I can then take the original information about people's views and compare them together. I won't look as much into books unless it's audio filed as I won't have a huge amount of time, but I'll be focused on videos and websites. 

The reason I'm going to be using these different sources for my research is you can't rely on one alone as most information is spread out over the ones I have named which is why I need to know the best information as after learning something I'm going to use it in my practical work or something towards my FMP. What the surveys and primary research will do is focusing on giving me new ideas and Feedback so I can make my EP the best it possibly can by talking to people who have experience doing this. 

advice, unsigned (2023) How to write a song: 12 songwriting tips from the Pros, RSS. Available at: https://dittomusic.com/en/blog/how-to-write-a-song-10-tips-on-how-to-boost-your-creative-side-when-writing-songs (Accessed: 13 March 2025). 

Bradbury, will (2024) Recording and mixing techniques for different music genres, Pirate Studios. Available at: https://pirate.com/en/blog/recording-mixing-techniques-different-genres/ (Accessed: 13 March 2025). 

Rubin, R. (2022) A step-by-step guide to releasing an EP and why you should want to, Bandsintown for Artists. Available at: https://www.artists.bandsintown.com/support/blog/a-step-by-step-guide-to-releasing-an-ep-and-why-you-should-want-to (Accessed: 13 March 2025). 

Section 3 Problem Solving

As someone with past problems with time management I know that I'm highly going to struggle with time management the main reason being I must create many songs is an extremely short amount of time which means I might be slightly behind schedule which will mean everything will be pushed back. However, I must work hard to keep to the schedule, and hopefully this will not happen. Another thing that will need problem solving is collaborations, I must work with many performers as we will need help when recording as we know we want drummers, basses, and guitarists to help me out with different songs. A big problem with this is they might feel overwhelmed with their own work and pull out, which would put us in an unpleasant situation, so we have contacted a large amount of people to hopefully be safe. I am also going to need to make sure we can rely on producers. As I need my mixed to be professional, I've been thinking about paying to get someone to mix my tracks. This way I will know my final mix will be perfect and professional, and I will be happy about it. Another problem we will have been success as we cannot make people listen to my track and there is not any promise that people will listen to my songs. One thing we will do is boost it on socials and get distro kids to help get their music out there. Me being able to solve problems in a timely fashion is seriously important as later on when I'm coming closer to the deadline and recording I very likely will come across a problem and if I don't deal with it quite swiftly it could lead to there being large problems with my FMP like late release or even less songs on the track which isn't what we want to deal with. What this will also do is teach me how to avoid these problems in the future outside of the FMP. 

Section 4 Planing and Preperation

Below you can see my timetable for this FMP project and how I am going to lay it out. Some of these might go over however we can always compromise as we have a spare week at the end of the deadline however it would be nice not to be rushed with my evaluation and this time manage meant is easily do able. 

Section 5 Practical skills

The two main aspects of practical skills I will be covering in my FMP will be composing and recording. I am going to need to have a good understanding of any equipment I'm going to be using in the studio, the reason being is I'm going to have understand how to use this equipment so I dint waste time in the studios as it is going to be very close with time and every time I'm in a studio I'm going to have to be very professional as I need to record two songs a week. I will have to understand mic equipment as that will be what I am using for my instrument. However, I am going to learn about the effects so I can find the perfect sound I will want for my voice on each track. For composing I am going to have to know about different vocal techniques of genres so I can implement them into my music. For example, lyric writing techniques but also vibrato and trills will be part of my research and practical skills. The reason I don't have to learn basic practical skills when it comes to my project and I have to focus on more complicated things is due to the fact I learnt all of them in the last two years during my UAL course, for example I don't have to talk about lyric writing techniques as I have already learnt four different techniques from last year in which I'm going to incorporate into my EP and FMP. 

Section 6 Evaluation and Reflection

I am going to be doing a weekly blog to track my progress and say how I would have done anything differently with the week and how I am going to take my feedback and implement it into my own work. I am also going to evaluate my research and how helpful it is going to be with the practical aspect of my FMP. I am also going to be doing an overall evaluation on everything, and I am going to talk about what I will do differently next time as I know, I will release another form of music while I am in the music industry. I am going to see if I had success and if not why and then take that feedback, not my next bit of work outside of college.  Evaluations are important regarding my Final Major Project because without it I won't learn anything as I go along. However, while I am doing my weekly evaluations and I see a recurring problem if I do I then know that must change and I resolve it. 

Section 7 Presentation

I intend to use every section I have talked about in this proposal as headings and go into real detail on how I'm going to use these in my FMP and how they will impact everything. I'm also going to go into detail about my problem solving and I am going to really explain in my presentation that there are a lot of problems we could face and I'm going to explain how we will deal with that. I'm going to show a lot of contexts on why I'm doing this and how it will help me in the future in the music industry. To present my final outcome for my FMP I'm going to try to have a performance somewhere in Exeter were I can record it so it will be uploaded on my site and I'm then going to use distro Kid which is a app that releases your music on all streaming platforms to help get my EP on different streaming platforms like Spotify so it's easy to access and I can easily see my statistics.