Look back at your project proposal and presentation.
The aims I set out for my self and my project with my proposal was to create a four track EP with each song being a different genre mixed with Country music to see what people like the most in the local area. My project was in a sense a social experiment to try and see if I can grow country music in my local area as it is a growing genre but in my eyes for the wrong reasons. The way i measured my success with a criteria was to get feedback on the songs and find out from people that dont enjoy country music what there views are and if they enjoyed listening to it and if this was the case then I saw my project as a success. One thing I wanted to challenge myself on was Lyric writing by taking situations I have faced and putting them into story form and I believe that I did achieve this. The main thing I wanted to achieve was mixing genres with country music as I had fused genres before in earlier projects however not at this level with country music and on my own as a solo artists as before I was in a group / band. I believe this was a success and i mixed country with modern pop, folk music and blues so I believe I met the criteria I was aiming for with my proposal. Some contributing factors to the reason I did achieve this was through the large amount of help with my collaborations as I started of the project trying to play the guitar myself however i realised shortly after I needed a session musician that I could explain exactly what I wanted and they could play it. This also helped with studio recording as well. However I didn't follow my original plans completely for my project as I originally wanted to create a four track ep and only ended up doing a three track ep. I deviated from my original plan because of lack of studio time and i was suggested to do so and I now see if I had attempted to record four songs I would have been successful as i struggled to find time to record my third track and had to make it a live studio recording which wasn't my original plan ever. This was due to the fact that I was running out of time and studio space was extremely scares so I deviated my plans and did this instead and it still turned out as what i wanted but ever so slightly different.
Was your project a success?
I believe that my project was a success as I was planning on doing a performance but It wasn't originally planned and I was able to get a performance which is amazing I Also have gained 30 followers on my brand new spotify account for my music and its a similar amount on nearly all the other platforms and I have got 137 monthly listeners on spotify alone. I als received loads of honest feedback from other musicians about the songs saying positive thing which shows it must be at a certain level of professionalism which im very happy with. I also saw a large amount of success with all of my Collaborators on my track as they were really helpful and were able to make my songs sound exactly like I wanted on each instrument and harry my producer was able to take everything I had wrong and resolve it in the Post production stage with the mixing. However there definitely room for growth and improvement with the fact that some of the feedback I received was saying that the EP seemed slightly quiet but I was expecting to have some room for improvement as its my first ever social media release as a solo artist. Somethings that made my project successful would be the amount of streams i have gained as I only released It before a week of this deadline and its already got over a hundred listens on multiple streaming platforms which Is amazing for me as a artist. One thing that also was succesful is over all of my promotion on social media for the event and EP release I posted two tik toks and they are both on over a thousand views each and a hundred likes and my socials has gained loadfs of follows which will help me in the future. I see this as a success as before thisd project I hadnt done near to no social media content for my own music so this was a first and it exceeded my expectations and was amazing to see.
What went well with your project and how can you use this as a strength for future projects?
Somethings that went well with my project were my ability to communicate with my collaborations as even though we did run into some problems i would keep them posted on what was happening and explain to the, the circumstances and so on. My planning as well, even though we did haver some unplanned recording sessions I would start the day and plan ahead with all of my objectives so that way I could take them and work on them and I found this to be really positive and effected on my behalf. Another thing i was able to keep up to date and help me learn more about what I was doing was my research, this helped mainly with studio recordings as I learnt more about techniques and equipment so it meant I could help my producer set up and know what to listen out for so there. was double the help and he didn't have to do it alone which meant I was able to save a large amount of time in the process for more recording opportunities. I also was able to deal with every problem I came across and resolve it and this allowed me to figure out what i was doing wrong so in the future if I take on a similar project I know how to make sure I don,t come across any problems. Another thing that I will be able to use as a strength for future projects is the variety of genres that I covered as I now know how to mix genres and fuse them which is a amazing skill to have to make your music unique and your own.
What didn’t go so well and what have you learned from this?
One thing that didn't go well with my project was my overall plan did not factor in the studio times and availability, if I had done a bit more primary research into this I would have realised it would have been better to change my time table around to fit this situation. What ended up happening was I had to only record three songs and also rush to finish the recordings which did affect the final outcome as I had to make one of my recordings a live one which I didn't particularly want to do however We did work with it and I was happy with the end result. However what I learnt from this situation is when planning a project you need to leave room incase you do end up having to deal with problems and If I had done this in the first place I very likely wouldn't have been put under as much stress and would have been able to record my songs how I originally wanted to. Another thing that didnt go so well was my lack of factoring in other people's plans that were working with me, this being when i would get a late booking on a studio session as someone has pulled out but struggling to get my session musicians to come to record as everyone of them are also working on there own FMP. I could have done with picking people who also had not taken on as much work as my producer was working with 6 other peole over this period which lead to him being really hard to find time to work with and also harder to contact. However I have learnt from this to comunicate with your collaborations before actually doing anything and trying to find when people are free and going from there as it then makes them working with you less stressful and they will be willing to help you again in the future. This links to another problem I have faced which is keeping a good reputation with others your working with for example, when I would book something with short notice to them it might have seemed like im under prepared which isnt what I want as this might put people of working with me and this is why I have to make sure that I am good with comunication and planning. One thing I learnt from mistakes i came across were you have to deal with them as soon as possible as if you dont multiple problems could form and this actually leading to you stopping working on your problem and having to deal with this and also seeing if you have any reacuring problems and if so try to find out what is causing it and change it. The majority of my problems resolve around time management wich is something I struggle with and so what I have learnt is to plan your weeks ahead and try to factor in anything tha can go wrong so if it does you now how to resolve it easily.
What would you do differently if you did the project again?
I would start of by laying out my time line in a completely different order and take a different approach, this being instead of creating all of my songs before easter and then recording them after easter. I would have created the songs in a week and recorded them and do it in this order. That way I would have finished two songs if i stay on track before easter and over easter create the other two songs with my session musicians and I would have booked a rehearsal space like I did but probably two sessions instead of one so when we got back from easter I only have the last two songs to record. This would have helped me and everyone im working with massively this is because when we are using the studios we would have actually had double the amount of studio time as not many people were using them at the start of the FMP period as a large amount of people had a similar idea to my original plan so we wouldn't have been so rushed with recordings. Ity also means that after recording two songs before easter over easter harry could spend a large amount of time mixing them tracks and because he has a large amount of time he and i could be really pick to make them the best they possibly could be were as before we had a short amount of time and this is why the small amount of negative feedback was about little things involving the tracks that we could have tweaked if we had more time. And because we are learning all the songs over easter the recording after that wouldn't be as stressed and everyone would be more prepared for recording as they have learnt and practiced them all over easter. It would have helped with performance as well as I could have got everyone I was working with together and prepared which would have meant that we wouldn't have had to rehearse on the day of the gig. Another nice thing about this way of executing my plan would have been that along the way if we came up with ideas we could have tweaked it and i'm confident we would have been able to record the original plan of four songs. I also wouldnt have agreed to such a large amount of worm of other people as I was collaborating with people on there tracks but it put a lot fo strain on my work and stopped me from being able to focus on my FMP which was my highest priority.
Discuss collaboration:
When collaborating with my session musicians and others I was able to achieve my goals a lot easier and to a better ability than if i didnt have them. What went well was the fact that they were very intreged with my EP which meant they wanted to get involved and suggest ideas and this lead to me actually being able to create all of my songs ahead of schedule and faster than I intended. They were also really helpful when it came to last minute plans especially billy the guitarist helping me out. Due to his project not involving any physical music work it meant that if i messaged hi the day before a last minute studio session he would be able to come and this is why we recorded for two of the songs the guitar and vocals first as it was easier to get both of us in the studio than my other two session musicians. The performance of others has impacted my project massively as I relied on my collaborators more than anything else as I am a single instrument musican so without them I would have extremely struggled. This meant that if they weren't able to record I wasn't able to record as a whole so the performance with my project was extremely important and relied on a large amount of trust and this is why I choose the people I did. One way I could reflect on my collaborations would be there ability to learn something in a short amount of time for example are first rehearsal as a whole group was on the day of the performance and it still went extremely well and this was because of how talented they were on the instrument, the same goes for Harry's producing as he was able to mix all three tracks over a weekend which was extremely impressive. My comunication skills varied with them as eventhough I would inform them of any changes towards the end of the projec twe did have a few problems with lack of comunication which lead to me having a lot of stress with my last recording however this wasnt any specifics fault just a slight miss of comunication. One way I could have improved with my collaborations is try to finish more of the bulk of wor toward the first end of my project before easter as it would have meant that people wouldnt have been worried when it came to recordings and so on. I personally learnt thatr all of my collaborations were very hard working and willing totake up there time for me which meant alot and they also weere also very good at recording in the studios which some instrumentalists struggle with but every instrument when recording wouldnt take more than five takes before we got a perfect one and was happy with it. They were also very critical on themselfs which I liked as it meant I new there were going to be no mistakes in my recording.
Which skills did you develop during the project?
I developed a large amount of different skills during this project some of which being communication skills, before this project I didn't know how to correctly contact people over messages or on the phone or in person but die to the fact i had to with me having such a large amount of collaborations I was able to learn new skills in the process. A huge one that is gonna help me massively after college as well as how much it helped me during my FMP is Promotion. I was able to develop skills on how to create posts on social media that capture people's attention and also helps me promote my music. I was able to develop this skill with my research but also trying new things and Im going to carry this on after my project as my social media has become quite popular and its a good way to get your name out there not only in the music industry but also as a content creator. Another skill I've developed is Releasing music with distribution sites as I didn't do a ep or anything practical for my last year FMP it meant this was a first for me and I know know how to release music effectively and this is going to be a helpful skill in the future. All of these skills have been implemented into my work and have helped my Project improve and be professional to the point where musicians are improving of my work and it wouldn't be the case if I hadn't learnt these skills over this period. The last skill that I had before but has improved drastically is my problem solving as I was able to start finding ways to resolve things as a backup in case they happened and this is why nearly all of my problems i dealt with that day. My songwriting as well as I used a concept I hadn't ever done before and I believe is going to be my thing and im gonna carry using it in the future which is taking my situations or others and creating a story about it with my songs I also did this with quotes and I found it so much easier with lyric writing as well.
What type of research did you do, and why? What have you learned regarding the use and importance of research during your project?
I conducted four different kinds of research while doing my FMP these are: Distribution, Equipment, artists and promotion. All of these are extremely crucial to my project and without conducting the research that I did I would have really struggled to understand what I was doing and because of it I was able to work out what I needed and wanted for my project. I learnt a large amount about microphone use when recording, especially country music as there are different techniques that are distinct to country music and I then was able to take this information to my producer and we ended up using some of these techniques when recording guitar especially. I conducted a large amount into instruments i wish i could put in my track for ecxample the steel pedal, what I did is told Billy this is the sound im looking for and he did a similar thing but as a picking style in my second song Cold beer Buzz.
Can you explain a decision you made in the creation of the track?
There are two decisions I had to make regarding my FMP which were crucial and could have effected my entire final major project if I had made a wrong decision. The first one being we realised while recording my first song billy had made a mistake with the build up and it completely changes the drum beat. What is supposed to happen is the song goes to double time but billy plays it at the same rhythm as the verse and chorus. I had to make a decision which was we changes the drum beat and it not be what I wanted or george records the drums correctly and we re-record the guitar entirely and i decided to do this. My reasoning was we already did a similar thing with my second songs as it was slightly out of time we decided to keep it acoustic and i wanted this song to say the same as I loved the original. What this meant we were now behind but we found another day to record the guitar and it worked out and I was very thankful I did that. If someone was to say irt was a wrong decision I would have said it would be different than the performance with the feedback i got back which was saying that was one of the favourite parts of the song by most people I asked. Another one was having to make the decision to save time by making my last song a live studio recording. What happened was we couldn't get enough recording sessions to record the song separately so I came up with the idea of making it a live recording. If any questions it I will show them my research were I got the idea from which is most country artists record the instrumental aspect of the songs live to make it more authentic and natural rather than over produced and it does in fact create this feel to the song.
What are the best features of your project / track?
In my eyes one of the best features of my tracks and project is the fact that every song is completely different and varied rather than most artists were there usually a similar vibe or instrument techniques and lyrics rather than mine which each song is unique and completely different to the last and I really like this about my project and is an amazing feature. Another thing is that I have a Live studio recording as one of the tracks as its different to what most people have and it captures peoples eyes as soon as they look at the ep and that is a good feature for marketing and making me different to other artists. I came up with everyone of these features myself which I also believe to be extremely important. My favorite feature is how it makes peoples emotions when They listen to it as the first song is quite emotional and then the next is very fun and dancy and the last one is quite rocky and I noticed this when I showed it to a fellow student Tom capon.
What flaws / issues does my project / track have?
There were a few issues and flaws with the final outcome of my product which i wish i could change but I sadly cant, these being after I showed the recording to a friend of mine Tom Capon who is very good at producing he explain to me he enjoyed the track but there were two problems. The first one was he said that the vocals on the first song seemed to be as loud as the other instruments which made it seem distant which I did notice and wished i could change and lastly he said that the whole ep was slightly quiet as when he listen to it he had to turn up his headphones but when he changed the music it was way to loud. I found out this is because spotify quantize your music and we forgot to be ready for that in the mix however I was still happy with the outcome and there were no other problems which is extremely good.