Week 1 

Planning and Production 

• Complete the initial proposal stages. (Completed)

• Created a proposed timeline - (used) the template given and altering it to my own needs and adjusting the date - written out on my site in the 'Project Proposal' section. (Completed)

• Complete my FMP presentation before recording it live in front of an audience ((year 2 students and my tutor Jordan); uploading it to my site in the 'Project Proposal' section). (Completed)

• (Easter Break) Create a primary research survey using google forms before posting to my public instagram account (chose questions and evaluated the quantitive data, understanding my demographic and anything I need to change/add).(Completed)

• (Easter Break) Creat an Excel spreadsheet to weight the answers and get a concise mean average for my quantitive data - observing what I should prioritise. (Completed)

• Contact 'RichMnkey' ( negotiated a royalty split - got a lease for a music license and collaboration for two of my songs, as seen below ). (Completed)

• Write my first song, structuring it with lyrics and creating instrumentation. (Half-completed) ...completed most of the instrumentation, having melodies and chords all created and structured around the vocal parts - however I have no concise lyrics completed, this is as I want to spend more time songwriting, this process for me has to be with myself in the correct mindset and as of writing now, I am not entirely satisfied.

• Primary research, some further research I had gathered was with my impromptu opportunity whereby I have interviewed the local shoegaze band 'Through Her Eyes' on how they managed their EP, the promotion and release of it, the publishing and how they moved forward into creating an established image and band – all things that are aligned with what I want to get out of this project. Unfortunately, I did not manage to get any evidence of this, however being a second year college band, they gave me very useful insight that I am grateful for... (Completed)

Research   

• (1st week + Easter Break) Complete genre research on shoegaze, dark shoegaze - such as with 'Zeruel', 'Wisp' and 'Quannnic', how I can have inspiration in how they create music and how that will affect my own. (Completed)

• (Easter Break) Analyse results of my primary research, weighting data and getting concise averages to gain knowledge on my target audience, demographics as well as have conclusive data. (Completed)

• Complete research for songwriting techniques - particularly in shoegaze, cross-analysing alongside genre research - reflecting on what I can apply to contribute to my own sound - particularly with technical aspects which most artists may not be capable of - i.e, sweep picking, multi-finger tapping, complex hybrid picking etc (adding my own progressive element to the genre itself)... (Completed)

• (Additional): Live interviewed local shoegaze band 'Through Her Eyes' and hit shoegaze artist 'RichMnkey' on instagram.

Practical Skills

• Learn vocal techniques and use vocal warmups such as scales and going from low - high - low back and forth to improve control and range, with lip trills and SOVT exercises to strengthen muscles and regulate health as someone who has no singing experience prior to the FMP. (Completed)

• As seen below - there are examples of my practical skills whereby I have screenshots of my production skills on the piece in how I have experimented with FX and plug-ins..as well as a run through taught by me on how i achieved this.

Evaluation and Reflection

• This week I achieved a lot - allowing for a good head start and focus on other aspects of my project, having a concise structured plan which will help myself for aspects I personally struggle with (routine + planning), some insights that i had gathered such as the primary research with the survey, as well as my additional data gathering with interviewing 'Through Her Eyes' will help with being able to achieve my ideal vision, (reflecting on this, the one thing I should have done is that I should have recorded evidence, whether it be tangible over media such as what I did with RichMnkey, or a live interview recorded on my phone, however this was not evaluated in the moment, due to it being impromptu whereby I interviewed them between college lessons on break). Alongside my direct interviewing with RichMnkey - and the connection I have made, now with an industry expert within the genre. Having instrumentation done - with a demo on my first song now being completed to a significant degree - with advice given on what may be adjusted/what sounds good - allowing for more room and time to experiment as well as for mixing/mastering later on...

• So far I am pretty stable in reaching my goals before the deadline, however the aspect particularly in production of the songs has made me feel hesitant about a final release - planning on seeing how things go in the coming weeks. What I could do to help this process is routinely spending time focusing on different aspects of the project that is more coursework dominant - as with the last few terms, I did let it build up towards the end which did become very stressful and exasperating - and whilst I did manage to achieve successful results - I know I could have achieved more, with more preparation and structure.

• And whilst I have completed most of the instrumentation, having melodies and chords all created and structured around the vocal parts - I do have no concise lyrics completed, this is as I want to spend more time songwriting, this process for me has to be with myself in the correct mindset and as of writing now, I am not entirely satisfied - this will be resolved later towards the project, as I am still unsure on my ability to improve my vocals on time and be comfortable with finding my own singing voice, however the improvements I have made I am very satisfied with - but with the expectations I have for my project, they have to be a higher standard.

Next Steps (aims and objectives for following week)

• Next week I plan to start my second song, starting the songwriting and recording process, potentially also releasing a sample onto my story similar to the first - using the same survey already used, for the third week - for critical insight.

• After completing my presentation, Jordan had marked it and evaluated that I should re-do the process, as he knows i can do it to a higher standard - as I did present it in immediacy after completing it as a powerpoint, having some errors and issues which particularly came down to general 'vagueness' in which I spent more time afterwards, rewriting and restructuring the presentation to a more concise and clear manner. 

• Start research for my next song, exploring further into genre research and applying to my work, adding to the substancial research section as I progress and learn.

• Keep doing vocal exercises.

• Start to research further mixing advice, particularly for darker modern shoegaze.