Exeter College, 54221.
Seth Winfield
Candidate number –
Pathway: UAL Diploma - Music Performance
Section 1: Project Rational
Why you are doing this project?
I'm doing this project to improve individual songwriting and also my ability to work with and enhance another persons idea, using my experience in previous projects to help those in our project who are struggling.
How will it benefit you in terms of skills and knowledge development?
This project will help us develop our songwriting skills and to determine what genre of music we are best at writing. It will help us to understand our instruments better by coming up with ideas based around them. It will teach us how to properly mix and possibly master our instruments in a production/recording/live scenario, and help us discover our own sound as a musician.
In terms of communication, this collaborative project will test us all to our limits. We will need to not only communicate our ideas to each other, but also find ways to be diplomatic when we disagree with each other. We will need to develop our studio and mixing skills, very quickly, as we don't have long.
So time management will be vital to the success of this project.
Will it help you move towards your long term career goal?
I feel like this project will definitely help me work towards my first goal of becoming a gigging musician. The performance at the end of the project will help me understand the process of building up to a performance and how to properly plan it out. It will also better help me understand the different aspects of being in a band and how each person plays their role. I understand that as a team we each have equal responsibility. but, we are all individuals and have different mind sets, and so we may need to delegate different parts of the process to those who have the appropriate skills
My second goal is to become a session musician. I feel like the recording process will show me how to properly work in a studio, what to expect, and how to better understand the equipment and technology aspect of recording instruments. Although the drum parts will be written by myself, just recording drums gives me a basic look into how a session musician records and plays.
Section 2: Project Concept.
Explain your project, what are you going to do and how?
Our ultimate goal is to make a 3 track ep and perform it as part of our set. Each song is an idea we have come up with on our own and shall be based around a certain emotion/story. We will propose the ideas to our band mates and help each other flesh out our ideas into full songs. And ultimately end up with a concept ep.
Who are you going to collaborate with?
I shall be working with
Tom: lead guitar, vocals, mixing and recording
Oscar: rhythm guitar, vocals and recording
Possible guest bassist
Section 3: Evaluation
Evaluate your project proposal. What are its strengths and weaknesses?
Strengths: It will help me better understand how to write parts with my instrument. It helps us better understand what kind of genre we are best at writing. I think it will utilize my previous learning on this course, Everything including website building, blogs, videos, Collab's, using DAWS, planning performances, planning practices and studio sessions, knowing what equipment to use, and how to manage a band.
Weakness: We have only 4 weeks to write, record, mix and master each song. The songs may not fit very well together if they are varied in different genres. Regular practices and communication between us is vital.
Personally: Trying to write a song with drums first will be very challenging in terms of developing my songwriting on my instrument.
What are the challenges and how do you plan to overcome them?
We have only 4 weeks to write, record, mix and master each song. But we are very organised and should be able to finish them before the gig. Booking studios will be difficult as almost everyone in our class needs to use the studios. We will have to book studios in advance, or use a studio outside of college.
What are the opportunities for development?
I think this projects most obvious opportunity for development, will be in the songwriting. Its an area which i have not fully explored, and so i'm not sure how well i will be able to do it. I aim to explore some DAW'S to help me look at melody and riffs. Clearly as a drummer my focus is usually in the rhythm and not on the melody.
I also think that the collaborative idea in this project will give us all an opportunity To develop our skills in negotiation and in finding ways to agree a way to further our ambition. Whilst i will not be directly involved in mixing the guitars, it will be interesting for me to learn and watch.
What external threats could stop / damage your project – plan to mitigate them?
Booking studios will be difficult as almost everyone in our class and the other class needs to use the studios for their FMPS. We will have to plan ahead and book studios well in advance.
Its possible disagreements in our group will stop us from moving forward. However i feel like this won't happen. We as a band have always got along and explored each other ideas.
If somebody is sick or off for another reason it could greatly slow the process, no matter who it is. There is no way to to stop being sick or catching something, so i feel like if this happens we will have to continue on with who ever is still available.
What feedback did you get in your presentation and how did you change your project after?
Our tutor liked our idea and found it interesting how we based our songs on different emotions. "It feels like a concept album." This was encouraging, and made me think that expressing emotion in a song is the best way to go.
We were asked a few times if we would have a bassist in the group. This made us think carefully, there are two objectives, The first is to produce an EP which we can do using the technology available to us. the second objective however is to play the set live. The comment from our presentation was that live the sound would be fuller and more in depth with a bass. We are considering asking someone to play live with us, although this will mean rehearsals and communication with that person.
This is a video of our fmp proposal.
Section 4 action plan
Week 1 Start research on the genre i want to make
Week 2 make videos and audio recordings of drum ideas
Week 3 right out the track on midi and send it to tom and oscar
Week 4 Try and record drums with them and they do guitar at home
Week 5 play gig with either apathy set/ or our songs