What I Wanted to Do
I set out to try and create an EP that contained songs from a variety of different genres. This would give me the experience I have been wanting in producing in different styles so that I could become a more well-rounded producer. I wanted to use the things that I already knew and pair this together with the things I was going to learn along the way in order to get this project finished.
What Went Well
There were many things that went really well during this project and one of the main things was teamwork.
Me and my classmate Freya worked really well as a team and once we had both settled on an idea that we liked, everything else just came flowing through. I am really impressed by the song that we created together and how quickly it came together. We both kept throwing ideas at each other and some sticked and some were binned. With me on production and Freya on the piano we created a very efficient working environment.
Another thing that went very well during the project was how much I learned.
I went into this project thinking that I already knew quite a lot in terms of production, mixing, mastering and song writing, however, I wasn't exactly correct. This gave me the opportunity to learn a lot in all of these fields and come out of the project with a lot more knowledge to take away with me and use on the next project.
One other thing that went well was keeping an up-to-date diary every week.
At the end of every week, we would all create a journal to reflect on what we had done that week and how we could change things for the next week, as well as what development we had made to our music. I think my journal gave a plethora of information and kept the development of the music in a logical way so that it was easy to follow. You can hear where the ideas started and how they ended up becoming the song we finished with. I also show every point where I added something to the production which caused ideas to spark. All-in-all, I think my journal was very well rounded and easy to follow.
What Could be Improved/Challenges Faced
Obviously, challenges were faced during the course of this project and there were things that I would do differently next time. The main thing that I would improve if I was to do this again would be time management. Although I put a lot of effort into this project, I could have managed my time better so that I was able to put more time into it and been able to create more songs than the one I did. I can't help the fact that I have work or that I got ill for part of it, however, all the little bits between work could have gone into updating my website so the larger bits of time I had could have gone purely into writing music.
The only other major challenged that I faced during the project was getting ill. Obviously, this can't be helped, however, it caused me to miss some important things that meant I had to spend more time after catching up. For example, I had to miss the project showcase at the end of the project. I also had to miss time in college that I needed to focus on writing music. This meant that I had to spend extra time outside of college trying to catch up.
Conclusion
I am really happy with how the project went. Although I was only able to create one song with the time I had, I am very happy with how that song turned out. I put a lot of effort into the production to get it to sound as professional as possible and I really think it has paid off. There are certain things that, looking back, I think I could've done differently to be able to create a full EP that stuck to my proposal, but I think this would have sacrificed on the quality that the one song I have got has. I am really happy with the progress I have made in terms of knowledge and can't wait to use what I have learned in the future.