Practical Skills

Practical Skills - This is where you provide evidence relating to your practical skills i.e. writing your songs for your EP/rehearsing and performing at the show and so forth; this could be as a performer, arranger, songwriter, solo artists etc. depending upon your project proposal. It is advisable that you spend considerable time thinking about how you can evidence what you have been doing throughout this part of the project.

Practical skills includes all practical tasks undertaken to move your project on. Keep a weekly blog /diary to show every task that has contributed to the development of your project. Your evidence must link to your on-going evaluation to show what you have been working on, and how this is helping you progress throughout this project. 

Suggested evidence may include audio/video evidence of the show, log [books containing meeting minutes, lead sheets, rehearsal reviews, tech riders, pre-production planning, attendance registers, rehearsal footage, stage plans, lighting cues, artwork, recordings of the show, photoshoots, pre [and postproduction etc. in accordance with the industry expectations for your chosen discipline (see below for a list of ideas).

N.B. Always explain, with annotations, what any videos show us and make it clear what your OWN role has been in any practical work.

Production 

• Meetings / decision making – document them, including online chats. 

• Contacting others -  help/support,  networking,  fact finding (primary research) 

• In-college or private rehearsals

• Initial songwriting ideas, songwriting development / progress -  recordings, notes, edits, performance version

• Rehearsal development / progress 

• Rehearsal notes, Lyrics sheets, Sheet music / Tabs 

• Performance / Production Techniques used

• Dress / look / graphics / brand style. 

• Workflow/ approaches - tasklists, with timings,  checklists 

• Schedule / timeline for project with deadlines. 

• Venue / Recording Space 

• Performance (gig / studio / recording). 

Summarise what you are working on / did this week...

• Make sure you write about what it is you have specifically been focusing on this week. You don't have to write an essay for this and bullet points should be fine

• Include a brief description of the activity and try to comment on how this has helped you. 

For example... I have been exploring using EQ shelving to help cut certain frequencies from my mixes. This is something that I have read about and can apparently help add more 'space' into the mix. I have already experimented with cutting out the very low end bass frequencies (between 20-50hz) on the kick and bass drum, which has had mixed outcomes.

As you reach the later and final stages of your project, your priorities are likely to change, e.g. 

Post-Production 

• Meetings / decision making – document them, including online chats. 

• Editing (Music / Video) 

• Arranging Structure – Logic main page / structure and variation of 

• texture of songs. 

• Mixing Levels, panning, EQ, Compression, Reverb, Automation. 

• Mastering General EQ changes Compression and multiband 

• compression. Limiter. 

• Distribution of your product (YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify, Apple 

• Music etc). 

• Check out the course website for lots if info on mixing and mastering.  

Link your Practical Skills to your Research 

Add Links to any research (videos, articles) & bullet points of any key ideas or concepts...

• It is important that you are project is being informed by established technical & theoretical thinking. Make sure that you are researching your area of focus and include links to anything which you find helpful.

• It would be good to comment on any of the key things you have taken away from your research

Work in Progress - links to video/audio clips

• Make sure you are supporting your blog with ongoing examples of your work in progress. This could be as audio clips, video recordings, screen shots, etc. You don't have to worry about the quality of any recordings - it should just be a snapshot of what you have been exploring.

Evidence

Use a range of media formats to present your evidence

• Text commentary / Voice notes

• Videos/ Photos

• VLOG

• Screenshots

• Audio and Midi Files

• Soundcloud mp3, aiff, aac, wav

• JPEG, PNG, PDF

Try to highlight any specific techniques that you have evidenced.