References

Barât, C. (2006) Last Of The Small Town Playboys. London: Mercury Records Limited. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eatXdQpB22g (Accessed: 10th April 2021)

Foskett, M. (2020) Circle of Fifths - interactive chord wheel. [online] Available at: https://websemantics.uk/tools/circle-of-fifths-chord-wheel/ (Accessed: 10th April 2021)

Gould, W., Miles, I. (2015) Allergies. London: Roadrunner Records, in partnership with Warner records Inc. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPx4AVTqVEU (Accessed: 5th April 2021)

Gould, W., Miles, I. (2020) Cyanide. London: Roadrunner Records, in partnership with Warner records Inc. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_2C_9jLmNc (Accessed: 15th April 2021)

Gould, W., Miles, I. (2015) Lie Awake. London: Roadrunner Records, in partnership with Warner records Inc. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCHdXMnaptg (Accessed: 27th March 2021)

  Thompson, C. (1989) Mr. Grieves. London: 4AD. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ6pSiQp4-0 (Accessed: 21st April 2021)

Toledo, W. (2011) The Drum. New York City: Matador Records. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bEUUb9XA9w (Accessed: 5th April 2021)

Tolle, E., 2016. The Power Of Now. 2nd ed. Great Britain: Yellow Kite.

Williams, H., Farro, J. (2009) The Only Exception. New York City: Atlantic Recording Corporation. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J7J_IWUhls (Accessed: 25th March 2021)

Obsolete Commiserations - Final Mix

 Previously, I had recorded my track to the best of my abilities, but there were a few issues with the levels and peaking throughout the song.

Today, I have spent some time making some final adjustments in the mixing suite at WaterBear with the help of my tutor Tom.

The first issue I tackled was the fact that due to half of the song being recorded on a different guitar, with a different audio interface, the guitar sound changed drastically halfway through the song. To fix this, I duplicated the guitar track so that I could EQ the first half of the guitar recording separately to the second. I boosted some areas around the mid/high areas in order to get the required 'sparkle' the guitar was missing in comparison to the second half.

I also EQ'd my vocals a little bit to bring out the floatiness within them, and changed the room on my reverb from a chamber to a reflective hall, as I wanted a reverb that sustained longer and sounded more boomy.

In the very last section of the song, where I introduced an overlapping melody, the track was clipping as everything was too loud. To fix this, I added a compressor on my vocals, and used automation to fix a few singular notes that were peaking by creating a little dip in the volume. I am aware that this is not necessarily a 'professional' way of achieving this, so next time I record I will make sure nothing is clipping and that there is plenty of headroom in each individual instrument recording so that when I put them all together, the song doesn't clip.

I also used automation to level out the guitar and vocal recordings, as when I recorded the second half of the song at home, I only realised after I was finished that I had recorded it way too loud. Luckily, the automation fixed this very nicely, and I have learnt that next time I do a recording, I must check if the levels are correct in correlation to the rest of the track to avoid such things happening again. I am aware that using automation in this way is not exactly 'professional' either, however, it was the quickest and easiest way to sort out the issues I was having.

In the last section with the overlapping vocals, I panned the lead vocals and the harmony to the left and the overlapping melody to the right. My reasoning for doing this was that it gave the vocals more space to dance around each other, instead of them being on top of each other which made them sound as if they were squashing each other.

Lastly, I re-recorded the first line of the second verse, as my vocal was slightly out of tune in part of it.

Here are links to the track before and after this process, so you can hear the difference.

Before:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iEbPMz8iCfdJeoj2JVUPQ3q50x6gWUyb/view?usp=sharing

After:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aZfsW_j3_s_ZydYaGMgGKI0i1_S7-ipb/view?usp=sharing

Explaining and Analysing my Musical Choices For my Two Tracks.

Obsolete Commiserations

The structure of this song is:

Intro

Verse

Bridge

Verse

Bridge

Middle 8

Chorus/Resolve

 The last section, incorporates lyrics and a similar melody from the second bridge section. I wanted to end the song like this, because I felt it was the perfect resolve for it. By starting it off with part of a melody/lyrics you have already heard, it gives a nice sense of familiarity to the listener whilst also surprising/intriguing them to listen further when they notice it is not entirely the same. One of my favourite bands, CREEPER, do this kind of a thing a lot with their melodies, where at the end of a song they will have a resolving section which hovers nicely on chords you have heard before, usually being the chorus ones. This can be seen in the song Lie Awake (Gould, Miles, 2015). However, as this song doesn't particularly have a chorus I felt it would make sense to take it from a small section you only hear once to make it less repetitive. I end the song by introducing another melody over the top of the one I am already singing. By overlapping two melodies I am bringing out the sense of chaos and confusion I am trying to convey. 

Through this song I am showing that I have improved my knowledge/ability to record myself, as I had never done a recording before this song. So far, my process is coming along nicely, I have finished recording the song and now I only have to do the final mixing/production to make it sound the best I can.

Whats The Matter With You?

The structure of this song is:

 

Intro

Verse x2

Chorus

Verse

Chorus

End Resolve

After writing the melody for this song, I felt as if the verse sounded familiar to me. After searching my brain for a while, I remembered that this was because I had subconsciously taken part of a melody in a chorus of a song I listen to, but changed it around a little bit to create my own melody. This is actually a technique that can be referred to as 'Foraging and Forging' where you deconstruct someone else's melody line and change it a little bit to then use in your own song.

The song I unintentionally mirrored was Last Of The Small Town Playboys (Barât, C. 2006) by Dirty Pretty Things. The first three notes in the chorus of this song are the same as the ones I used for my verse, however my song is in a different key. Furthermore, their song doesn't have call and response in it, and I used similar notes in the walk down melody line the backing vocals are singing, but they are not the same as the melody in the song, so I believe what I have written is different enough to not be seen as plagiarism.

Through this song I am showing my ability to perform live. Unfortunately, due to being short on time and poor time management towards the start of the term, I had only just finished writing this song the day of the performance, and due to this, I still wasn't familiar with what I was singing/playing on the guitar so my performance was not the best. However, I have learnt from this process, and net time I would make sure that I have finished the song and rehearsed it sufficiently before the day of the final performance.

Whats The Matter With You - Finishing the Song and Analysing my Lyrical Choices

I have re-written the song twice now, here is the second draft to the lyrics:

I took these lyrics to my lesson and as no one else was in I got the opportunity to re-write the lyrics again and figure out an ending to my track with the help of my teacher, Hannah.

Heres a picture of it written out and then I will write the lyrics out digitally to make it easier to understand/read.

 I changed the lyrics throughout the song to not use the pronouns 'you' as I felt as if it focused too much on direct communication rather than setting the scene. This is also because I found it quite repetitive and I though that it fitted the song better to use descriptive words in place of saying something like "I need you", because I feel it made the emotion I wanted to get across a lot clearer. It was also because, after hearing myself sing it in our first run through, I thought it sounded a bit off so I went for something different.

I also changed the pronouns in the chorus from 'me/I' to 'they/you' because most of the time, in my writing, I do not tend to like to sing too much in the first person as I feel it can make it sound self-indulgent when you're talking about things. furthermore I wanted this song to feel less about me and more about things/people in general to try and take it away from the norm thereby potentially making it more relatable. 

In the middle 8, I changed the last line from "their mistakes are kept secret", to "show your face, its no secret." this is because again, I felt it portrayed and communicated my message better. This is because the song is about how there are so many people out there who will try to pretend they are there for you and how this can cause a feeling of disassociation but also anger. And I feel as if this song focuses more on the irony within people always asking you what the matter is (hence the repetition of 'whats the matter with you') just because they want to know it doesn't involve them, and I find this selfish. At the end of every phrase in the verse, I repeat a line but change it very subtly, it goes from 'a feeling I don't know' to 'a feeling in my bones' to 'a feeling in your mind' to then finally end in the resolve on ' it's a feeling I don't mind'. 

The reason why I have done this is because it is the perfect representation of those negative feelings I am talking about creeping into my or your subconscious, it is such a subtle change but its noticeable if you look closely, which is exactly how the feelings can creep up on you till you no longer even question why they are there and almost have to come to accept it in order to be able to live in peace and carry on with your life. This is why it ends with saying 'its a feeling I don't mind', because by that point, after being mistreated by so many people, you are so used to the feeling of being misplaced in the world that you are okay with it.

This song can also be interpreted in a different way if you aim it at yourself and the self-defeating emotions that run through your head. In this sense, the 'what's the matter with you?' is a question to yourself and all the descriptive words throughout the verses are being directed at your own mental nightmares. I think this interpretation fits the song very well too, as all the adjectives I use in the lyrics can be aimed at those feelings. For example, you could call these type of negative thought patterns 'Obnoxious imposters' as you do not want them there but they tend to hang around. Also, 'Infected, disrespected' can also be applied in a similar way, as negative thoughts and feelings tend to be contagious to humans and lead us to feel like were loosing it, hence it being followed by the line 'they lost it'.

Verse

Ten People (Whats the matter with you?)

Repeating (Whats the matter with you?)

Mistaken (Whats the matter with you?)

A feeling I don't know.

Infected (Whats the matter with you?)

Disrespected (Whats the matter with you?)

They lost it (Whats the matter with you?)

A feeling in my bones.

Chorus

When they see you

You're hiding your face in your hands

Like rain falling through a stream

Your brain falls apart

Do you know what to do with yourself?

Or just wondering where the times go?

Verse 2

Obnoxious (Whats the matter with you?)

Imposters (Whats the matter with you?)

They'll eat you (Whats the matter with you?)

A feeling in my mind.

Chorus 2 (same lyrics as first one)

Middle 8

People these days

Dissipate to a state in the stars

Show your face

It's no secret, secret, secret, secret...

End Resolve 

Its a feeling I don't mind

(Whats the matter with you) x8

Obsolete commiserations (originally called Uptight Insights) - Finishing the Song and Reflecting on my Lyrical Choices

I finished writing the lyrics to this song here is the final version:

I decided to call this song Obsolete Commiserations instead of Uptight Insights, as I felt it fit the song better and also, I want to use Uptight Insights as the name of my EP.

This song is about how so many people these days go around blaring out words/'facts', when they don't even know what they are or why they're saying it anymore, most of the time it's just because they are jumping on the bandwagon or for showing off in front of others. This new way of living makes me upset as I do not identify with it, which can make me feel alienated. This is reflected in the line "obsolete commiserations, you don't know what you write." as "obsolete commiserations" means fake emotions/condolences.

The lyrics are mostly about being on a journey of finding out that people, things, are never quite as they seem, especially in this day and age where everything is so fake and materialistic through social media. This is why in the small break section between the verses I say "walking around now your heads in the ground suddenly, walking around are they words that you found underneath." and later on in the final resolve section I say "walking around now your heads in the ground like the colours in your dreams, thinking about all the ways that you found out the worlds not as it seems" this is me stating directly that sometimes when you have the best intentions some people can come along and shove you in the ground because their intentions are not pure and how this can seem quite hurtful when you grow up and realise not everyone is nice. I grew up in the middle of nowhere in the Spanish Pyrenees, so in my childhood everyone was really lovely, caring and we were all part of a community. When I grew up and came to England, I realised not everyone had good intentions or was nice, and it wasn't exactly the nicest feeling as I found myself being taken advantage of. 

This song is about the feeling that realisation gives you, where all you wanted in life was to live in harmony but the majority of people around you are so caught up in their own heads there is no such emotion any more. At the very end, the overlapping melody says "Without a trace, they misplaced it and went to a place in the dirt." this refers to exactly that, the feeling of; why the hell is this going on and how did we get here? The "it" I am using here is referring to the joy of life, the live and let live, love and the ability to live life in a peaceful way. That is why I say they "went to a place in the dirt".

Here are they lyrics written out to make them more clear:

Verse

Sone cold, their expectations keep quiet in their eyes,

They're obsolete commiserations, you don't know what you write.

Verse 2

Sometimes your friends hurt you in ways you can't define,

Picturesque, discoloured virtues, their colours intertwine.

Break

Walking around, now your heads in the ground suddenly.

Walking around, are they words that you found underneath?

Chorus/end resolve

Walking around, now your heads in the ground like the colours in your dreams,

Thinking about all the ways that you found out, the world's not as it seems.

(Without a trace, they misplaced it, and went to a place, in the dirt)

Risk Assessment

 Possible Risks I May Encounter During My Process:

• Spilling drinks on equipment which could cause risk of electrocution/damage equipment severely.
• Trip hazards on stage: wires, amps, mic stands, monitors, guitar stands, etc.
• Damaging your voice from not warming up correctly before singing.
• Damaging your wrists/fingers from not warming up before playing guitar/piano.
• Significantly damaging your hearing by not wearing ear plugs in rehearsal/mixing with headphones turned up too loud.
• Damaging microphones/amps by not setting the levels correctly and letting them peak.

Action Plan

 Upon further reflecting on the Formative Assignment feedback, I have realised I need to get together an action plan to be able to get everything I need to do done. I am also going to create a songwriting inspiration/production ideas playlist to be able to look at all of the songs side by side and compare and contrast to find any similarities/differences. Another thing I am going to do is book some academic 1-1s to help me with the written work. I also want to make it a routine to make sure I practice guitar or piano at least once a day so I can improve as much as I can and keep my creativity going. Every day, I write at least one line of lyrics, which are very useful later on when I feel stuck with a song.

As of now, I have 5 weeks till the submission. I am going to put together a week by week table in order to be able to achieve/keep track of what I am doing. I realise now that I would have benefited from doing this at the start of term, however I spent the first half of the term freaking out and feeling burnt out so I didn't feel as if I could do such thing, as I had no sense of direction to start from.

Week (from today)	Obsolete Commiserations	Whats The Matter With You?
1	Get a solid guitar track down and decide on the structure of the song and start lyrics that are missing.	Write lyrics even if they are just place holders. Determine the role of every instrument in the song.
2	Edit lyrics and solidify melody line for each section to record on my computer at home.	Finish writing the lyrics to prepare to record in class with the band as it will be the last LPW lesson we get!
3	Finish recording vocals/bass and midi program any synths I want.	Further deconstruct my creative ideas/decisions to do with this song and finish up the rest of my diary.
4	Mix/produce (roughly, as I don't have much experience and am being marked on my songwriting) the song and do any final editing it needs.	Choose points for reflective essay and write a rough template for it.
5	Finish and hand in the song with the written work and reflection.	Finish and hand in the song with the written work and reflection.