I would like to develop my understanding of what minimalist compositions sound like, and their key musical features. This is important as if the compositions do not fit the style, then the audience may not 'get' or 'understand' the compositions, leaving them feeling odd.
I would like to be able to compose one track from start to finish, often I only 'sketch' ideas. I do not want to leave unfinished sketches that I have often struggled to complete in the past as I have not had a plan of where to go. This will be crucial as the audience will expect to hear completed compositions.
I would like to learn how to use a DAW to create compositions, and use just electronic instruments.
SWOT Year 10
Strengths: Was a fairly confident performer, I had made compositions previously and had a basic knowledge of the fundamental points required to make a composition.
Weaknesses: I had never used lots of the software that was normally used, e.g. reason. I could only read very basic notation and thus, writing down my music or using software that relies on music notation such as Sibelius would be very difficult to use.
Opportunities: Access to software at school- Sibelius, reason, garage band. Access to I pads any time for composition on garage band. 3 lessons a week rather than the previous 1 that I had at KS3.
Threats: Due to the nature of the software, it is much harder to do work on the current project at home, as I don't have the software, I have to design new parts of the song at home, then bring the ideas to the lesson where I can physically add it into the song.
Term Evaluation Summary
I have included this in my diary, but a summary is below.
I do need to spend some serious time on lyrics, as most of my music is complete but is without any form of vocals and vocals haven't been written yet. The actual music also needs some fine tuning and mastering to smoothen it all out. Some layering could also be done on fl studio to help with this as well.
The blog itself could do with some more work, I have been told all the right information etc is there, however there aren't any specific dates that I performed the tasks I have spoken about on, so I can just go in and add these dates in.
Term Evaluation Summary
I have included this in my diary, but a summary is below.
At the start of year 11 I was much better at using different software types including FL studio and garage band on the Ipads. I still did not know how to confidently read and write music so I am not using any software like Sibelius that relies on this knowledge.
Goals and Targets for Year 11
Learn to understand music theory more. This will be done by learning how to read basic music and researching arpeggios, scales and general ideas and theories within music.
Learn to better use the software more. Researching how to create better sounding build ups and drops as well as other software features such as quantise and transposition.
Research more mastering techniques so that I am able to export and manipulate music without compromising the sound quality.
My areas of development:
Skill 1: I would now like to learn how to modulate to different keys in my compositions. As I am not a keyboard player, I often stick to C major and just use the white notes of the keyboard. I will need to learn about the Circle of 5ths and learn the notes of the scales for related keys.
Skill 2: Keys and key shifting. I would like to learn more about the keys of songs as well as how to shift the key of a song to make the song sound more interesting and professional.
Skill 3: Ensure that all parts fit together well by doing more research into timing, how it works and how to make sections fit together better as well as individual notes in a riff or chord progression.
Improvements for each compositions and my improvement strategies:
Improvement #1: Improve and make basslines more prominet
Strategy: Master the tracks so that the bassline is easier to hear, improve the structure of bassline melodies and riffs to make them fit the songs better
Improvement #2: Include more variation within songs
Strategy: Experiment with modulation, key changes and more arpeggiation as I already understand this.
Improvement #3: Learn to pitch bend notes on songs
Strategy: Experiment with fl studios tools on pitch bending as well as possibly watching some videos or doing some research to find out how to effectively use this technique.
I think the general outcome of each of my compositions went well and that once I had sorted my software issues I was able to do most of what I wanted to do, so my use of software went well and I had gained a large amount of useful knowledge by the end.
I am very happy with the melody in this particular song, the drums fitted quite and the whole song flowed nicely. Would make nice background music with the potential to be used in a slightly more vibrant atmosphere.
Conclusion:
My compositions were fairly simple and made good background music which is important for the event as it was played during breaks. Its fast tempo meant it appealed to a wide variety of people and was energetic, keeping the audience well awake and interested in the evening. Many of the songs sounded great as background music and this would be very useful at the award evening for something to keep the audience less bored in between presentations as well as creating a nicer atmosphere for people before, during and after the presentation evening. The songs also did not have any lyrics so there were no problems with how appropriate the lyrics were and how the might appeal to some significantly more than others, so I think that my style was very effective and appropriate for the evening.
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