Weekly Blog Post
Week 1 (5th Sep)
Induction Week for Year 2.
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Week 2 (9th Sep - 12th Sep)
I had to miss part of tueday this week to go to a funeral and wednesday as I was in the doctors in the morning. My band Glass Star was also missing our drummer and bassist for the week due to illness and covid.
However, on monday and tuesday, the remainder of us started practicing some potential composition for our CD project.
Then on wednesday I came in for a lesson on mixing with Paul where we watched some demonstrations. Thursday was then used to create our Unit 9 + 11 weekly project plan and go over student finance in the afternoon.
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Week 3 (16th Sep - 19th Sep)
This week we started monday off with rehearsal but soon found frustration with the song we had been worked on next week and decided to start afresh instead. This was a risky decision as it would only give us two days before performing it but we decided to take the challenge. Throughout the day we managed to work through the whole song and structure whilst I began piecing together a tune and some lyrics.
When tuesday came we started with a songwriting lesson with Lee Shears. Here we tried to list songs structure by listening to them and learnt about different common ones used. I chose my favourite song 'Destroyed by Hippie Powers' by Car Seat Headrest which I'll add a picture of below alongside the other structures I deciphered. After a quick break we did an hour of rehearsal in preparation for our performance that afternoon. Here I added in the lyrics I had worked on overnight and we put the whole song together. Soon after we performed our new song 'Stimulant' for Lee Shears. He gave us some advice on what to work on ready for our upcoming songs and I specifically needed to work on keeping a story to my lyrics that flowed and didn't randomly jump about.
On Wednesday we did UCAS in tutorial and mixed a song from last year by 'False Idles'. Paul got rid of all the mixing they had done and demonstrated to us what we could do. He then sent us the files and gave us the freedom to attempt it on our own. I really struggled with mixing the drums in particular and this session made me realise I really need to practice mixing in my own time. On thursday I worked on my blog and this weekly post with Adam then in the afternoon I learnt about different CD packaging with Paul and researched the differences in quality and cost. I also had a look into different CD manufacturers as well eventually have to pick one company to produce our class CDs.
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Week 4 (23rd Sep -26th Sep)
On Monday this week we were given the task of writing a song based off of a structure Lee gave us during rehearsal. This in itself didn't seem too difficult but we struggled afterwards to stick to one idea as everyone felt we should play different things. Not only this but I couldn't think of any good ideas, I just kept scribbling them out. At the end we found something we were all okay with and just decided to go with it and hope we'll get inspired and write something good.
Tuesday came around and we didn't get much done, we decided not to do the song from the day before and I couldn't sing either due to my cold. At this point we were all feeling frustrated that we weren't getting anything done and so we showed Lee what we had but also showed him we couldn't finish the song. He told us to stop stressing so much and just try and think of something at home to help us write next week.
On Wednesday and Thursday I was absent because of my cold but I know I missed some UCAS work and mixing a past students work with Paul on Wednesday then blog work and research on Aggregators which I've researched a bit at home and posted to my blog so I'm not missing too much.
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Week 5 (30th Sep - 3rd Oct)
This Monday I was back but still limited in my vocal range. We started off by running through our older songs to warm-up and prepare as we have a small gig on Oct 11th. We spent today experimenting with different chord progressions as we've recently realised each of us have different music tastes and differences in what we want to make which proves to be a big issue in our music creation. We got through some ideas but I think we all still feel unsure on making music together and ensuring everyone likes it.
On Tuesday Amber had to leave early at 1pm and Ed had to go around 1:30 too so we didn't get too much done. I've stated writing vocals at home and gotten Morgan to bass along with it to create something the others could use next week. I think at the moment we're suffering from a very severe writers block where we can't seem to get anything out. I'm hoping that by working on this song with Morgan we can bring something in for the band to build off and use as inspiration.
Wednesday we, as students, had off in order for the teachers to review each of our progress. Thursday included digital portfolio work in the morning then later on with Paul we researched how we, as musicians, could get paid, mainly focusing on research regarding ISRC and UPC codes.
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Week 6 (7th Oct - 10th Oct)
First thing Monday we got into the rehearsal room and luckily every member of Glass Star managed to make it despite illnesses. We have a gig coming up on friday so we decided to use today to mostly get a set together and rehearse it as well as the covers. We've decided to put the new song we wrote into the set friday also.
On Tuesday we once again rehearsed our set and did some blog work with Lee, making sure we had all research up to date. My band also had a jam of a song we're thinking of using for the upcoming college gig, I got a quick recording which I'll put below.
Wednesday morning we had off as it is now one on one sessions with Lee Davies for the next couple of weeks but in the afternoon I had a mixing sessions with Paul. We were given a song that Paul had created awhile back which incorporated video games audio. Whilst I found the general beat fine to mix, I found I was really struggling with the volume of the video game sounds and the higher range beeps so Paul helped me out and told me the best way I'm going to learn is by just practicing so that's something I need to start doing.
Finally, on thursday, we spent the morning filling out our digital portfolios ready for the milestone presentation in the afternoon.
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Week 7 (14th Oct - 17th Oct)
Starting with Monday, my band and I went straight into rehearsal to try and fully complete the other two songs we need for our performance showcase next week and CD project. Amber was absent today due to illness but we tried to work around this and continue practicing.
On Tuesday we created a rehearsal schedule ready for our upcoming performance. Here we listed where we could most efficiently use our time. We also rehearsed in preparation for the upcoming gig.
Photography students came in on Wednesday during our lesson with Paul to discuss our band photoshoots for the CD project and choose when they would be commenced. We also each created collage's of what kind of photoshoot we desired from colours to poses, I'll list one of my collages below.
Thursday we were once again mixing in class, this time using a track created by both Paul and Lee. This has been my favourite to mix so far as I feel I'm finally making progress towards learning how to mix.
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Week 8 (21st Oct - 24th Oct)
On Monday we began finishing off two of our songs and I began to write up more finalised drafts of their lyrics and practicing a basic tune which I'll try to link below.
Tuesday was more of a general catch-up day, time was spent updating our blogs to ensure we were completely up to date on anything we needed. Here I finished off my aggregator work and some work on my musical influences.
Wednesday I didn't end up attending as Lee cancelled my 1-2-1 meeting due to him discovering he had COVID and I unfortunately couldn't get a lift in for the later session with Paul but I've been informed we started mastering so I've watched some videos to get a general idea of it which I'll add here.
This Thursday is our gig day! The first assessed performance of the year and I'm feeling quite nervous. The band and I have really struggled this year with finding inspiration and all agreeing on a song together. I'm quite stressed because they only ended up writing and deciding on the final song last week/ early this week so it hasn't given me long to learn and add my lyrics into their structure. I'm not too concerned about learning the lyrics as I've had them written for awhile, I'm simply worried about performing them and having a good stage presence. We'll see how it goes! We also have our band photoshoot this afternoon just before soundcheck so thats another task to think about, hopefully it all goes well.
Update: The gig is over and it all went okay, I'll be making a separate blog post on this but I'm fairly happy with how it all went, I can tell my confidence has grown a lot more since I started last year AND I remembered all my lyrics, woohoo! I really enjoyed the chance to watch Paul do sound for each band, I'd even like to try it myself someday!
Week 9 (28th Oct - 31st Oct) Half Term
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Week 10 (4th Nov - 7th Nov)
Back from half term! I'm definetely starting to feel the stress now, as soon as we're back to rehearsal we're already stressed about recording and completing our songs. In particular, I'd spoken to my band about one of the intros to our 'heavier' song and informed them I felt it was too long. Whilst it sounds super cool, it's very awkward for me live as I have nothing to do as a vocalist. Luckily, my band agreed and we've gone about shortening the intro to make it easier for everyone involved.
Not only this, but Ed and Amber began recording guitar straight into Logic for stimulant so I'm hoping we'll keep this progress up!
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Week 11 (11th Nov - 14th Nov)
This week we've done a load of recording, we ended up having to record guitar first to help our drummer play the song but we still made loads of progress recording both guitar and drums. I do believe we made one mistake, we didn't use the metronome when intially recording the parts which has caused quite a few problems which Ed has had to deal with by cutting parts and filling them in. Regradless, it's going much better than last year.
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Week 12 (18th Nov - 21st Nov)
This week, we managed to use the bottom studio to record both bass and vocals, Ed left early without warning during this so Amber and Jack took over recording Morgan and I.
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Week 13 (25th Nov - 28th Nov)
This week is very stressful. We ended up rerecording all of the songs due to the timing issues regarding the drums. Which means I had to record my new vocals and rerecord the old ones in a rush. Luckily I got them done but I was so stressed as the deadline is soon and I need to get mixing and mastering as soon as possible.
I spent my time mixing all three tracks up to this deadline on thursday, it's been a big rush this week and I've felt very overwhelmed attempting to mix as nothing sounds the way I want. I've watched quite a few videos on mixing and taken some tips so now I'm just going to do my best and practice for next time. We decided as a band to hand Ed's mixes in for the CD track as he had been prepping them throughout and wanted to put his forward. I'm glad with the progress I've made but I can really tell that mixing and mastering are the aspects I'm lacking in.
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Week 14 (2nd Dec - 5th Dec)
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Week 15 (9th Dec - 12th Dec)
It's gig week! Most of my work is now out of the way but there's still the christmas gig to go. I'm feeling a little better about everything but I really need to focus on memorizing my lyrics for everything and completing all my blog posts. I think for this gig we really need to focus on our stage presence. At the moment we're way too static and come off as slightly awkward so I'm hoping we can change that a bit.
Update: The gig has been completed. I don't have any pictures but I decided to just have fun, I wrapped myself in christmas lights and wore a santa hat. We have been stressed this week with making our set long enough and very last minute the band wrote an instrumental intro to fill the time which ended up good considering it was mostly improvised. Amber had written a solo this week for one of the songs as she had partially written it previosuly and really wanted to add it in which was perfect as it would fill more time. However, as we did soundcheck, the solo kept going wrong mostly tempo wise and was clearly stressing her out so she decided to cut it. Obviously this worried us as our set was quite short but we deicded to just have fun and give it a go regardless of whether or not we'd have to be referred and do it again. I was extremely grateful we got to do a soundcheck with Lee Shears and figure out what levels and balance we wanted before. Unfortunately, when it came to the live performance, I found Ed's keyboard to be rather loud and I struggled to hear myself as much in the louder parts. Regardless, we still made it through the performance and it was great to see how much we've changed since last year.
I came in on the thursday to finish off my blog work and grab the mixes I completed to add to my posts. This is my final day before the christmas break and the end of the project, lets hope it all goes well!
