EVALUATION

EVALUATION 

Throughout units 9 & 10 I have had multiple ups and downs to do with the project. I will begin talking about what went well, my initial plan was to create a track that represented the contemporary blues genre, as well as putting together an EPK as an example of what would be sent to a Record label. These units were being used by me as a trial project for my FMP, this gave me a chance to get a feel of what I wanted to do for my final project, and see if taking the artist route was what was right for me. 

Things that went well included my research, I feel that I managed to get a good amount of research together, though I had a few setbacks throughout the project, I still found time to complete my written research and use it to inform the reader of typical things to consider when becoming a musician that wants to release music, or send it off to a record label. I also believe that the final product, my track, turned out really well. Its a song that I really enjoyed writing and performing to the college and at a live event in town. I believe it to have been a good representation of the contemporary blues genre and I really enjoyed collaborating with Harrison on the project. 

Some flaws in my project include the fact that I began wanting to have the track as a finalised piece of music, thats release ready, however it ended up becoming a demo version due to the recording standards. The recording studio I used was my home studio, though this is perfect for guitar recording, straight into the computer, It was not created right to be used as a vocal booth. The general quality of the vocals wasn't that great in the end, I don't feel I know enough about mixing vocals to have been able to fix it either.  I also feel that when taking part in the live performance at college, I was so under the weather the whole performance was terrible. Listening to it back, I have found that I was not singing anywhere near as well as I usually can, due to the fact I was so ill. Performing is hard enough as it is, let along hitting every flat note possible whilst not being able to project your voice, its even worse when its your own music. I also had trouble understanding what I was meant to be doing at first, because I was not eating the brief thoroughly enough, making everything a lot harder for me. 

Though there were more negatives than positives throughout these units, I have decided that for my FMP I will be following the same pathway, using all of the faults I encountered in this project, and making sure I do everything 100x better.  For my FMP I will be mirroring this project, however I will be researching more into the production routes of music, as well as creating 4 songs, not just one. This mean that I will have to work really hard in order to complete enough work for the project, I am aiming to get a distinction in the final project too. Though the projects have all been q bit of a challenge for me, I believe that I can complete a body of work to a really high standard for the end of the year, I feel confident that I can do this. 

RATIONALE

Rationale:Contemporary Blues

For my project I have decided to compose a contemporary blues track, and gain a collection of relevant information for an EPK. In this day and age, hearing modern contemporary blues music happens to be a rarity, however this does not mean that it is totally in the dark, there are a select few artists who are continuing the 4/4, soulful and passionate genre, essentially, reintroducing it with a twist.  Blues music can be a song about anything, not just a break up or a bad day, it can be about a bad mood or a rubbish job you have, or even a love story, so I am really looking forward to recreating it with my own spin.

I would like the artist name to be SWEET TOOTH, this is a duo I started up a few years ago that died down, we created a lot of good music together, so having a good working relationship with each other, as well as constructive musical ideas is a great start. We could create a brand new track, we could create a new facebook page as a fresh promotion platform, and have an original, great piece of blues music. In general sweet tooth was always a multi genre duo, so using different techniques i have picked up and trying out new genres would be amazing. Harrison, who is the guitar player, bass player and backing vocalist will be able to come into college and get a track we create recorded with me or even come to my home studio and record it, depending on the environment and end recordings.

My skills include being able to sing, play the piano and write songs of multiple genres. I have also been taught how to record in a studio, as well as edit and mix down audio for a track within Logic Pro X. I will use these skills to help me perform and produce a song of a contemporary blues genre, whilst getting it recorded and released/ready to be sent to a record label.

I know of a few people who took graphic design at college etc, so having a logo made up by someone who knows what they are doing would be something I will consider, I also know a few people who have taken photography so getting album covers and other bits photographed will be fairly easy. My initial idea is to conduct a small EPK project, allowing myself to experience what needs to be done in preparation for a larger project, my FMP, looking into photoshoots, logo designs, songwriting, recording and creating a small portfolio.

As a generalised statement, blues music is slowly dying out, artists are finding it a lot harder to get gigs at paying venues due to the lack of ticket sales or interest in the genre, this is mostly for up and coming artists who are trying to make a living. Reading stats on the contemporary blues demographic, there were annually no fans under the age of 21 attending any gigs, and only 3% of fans were between 21 and 30. This shows us that the demographic itself is mainly targeted at around 30 to 40 year olds.

Contemporary blues music has been known on a global scale since its introduction, however its demand went down for a long time, nevertheless, it is being seen a lot more in modern day music, generally by artists who have released songs as a one off blues style track, not necessarily blues artists themselves. The “female powerhouse” Ellie King released a track called “Ex’s and Oh’s”, that made the top 10  on the hot 100 songs list. This proves that blues is still being used for music today, however some listeners may not even realise what it is they are even listening to.

REFERENCES

www.forbes.com. 2018. No page title. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2016/02/22/blues-is-the-cool-new-genre-in-music-again/#1c6b3d9f2586. [Accessed 13 September 2018].

MusicRadar. 2018. 25 new blues artists you need to hear! | MusicRadar. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/25-new-blues-artists-you-need-to-hear-266210. [Accessed 13 September 2018].

Making A Scene!. 2018. Selling the Blues – Making A Scene!. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.makingascene.org/selling-the-blues/. [Accessed 13 September 2018].

20/9/2018

EXPERIMENTS


Today I will be spending my time looking into drum patterns that fit into the blues genre, conducting some mild experiments in logic, as well as creating some of my own little riffs and phrases to get an idea of how I want my track to sound. Blues has a variety of drum patterns that can be used, so I thought I might listen to a few songs and get an idea of how I want mine to sound. I know that I can never do blues music justice, and I want to interpret it in my own way and style, however, still keeping the key factors of blues music inside the track. Blues has always been about a funky upbeat drum rhythm, a groovy guitar and some soulful lyrics, as well as adding harmonicas, electric guitars and basses, backing vocals and even saxophones have been frequently used to add extra layers to the songs. My intention with this project is to have bass, guitar (electroacoustic), male and female vocals, and simple, yet effective drums to accompany. 

Blues music hasn't ever disappeared, it has just evolved, people have created their own styles within the style itself, added their own interpretations of how they see and hear the blues, as well as keeping its spirit alive in music today, I chose to do blues for my project because I love the sounds that can be created, as well as the emotions that can be felt when playing, or listening to it. 

Below is a very short idea for how I would like drums to potentially be sounding on my track. Obviously this is very very rough, an just an example, it is something I will be looking into with a lot more detail. 

SO in the following weeks until half term, which is around 4, I will be getting all of my plans together, organising dates to be using the studio as well as writing the full track, I will be meeting externally with the musician I'm working with and practicing what we can come up with, prepping us for the studio, to get as smoother run-through as possible. 







Below is a riff I've written that I'm really enjoying, the piano is just to accompany at this moment in time, but I like it and I think this will be what I am going to work with. It will be extended and written in more depth, also different instrumentation, I will be getting a musician in to play, one I can explain what I would like, they will be welcome to interpret it how they like to. I will also be writing lyrics to the track, I already have some ideas in my head as to how I would like it to sound. 

SINGER/SONGWRITER

What is the singer/songwriter genre about? 

Originally the term singer/songwriter comes from musicians that followed the liked of Bob Dylan in the late 60's and early 70's. Most would perform alone with en acoustic guitar or piano, however some would perform with backing vocalists and small groups of musicians to accompany them. The lyrics written are usually very personal, however can be full of  metaphors. The style was mainly being focused on folk/country music, however these days it has its own style. Singer/songwriters were at the height of their popularity in the early 70s, and although they faded away from the pop chart, they never disappeared. In the late 70s, artists such as; Rickie Lee Jones, Joan Armatrading, Suzanne Vega and Tracy Chapman, were heavily influenced by the sound of the original singer/songwriter. With the style being re-introduced in the late 80's, a new popularity and exposure for a new crop of contemporary singer/songwriters began. 

Singer/songwriters will compose and perform their own music, and though the term singer/songwriter is pretty self explanatory, there is a lot of discussion as to wether people believe it should be its own genre category or not, due to the fact that there are so many different genres that have been included within the singer/songwriter category. Though singer/songwriter is self explanatory, just because you sing and write songs, doesn't mean you fit into the genre, so rather than waiting for people to call you out on it, make sure you can clearly express yourself about how you fit into the genre. 

Advise given to aspiring singer songwriters would be to always carry a notebook with you, any inspirational ideas given to you by everyday events should be noted down whenever possible. Listen to as much music as you can, a wide variety of genres, to give you more ideas and inspiration, combining a selection of genres together to help inspire you to write more music. Reading books, listening to and reading poetry, anything that will help stimulate creativity. Try to write something every single day, wether it be something you are really happy with, or a 10 second long hook, record it and keep it in a file/as a video on your phone, this helps to get you into a routine of being creative, you then have the opportunity to go back and listen to them later on, and perhaps develop them into something more. Try to go and see as many live concerts as you can, as well as changing your scenery, rather than sitting in a room, go outside, to the park or a field, the woods and experiment, find creativity from expanding your workspace. 

Artists that have inspired me today, would include Ed Sheeran, Alicia Keys, The Weekend and many more. I have particularly been inspired by Alicia Keys because she is an artist that I have listened to since I was young. I always wanted to lear to play the piano and sing like her and even though I am no where near as talented, I followed my goal and taught myself to play piano and sing. Ed Sheeran has also been a major inspiration because of his effortless talent at writing amazing music, I began listening to him when he was known on a much smaller scale and since then I have always been in awe of how touching his music is. 


The sources I have used for this blog consist of both primary and secondary information, which allows me to have first hand and second hand information to use as research. 

Musical U. 2018. How to find your musical creativity | Musical U. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.musical-u.com/learn/finding-your-musical-creativity/. [Accessed 08 November 2018].
Secondary source.

A day in the life of... a singer-songwriter | Reading Agency. 2018. A day in the life of... a singer-songwriter | Reading Agency. [ONLINE] Available at: https://readingagency.org.uk/young-people/003-skills/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-singer-songwriter.html. [Accessed 08 November 2018].
Primary source.

AllMusic. 2018. Singer/Songwriter Music Genre Overview | AllMusic. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/singer-songwriter-ma0000002855. [Accessed 06 November 2018].
Secondary source.

COPYRIGHT & PROTECTION

Copyright- What is it?

We hear the word copyright a lot, however do we actually know the meaning of it...? Many may have a rough idea as to what it is, but there is a Uk law on copyright, protecting the works of creative people, among the literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works. It gives the people. change to decide in what ways their work may or may not be used, as well as giving them the right to be identified as the author. The work the said person creates, has to be original. This doesn't mean that someone, for example, couldn't write a book about a subject that has been covered already, it just means that it cannot be identical. Specifically for musicians, if you write a song, for instance in a band, the general public would not be able to do anything with the piece of music until 70 years after all participants have passed away. 

For writing music yourself, as long as song are recorded and written down, copyright exists, from the very beginning. To provide eligible proof of the song being your own work, you need to make sure it is written down in musical notation, or recorded, in any fixed form. It MUST be original work, now there are only so many chords in the world, and generally music is created by getting inspiration from existing songs or pieces, but as long as the track isn't copied word for word, or chord for chord, then you are eligible for copyright protection. Thirdly the participant has to be from the UK/living in the UK, as well as the track being created in the UK, to fit within the UK Copyright laws.

Some ways in which you are able to ensure that you are protected, would firstly be to send yourself an email, with a valid form of the song being held inside that email with the date clearly stated, this email must not be opened, and kept as proof of the song creation. A second way would be to send it to yourself in the mail, the time stamp will play a vital part in providing the correct proof that the music is yours, do not ever open the mail, unless absolutely necessary for approval, or even hand it to your bank or solicitor, they will hand you a receipt and hold onto it for you, however they will charge a holding fee. Moral rights are also given to the author of the music, this allows the said person to be identified as the correct author of the work, rights to object derogatory treatment of the work, i.e. creating a remix without consent from the author, the right to object false attribution, meaning you can object to being named as the author for any work that isn't actually yours, and privacy rights, which explain themselves. 


The information collected above comes from Primary and secondary sources, giving me a wide range of research to analyse. 

www.copyrightservice.co.uk. 2018. No page title. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/uk_law_summary. [Accessed 04 October 2018].
Primary source. 
The British Library. 2018. How To Copyright A Song - The British Library. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.bl.uk/business-and-ip-centre/articles/how-to-copyright-a-song. [Accessed 04 October 2018].
Secondary source. 

GOV.UK. 2018. The rights granted by copyright - GOV.UK . [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-rights-granted-by-copyright. [Accessed 04 October 2018].
Primary source.

PRS (performing rights society)- What is it? 

The PRS pay royalties to their members when their work is performed, broadcast, streamed, downloaded, reproduced, played in public or used in film and TV. They commit to protecting the right of the artist and making sure their rights are always represented. They fight against piracy and digital technology challenges. Once you have signed up to PRS and are an official member, the work you produce will be registered on their database, they then claim royalties on the artists behalf whenever the music is used, then the individual works get given a unique code that they use to identify when the track is used. 

So Copyright protects your music, it gives you rights over your own work, in comparison, PRS helps organise what you are entitled to when your music is performed and played out to the public. 

Musical works: songs, compositions and arrangements. 2018. Musical works: songs, compositions and arrangements. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.prsformusic.com/works. [Accessed 04 October 2018].

Primary source.

PPL (.  )- What is it? 

PPL manage the rights and licence the playing of recorded music (copyrighted material) in many different areas, ensuring that the artist gets what they are entitled to, this includes, broadcasting, radio, tv, commercial networks, in-store music systems, gym classes, jukeboxes and in flight entertainment systems. PPL does not retain a profit for its services, the proceeds go to its registered members and those who own the music and deserve the money. People who have signed up to PPL can range from session musicians to major record companies, anyone who is entitled to be fairly paid for their recorded music, they are also able to collect royalties for their members globally. 

What we do - PPL . 2018. What we do - PPL . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ppluk.com/About-Us/What-We-Do/. [Accessed 04 October 2018].

Primary source.

The information collected for these protections comes from primary sources only, using websites that only include the laws and rights for the subjects. 

SONGWRITING WORKSHOP

WORKSHOP

We were lucky enough as a class to be able to have Rhonda, from the ashford arts centre, come in and do a workshop with us. Initially we were only going to be in the studio for a few hours but we ended up staying in there the whole day and creating a demo recording of a track.  

When she first came in, she sang two sonnets to us, from the 1800's, this was to show us the range at which her voice can work. She then went on to ask us what we thought the lyrics meant, followed by telling us the real story behind the sonnets, and asking us if we could relate to the feelings or even have an opinion on them. She then asked us about finding metaphors within the room, creating them out of anything and how we can make a metaphor out of anything we see. She asked us to all individually say something we saw, I was thinking about using the window, maybe "I can see as clear as glass" "I see through you like I see through that window" or something like that. There were a lot of light metaphors and keyboard ones too. 

The next part of our session included writing down a feeling that a teacher, past or present had made us feel, it could be good or bad, absolutely anything. I chose the word anxious, as most teachers have made and still make me anxious, there was a long list of different words representing different feelings throughout the class. Next she asked us to put that word into a sentence, my sentence was "you made me feel anxious, again, today". Then she asked us to all, one by one read them out, and get into groups of good and bad words. The next step was to create a song, using all of our sentences. We had already established that there were 3 hip hop style artists, 3 singers and a few pianists/guitarists. So we got into our groups and started to piece together that sentences went better with what, we ended up writing whole new lyrics for a chorus, and keeping the sentences for josh to rap. Then Olly and I wrote a short piano and guitar hook, whilst the others made a drum pattern to fit, piecing these together allowed us to get a feel of the song. 

After a few hours of practising and trying to figure the structure out, we recorded a rough version. To say the least, it needs A LOT of work, the rapping was totally out of time, the singing wasn't great and the music accompanying it could've been a whole lot better, but it allowed us to get a feel of a studio environment and to experiment in different ways with song writing. I don't think I will us these techniques in the future as I usually write about my feelings, but it is good to have another method if I ever get writers block. 

INDEPENDENT ARTIST

THE INDEPENDENT ARTIST 

Becoming an independent artist is sometime seen as a better option than being a signed artist due to the fact that the opportunities can benefit you a lot more. You have total control of everything that happens with you as an artist, you don't have a contract to restrict you from doing what you want to do. 
You don't have to fit into anyones restrictions, meaning any ideas you have about yourself as an artist will go forward as long as you want them to. You are also able to take as long as you want when creating music, you don't have deadlines, unless you set them yourself, so you are able to take your time with your music and get it right at your own pace. Being an independent artist is just as good as being signed, but you make your own rules essentially. The downside is that you wont have the backing of a major record label to get you started. 

You wont have to share your earnings with anyone or mould your artist personality to fit anyone else's satisfaction. Generally you are the master of your own destiny and if you want it bad enough and can put the work in as an independent artist then you 100% should go for it, however if you wanted the stability and certainty of a record label then that also has many benefits to it. 

The biggest benefit of a major label signing you is there will be a lot of money backing you. They are able to advertise and get you into bigger venues, tan perhaps some of the places you could perform as an independent artist. However the downside is you are essentially seen as an employee that gets paid based on profits, not your drive to be successful. 

An example of an artist who is independent and made it in the industry is Chance The Rapper, he refuses to become signed to a label because he believes that it restricts an artists freedom to be creative. He stated in an interview I recently watched that being an unsigned artist means he can do whatever he wants, he can release his own music at whatever time he feels like, as well as being able to pick his own shows, rather than having someone controlling everything that happens to him in the music business. He has stated that the thinking about being signed, he does believe it would sometimes be a lot easier having someone do everything for you, however it doesn't  change his mind. 


This information comes from a range of primary and secondary sources, from first hand information to Q&A's with intrigued artists.

YouTube. 2019. Chance the Rapper Interview on Remaining Unsigned, His Tattoo and Being a Dad | ABC News - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co_Zq8DfYOM. [Accessed 15 January 2019]. 
Primary source.

Medium. 2018. Why becoming an independent artist is better than signed artist?. [ONLINE] Available at: https://medium.com/giglue/why-becoming-an-independent-artist-is-better-than-signed-artist-53679ecaf0ff. [Accessed 08 November 2018].
Secondary source.

Record Deal vs. Independent Artist. 2018. Record Deal vs. Independent Artist. [ONLINE] Available at: http://jagmmp.com/music_articles/record_deal_or_independent_artist.html. [Accessed 27 November 2018].
Secondary source.