Final Major Project, part 1
Rationale:
For our final set list we have decided to perform 4 originals and only 2 cover songs. We feel confident in our ability to write our own material due to our progress as musicians and as a band. While we have only wrote one song together, we have all progressed in song writing in our own right. Myself and Jerome remained in the same bands together and we have had a lot of experience in writing with each other, this is also true for Nathan and Millie who were in the same band last term. For my own personal progress I have improved drastically since I started. At the beginning I had no idea of how to construct a song, had no theory knowledge whatsoever, I didn't know the names of any chords or scales and did not feel too confident with my playing due to lack of knowledge. Since then I have been learning music theory at home in my own time which has made me a drastically better player. Now I know how to construct a song, why chords and scales work together, time signatures, how musical keys work, the 5 pentatonic shapes, minor and major scales. All these things I had little knowledge on at the start (I knew the first shape of the pentatonic scale and didn't even know that's what it is called) on all of these things, but now I have learnt these things which has lead to my confidence in our ability to create more original material.
After learning all these things I feel very confident with original material and creating ideas. This led to our decision on 4 original songs. My main interests are still developing my guitar solo work, learning to include different scales into our original to expand my arsenal in what I can create in terms of guitar solos, and also to learn as many chords as I can to increase my options when it comes to song writing.
What I've learnt since the start of the course: I have learnt a lot more on my instrument since I started the course, at the start I couldn't begin to fathom how one would write a song but now I have wrote original material and have a great understanding on how this is done. I'm going to talk about a few techniques and skills I have learnt which has lead to my new found understanding. Keys: Something that I learnt fairly quickly was understanding keys, what are they and how do use them in creating songs. This was a big revelation for me as I finally understood what makes a song, as before you do anything you have to decided on what key you want to play in. This decides what chords you can use in the song. Major/Minor/Pentatonic scales: While I did know the first position of the pentatonic scale I didn't know what it was or how to play anything else other than this first shape. I have since learnt all 5 shapes of the pentatonic scale which has made my fretboard much clearer to look at in terms of knowing exactly what my options will be for a solo. This goes in hand with understanding keys, as now I can solo/jam over any song I hear once I figure out it's key, I then apply the 5 pentatonic shapes to the key and there are my options to play. Chord Structures/Music Theory: After learning keys, I then started to learn what chords work with said key. I have spent time learning why the major scale and chords work, which has made it much clearer to me what chords I can use when I write a song in a minor or a major key. I've spent time learning all the notes that are on the guitar and by learning this I have begun to understand how to read music to a degree. An example of this is If somebody asked me to play a 1-4-5 chord progression in the key of C, I know exactly what they are asking of me and I can play it for them. Project Concept: My personal goals for the end of this project are to:
-Become a better songwriter and composer. -Become proficient using music software/using the studio. -Learn other instruments such as keys, bass, drums. I plan on reaching these goals by firstly putting a lot of time in at home to improve my song writing/music theory skills. I will be learning much more about the guitar to keep expanding my knowledge of the instrument. By doing this I will open up more ways to write song through using more chords, scales, arpeggios, to use at my disposal for song writing. I also intent to improve my technical ability to make even better use of the chords/scales/arpeggios which will help with my live performances also. To improve my knowledge with the software I will be asking more questions to the tutors to help me in areas I might not feel confident with yet, and to also ask fellow classmates. During the studio time I intend to improve my own personal contributions to our time. This is something again I will be asking teachers more questions on areas I don't understand and to ask for more time in there to attain more experience. I'm currently learning other instruments back at home as I want to be able to be a competent musician who has knowledge and skills in many different instruments. This will be a massive advantage when it comes to all areas of music. Through song writing/ live performances/ being able to use a studio myself etc. Timeline of our goals leading up to the gig: Two and a half weeks ago myself and the band made a rough timetable to guide us on much time to spend on creating our originals and making sure our cover songs are finished. I have attached the timetable we have created in this blog.
