carmelcarey

[carmelcarey]

Full lyrics of track

Typing texts, you know, typing texts, you know, typing texts, you know, Don’t send ‘em. Typing texts, you know, typing texts, you know, typing texts, you know, Don’t send ‘em.

Typing texts u know there’s no point in sending, Cos I’m not answering your message is pending. A little nutty but I’m always impressing,  Handle my whiskey yeah this liquor be testing.

People looking at me like im just a piece of meat, but I got my own two feet to stand on.  I know what I like,  and your just not my type, because I’m more of a man than you’ll ever be. Take your hands off my waist,  no I don’t want a taste, Go back see your mates i’m sure they’ve missed you. Now don’t take it to far, we might be at a bar, but not even ten shots will make me wanna kiss you.

Typing texts u know there’s no point in sending, Cos I’m not answering your message is pending. A little nutty but I’m always impressing,  Handle my whiskey yeah this liquor be testing.

Heavy is my head, dripping chains on my neck, my rockstar life got nickel back of the set. The real main event, yeah, you heard what I said, try to top me but I know you’re too scared. People coming for me, hunt me down when I sleep,  i’m Freddie Kreuger, eat you up in your dreams. Try getting close to me, I’ll be your nicotine, ‘cos i’m addicting and the thought of me won’t leave.

Typing texts, you know, typing texts, you know, typing texts, you know, Don’t send ‘em. Typing texts, you know, typing texts, you know, typing texts, you know, Don’t send ‘em.

Typing texts u know there’s no point in sending, Cos I’m not answering your message is pending. A little nutty but I’m always impressing,  Handle my whiskey yeah this liquor be testing.

[carmelcarey]

My Personal Development Plan Completed

[carmelcarey]

Analysing Track- Mixing

Once I had mixed and mastered my penultimate version of my track and converted it to a wav. file I decided to listen to it through different types of speakers that listeners may use (phone speakers, earphones, computer/laptop speakers and car speakers). I did this in order to get a more accurate picture of how the track sounds and how it will be received when it gets released.

During the majority of the track the dynamics of the vocals and the dynamics of the synthetic samples were balanced well and did not overpower each other. However, I noticed during the first half of the first verse the vocal dynamic was slightly off as the vocals were slightly too quiet in places meaning they were being overpowered by the main melodic loop. Through phone speakers this was very evident and as this is a popular way of listening to tracks this is an issue. Originally, the vocals in this part of the track were panned in order to make them sound fuller and create atmosphere by accentuating the building emotion of anger throughout the song which . When the vocals were tracked I also was portraying this rising emotion through the way I performed my vocals. Both of these elements could be the potential cause of the dynamic mixing issue in the track.

In order to rectify this I am going to increase the dynamics and adjust the panning of this section of vocals to make sure the vocals are clear and fit well with the rest of the track. If necessary I will also lower the dynamics of the main synthetic melody and 808 so that the building anger and atmosphere can still be clearly felt in the track. If these ideas do not fix the issue I will re-track my vocals for the first verse to make them clearer and louder but I must make sure to keep the confrontational feeling behind the song building through the way I deliver my vocals.

I have attached a link to the penultimate version of my track:

https://waterbear.instructuremedia.com/embed/62725d9d-9e78-4128-8854-e5ddebddfb2d

[carmelcarey]

I have been focusing on how to EQ vocals and instruments correctly to then be able to transfer my learnt skills onto the track for the summative. I had been frequently struggling with using EQ correctly in my recordings in order to enhance the sound of my instruments and vocals. I have now seen a lot of progress in my skills as I now have a much larger understanding of the frequency ranges and how they can be manipulated to change the sound of a recording. I have practiced this on my other recorded tracks in order to allow the process to run more smoothly on my track for the assessment.Here is an example of some of the EQ I have used on one of my original songs as a way to practice for the final assessment track. It also demonstrates my use of reverb to get the desired sound for this particular track.

[carmelcarey]

The Musical Components of my track

In this post I give a brief outline of the main musical components of my track.

My track is 122bpm. Originally the first loop was 141 bpm however I found that this was slightly too fast for vocals so slowed the bpm to allow for my vocals too fit with the track how I wanted them. I took reference from tracks like ‘Daisy’-Ashnikko and ‘Switch Up’-Toni Romiti as these were the style of tracks that helped loosely inspire my track.

My track is in the key Cm. Due to this it is important to make sure certain components of the rest of the synthetic sounds fit in this key in order to avoid any off sounding notes. For example the 808 I used is also in the key Cm in order to fit within the key of the whole track.

My track structure is 4 bar intro, 8 bar bridge, 8 bar chorus, 16 bar verse,8 bar chorus, 16 bar verse, 8 bar bridge, 8 bar chorus. 

I used a simple time signature of 4/4 as this is one of the best time signatures to work in when using samples as this time signature covers a vast variety of samples and loops in the hip hop, r&b and trap genres.

My song structure is:

intro, bridge, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus

This is a simple standard structure in order to fit with the genre.

[carmelcarey]

Music Explanation

In this post I will be discussing how my track illustrates the start of my music career and where I may take my music.

The track I have/am creating for this module is very different to my usual songwriting style. Previously I have only used my acoustic guitar and vocals to create story-like songs however this track has created a new experience of using samples and synthetic sounds to create a more modern feel.

Due to listening to the hip-hop and r&b genres quite a lot it is clear there has been lots of influence from current artists. The trap elements of the track are loosely inspired by artists like Blackbear and Ashnikko who despite not being trap artists use similar sounds as are in my track to create a more upbeat feeling to their songs. This can clearly be seen through the instrumental arrangement of the drums in my track as a clap is used instead of a snare drum which is typical of trap and hip-hop artists and also an 808 is only used in the chorus with a kick in order to emulate the sense of a ‘beat drop’ which is seen in lots of trap and hip hop songs. As a specific example these techniques are both used in Ashnikko’s song ‘Daisy’ where the drum instrumentation is a central part of the track.

Through the writing and production of this track I am challenging myself to work in a variety of genres as an artist due to the fact this is not the usual genres I write in. Most of my originals are acoustic and are hard to define as a specific genre. Through challenging myself in this way I believe it will make me an overall better songwriter. In the future this may enable me to be more comfortable with a career as a songwriter as I will have pushed myself to work in a variety of genres thus enhancing my skills and knowledge base of each. This will also benefit me when looking at any sync jobs available as it will allow me to understand what fits the certain brief and what doesn't with valid reason and understanding. 

In terms of my own music as an artist myself making this track has allowed me to gain crucial production skills and allowed me to be more comfortable with samples and synthetic sounds. This will allow me to modernise my music and enhance my already created originals to be fuller. Gaining these skills will allow me to be more of an independent artist who has the knowledge of how to create a track to a high enough standard to release. I am learning that my own sound as an artist is a lot more versatile than I originally thought as I am able to tackle multiple genres. I am planning to make my sound a mix between the r&b, hip hop and pop punk genres in the future in order to create something unique which will hopefully spark a lot of interest.

[carmelcarey]

Target Audience

 A Target Audience is defined as “a particular group at which a product such as a film or advertisement is aimed.” (Oxford Dictionary) 

It is important to know your target audience in order to market music and all other revenue (e.g merch) correctly. As an artist you need to strive to create an active fanbase so that your music can be enjoyed and engaged with through the same passion that you created it with. Here is where understanding your target audience is crucial to keeping fans interested and invested in the music you produce and to make it more appealing to them.

Personal target audiences can be identified through analytics on various social media platforms (for example instagram) and streaming services such as Spotify (for artists). As I do not yet have any music fully released on any streaming services i cannot currently look through my own Spotify account to find my personal target audience however I can see the engagement with my instagram insights where 69% of my followers are aged 18-24.

For my assessment I am creating a hip-hop/R&B track with some trap elements so in order to find the target audience for these specific genres I have looked at artists that use similar writing styles and themes to my song in these genres. First I looked at Ashnikko I found that on Spotify the worldwide city where she is listened to the most is London, England with 179,375 listeners. The majority of her listeners are from the UK and US so clearly she appeals to more Western countries. Her audiences also mainly young adults and teenagers which coincides with her contemporary themes and sounds and also her songs being popular on the social media platform TikTok. Her themes of female empowerment also clearly influence her audience as her audience is more female based.

Next I looked at the artist Toni Romiti. I found on Spotify that the country she is most listened to is the US. specifically Chicago with 26,109 listeners, this is not surprising as this is where she was originally from. Similarly to Ashnikko, she appeals to a more female audience due to her use of female empowerment themes. 

Clearly when looking at artists which create similar music to the song I am creating the target audience is mainly young adults in western countries like the US and UK and themes of female empowerment also appeal to a majority female audience.

[carmelcarey]

Warming Up

In order to make sure muscles and tendons do not fatigue with guitar practice it is essential to do warm ups. This allows for longer practice and playing with a smaller risk of strain or small damages. I have attached pictures of some examples of warm ups I have been using before playing the guitar:

Similarly, vocal health needs to also be considered. Vocal warm ups before practice and performance are necessary to avoid vocal damage. Vocal health is extremely important because even when we are not singing we use our voices everyday and it is essential we look after it. I have attached some YouTube links to vocal exercises I commonly use:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck1pzgy07ZU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQUo7eimhWA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAx0UF_k2hM

[carmelcarey]

Free-styling - Lyrical Technique

In the hip hop and r&b genres free-styling is very common and i use free-styling to instrumentals and audios often to create my own melodies, lyrics and to inspire my own ideas thus this is something i’m used to however not in the context of the hip hop genre itself.

Here i used free styling to help me form my second verse for my summative I have attached the link to the original voice recording I made whilst free-styling to the instrumental to this song. From here I will need to refine the lyrics and make them as engaging as the first verse.

I feel free-styling is a great technique to allow for creation of lyrics and melodies however they can require a lot of ‘cleaning up’ and various takes to get something that sounds good with the certain track you are free-styling to. Clearly, there are other more consistent ways of lyric writing however I find this technique allows more room for creativity and is a very natural way of making lyrics. To improve I could focus on a single theme for the freestyle to create more focused lyrics to fit the specific song. However I believe the majority of the lyrics do fit the vibe of the song I am producing quite well.

https://waterbear.instructuremedia.com/embed/7d9d4bb8-b89b-4802-9d69-2f8aadde06fe

[carmelcarey]

Creating A Vocal Melody

After writing my lyrics for the first verse and chorus and I practiced singing them over the instrumental and at first pieced together they sounded very flat as there was no variation between the vocal melodies of the chorus and verse. Therefore I needed to make them more diverse so needed to create more dynamic shape especially to my chorus. From here I used the pentatonic scale to make the chorus a lot higher and more melodic than the verse. The key of the song is Cm so I used the Cm pentatonic scale of C, Eb, F, G and Bb. I used these notes on my keyboard to create a simple repetitive melody of:

C  Eb   F      G    F        Eb       C   Eb    F  Eb C

Typing texts you know there's no point in sending,

C     Eb F    G   F   Eb   C     Eb  F      Eb C  Eb

‘Cos im not answering your message is pending.

C Eb F G F Eb   C  Eb  F    Eb C Bb.

A little nutty but im always impressing,

C Eb    F    G     F    Eb  C    Eb  F  Eb C Bb.

Handle my whiskey but this liquor be testing.

When singing this I based my melodic contour and dynamic shape on this melody and recorded singing it over the instrumental. To fit the sound of the instrumental the melodic contour had to change slightly so the notes are not exact but this is what the vocal melody of the chorus is based on. It is a conjunct melody to make the chorus easy to sing and therefore more catchy giving it the desired effect of a hook.

[carmelcarey]

Writing Lyrics - Hip Hop/Trap Genres

Due to the fact hip hop and trap are not the typical genres I write music for, I decided to conduct further research into the lyrical themes of the genres in order to better my understanding and enable me to write properly within these styles. First of all I looked at the song Daisy by Ashnikko. This song inspired the trap elements of my instrumental (mainly the kick and 808 placement and the clap instead of snare) so I decided this would be a good place to start. At first look it is clear there is a theme of female empowerment throughout this song for example the lyrics ‘F*ck a princess, i’m a king, Bow down and kiss on my ring’ - Casey & Slinger which seemingly breaks the classic misogyny of the importance of a king compared to a queen or princess. As well as this Ashnikko herself refers to the lyrics ‘Make your man call me Daddy’ as a ‘power move’ -Casey- genius interview clearly displaying the idea of female empowerment. The next song is Taking A Walk- by Trippie Redd. This song inspired the lo-fi type edge to my instrumental as these sounds can be heard throughout modern hip hop. On first analysis it can be seen that there is reference to death and an indirect reference to male suicide which is a very contemporary topic. This is shown in the lyrics ‘I hope you got my note b*tch, ayy, I left it on the suicide door’- White. Clearly suicide doors are rear car doors that open backwards, however here Trippie Redd is playing on the idea of a suicide note thus adding a theme of specifically male suicide. Similarly to Ashnikko’s Daisy this song also contains the theme of empowerment as Trippie Redd refers to having an expensive lifestyle for example with use of the words ‘suicide door’ (commonly found on expensive sports cars) and ‘throwing bands’ referring to ‘bands’ of money. 

Overall there is many common themes in these genres. Most prominently an overwhelming sense of empowerment from both sexes in the genres. The songs seem to always tackle very contemporary themes like female empowerment from Ashnikko and male suicide from Trippie Redd. I used this research and theme ideas to create the first verse and a chorus for my instrumental which focuses on empowerment (specifically female) in the contemporary climate using my own life experiences to drive the emotion in the lyrics themselves.

Reference list:

Casey.A and Slinger.T.(2020).Daisy.Parlophone Uk

Casey.A.(2020)Ashnikko "Daisy" Official Lyrics & Meaning | Verified.Genius.[online].Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3p8Appnu_g

White.M,Storch.S and Van DenEnde.V.(2018)Taking A Walk.TenThousand Projects,LLC.

[carmelcarey]

Evidence Of Safe Practice

Here I have attached photos of a few pieces of my equipment (amplifier and mic speakers) showing the PAT stickers to show they have been tested and deemed safe by a qualified electrician. Like all my equipment, these pieces have successfully undergone PAT tests meaning I know they are safe to use on tours and in live settings.

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Formative Assessment

Formative Assessment Hand-in

This week I have focused on my formative assessment hand in shown here, which is a reflection and an audio of the instrumental for my original I will hand in for my summative. Clearly this shows my improvement when using samples to create songs.

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Risk Assessment

It is important to make sure that whether live; on tour or in the studio safe practice is always exhibited. This is in order to keep everyone physically and mentally safe in all aspects of their music career. Therefore it is very important to consider the risks of every situation and put control measures in place wherever possible to reduce the risks/hazards that may arise.

[carmelcarey]

CHORD PROGRESSIONS

In my bi-weekly song craft webinar we were looking at chord progressions and during this class I attempted to make a more interesting chord progression than using standard chords so I decided to feature some chords using a seventh interval. Thus I created this chord progression of:

C  Am  FMaj7  D7  G7

Experimenting with chord progressions allows me to continue working on my guitar skills and makes my originals more interesting. Clearly this was a good exercise as it allowed me to make my acoustic writing more creative. I could have used more creative chords however I liked the sound of this chord progression. Next time I will include power chords as well as chords with a seventh interval to make my progressions even more engaging.

[carmelcarey]

This was my first attempt at using sampling which I did on Tuesday 15th October 2020. I have already seen improvement in my skills due to working on them most days of the past week and this will be shown in my formative assessment where I have used a lot more sampling techniques and created a more well rounded piece.

[carmelcarey]

Sampling

This past week I have focused on using samples in my dong creation. This has been very much a hands on, experimental learning experience as I have just began to use samples in my work. I obtained all my samples from splice as I have a subscription. It has been a challenge to create music only from samples however I am beginning to feel confident about my ability to use samples and this has affected my plans for the assessment. Through trial and error I have been able to start to produce an original which is very different from my usual ‘raw acoustic’ singer-songwriter approach to creating original pieces. Even though I will still be creating songs acoustically and in the pop punk genre through band like instrumentation I have shifted my focus for the summative assessment towards a more trap/hip hop/r&b route. I have made this decision as I believe it will allow me to progress further in my music career and help me develop required skills for becoming an independent artist. I also believe it will be able to show my progression as an artist much clearer. Focusing my attention to creating music electronically will allow me to adapt to the current state of the world whilst staying creative and allow me to better my skills in order to self-produce and release music in the future, making me a more well rounded artist. As previously stated I will continue to still work on my guitar skills and continue to write acoustic songs; thus making me more of a well rounded artist able to write for many different genres this will help with any sync opportunities and creation in the future.